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A peculiar phenomenon kept surfacing during my research into the life of these 'scribes'. God apparently 'cut off' their power to speak. Regression: A third symptom which accompanies spirit possession in the bible is the inability to speak. It is called a 'dumb spirit' in Mark 9:17, 25 and Matthew 9:32,33, 12:22, 15:30,31. Those verses disclose the corresponding "frog" in the throat (Revelation 16:13) that accompanies unclean spirits of this kind. [H]e was casting out a devil and it was dumb. . .when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake. . . Luke 11:14The Living Bible: Taylor The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things. Psalms 12:3The popular press has made note of author, Kenneth Taylor's, loss of ability to talk. Time magazine, July 1972, states: Mysteriously half way through the paraphrase Taylor lost his voice and still speaks in a hoarse whisper. A psychiatrist who examined him suggested that the voice failure was Taylor's psychological self-punishment for tampering with what he believed to be the Word of God.New American Standard Version Let the lying lips be put to silence. Psalm 31:18Also silenced was Philip Schaff, collaborator on the New Greek Committee and director of the American Standard Version, which formed the foundation of the New American Standard and The Living Bible. Paralleling Taylor's pathology, Schaff's son finds the same "frog" in Philip Schaff's throat. Even as early as 1854, the warning was given, "his voice so affected that he could not speak in public so as to be heard." Finally by 1892. . . the power of articulated speech gone.A friend corresponds to Schaff, "It is with great sorrow that I have learned of the affliction which has befallen you." This malady followed his activity with Westcott and Hort on the RV committee and his American Standard Version. Still in 1893 his pathoses "deprived him of the power of speech." (Ibid., p.492) 'New' Greek Text: Tregelles Schaff himself writes of S.P. Tregelles, author of a 'New' Greek Text which preceded and strongly influenced the Westcott and Hort revision. Of Tregelles Schaff writes, he was "scarcely able to speak audibly." (Ibid., p.246) Westcott and Hort Greek Text: (RV, NRSV, NIV, NASB, CEV, New Century Version, Good News for Modern Man, Jehovah Witness bible, The Book, The Everyday Bible, All Catholic bibles et al.)Westcott's biographer cites that in 1858 "he was quite inaudible" (Life of Westcott, Vol. I, p. 198) and by 1870 "His voice reached few and was understood by still fewer." (Ibid., p.272) The New Testament in Modern English: J.B. Phillips [T]he froward tongue shall be cut off. Proverbs 10:31J.B. Phillips tells in his own autobiography, "I was still doing a fair measure of speaking in schools and churches until the late summer of 1961. And then quite suddenly my speaking, writing and communication powers stopped. I was not in panic but I was certainly alarmed, and when a few weeks rest brought no improvement I cancelled all speaking engagements for the rest of the year (age 55)." The Price of Success, the title of his autobiography, is apropos. (J.B Phillips, The Price of Success (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1984), see pp. 163-196) The speechless sphinx syndrome can even happen to a believer, as is did to Zacharias, because ". . . thou believest not my words" (Luke 1:20).  For a current example of God silencing a modern day Bible corrector on The John Ankerberg Show.
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