The Baptist Pillar ©      Brandon Bible Baptist Church     1992-Present    www.baptistpillar.com

"...The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."
I Timothy 3:15

Textual Criticism: Fact and Fiction:

A Fresh Look at Bible Inspiration, Preservation and Translation

Dr. Thomas Cassidy

Published by First Baptist Church Publications 8758 Troy Street Spring Valley, CA 91977 (619)462-9019

© COPYRIGHT 1995 BY THE AUTHOR

This work is copyrighted only to preserve the author's ownership of his work. Any part of this work may be used without the author's permission. All that he asks is that proper credit be given.

(All quotations are from the Authorized Version)

Preface

Why another book about the controversy surrounding the Inspiration of the Bible, it's Preservation, and it's Translation? There has been much discussion in recent years, much of it of such a mean spirited nature that much more heat than light has been thrown on the very important subject of our Bible. However, all of the discussion has done very little to answer the questions most often asked by the average Christian in the pew on Sunday morning: Is my Bible inspired? Is it without error? Can I have full assurance in my Bible as the Word of God, or do only the "Scholars" know for sure what really is the Word of God, and what isn't? Hopefully and prayerfully this book will help shed a little light on the subject.

Introduction

In dealing with the doctrines of inspiration, preservation, and translation of the scriptures, I do not intend this book to be an exhaustive examination of these great doctrines, but rather to start from the position that most of my readers will already hold, namely, believing in an inspired and inerrant Scripture. These arguments regarding the inspiration of Scripture are not new, but have raged in Christendom for the past one hundred years, coming to a boil about fifty years ago with the great Fundamentalist/Modernist controversy, bringing about a breakup in most of the large denominations.

I intend only to touch upon the high points of the historical arguments concerning inspiration, then deal more thoroughly with what the Bible teaches, an area where many fundamental Baptists seem to be guilty of fuzzy thinking, accepting without serious question the opinions of men who may be called conservative, but may not be fundamental in all their doctrines and practices.

My background was along such lines of conservative orthodoxy, being saved in a church that had been part of the old Northern Baptist Convention, but had left the convention in the 1940's when the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy became a matter of great contention. My education started along similar lines, attending Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a school originally founded by the late great W. B. Riley (as Northwestern Baptist Seminary), and continued by a former Northern Baptist pastor, Dr. Richard V. Clearwaters, who was one of the first to come out of the old convention and establish an independent church. W. B. Riley stated in his book, The Menace of Modernism (New York: Christian Alliance, 1917), the Modernist believes the Bible's "inspiration exists only in its ability to inspire...its interpretation is a matter of mental conscience."

Dr. Riley goes on to say there were a group of men whom he describes as the "old conception," who believed the Authorized Version or King James Bible (hereafter AV) was inerrant. He states on page 11, "On this point we are inclined to think that, even unto comparatively recent years, such a theory has been entertained." He then ascribes this belief to ignorance, and says, "I think it would be accepted without fear of successful controversy that such fogies in Biblical knowledge are few, and their funerals are nigh at hand."

Actually there are quite a few of us, and I for one am feeling just fine, thank you. Dr. Riley then erroneously states the AV inerrancy position by saying on page 13, "To claim, therefore, inerrancy for the King James Version...is to claim inerrancy for men who never professed it for themselves..." No one, that I am aware of, is claiming inerrancy for men, but only for the words of God. This position is, I believe, a straw man, attempting to ascribe to us something we do not believe, and then condemn us for believing what they claim we believe.

I believe the AV is vested with derivative inspiration, due to its having been carefully translated from the inspired words of the original language texts contained in the Traditional Masoretic (Bomberg's Second Rabbinic Bible, as edited by Rabbi Abraham Ben Chayyim), and the Traditional Greek (Byzantine or TR) text. I consider the Stuttgartensia and Alexandrian (WH) texts, from which all modern bibles are translated, to be corrupt. This is, I believe, easily demonstrated by the egregious errors contained in the versions translated from them. If we believe the AV has derivative inspiration, we must remember, where inspiration (even derivative inspiration) goes, inerrancy (also derivative) must, of logical necessity, follow.

If inerrancy does not follow inspiration, we produce the absurdity of an "inspired" error! I believe the AV is inspired and inerrant because the preserved original language manuscripts from which it is derived are both inspired and inerrant, when correctly copied, which virtually all of the textual evidence suggests is assuredly the case. The charge of errors in the AV is an unfounded charge. The so-called errors are usually the result of an insufficient knowledge of the etymology of the English words used by the translators.

