Even though openly spoken of for many years, Bryan Ross only today discovered about the 1985 letter from Cambridge University Press when via their American office they discussed the case of the word “spirit” at 1 John 5:8.
For years I have discussed the letter in various writings on my website, and this topic was discussed by various people too, including Gail Riplinger, so it is surprising that Bryan Ross has only just found out about it.
Essentially, Cambridge University Press made a decision to reject their own editions, which had since 1629, had the word “spirit” lower case at 1 John 5:8, and further, so had Oxford’s Clarendon Press in the well known 1769 Edition.
It staggers belief that a topic discussed in openly on the internet in this space is so unknown by Bryan Ross.
In the 1985 letter, the Press claimed that the [correct] rendering of the word “spirit” is to them “a matter of some embarrasement [sic]”. What is ironic here as well is that there are all kinds of places where the King James Bible has the word “spirit” lower case.
Within a few years, Cambridge was seeking to update its printing plates, and consequently engaged David Norton to make a wholesale edit. Hindsight shows us what nature the Press was of by that stage, which is one of many reasons why the change being made in 1985 should not be accepted.
It waits to be seen what Bryan Ross will do with this new revelation, but I expect he’ll be like a chicken on a bug.
Also, by the way, in case any mistake is made, the Press was not the Queen’s Printer in 1985, they got that title in 1990. The fact is that the PCE was printed as the Queen’s Printer with the Royal Warrant to 1999, as thankfully not all printings after 1985 were immediately tampered with.
Collins was still printing the PCE in the early 2000s. It was literally in the few years right after Cambridge stopped printing the PCE that the “Pure Cambridge Edition” was identified as correct and called by that title.
(Technically, the calligraphic Gospel of John and of Matthew as currently printed by Cambridge are PCE.)