04/12/2023 Text Issues 1

Bible Translation – Text Issues

R. D. PattonMissionary to Suriname

Basic fundamentals for text choice for fundamentalists

The fundamentals of the faith Separation from apostasy Separation for worldliness

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Two basic ground texts available

Two philosophies Two groups

One is separated from apostacy One is associated with apostacy

Developed in a time accepting German rationalism & evolution

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Two basic questions:

Is the Bible inspired by God? Liberals – no Fundamentalists – yes

Is the Bible preserved throughout history of the church? Liberals no Fundamentalists – some yes, but

some no

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In terms of inspiration…

Is it just the ideas – liberals and many fundamentalists

Or are the actual words inspired (verbal plenary inspiration)? Fundamentalists, but not all

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What does the Bible say about extent to words being true?

Exodus 20:1.And God spake all these words, saying,...

Proverbs 30:5 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.

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What does the Bible say about extent to words being true?

Luke 21:33. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

I Thessalonians 4:8.Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

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Jesus Himself states that the “jot and tittle” are important:

Mt. 5:[17] Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.[18] 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.

This is not merely a preservation of ideas, but the actual words of scripture.

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An eclectic text where many words are missing cannot meet the requirements of “every word

Although no doctrine is completely missing, many doctrines are watered-down, especially concerning the deity of Christ.

In the New International Version, for example, there are 45 versus missing, and 147 verses have significant portions of the verses missing.1.” 1.Waite, D.A. Defending the King James Bible.

Bibles for Today. 199204/12/2023 9

Does the Bible say anything about preservation?

Matthew 5:18.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 24:[35] Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

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The Bible & preservation

I Peter 1:23. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. [24] For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: [25] But the word of the Lord endureth for ever.

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The Bible & preservation

Psalm 119:[89] For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven... [111] Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage forever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart...

[152] Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them forever.

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The Bible & Preservation

Psalm 12:[6] The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.[7] Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.

There is gender dissonance, but the antecedent still goes to “words”

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How many Bibles stick with the preserved text

Critical text or eclectic text: 134 complete translations and nearly 300 New Testaments

Textus receptus & masoretic text: 1 – the KJV Bible. Some of the New KJV is from the text as well, but there are some eclectic changes and 100,000 footnotes that are mostly eclectic

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Westcott & Hort revised the TR text

D. A. Waite identified 9970 different changes in the words!

2800 words are missing from the TR text

The total change is approximately 7% of the text

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Three basic positions on inspiration

The TR/Masoretic text is inspired (and preserved) by God

The eclectic text is to be preferred though no true final text is available

The KJV was re-inspired (with 54 men translating) and actually can correct the Greek text – I would reject this totally04/12/2023 16

Basic positions on preservation

1. There is no verbal preservation in any given text or translation. This is a typical liberal position

2. The text is preserved, but you must study all the texts to find it. Who can find all the texts? Many are

in restricted countries, or perhaps buried yet

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Basic positions on preservation

3. God re-inspired the English text. This is the KJO position which I reject

4. God has preserved the original inspired writings, which are now available in a given Hebrew and Greek text. This is the position I take – and that

God has providentially preserved the texts

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The Holy Spirit will guide

John 16:[13] Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come

John 17:[17] Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth;.

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God uses believing churches to preserve his Word.

Timothy 3:[15] But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

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The OT scribes took great care to copy accurately

Special skins and ink The scribe must read out loud each

word before writing it They counted the letters, and

which letter was in the midst Any copy with sigificant errors was

destroyed

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There were those who deliberately changed the Word

. II Thessalonians 2:[1] Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,[2] That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

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Falsifying Paul’s letters

People were circulating false letters under the name of Paul. Therefore he would personally sign his letters to show that they were genuine.

II Thessalonians 3:[17] The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write.

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The Bible warned about false teachers

Peter, Paul, John and Jude all warned about false teachers.

God gave the responsibility to the believing churches to sift out false teaching, as the church was the pillar and foundation of the truth.

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Older = better???

Thus being older was no guarantee of purity, since there were false teachers and also false books dating back to the time of the apostles themselves.

Plus the best texts were used many times until they were tattered and must be replaced. The bad texts were ignored

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The argument from age does not support the critical text

The critical or eclectic text is derived primarily from Vaticanus & Sinaiticus, written about 350 AD

We have received text translations long before that – about 150 AD Peshitta (Syrian) Itala

The Gothic translation is received form, and written in 350 AD

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The Alexandrian school – from area of Alexandrian texts

Alexandria was a center of Greek learning, and had a large Jewish population.

Both Gnosticism and Platonism were prevalent.