Just a little knowledge of the English language clears up a great number of these so-called errors. There are only about 268 words in the A.V. that are not currently used in English (wot, wist, etc), or have changed meaning (Easter referred to the pagan celebrations clustered around the vernal equinox in 1611, roughly the same time as the Jewish Passover, but now refers either to Resurrection Sunday, or a secular holiday involving an egg laying rabbit(?)). I believe it is easier (and safer) to educate God's people as to the changes in English than to tamper with the Bible.

So then, it seems clear to me that Dr. Riley believed there were still a few of the "old conception" men in his day that still believed in an inerrant AV, that they were mostly old men, and were soon to pass away. If these men were old men when Riley wrote his book, they must have dated to at least the latter part of the 19th century. Over one hundred years ago, a group of "old conception" men existed who still believed in the inerrancy of the AV. This appears to indicate the "King James Only" position is not of recent origin.

Thus we can see, in Riley's day, a group of men still existed who believed, "(1) the Bible was finished in heaven and handed down, (2) the King James Version was absolutely inerrant, and (3) its literal acceptance was alone correct." (Page nine of Riley's book as quoted by Dr. George W. Dollar in his book History of Fundamentalism in America, page 114)

We can easily see that W. B. Riley (1861 - 1947), understood this group of men to believe exactly as the "King James Only" crowd does today, and believed it long before any of the contemporary antagonists were born! The challenge of one scoffer to "Name one person who believed in the inspiration or inerrancy of the King James Version prior to 1950 and I'll send you $1000", has just been answered (please send the money to me at the address in the front of this book!).

Unfortunately Riley himself did not hold this position, and his successor, Richard V. Clearwaters, went on to study at the University of Chicago Divinity School (Masters in Greek Literature) under Goodspeed. In 1923 Dr. Edgar J. Goodspeed published his "New Testament: An American Translation," based on the corrupt Critical (Wescott and Hort) Text. Goodspeed convinced Clearwaters that the Critical Text as published by Wescott and Hort was superior to the Textus Receptus that Clearwaters had been originally willing to accept, and that others believed had been "handed down" from heaven. This accounted for the fact that while I was a student at Central, Dr. Roland McCune (now president of Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary) taught Old Testament from the New American Standard Bible, and more recently, the new president, Dr. Ernest Pickering, often preached from the New International Version.

Most recently, Dr. Larry Pettegrew, Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology, wrote a paper entitled "The King James Only Religion", in which he states that those who hold the King James Only position are in fact (1) not fundamentalists, (2) doctrinally deviant, (3) of a "new view that was not held by the prominent Bible teachers, pastors, and leaders of early historic fundamentalism" (in spite of the fact that the founder of the very seminary that now supports him believed these men pre-dated him!). He goes on (and on and on) to say "...there are some poor translations in the King James Version. When the Anglicans translated the Greek word, 'baptizo,' for example, they were afraid to translate it as 'immerse.' So they simply transliterated it as 'baptize.'

Most Bible-believing Baptists would consider that a mistake." It never ceases to amaze me that so called scholars, who obviously consider themselves to be well educated, can spout such nonsense. Any person who knows how to read can look up the word "baptize" in the Oxford English Dictionary (any good college library will have one) and see that the word "baptize" did not enter the English language in 1611 via a transliteration of the Greek word "baptizo", but rather, had been in common usage in England for over five hundred years, having come into the English language via the French "baptiste", at the time of the Norman invasion under William the Conqueror in 1066 A.D.!

A look at the word "immerse" in that same dictionary will reveal that at the time the King James translators were working, the word immerse did not mean the same as it does now, to submerge in, but at that time meant "to merge with" as a sponge soaks up water. No intelligent person would suggest today such a meaning for baptism, yet these so-called scholars are constantly assaulting our ears and intellects with such nonsense! If a student of mine handed in a paper full of such errors in simple research I would give him an "F", and make him start over. Too bad Central doesn't have such a standard for its faculty.

Much that I learned at Central was the product of the old Northern Baptist thinking, as modified by the more liberal mind set of the University of Chicago Divinity School, including the uncritical acceptance of the conservative orthodox position on inspiration. Many of my professors had been educated, not in independent Baptist schools, but in colleges and seminaries that can best be described as either conservative protestant, or former Northern Baptists who left the convention but brought much of the furniture and baggage with them when they came out. Their teaching, of course, reflected the conservative protestant, or, at best, the conservative Northern Baptist position. This problem of college and seminary professors continues today.

