Were Westcott and Hort real historical people?
Yes. Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901) and Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828–1892) were real nineteenth-century churchmen and Cambridge scholars whose memoir volumes were published by their sons.
When were they born and when did they die?
Westcott was born in Birmingham in 1825 and died in 1901. Hort was born in Dublin in 1828 and died in 1892. The biography pages and timeline page gather the main life-stage references more fully.
Why do the Cambridge years matter so much?
Because Cambridge is where the collaboration, societies, manuscript habits, and much of the later documentary controversy took shape. Remove Cambridge from the story and most of the later debate becomes hard to explain.
Did they create a new Greek text?
Yes, in the sense that they published a newly edited Greek New Testament in 1881 and helped shift modern textual criticism away from the received text as the uncontested default.
Did they rely on Codex Sinaiticus alone?
No. Their method relied on a wider theory of textual groups and on several major codices, especially Vaticanus and Sinaiticus. Even so, later critics continue to challenge the confidence placed in those witnesses.
Why do people accuse them of occult interests?
Because the memoir volumes directly preserve references to the Ghostly Guild, séances, Hermes, oath-bound secrecy, ghostly papers, and related material. The strongest arguments begin there, not in late Internet speculation, and they matter especially because several of the activities recorded are things a Bible-following Protestant would normally treat as forbidden.
Are modern Bibles simply Westcott-Hort Bibles?
No. Later critical editions are not identical to their 1881 volume in every reading. But their influence on the broader critical-text tradition and on modern translation culture is substantial and cannot honestly be denied.