PRESERVATION of the BIBLE & WHICH BIBLE
After God inspired His Word (see INSPIRATION), it was transmitted to us today through multiple copies, but did God work to preserve it for us, or do we only have a shadow of what was once inspired? If we do not have a copy of God’s Word providentially preserved today, then what good would it do us?
Preservation takes that which was inspired by God and keeps it for us. God’s Word is not re-inspired every time a copy is made, because it never lost its inspiration. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God…that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16–17). When Paul wrote this to Timothy, he was referring to the Old Testament, which had been completed 450 years before Christ. No one believes that Paul or Timothy or any synagogue or church of their day had the original manuscripts. They had copies that had been passed down to them, and they still believed what they had was given by “inspiration of God” and was all they needed: “That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” They believed God was big enough to give it and to preserve it for their generation. Are we to believe that this was only for the first-century Christians and that later God was no longer able to do this? The apostle Paul wrote more New Testament books than anyone else, and his writings were considered Scripture, the same as those of the Old Testament (2 Peter 3:15–16; see INSPIRATION).
There are many promises of preservation found in the Bible, both from the Old and New Testament, but I will give only a few. “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18; see also Matthew 24:35; Luke 16:17; Psalm 100:5; 119:89; Isaiah 59:21; 1 Peter1:23–25; Revelation 22:18–19). Christ said that God’s Word would be preserved as long as heaven and earth. The “jot” and “tittle” are the equivalent of a dotted “i” or a crossed “t,” and even these, He said, would in “no wise pass from the law.” Christ said this in reference to the “law” (again, the Old Testament), which He quoted and never cast a shadow of doubt upon it. To say that it is only preserved in heaven would not have benefited Christ or the apostles who quoted from it, or us today. Paul said, “Believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets” (Acts 24:14).
Bible Preservation
By comparison with secular texts that have been preserved for us in ancient manuscript (Plato—7 copies, Caesar—10 copies, Tacitus—20 copies), the manuscript evidence for the New Testament is stunning! There are an astounding number of ancient Bible manuscripts extant: more than 5,000 Greek manuscripts, 10,000 Latin and 9,000 other manuscript copies or portions of the New Testament. These are dated from 100 to 400 years after the originals. (There are no original manuscripts [some called "original autographs"] extant.) And by comparison with other ancient documents the oldest copies of Plato, Caesar, and Tacitus, are at a minimum, 1,000 years after they were original written. Scoffers of the Bible have said we cannot know what Christ said is accurate, yet these scoffers do not doubt the words of Plato, Caesar, or Tacitus.
The New Testament bears witness that the Apostles (who did not have the original autographs) believed the Old Testament, calling it “holy” and “all” given by “inspiration by God” (II Timothy 3:15-16).
WHICH BIBLE
For the Old Testament the KJB uses the Masoretic Text (MT) which is the version in the Hebrew Bible and is considered authoritative by Jews for almost two thousand years. For the New testament, approximately 95% of all Greek manuscripts (more than 5,000) compare with the King James Bible. The other translation come from only 5% of manuscripts. They feel justified in doing this because they say they have the oldest and therefore closets to the originals. The two oldest Greek manuscripts for the other versions are approximately from 350 AD and the oldest Greek manuscript for the King James Bible is approximately 50 years later.
The idea that “older is automatically better” has deceived many people. These discarded old manuscripts were full of scribal errors and as result were not circulated by the early church. Again, the other 95% of all New Testament Manuscripts, known as the “Majority Text” or “Received text” is where the KJV comes form. Modern “scholars” reject the testimony of the Received or Majority text in favor of the 5% that was discarded. In effect, asking us to believe that the True Words of God were lost for more than 1,500 years, until the time these newer translations started using them. Which, in effect, would mean God could not keep his promise to preserve his word to all generations.
There are many websites, pro and con, for those who are interested in this subject. And those with extreme positions can be found on both sides of this argument.
