WHAT IS GOD’S WORD
Lesson No. 6
(MANUSCRIPT
EVIDENCE)
In
Lesson No. 2 we noted that under the American system of law a man is considered
to be innocent until proven guilty. I contend that when it comes
to the critics’ charges laid against the King James
Bible, formerly known as the Authorized Version, Christians should do no less.
We should not condemn or reject the AV-KJB before
we have examined all the evidence for and against it.
A brief review of the materials available.
EARLY TRANSLATIONS –
Manuscripts in Languages other than Greek.
CURSIVES –
Manuscripts with Lower Case Greek Letters.
LECTIONARIES –
‘Service Books’, Scriptural Lessons or
CHURCH “FATHERS” –
Sermons or written works of the early church leaders.
SCHOLARS CONJECTURES –
“Guesses” by the scholars.
There are two things we must keep in mind in this study of manuscript evidence. No. 1 - All manuscripts are individual witnesses to the text of Scripture. And No. 2 - the importance of the “Family Theory” of dividing up the manuscripts. The “scholars” have used the “Family Theory” of manuscripts to create the so-called “text types”. This is the vehicle or method used by the “scholars” to dispose of up to 95% of the evidence in favor of the AV-KJB. The 3 major so-called “text types” are as follows:
EGYPTIAN
[Also known as the
Alexandrian
Text]
– Generally a shorter or abbreviated text.
WESTERN
[Also known as the
Roman Text] – Generally
a longer or lengthened text.
BYZANTINE
[Also known as the
Received Text] – A
medium length text.
Before we proceed
any further some Crucial Questions must be asked. Do you think that
Satan is interested in perverting or destroying God’s Holy word? Has he ever
messed with it before? Since the Lord’s resurrection and the inception of His
church has the old serpent tried to destroy or corrupt or change the words of
God?
I cannot emphasize how important the
answers given to the above questions are. Most of the “scholars” do not believe
that Satan has had any influence at all on any of the manuscripts (most
of the “scholars” don’t even believe in the existence
of Satan). And yet my Bible tells me that Satan “is a liar and the father
of it” (John
Satan
knows the word of God as well as any of us and he uses it in ‘his work’. He doesn’t always come right out
against it, often times he uses subtlety, subterfuge, and half-truths, in other
words - he’s extremely “sneaky” (2 Corinthians 4:1-4; 2 Corinthians
Down
through church history whenever:
#1. Satan tried to destroy God’s word – God made provision for
its preservation.
#2. Satan tried to subtract from God’s word - God made
provision for its preservation.
#3. Satan tried to add to God’s word - God made provision for
its preservation.
#4. Satan tried to change God’s word - God made provision for
its preservation.
Our job is to find
out how God preserved His word
not IF he preserved it! (Psalms 12:6-7)
As we follow the manuscript evidence
some things will become very evident.
#1. The
‘dates’ stated are “educated guesses”
by the scholars.
#2. Many ‘facts’
are hard to obtain which makes most conclusions a matter of
conjecture.
#3. Through
all the confusion, and assertions; suppositions; assumptions; claims;
and opinions
of the “experts”, one can smell a rat somewhere! It’s kind of like
a rotten egg –
you can’t beat it, but it sure smells.
The following information is a
chronological “trail” of the New Testament from the original writings up to the
present day (also referred to as
“the Transmission of the Text”).
ORIGINAL NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS - (Lost)
Written by
Inspired men of God.
Soon after the original New Testament manuscripts were
written, many Greek Copies were made and used
throughout the churches in the area now known as
The Peshitta Syriac (150 A.D.) is probably the first translation made
of the New Testament. This is a reasonable assumption since “the disciples were
called Christians first at
Both the Syriac and the Old Latin
were pure texts when first translated and were not heavily corrupted until the philosophers and PHD’S of the 3rd. and 4th. Centuries got a
hold of them.
In the last 50-70 years some papyrus fragments of
the New Testament have been found (Parts of the Gospels, Letters, Revelation,
etc). These Papyrus have been dated by the “scholars” anywhere from 100-400 A.D.,
depending upon how they want to manipulate the evidence. The Majority of this
Papyrus read much like The “Traditional Text” (“Received Text”, “Textus
Receptus”, Majority Text”, “Byzantine Text”, etc, - Use more than one name to
confuse the ‘unlearned’ and ignorant brethren!). However, there are
2 notable exceptions, Papyrus 66 and
Papyrus 75 (200 A.D.), and according
to the “scholars” conjectures, both
of which were probably written in
These two Papyrus fragments are
probably the earliest copies that we have of what is known as “textual
emendation” – omitting, adding, and changing a text. Papyrus 66 and 75 could be called the “granddaddies” of all Bible corruption!
