UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCES
IN BIBLE VERSIONS (part 2)

by Kathy A. Smith

In part one we took a look at some of the differences between the new Bible versions and compared them to the trustworthy and time-honored King James Version (KJV). In the New Testament alone we found that there were 17 complete verse omissions and thousands of other differences.

As Christians we know that in God there is no confusion. "God is not the author of confusion" (1 Corinthians 14:33). The secular world realizes that something is wrong with all these different Bibles. A newspaper once printed: "Confusion reigns in Bible World". We must realize that if one Bible is leaving something out or saying the direct opposite of another Bible, they cannot both be right! Only one can be God's words.

Paul's Warning:

Paul wrote that many would "corrupt the word of God" (2 Corinthians 2:17). He also warned us in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ". Paul's warning tells us to be discerning about the word of God and those behind it. There are two different lines of manuscripts behind the Bible. Let's take a look at where they originated.

From Antioch to King James:

To determine truth from error the place to start is God's word. Let's first look at what the Bible says about the city of Antioch. Antioch is located in Syria on the continent of Asia Minor. In Genesis 9:26; Noah prophesied, "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem". The native people of Antioch were descendant from Noah's son Shem. Abraham was a descendant of Shem who God used to establish His chosen nation and a people who would be used in God's fulfillment of salvation (See Genesis 12:1-3). To the Jewish people were "committed the oracles (word) of God" (Romans 3:1-2). God used the Jewish people to write down His words (2 Peter 1:20-21). Most of the books of the New Testament were either written or received in Asia Minor. These were the books of John, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Philippians, 1 Peter, 1,2,3 John, Revelation and possibly other books. Antioch was the place where the disciples were first called "Christians" (Acts 11:26). The Church of Antioch was also a preaching, witnessing, and teaching church (Acts 11:20-26), a serving, giving church (Acts 11:26,29), also a praying, and missionary church (Acts 13:2-4). This church would only make sense that God used it to preserve His word. Biblical Scholar Wilbur N. Pickering writes:

"It follows that within a relatively few years after the writings of the New Testament books there came rapidly into existence a "majority text" whose form was essentially that of the Autographs themselves. This text form would, in the natural course of things, continue to multiply itself and in each succeeding generation of copying would continue to be exhibited in the mass of extant manuscripts."

1..The Church of Antioch...

is the church of the Apostle Paul and is from where this same stream of Manuscripts that the Bible was used and then hand copied over and over until finally we had the King James. I truly believe that we can have the confidence that we are reading the words that Jesus, Paul and others spoke, the preserved word of God (Psalms 12:6-7).

Irenaues, one of the early Church Fathers
who lived 130-200AD said:

"The doctrines of the apostles had been handed down by the succession of bishops being guarded and preserved, without any forging of the Scriptures, allowing neither additions nor curtailment."

Rev. D.A. Waite's has a list in his excellent book "Defending the King James Bible" that shows the thirty-seven historical evidences that support the Textus Receptus. He makes a list that starts when it was first written during the Apostolic age (33-100AD) up until up to the 1611 KJV.

2...After studying this subject for close to thirty years Waite comments:

"in fact, it is my own personal conviction and belief, after studying this subject since 1971, that the WORDS of the Received Greek and Masoretic Hebrew texts that underlie the KING JAMES BIBLE are the very WORDS which God has PRESERVED down through the centuries, being the exact WORDS of the ORIGINALS themselves."

3...The Greek manuscripts called the "Received Text" or "Textus:

Receptus" that underlies the King James Version began with the Apostolic Church and was preserved and protected many times by martyrs of the Christian faith down through the ages. Wilkinson shares from the revealing book "Which Bible?":

"Unquestionably, the leaders of the Reformation - German, French, and English - were convinced that the Received Text was the genuine New Testament, not only by its own irresistible history and internal evidence, but also because it matched with the Received Text which in Waldensian form came down from the days of the apostles."

4...1611 King James Translators:

The King James Version was composed by forty-seven scholars of the highest qualifications. They were men of great faith, dedication, and intelligence. Some of these men knew up to twenty languages and spent up to five hours a day in prayer!

Joseph Philpot (one of the greatest Hebrew and Greek scholars of the 1800's and also a faithful minister of the gospel) says this about the King James Bible:

"We cannot but admire the great faithfulness of our translators in so scrupulously adhering to the exact words of the Holy Spirit, and when they were necessarily compelled to supply the ellipses in the original, to point out that they had done so by marking the word in italic characters. By so doing, they engaged themselves, as by bond, to give the Word of God in its strict original purity; and yet, as thorough scholars in the original tongues, and complete masters of their own, they were enabled to give us a version admirable not only for its strict fidelty, but also for its eloquence, grandeur, and beauty. Would it be desirable to have a new translation of the Scriptures?"

5...The King James Bible:

The King James has been around and tested for close to 400 years and translated into hundred of languages, many faithful Christians have died so we could have it. It has been the cause of many awesome revivals. It was used by the reformation and the worldwide missionary movement of the English speaking people, the Bible that Sunday, Torrey, Moody, Finney, Spurgeon, Whitefield, Wesley, Chapman, and early Billy Graham used.