I recommend the book, A MORE SURE WORD, WHICH BIBLE CAN YOU TRUST? By R. B. Ouellette.
1) https://www.amazon.com/More-Sure-Word-Which-Bible/dp/1598940473
2) http://www.wayoflife.org/database/textsversionsheader.html
3) http://www.holybibleinstitute.com/files/Faith_vs._Modern_Bible_Versions.pdf
4) http://febc.edu.sg/assets/pdfs/VPP/TheKingJamesVersionDefended.pdf
The following is a list of Bible verses in the New Testament that are present in the King James Version but absent from most modern Bible translations
Matthew 17:21 KJV: "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."
Matthew 18:11 KJV: "For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost."
Matthew 23:14 KJV: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation."
Mark 7:16 KJV: "If any man have ears to hear, let him hear."
Mark 9:44 and 9:46 KJV: "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." (The verses are identical to each other, and to 9:48, which is still in the main text)
Mark 11:26 KJV: "But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses."
Mark 15:28 KJV: "And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, "And he was numbered with the transgressors.""
Luke 17:36 KJV: "Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left."
John 5:3–4 KJV: “waiting for the moving of the water. 4For an Angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had." (Not only is verse 4 omitted, but also the tail end of verse 3.)
Acts 8:37 KJV: “And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." Modern versions: Either sidelined to a footnote (e.g., ESV, RV, RSV, NRSV, NIV, Hodges & Farstad Majority Text) or omitted altogether (e.g., Moffatt, Goodspeed, Schonfield, Robinson & Pierpont Majority Text).
Acts 15:34 KJV: “Notwithstanding it pleased Silas to abide there still."
Acts 24:6–8 KJV: “Who also hath gone about to profane the temple: whom we took, and would have judged according to our law. 7But the chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands, 8Commanding his accusers to come unto thee: by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge of all these things, whereof we accuse him." (Only verse 7 is omitted entirely, as well as the beginning of verse 6 and most of verse 8.)
Acts 28:29 KJV: "And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves."
Romans 16:24 KJV: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."
John 5:7–8 KJV: "7For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the holy Ghost, and these three are one. 8And there are three that bear witness in earth, ..."
Matthew 20:16 KJV: “for many be called, but few chosen."
Mark 6:11 KJV: "11And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgement, than for that city. 12And they went out, and preached that men should repent."
Luke 4:8 KJV: "And Jesus answered and said unto to him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."]
Luke 9:55–56 KJV: "55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. 56For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village."
Luke 23:17 KJV: "(For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.)"
Acts 23:9 KJV: "Let us not fight against God."
NOTE: Some Bible versions may have a few of these verses, but all, at the least, take out part of verses or a word from verses. In some cases, Bible translators insert notations that say the “best” manuscripts don’t include a word or verse, which creates doubt in the mind of the reader. See below.
In Luke 11:2-4, does your Bible remove important words in the Lord’s Prayer, including delivering us from Satan’s evil?
“And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.”
In Luke 9:56, does your Bible that Jesus came to Earth to save men’s lives?
“For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. “
In Acts 8:37, does your Bible have this verse where the Ethiopian Eunich professed his faith in Jesus Christ as God? “And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
Acts 9:5–6 KJV: "5And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 6And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
Acts 13:42 KJV: "And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath."
In Ephesians 3:9, “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.”
In Phillipians 4:13, does your Bible remove the source of our power, ‘Christ’?
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
In Colossians 1:14, does your Bible remove Jesus blood as our redemption for forgiveness of sins? “In whom we have redemption through His blood, [even] the forgiveness of sins“
In 1 Timothy 3:16, does your Bible remove the statement that God was manifest in the flesh in Jesus?
“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory“
In Revelation 1:11, does your Bible remove Jesus title of ‘Alpha and Omega, the first and the last’, meaning eternal? “Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches…”
What is their Motive?