The next event on our calendar of
time was the translation of the New Testament Scriptures in the language of the
Goths and Visi-Goths by the missionary Ulfilas. This
translation is known as the Gothic (330
A.D.) version. This translation is in agreement with the Traditional Text and
is placed within the Byzantine “Family” Text.
At about the same time that the
Gothic translation came out, the ‘accredited’ University at Alexandria through
the leadership of it’s president (Origen)
was changing as many Greek manuscripts they could lay their hands on and as
fast as they could. Their job was to “harmonize”
the word of God with Pagan Philosophy.
Eventually
Origen was booted out of
The next event in our journey through the history of
the manuscripts is of utmost importance to the believer, for this is the time
that the Emperor Constantine supposedly was “converted” to Christianity. This
is the time that the “church” became a part of the State and “Christianity”
(read Roman Catholicism) became the “official religion” of the
This is also the same time that, according to the
“scholars”, the two manuscripts known as Vaticanus
(350 A.D.) and Sinaiticus (350
A.D.) are supposed to have come into
existence. These are the so-called “older” and “better” manuscripts often
referred to in your reference bibles when “correcting” an AV-KJB reading (and
now you know their names!). Today, almost all
of the ‘scholars’ agree that these 2 manuscripts originated in
The
manuscript known as Vaticanus or
manuscript B, ‘conveniently’ omits: Genesis 1:1-46; Psalms 108-138; the Pauline Pastoral Epistles; and in the book of Hebrews -
everything after Hebrews
Is it a mere coincidence that a
“bible” manuscript residing in the Vatican Library in
The
manuscript known as Sinaiticus
or ‘Aleph’ is considered, to be the
second most valuable manuscript (after Vaticanus)
in existence. It is said, by the ‘scholars’), to be in agreement with Vaticanus
most of the time and has been placed in the
so-called “Alexandrian Family” of manuscripts. There is evidence of
approximately 10 “correctors” on the pages of this manuscript. That is, at one
time or another and over the space of several hundred years, 10 different
‘scribes’ have tried their hand at ‘correcting’
this “venerated” manuscript!
The
truth is that other than agreeing with Vaticanus in some vital areas against
the Textus Receptus, “It is in fact easier to find two consecutive
verses in which these two MSS differ the one from the
other, than two consecutive verses in which they entirely agree.” (Page 12, The
Revision Revised, 1883 – Dean John William Burgon)
Upon comparing B, Aleph, A, C, and D, Dean Burgon states: “Singular to relate, the first, second, fourth, and fifth of these
codices (B, Aleph, C, D), but especially B
and Aleph, have within the
last twenty years established a tyrannical ascendancy over the imagination of
the Critics, which can only be fitly spoken of as a blind superstition. It
matters nothing that all four are discovered on careful scrutiny to differ
essentially, not only from ninety-nine out of a hundred of the whole
body of extant MSS, besides, but even from one another.”
And again:
“Between the first two (B and
Aleph) there subsists an
amount of sinister resemblance, which
proves that they must have been derived at no very remote period from the same corrupt
original. . . . . . Yet do they stand asunder in every page; as well as differ
widely from the commonly Received Text, with which they have been carefully
collated. On being referred to this standard, in the Gospels alone, B is found to omit at least 2,877 words: to add, 536: to substitute, 935: to transpose, 2,098: to modify,
1,132 (in all 7,578): - the
corresponding figures for Aleph
being severally 3,455, 839, 1,114, 2,299, 1,265 (in all 8,972). And be it remembered that the omissions, additions, substitutions, transpositions, and modifications,
are by no means the same in both.” (Pages 11-12, The
Revision Revised, 1883 – Dean John William Burgon)
The question is – are we going to toss out our King James Bibles for such as botched up mess like that?
When the ‘scholars’ claim that the King James translators didn’t have access to the “best” or “oldest” Greek manuscripts they aren’t telling us the whole truth. Erasmus, the first ‘Editor’ of the Received Text, had access to many of the so-called “variant” readings from Vaticanus and rejected them as being corrupt, which is just what the translators of The Authorized Version (AV-KJB) did one hundred years later! They had better ‘sense’ than to fool with corrupt manuscripts when they had God’s Preserved Text (The Textus Receptus) in front of them.
Up
to this point in the ‘history’ of the text we can see the ‘scholars’ handiwork.