Frank Gaebelein shares how dedicated these men really were:

"This is the book in the making of which the blood of brave men was shed. They counted the labor of translating worth exile and even death in flames. Burned in public, yet snatched away and cherished in secret."

6... The Bible teaches:

"Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them" (Matt 7:20). Creation scientist Henry Morris shares his comments regarding the King James Version:

"God has uniquely blessed it (the KJV) in the history of England and America, in the great revivals, in the worldwide missionary movement, and in the personal lives of believers more than He has through all the rest of the versions put together."

7...Italics is from author:

Just Coincidence?

In the book of Ecclesiastes 8:4 it says; "Where the word of a king is, there is power:" King James was the only Bible issued by a King. Another interesting fact is that the Hebrew word for the Jewish name of "James" is "Jacob". Psalms 147:19 says; "He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel". Is God revealing something to us in these two verses?

The Enemy:

The King James Bible is often called the enemy of the Catholic Church. Many in the New Age Movement also do not allow that there is any truth in the King James. H.P. Blavastsky, the founder of the Satanic New Age Movement believes this:

"The King James Version; as it is translated, has no resemblance whatever to the originals."

8...This is also believed by other false religions:

they do not have the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus clearly taught us that there is no truth in Satan (John 8:44), and we can also safely say that there is lies of deception in every religion or cult that is produced by the Devil. Just by the fact that Satan and his people hate the King James Version gives us more reason to believe that it is the truth!

From Alexandria to New Bible Versions:

The city of Alexandria is located in Egypt. Unlike Antioch, no original texts were written in Alexandria. Noah prophesied this of Ham's son; "And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren" (Genesis 9:25). Egypt is scripturally known as the "land of Ham" (Psalms 105:2). Egypt is mentioned over and over in the Bible as opposed to the things of God. God would not allow His Patriachs (Genesis 50), His nation (Exodus 12), or His only begotten Son (Matthew 2) to remain in Egypt. Egypt is a type of sin and a type of the world system. It was a land of bondage (Exodus 20:1), Jeremiah was to be ashamed of it (Jeremiah 2:36), and to trust in Egypt was confusion (Isaiah 30:3).

Many modern scholars have accepted some of the early manuscripts that were apparently altered in Alexandria. This has led to the confusing array of different modern Bible Versions. Would God want us to accept anything that claims to be His word, from this land of confusion?

Origen:

The School of Alexandria was a theological school; it was established in the second century A.D. after Christ. It mixed Greek philosophy or Gnostic beliefs (secret mystical occult knowledge) with Biblical teaching. This school became very prominent through a man named Origen (185 to 254 AD). Origen taught many Anti-Christian doctrines. He believed Christ was created (as do most cults, and the American Standard Bible says Christ was a created being; see John 9:38 at footnotes). He also believed in universal salvation which meant all humans and even the devil would eventually be saved. He taught transmigration (this is the belief that at death the soul passes into another body). This teaching clearly contradicts scripture (see Hebrews 9:27). He is known for the Old Testament six-column Bible called the "Hexapla" in which each column had a different version of the Bible. Origen was well known for his labor to produce a "so-called" correct text of the Greek New Testament. He was known for spiritualizing or turning biblical events into allegories.

Jack Moorman author of the book "Forever Settled" writes:

"He (Origen) is considered by many to be the most profound mind in the history of the church. But in fact it may be said that he had a greater corrupting influence on the early church and on the Bible itself than any man."

9...Wilkinson also writes:

"When we come to Origen, we speak the name of him who did the most of all to create and give direction to the forces of apostasy down through the centuries. It was he who mightily influenced Jerome, the editor of the Latin Bible known as the Vulgate. Eusebius worshipped at the altar of Origen's teachings. He claims to have collected eight hundred of Origen's letters, to have used Origen's six-column Bible, the Hexapla, in his Biblical labors. Assisted by Pamphilus, he restored and preserved Origen's library. Origen's corrupted manuscripts of the Scriptures were well arranged and balanced with subtlety. The last one hundred years have seen much of the so-called scholarship of European and English Christianity dominated by the subtle and powerful influence of Origen."

10...Even before Origen:

History tells us there were other heretics who were busy altering Scripture to fit their own doctrine. Well-known

Bible scholar Scrivener shares:

"It is no less true to fact than paradoxical in sound, that the worst corruptions to which the New Testament has ever been subjected, originated within a hundred years after it was composed; that Irenaeus (A.D. 150), and the African Fathers, and the whole Western, with a portion of the Syrian Church, used far inferior manuscripts to those employed by Stunica, or Erasmus, or Stephens thirteen centuries later, when moulding the Textus Receptus."

11...Gaius is another early Church Father who wrote between 175-200 AD.

He names four heretics who prepared corrupted copies of scriptures and who had disciples who multiplied copies of them. It is important to understand that the most corruptions took place in areas away from the original autographs of Antioch. This may be one of the times in history that human reasoning supposedly decided to take over the words of God!