There are more than 450 English versions of the Bible! Which adds to the confusion, I Corinthians 14:33 says, "For God is not the author of confusion..." And each new translation of the Bible makes similar statements, that their translation is better, more accurate, more helpful, more scholarly. But if that was true, why do they keep giving out more new translations of the Bible, since they all basically claim the same thing.
Were all these 450 versions of the New Testament done to “help” us? To say a translation is “more accurate”, “more scholarly, “from the best or better manuscripts”, etc., are only opinions. And the scholars who say such things do not agree among themselves. With the Bible being the bestselling book in America, year after year, so the market is there for those who keep making new translations of the Bible.
On the practical side of the argument, Bible believers used to read selected passages together in church, both young and old, each holding the same version of the Bible, but today with all the different versions it would be a tower of Babel (I Corinthians 14:33).
A LOOK AT JEREMIAH 43:9 (Emphases mine)
“Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in the clay in the brickkiln, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah;”
“Take great stones in thine hand…” As to the word “hand” being in the singular and not “hands” plural, some explanation is required, because many people are reading translations of the Bible that have “hands” or no hand at all. And they deserve an answer to this. The King James Bible has “hand” (singular), which is in the Hebrew text in Jeremiah 43:9. I have asked Hebrew scholars if they know of any Hebrew manuscript (there are several thousand manuscripts) that has “hands,” or no word for hand in this verse, and no one knows of one. I would like to quote the Hebrew scholar Dr. D.E. Anderson about the word “hand” being in the singular. I asked if all Hebrew manuscripts have this, and was told, “I can't confirm absolutely that every manuscript has the singular,...[but this]....is the standard reading.” And “every edition of the Hebrew that I have access to, including a facsimile of the Leningrad Codex and an original 1566 Bomberg, have 'hand' singular.'“1
Of the top twelve best-selling Bibles, two have “hand” in the singular and two more have “hands” in the plural and eight did not translate the word “hand” that is in the Hebrew. (There is a translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint, whose date is disputed, but most place it around 250 B.C. And for this verse, the Septuagint does not have the word “hand,” but this is a Greek translation, and God’s word was inspired in Hebrew.)
Eleven out of the top twelve Bibles (including the New King James Bible) have translated “great stones” as “large stones,” and as I said, this is a possibility, but the context would not allow this because large stones would not fit in the mortar between the bricks or in one “hand” etc. Eight out of the top twelve best-selling Bibles have “some” stones. But this word “some” is not found in the Hebrew text. “There is no word in Hebrew in this phrase to indicate ‘some;’ nor is there a Greek word in the Septuagint for ‘some.’” (Dr. D.E. Anderson. There are English translations of the Septuagint that have it both ways).
ENDNOTES
1. This information is from correspondence with Dr. D.E. Anderson, Reformation International Theological Seminary in Fellsmere, Florida.
How does this matter in our search for the “great stones”? I never would have found the “great stones” had I been reading one of these other versions, because I never would have bothered to look in the first place! None of the twelve translations had it right except the KJV. I was not looking for “large” stones, or “some” stones, but “great stones”, and that were small enough to fit in one “hand.” Any one of these changes would have stopped me from looking and eight out of the top twelve best-selling Bibles had all three changes in them! Did these scholars made these changes to the Bible to help us? If so, one can't help but wonder how many other places they "helped" us.
On the practical side of the argument, there are two points that I rarely see mentioned that I would like to touch on. Bible believers used to read selected passages together in church, both young and old, each holding the same version of the Bible, but today with all the different versions it would be a tower of Babel (1 Corinthians 14:33).
Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural on March 4, 1865. Engraved on the north chamber wall of the Lincoln memorial. “Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible [King James Bible] and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other.”
Our nation used only one Bible till 1881 when the “critical text” of Westcott and Hort came out and then flood gate was opened and today there are 450 English version of the Bible. But “God is not the author of confusion” (I Corinthians 14:33).