First, Clement as the
Within
50-70 years after
Jerome
claims that he has the ‘Greek originals’ written on ‘fine vellum’ scrolls with
which he “corrects” The Old Latin and proceeds to make his Latin translation,
now known as the Latin Vulgate (400
A.D.), which, when compared to Vaticanus, looks very much like a “kissing
cousin”. Do you see what happened?
Origen not only managed to mess up some of the Greek and Syrian manuscripts
while he was alive. He also had a hand in messing up the Latin versions also –
even though he was dead and gone to his reward!
Jerome’s Latin Vulgate eventually replaced the Old Latin Bibles in the Roman Catholic Church, but the Latin speaking believers outside of the Roman Church never accepted it and continued to use their own Latin (Italic) copies of the Scriptures as late as 1500.
At
the very same time that Jerome was providing the Pope and the Roman Catholic
Church with an ‘official bible’, Augustine wrote his book, “The City
of God”, which laid the “spiritual” and
“philosophical” foundation for
the Roman Catholic Church.
Now
these men and many others are called the “church fathers”. No wonder The Lord Jesus Christ said: “And call no man your father
upon the earth:” (Matthew 23:9). Many of these men were more like the church ‘babies’ or worse!
The
Armenian Version (400 A.D.) was another translation produced by a
soul winning missionary (Mesrob) and, just like the Gothic, is found to be in
agreement with Traditional Text. Do you notice anything strange or peculiar?
The Translations that can be traced to soul winners (practical Christian
workers) are found to be in agreement with the Traditional or Byzantine Text. While those Translations that can be traced to the ‘scholars’ (the
academic types) are found to be in agreement the Egyptian and Western Texts.
Is there any resemblance or comparison to the situation within Christianity
today?
Around
the same time that Jerome was translating his Latin Bible Codex A (400 A.D.), also known as Alexandrinus, was produced. This manuscript has a so-called “mixed text”. That is, it often supports the Received Text. (So give it a later date!)
According to the ‘scholars’ the next
manuscript, Codex D, was produced
about (400-500 A.D.) and was written in two languages
(Greek and Latin). According to Dean Burgon: “But by far the most depraved text
is that exhibited by codex D. No
known manuscript contains so many bold and extensive interpolations. It’s
variations from the sacred Text are beyond all other example.” And again: “Though a large portion of the Gospels is missing, in what remains (tested by the same standard) we
find 3,704 words omitted: no less than 2,213 added, and
2,121 substituted. The
words transposed amount to 3,471: and 1,772 have been modified:
the deflections from the Received Text thus amounting in all to 13,281.” Please
remember – these 13,281 “deflections” from the Received Text have been noted only
in the Gospels and Codex D has “a
large portion” of the Gospels MISSING! How many changes would there be if the whole manuscript were compared with the
Received Text? Codex D is blatant proof that “older” is not always “better”. Remember: All manuscripts are individual witnesses
to the text of Scripture. What kind of witnesses are Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, and Codex D?
Let’s get one thing straight. No one
knows for sure who wrote Vaticanus
(B), Sinaiticus (Aleph), Alexandrinus (A), or Codex D. With the exception
of the Gothic, Armenian, and Latin Vulgate Translations, we do not know the
names of the scribes for the thousands of manuscripts in existence today. In
other words these manuscripts have no real known
history and the dates given to them are at best, just “educated guesses”.
Picking up where we left off – the next
manuscript in the scholars chronological order is known as Codex D2 (500 A.D.). D2
is also written in two languages (Greek and Latin). Codex W supposedly followed
D2 (600 A.D.). This manuscript strongly supports the Received Text (And so it
is assigned a later date, of
course!). According to the “scholars” time table Codex E2 (600 A.D.) was made about the same time as Codex W.
We don’t have time or space to list
the thousands of manuscripts (either by name or number). So we will state here
for the record: Of the thousands of Greek manuscripts in existence (nearly
5,000) the VAST MAJORITY (100-1500 A.D.)
(95% or more) are in agreement with the Received Text.
The overwhelming majority of the Syrian, Gothic, Old Latin, Armenian, and
Georgian TRANSLATIONS are in agreement with the Received Text. Nearly all of
the Greek LECTIONARIES are in agreement with the Received Text. And last of all
– the vast majority of Scripture QUOTATIONS from the so-called “church fathers”
writings also support the Received Text.
On the other hand there are hundreds of
Jerome’s Latin Vulgates and a few Greek manuscripts in support of the Western
Text, and just a handful of some of the so-called “older” Greek manuscripts
(with a few late copies) and the Egyptian Translations in support of the
Alexandrian Text.