The Catholic Bible:

We now jump ahead to 352 AD, the time of Constantine. Eusebius, a great admirer of Origen, was asked to prepare 50 copies of scripture to be used in the Christian churches. In 380 A.D. a Pope called on Jerome (a promoter of Mary worship, self-denial, and celibacy of the clergy) to prepare a Bible that would favor the Roman Catholic teaching. Jerome translated from the corrupt manuscripts of Origin and Eusebius.

David Reagan of Antioch Baptist Church
shares some interesting facts:

"Copies of the already existing Old Latin Vulgate (Underlying manuscripts for KJV), which agreed more closely with the true text, were discarded and often destroyed. Jerome's Latin Vulgate triumphed at the expense of pure copies of the Word. ... Although Alexandrian scholarship subtracted from the word, Roman tradition added to the Word. However opposite these approaches may seem, the two movements joined in the development of the Roman Catholic bibles. Rome took Alexandria's diluted bible and added to it according to its traditions. This resulted in the corrupt bibles we still have with us today".

12...Coincidence:

Is it a coincidence that soon after this time the Dark Ages were ushered in? The Catholic Church has used these same underlying manuscripts until modern times.

God the Winner!

There was a struggle between light and darkness for the first three and four centuries over the true word of God. But praise our almighty God, who is always in control, has watched over His word as He has promised, keeping it as a far greater "majority of texts" throughout the ages. He will continue to watch over it even though Satan and man try to get in the way. God's word will be preserved always!

Jack Moorman writes about this ongoing conflict:

"Its numerical superiority in extant manuscripts shows that the Received Text (KJV) was the decisive winner, and it held its ground for the next fifteen centuries. But now in our century the battle has been renewed and an even more intense conflict ensues with the proliferation of modern versions based on the text of Origen."

13...The Alexandrian Manuscripts:

Jumping ahead to the nineteenth century, two of these Alexandria-centered manuscripts were discovered. These two manuscripts are known and believed by modern scholars to be the "oldest and best manuscripts" that date back to the 4th century. This over all is a very deceiving term that is far from the truth when we realize that these two texts contradict each other thousands of times!!!

The two texts that were discovered are called the "Vaticanus B" and the "Sinaticus" or "Aleph". The "Vaticanus B" was found in the Vatican (Pope's) library and was under lock and key for years. The "Sinaticus" was found by a man named Tischendorf in 1844 AD at St. Catherine's Monastery on Mt. Sinai in a trash basket, waiting to be burned!

The Men Behind the Modern Bible Versions:

We have already briefly looked at the lives of Origen and others with a shady past that have been behind biblical manuscripts, but unfortunately it doesn't get much better as we jump up to the late 1800's. Two men by the names of B.F. Westcott and F.J.A. Hort very privately, without the authorization of the Church of England, proceeded to create an altogether new Greek text using the Alexandrian texts. Their goal was to replace the Textus Receptus that had already stood for over 250 years. By using the method of textual criticism (which is human reasoning) they proceeded to produce in England in the year 1881 a new Bible version called the Revised Version.

Is it another coincidence that England lost its place of power after this? Remember that 15 centuries in the past soon after a new translation had been made the Dark ages came. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Gal. 6:7).

Let's take a look at some of the things that Westcott and Hort wrote in their letters, as they wrote back and forth to one another and others while working on their new Bible. As we look at some of the following quotes taking from the books "Life and Letters of Westcott and Hort", I can guarantee I would not want to go to their next Bible study!

In 1846, Dec. 23 Westcott wrote:

"My faith is still wavering. I cannot determine how much we must believe; how much, in fact, is necessarily required of a member of the Church."

14...In 1890 Mar. 4th Westcott wrote:

"No one now, I suppose, holds that the first three chapters of Genesis, for example, give a literal history - I could never understand how any one reading them with open eyes could think they did."

15...This statement sounds like something Origen once wrote:

"The Scriptures are of little use to those who understand them as they are written."

16...Our Enemy:

Satan knows that if he can destroy faith in these first three chapters of Genesis, he is on his way to destroying faith in the rest of the Bible.

1860 Apr. 3rd Hort wrote:

"But the book which has most engaged me is Darwin. Whatever may be thought of it, it is a book that one is proud to be contemporary with. I must work out and examine the argument in more detail, but at present my feeling is strong that the theory is unanswerable."

17...Evolution:

Evolution was designed to take away the creation account of Genesis chapters one and two. Here we read that Hort was proud of the evolution theory. The theory of evolution has no place in the word of God.

In 1865 Oct. 17th Hort wrote:

"I have been persuaded for many years that Mary-worship and 'Jesus'-worship have very much in common in their causes and their results."

18...Jesus, co-creator:

Jesus is to be worshipped as the creator. Mary is only Jesus' creation and is absolutely not to be worshipped. This is condemned all through scripture to worship any other thing. God alone is worthy of all praise.

These statements listed above are only a few of the many false belief's about the Bible that Westcott and Hort wrote in the their letters. Theses men behind the New Bible Versions espoused "doctrines of demons" and were opposed to the true word of God! I would beware before I put my trust in men of such unbelief to judge the word of God!