(see INSPIRATION of the BIBLE).
After God inspired His Word (see INSPIRATION), it was transmitted to us today through multiple copies, but did God work to preserve it for us, or do we only have a shadow of what was once inspired? If we do not have a copy of God’s Word providentially preserved today, then what good would it do us?
Preservation takes that which was inspired by God and keeps it for us. God’s Word is not re-inspired every time a copy is made, because it never lost its inspiration. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God…that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16–17). When Paul wrote this to Timothy, he was referring to the Old Testament, which had been completed 450 years before Christ. No one believes that Paul or Timothy or any synagogue or church of their day had the original manuscripts. They had copies that had been passed down to them, and they still believed what they had was given by “inspiration of God” and was all they needed: “That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” They believed God was big enough to give it and to preserve it for their generation. Are we to believe that this was only for the first-century Christians and that later God was no longer able to do this? The apostle Paul wrote more New Testament books than anyone else, and his writings were considered Scripture, the same as those of the Old Testament (2 Peter 3:15–16; see INSPIRATION).
There are many promises of preservation found in the Bible, both from the Old and New Testament, but I will give only a few. “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18; see also Matthew 24:35; Luke 16:17; Psalm 100:5; 119:89; Isaiah 59:21; 1 Peter1:23–25; Revelation 22:18–19). Christ said that God’s Word would be preserved as long as heaven and earth. The “jot” and “tittle” are the equivalent of a dotted “i” or a crossed “t,” and even these, He said, would in “no wise pass from the law.” Christ said this in reference to the “law” (again, the Old Testament), which He quoted and never cast a shadow of doubt upon it. To say that it is only preserved in heaven would not have benefited Christ or the apostles who quoted from it, or us today. Paul said, “Believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets” (Acts 24:14).
Bible Preservation
By comparison with secular texts that have been preserved for us in ancient manuscript (Plato—7 copies, Caesar—10 copies, Tacitus—20 copies), the manuscript evidence for the New Testament is stunning! There are an astounding number of ancient Bible manuscripts extant: more than 5,000 Greek manuscripts, 10,000 Latin and 9,000 other manuscript copies or portions of the New Testament. These are dated from 100 to 400 years after the originals. (There are no original manuscripts [some called "original autographs"] extant.) And by comparison with other ancient documents the oldest copies of Plato, Caesar, and Tacitus, are at a minimum, 1,000 years after they were original written. Scoffers of the Bible have said we cannot know what Christ said is accurate, yet these scoffers do not doubt the words of Plato, Caesar, or Tacitus.
The New Testament bears witness that the Apostles (who did not have the original autographs) believed the Old Testament, calling it “holy” and “all” given by “inspiration by God” (II Timothy 3:15-16).
WHICH BIBLE
For the Old Testament the KJB uses the Masoretic Text (MT) which is the version in the Hebrew Bible and is considered authoritative by Jews for almost two thousand years. For the New testament, approximately 95% of all Greek manuscripts (more than 5,000) compare with the King James Bible. The other translation come from only 5% of manuscripts. They feel justified in doing this because they say they have the oldest and therefore closets to the originals. The two oldest Greek manuscripts for the other versions are approximately from 350 AD and the oldest Greek manuscript for the King James Bible is approximately 50 years later.
The idea that “older is automatically better” has deceived many people. These discarded old manuscripts were full of scribal errors and as result were not circulated by the early church. Again, the other 95% of all New Testament Manuscripts, known as the “Majority Text” or “Received text” is where the KJV comes form. Modern “scholars” reject the testimony of the Received or Majority text in favor of the 5% that was discarded. In effect, asking us to believe that the True Words of God were lost for more than 1,500 years, until the time these newer translations started using them. Which, in effect, would mean God could not keep his promise to preserve his word to all generations.
There are many websites, pro and con, for those who are interested in this subject. And those with extreme positions can be found on both sides of this argument.