On
the basis of the manuscript evidence you can see right away that it’s going to
take a magician or a genius to figure out a way to convince
people to disregard 95% of the
evidence in favor of a few (questionable)
manuscripts. And that’s where the so-called manuscript “Family” theory
comes in. Instead of weighing or counting all of the known manuscripts, the
‘scholars’ have determined (conjectured),
that the Alexandrian “Family” represents a “purer”
text and so all other manuscripts (witnesses) can be dismissed as being
inferior based on their (the ‘scholars’) conjectures.
Pretty clever; subtle; sly; artful; cunning; and crafty! Do we know anyone in
the Bible like that? Hmmm?
As
the Moslem hoards took over the lands and countries that had been controlled by
the Byzantine Empire (which ceased around1450 A.D.), Christians began moving
out of the Middle Eastern Countries up into the European countries and brought
their Greek manuscripts (Bibles) with them. Some of these Greek manuscripts and
a very small part of the Latin Vulgate were used by the first critical editor, Erasmus, as a basis for the first
critical edition of the Greek manuscripts.
Erasmus
made several editions of his Greek text as did Beza, Stephanus, and Elzivers after him (1500-1630 A.D.). Erasmus’ text was the Greek text that Martin Luther used in translating the German New Testament and it was also
the Greek text used as the basis of most of the European and Scandinavian
New Testaments (1521-1700+ A.D.). Beza’s text is the basis for the
AV-KJB New Testament. Elziver’s text came after
the AV-KJB and was the text that received the name – “Textus Receptus” (or the
Received Text). There is very little difference between all of these critical
Greek editions, mainly because all of them were based on the Byzantine Text.
While it is true that many of the thousands of manuscripts within the Byzantine
“Family” may have blemishes (that is
– mistakes caused by human error), very few have clear or apparent evidence of
deliberate corruption and disfigurement (Like Vaticanus [B], Sinaiticus [Aleph], D, etc.)
Just
before the Authorized Version was translated the Roman Catholic Church finally
came out with their own bible called the Douay-Rhiems (1582 A.D.). The major source for this bible was
Jerome’s Latin Vulgate and it included
3 Apocryphal Books within
the Canon of the Old Testament!
The
Roman Catholic Church has never encouraged its people to read the Scriptures,
however they were forced to produce an English “bible” because of the tremendous
demand for the Bible in the English language. From 1525-1611 A.D. six English Bibles (Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthews, Great,
William
Tyndale was murdered (strangled to death and then burned) before he could
complete his Translation (he completed the New Testament and most of the Old
Testament). The Coverdale Bible was the first complete Bible in English based on a ‘Greek Text’ in the New
Testament. (Wycliffe’s earlier English translation (1382 A.D.) was based on
some of the Old Latin manuscripts and the Latin Vulgate, and was ‘revised’ by
John Purvey to bring it more in line with Jerome’s Latin Vulgate). Matthew’s
Bible was a combination of the best from Tyndale and Coverdale. The Great Bible
was a Revision of Matthew’s. The Geneva Bible was the Bible of the Puritan’s
(and was the most popular with the people until the AV-KJB). The Bishop’s Bible
was an “Official” Bible put out by the Church of England in an attempt to
replace the popular
Six
English Bibles produced in approximately 85 years, and then the crowning
achievement: The AUTHORIZED VERSION (1611 A.D.), The Seventh! What did God say in Psalms
12:6-7? Psalms 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.
The
AV-KJB was the seventh English Bible, translated in seven years. Do you think
that’s just a coincidence? Or, is it
possible that the AV-KJB is God’s Holy word – perfect and without error,
preserved by God for His People? Think about that for a while!
We
now have come to the least reliable of all the witnesses for text of the Bible – THE SCHOLARS. Since the manuscripts have been divided into three
“Families”, the ‘scholars’ are found to line up in support of their favorite “Family”! I have divided up the ‘scholars’ or
critics into 2 groups: Naturalistic
Scholarship and Believing
Scholarship.
(Naturalistic)
(Believing) (Naturalistic)
Bently
Hug Michaelis
Lachman
Nolan
Tishendorf
Scholz Most
Roman
Tregelles Dabny
Catholic Scholars
Alford
Burgon
Wescott &
Hort
Scrivener
Nestle Hoskier
Aland &
Metzger
Hills, Ray, Fuller
Majority Of The Ruckman,
Pickering
Scholars Today Grady,
Maynard
The differences between the ‘Western’ and ‘Egyptian’ scholars have narrowed to the point that most of them agree on almost all the major readings. And all of them agree that the True Text couldn’t possibly be found in the Byzantine “Family” (Received Text)!