The Chatechical school was founded by Pantaenus, who was a gnostic

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Alexandrian school

The church father Clement became its head, who was also a gnostic.1

In 232A.D., Origen became the head. He believed in infant baptism, Arianism, the veneration of Mary, and allegorical interpretation.

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Alexandrian school – Origen

Origen was a Universalist who believe that even demons would be saved. He felt that the Scriptures were of little use without allegorical interpretation.

Eusebius followed, and Constantine ordered 50 Bibles to be made. Possibly Vaticanus & Sinaiticus were among them

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1800 years the church used the traditional text

If you believe in divine preservation through the churches, then you either believe that the traditional text is the correct one, or that God allowed the text to disappear for 18 centuries, and to be replaced by ones which were associated with apostates

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The Catholic church used the Vulgate

This was a translation by Jerome into Latin which was used for 1000 years

The Greek Orthodox used basically the traditional text

When Erasmus translated from the Greek, he knew about the Vaticanus, but rejected it

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John Wycliffe

Translated from the Vulgate into English

He was attacked by the Catholic church, but had several very influential friends who kept him from capture.

He taught the Lollards, and opposed the Catholic doctrine of transsubstantiation…04/12/2023 32

John Wycliffe

He died of a stroke and was buried His works were condemned by the

Catholic church and burned About 40 years later, his body was

exhumed, and the bones burnt and thrown into the River Swift

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William Tyndale

Brilliant in many languages Began translating directly from the

Greek and Hebrew into English Excellent translations, which are

the basis for further translations till the KJV

Completed the New Testament and a good part of the O.T.

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William Tyndale

His books were burned in England. A friend sold his books to the Bishop who burned them, but the price the Bishop paid allowed them to print many times that number.

He was eventually betrayed by a man he helped – imprisoned for months, and then burned at the stake

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William Tyndale

His last prayer: Lord, open the King of England’s eyes. One year later, they printed the Matthew Bible, which was largely Tyndale’s work.

The Coverdale Bible, Matthew’s Bible, the Great Bible, the Geneva Bible, and the King James Version were largely based on Tyndale’s work

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Erasmus and the Greek text

Erasmus was the foremost authority in Greek and Latin in his day

He had a friend review Vaticanus, but he rejected it as inferior. Erasmus had access to several other texts

Erasmus never left the Catholic church, but his doctrine came close to that of the anabaptists before death

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Erasmus text

Modified by Robert Stephanus and reworked by Theodore Beza

The Beza text is still essentially what we use today.

The believing churches have accepted this as the received text. The Catholics have not…

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The time of the eclectic text

German rationalism was prominent, with removal of the supernatural, especially Semler and Griesbach

Evolution was accepted – by Darwin

In England, the Broad Street school of Anglicans was liberal and anti-supernatural04/12/2023 39

Westcott & Hort

Both were Anglican bishops, but of the modernist Broad Church party.

They denied Adam and Eve The virgin birth The resurrection of the body The inspiration of the scriptures

They believed in universalism of a sort04/12/2023 40

Westcott & Hort

They accepted evolution They participated in a number of

different occult groups over a number of years

They were to modernise the KJV but instead they created a new text

They supported a unitarian on their committee04/12/2023 41

Westcott & Hort rules

Shorter is better – assuming scribes add more than forget (but studies have shown the opposite tendency)

More complicated or obscure is better

A teaching divergent from the usual is better

Comment: This is “scientific method”?

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Westcott & Hort are obscure

They had “conjectural emendations” – why not just say “educated guess” – probably because then people would understand and object

Their followed by Bruce Metzger, Kurt and Barbara Aland, Carlo Martini (archbishop of Catholic church), and Eugene Nida – most are apostate (except Nida)

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A “recension”

Westcott & Hort had a problem with the numerical predominance of the traditional text (99%) They postulated that the churches got together, rejected the Alexandrian text, and made a common traditional (Byzantine) text, which means that the others are mearly copies. Then we will count the whole group as a single copy!

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Problems with recension

No historical evidence Then you must postulate a recension of

all church fathers, whose writings also were of the traditional type – including those older than the “so-called” revision

If the churches rejected the Alexandrian type, then they should be considered corrupt

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United Bible Societies

Favor eclectic text In favor of Unitarians Accepted by Roman Catholics, and

works with them

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We are to content for the faith

Jude 1:[3] Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

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Separate from apostacy

II Cor. 6:[14] Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath right eousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?[15] And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

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Separate from apostacy II Cor. 6:[16] And what agreement

hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.[17] Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.

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Separate from apostacy II Cor. 6:[18] And will be a Father

unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.[2] But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

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Who first questioned God’s words?

Genesis 3:[1] Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

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What must we do? Rom. 16:[17] Now I beseech you,

brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.[18] For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

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