I recommend the book, A MORE SURE WORD, WHICH BIBLE CAN YOU TRUST? By R. B. Ouellette.
1) https://www.amazon.com/More-Sure-Word-Which-Bible/dp/1598940473
2) http://www.wayoflife.org/database/textsversionsheader.html
3) http://www.holybibleinstitute.com/files/Faith_vs._Modern_Bible_Versions.pdf
4) http://febc.edu.sg/assets/pdfs/VPP/TheKingJamesVersionDefended.pdf
The following is a list of Bible verses in the New Testament that are present in the King James Version but absent from most modern Bible translations
Matthew 17:21 KJV: "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."
Matthew 18:11 KJV: "For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost."
Matthew 23:14 KJV: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation."
Mark 7:16 KJV: "If any man have ears to hear, let him hear."
Mark 9:44 and 9:46 KJV: "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." (The verses are identical to each other, and to 9:48, which is still in the main text)
Mark 11:26 KJV: "But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses."
Mark 15:28 KJV: "And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, "And he was numbered with the transgressors.""
Luke 17:36 KJV: "Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left."
John 5:3–4 KJV: “waiting for the moving of the water. 4For an Angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had." (Not only is verse 4 omitted, but also the tail end of verse 3.)
Acts 8:37 KJV: “And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." Modern versions: Either sidelined to a footnote (e.g., ESV, RV, RSV, NRSV, NIV, Hodges & Farstad Majority Text) or omitted altogether (e.g., Moffatt, Goodspeed, Schonfield, Robinson & Pierpont Majority Text).
Acts 15:34 KJV: “Notwithstanding it pleased Silas to abide there still."
Acts 24:6–8 KJV: “Who also hath gone about to profane the temple: whom we took, and would have judged according to our law. 7But the chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands, 8Commanding his accusers to come unto thee: by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge of all these things, whereof we accuse him." (Only verse 7 is omitted entirely, as well as the beginning of verse 6 and most of verse 8.)
Acts 28:29 KJV: "And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves."
Romans 16:24 KJV: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."
John 5:7–8 KJV: "7For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the holy Ghost, and these three are one. 8And there are three that bear witness in earth, ..."
Matthew 20:16 KJV: “for many be called, but few chosen."
Mark 6:11 KJV: "11And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgement, than for that city. 12And they went out, and preached that men should repent."
Luke 4:8 KJV: "And Jesus answered and said unto to him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."]
Luke 9:55–56 KJV: "55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. 56For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village."
Luke 23:17 KJV: "(For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.)"
Acts 23:9 KJV: "Let us not fight against God."
NOTE: Some Bible versions may have a few of these verses, but all, at the least, take out part of verses or a word from verses. In some cases, Bible translators insert notations that say the “best” manuscripts don’t include a word or verse, which creates doubt in the mind of the reader. See below.
In Luke 11:2-4, does your Bible remove important words in the Lord’s Prayer, including delivering us from Satan’s evil?
“And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.”
In Luke 9:56, does your Bible that Jesus came to Earth to save men’s lives?
“For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. “
In Acts 8:37, does your Bible have this verse where the Ethiopian Eunich professed his faith in Jesus Christ as God? “And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
Acts 9:5–6 KJV: "5And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 6And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
Acts 13:42 KJV: "And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath."
In Ephesians 3:9, “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.”
In Phillipians 4:13, does your Bible remove the source of our power, ‘Christ’?
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
In Colossians 1:14, does your Bible remove Jesus blood as our redemption for forgiveness of sins? “In whom we have redemption through His blood, [even] the forgiveness of sins“
In 1 Timothy 3:16, does your Bible remove the statement that God was manifest in the flesh in Jesus?
“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory“
In Revelation 1:11, does your Bible remove Jesus title of ‘Alpha and Omega, the first and the last’, meaning eternal? “Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches…”
What is their Motive?