Westcott and Hort were the first
“scholars” who were successful in overthrowing
the Received Text and replacing it with their own depraved text (which they humbly called the “Neutral” Text), which was based mainly on Vaticanus. Wescott and
Hort maintained “that out of 500 pages of the Greek New Testament there was
only about half a page about which any question remained as to the wording of
the original.” My question for Wescott and Hort and for all the “scholars” who
have followed them is: why is it that
they needed 324 pages of “Introduction”
to their Greek Text if only
“about half a page” was in question? Hmmm!
The direct result of the Westcott
and Hort Greek Text was the first ‘official’ Revision (1881) of the English
Bible since the AV-KJB in 1611. This ‘bible’ was called the Revised Version, and you couldn’t find
a copy of it today if your life depended on it!
Twenty
years later the American ‘scholars’ thought that they would try their hand at
‘revision’ and produced the American
Standard Version (1901). It is nearly as hard to find a copy of this
‘bible’ as it is to find the Revised Version. Interestingly, neither one of
these ‘bibles’ was received or accepted by ordinary believers although the
‘scholars’ and “intellectuals” raved about them and claimed that they were far
more “accurate” and closer to the “originals”.
In
order for the scholars, the schools, the churches, or any other ecclesiastical
organization to exercise authority over
believers they must first set up at least TWO (2) AUTHORITIES and then they can become the “Interpreters” between the
competing authorities. With the final result being that they become the FINAL AUTHORITY in all matters of faith and
practice and end up exercising DOMINION over
believers!
Some
of the better known “official” English
versions since 1901 follow:
American
Standard Version (1901)
The Amplified Version (1958)
New American Standard Version
(1960)
New English Bible (1961)
Good News For
Modern Man (Today’s English Version – TEV) (1966)
New Jerusalem (1966 - Catholic)
New International Version (1973)
Common Bible (1973)
Just some of
the names of the “New” bibles out on the “market” today.
The Book (Living)
The Student Bible (NIV)
The New Adventure Bible (NIV)
The Life Application Bible (NIV)
Kid’s Application Bible (LIVING)
The Quest Study Bible (NIV)
The Best Selling Modern English
Translation Bible (NIV)
THE Recovery Bible (Living)
Precious Moments Bible (TEV)
The Original African Heritage
Study Bible (KJV) ?
Men’s Devotional Bible (NIV)
Women’s Devotional Bible (NIV)
Couple’s Devotional Bible (NIV)
The Parenting Bible (NIV)
The Bible For Today’s Family (Contemporary English
Version)
The Contemporary English Version ("The
Bible for Today’s Family") proudly states:
"Traditional translations (Read
KJB – AV) use words such as
Justification; Righteousness; Redemption; Reconciliation; Propitiation;
Atonement; Salvation; Sanctification; and Repentance. All these words
are absent from the Contemporary English
Version. One
reason for this absence is that “they are not used in everyday English."
(All underlines,
italics, bold, etc. are mine)
The Century Bible
The "New" Revised
Standard Bible
The “New” American (Roman
Catholic)
Any and all “New” Versions -
produced since 1990
ONE WORLD
BIBLE - (Coming Soon?)
The following is a partial list of various “Private” versions of the Bible in English:
The Mace Testament (1729) The
Whiston Testament (1745)
The Wesley Testament (1755) The
Purver Bible (1764)
The Harwood Testament (1768) The
The Hawais
Testament (1795) The Newcome Testament (1796)
The Scarlett
Testament (1798) The Macrae Bible (1799)
The Thomson Bible (1808 The
Belsham Testament (1808)
The Williams Testament (1812) The
The Webster Bible (1833) The
The Penn Testament (1836-37) The
Clapp Bible (1837)
The Townsend Bible (1837) The Sharpe Testament (1840)
The Conquest Bible (1841) The
Morgan Testament (1848)
The Whiting Testament (1849) The
Murdock Testament (1851)
The Christian Spiritual Bible
(1851) The
Woodruff Testament (1852)
The Norton Gospels (1855) The
Sawyer Testament (1858)
The Thorn Testament (1861) The
Young Bible (1862)
A Mormon Bible (1867) The Darby Bible (1872)
The
The Hanson Testament (1883-85) The
Dillard Testament (1885)
The Spurrel
Old Testament (1885) The Lewis
Gospels (1894)
The Weekes
Testament (1897) The Fenton Bible (1895)
The 20th Century Testament
(1898-1904) The
Way Epistles (1901)