There are more than 450 English versions of the Bible! Which adds to the confusion, I Corinthians 14:33 says, "For God is not the author of confusion..." And each new translation of the Bible makes similar statements, that their translation is better, more accurate, more helpful, more scholarly. But if that was true, why do they keep giving out more new translations of the Bible, since they all basically claim the same thing.
Were all these 450 versions of the New Testament done to “help” us? To say a translation is “more accurate”, “more scholarly, “from the best or better manuscripts”, etc., are only opinions. And the scholars who say such things do not agree among themselves. With the Bible being the bestselling book in America, year after year, so the market is there for those who keep making new translations of the Bible.
On the practical side of the argument, Bible believers used to read selected passages together in church, both young and old, each holding the same version of the Bible, but today with all the different versions it would be a tower of Babel (I Corinthians 14:33).
A LOOK AT JEREMIAH 43:9 (Emphases mine)
“Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in the clay in the brickkiln, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah;”
“Take great stones in thine hand…” As to the word “hand” being in the singular and not “hands” plural, some explanation is required, because many people are reading translations of the Bible that have “hands” or no hand at all. And they deserve an answer to this. The King James Bible has “hand” (singular), which is in the Hebrew text in Jeremiah 43:9. I have asked Hebrew scholars if they know of any Hebrew manuscript (there are several thousand manuscripts) that has “hands,” or no word for hand in this verse, and no one knows of one. I would like to quote the Hebrew scholar Dr. D.E. Anderson about the word “hand” being in the singular. I asked if all Hebrew manuscripts have this, and was told, “I can't confirm absolutely that every manuscript has the singular,...[but this]....is the standard reading.” And “every edition of the Hebrew that I have access to, including a facsimile of the Leningrad Codex and an original 1566 Bomberg, have 'hand' singular.'“1
Of the top twelve best-selling Bibles, two have “hand” in the singular and two more have “hands” in the plural and eight did not translate the word “hand” that is in the Hebrew. (There is a translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint, whose date is disputed, but most place it around 250 B.C. And for this verse, the Septuagint does not have the word “hand,” but this is a Greek translation, and God’s word was inspired in Hebrew.)
Eleven out of the top twelve Bibles (including the New King James Bible) have translated “great stones” as “large stones,” and as I said, this is a possibility, but the context would not allow this because large stones would not fit in the mortar between the bricks or in one “hand” etc. Eight out of the top twelve best-selling Bibles have “some” stones. But this word “some” is not found in the Hebrew text. “There is no word in Hebrew in this phrase to indicate ‘some;’ nor is there a Greek word in the Septuagint for ‘some.’” (Dr. D.E. Anderson. There are English translations of the Septuagint that have it both ways).
ENDNOTES
1. This information is from correspondence with Dr. D.E. Anderson, Reformation International Theological Seminary in Fellsmere, Florida.
How does this matter in our search for the “great stones”? I never would have found the “great stones” had I been reading one of these other versions, because I never would have bothered to look in the first place! None of the twelve translations had it right except the KJV. I was not looking for “large” stones, or “some” stones, but “great stones”, and that were small enough to fit in one “hand.” Any one of these changes would have stopped me from looking and eight out of the top twelve best-selling Bibles had all three changes in them! Did these scholars made these changes to the Bible to help us? If so, one can't help but wonder how many other places they "helped" us.
On the practical side of the argument, there are two points that I rarely see mentioned that I would like to touch on. Bible believers used to read selected passages together in church, both young and old, each holding the same version of the Bible, but today with all the different versions it would be a tower of Babel (1 Corinthians 14:33).
Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural on March 4, 1865. Engraved on the north chamber wall of the Lincoln memorial. “Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible [King James Bible] and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other.”
Our nation used only one Bible till 1881 when the “critical text” of Westcott and Hort came out and then flood gate was opened and today there are 450 English version of the Bible. But “God is not the author of confusion” (I Corinthians 14:33).
(see INSPIRATION of the BIBLE).