When the Independent Baptist movement began here in the United States, much of the leadership of the new movement decided to start their own colleges and seminaries. As these new schools grew and the leadership began to look for additional faculty members they soon realized the only men who were academically qualified were educated in the old denominational schools, and were thus infected with the menace of modernism. In response to this new menace, these school leaders stepped out of the traditional Baptist educational circle and sought faculty from the conservative protestant schools such as Dallas Seminary (Presbyterian), Grace Seminary (Brethren), Westminster (also Presbyterian), and Bob Jones University (Methodist).

By using faculty members from these non-Baptist, protestant schools, the leadership created a weak Baptist, pro-protestant, mind-set in their students, who, of course, were the next generation of Pastors, Missionaries, Evangelists, and college and seminary Professors, thus perpetuating, in Independent Baptist schools, the very modernist influence they had established these schools to avoid! When I left seminary (with this weak-Baptist, pro-protestant mind-set) and went into the pastorate, I found myself confronted with many questions that had never even been asked, let alone answered, during my seminary days.

These questions forced me into a period of self study concerning Bible inspiration, reading those materials that had been written by fundamental Baptists, rather than by conservative protestants. My new found understanding of inspiration led me in turn to a period of self study in the area of Bible preservation, where I found an even greater discrepancy between what I had been taught, and what the Bible actually had to say. My gradually growing understanding of preservation led me into a thorough study of Bible translation which has increased my confidence in the English Bible as the authoritative Word of God.

As I continued to study the phenomenon of American fundamentalism, I had the added blessing of knowing the pre-eminent expert alive today in the area of Fundamentalist History, Dr. George W. Dollar, of Haines City, Florida. Dr. Dollar was dean of Central Baptist Seminary during my last two years there, and had tried valiantly to swing the school back to a solid position on Biblical inerrancy. He left Central in 1980, after a long and tiring battle with the internal politics of Central, and the Minnesota Baptist Association.

While at Central, Dr. Dollar was a breath of fresh air in the dry and dusty halls of academia. On the occasion of his first opportunity to preach in chapel, with all of the students assembled, all of the faculty present, with many of the supporting pastors from the area, Dr. Dollar took his Bible, opened it, and said, "Take your King James Bibles and turn to (and gave the chapter and verse reference), if you have anything other than a King James Bible, SIT ON IT!"

I turned to a fellow student sitting next to me and remarked "I think this place just got a whole lot more interesting!" It was my privilege to sit under his teaching and preaching ministry while at Central, and to renew that fellowship via telephone and letter after his "retirement" (he still preaches every Sunday, and is now teaching at Florida Seminary in Lakeland!).

It became obvious to me through my reading and my discussions with Dr. Dollar, that all fundamentalists are not the same. I have come to the conclusion that there are four different positions held by fundamental Baptists today. I want every reader to understand, that none of the comments to follow constitutes an attack on any man, or upon his work. I have no axes to grind, nor am I mad at anyone.

These are observations of facts as I see them and are not meant to be a denunciation of any one man or his work, and I hope and pray that those reading these words, if they seem to apply, will take them in the spirit of love in which they are offered. The truth ought never offend any child of God. If these words are not truth, then they do not apply to you, and they ought not offend. If they are true, and you do feel offended, perhaps a careful examination of your position and ministry might be in order.

I know how difficult it is to bring about change in the lives of Christians. When I took my present pastorate ten years ago the church had only been separated from the American Baptist Convention for about five years, and continued to practice much of the American Baptist methods of government, worship, and work. When I attempted to initiate change, the charge was made that I was repudiating all that had been done before. If what was being done required change, then they must have been doing it wrong all those years.

The church had been started by the late husbands of many of our widows, and by the parents of many of our middle aged members, and they felt that if we changed our practices we would dishonor the memories of their dear departed loved ones. My intent, of course, was not to dishonor any person, but to honor God. It took a long time for many of our people to understand this, and forgive me for changing the long held practices of their church. We must remember, if we can see farther than our forebears, it is because we have the advantage of standing upon that which they have built, giving us a higher vantage point so that we can see beyond their horizons. The following are the works of our spiritual forbears upon which we have built.

Position number one is those who separated from the old Northern Baptist Convention over the doctrine of inerrancy and the encroachment of liberalism, starting in about 1920.

These separatists today usually hold to a view of inerrancy that accepts the views of the orthodox writers of the last century such as Augustus Strong, and writers from the first half of this century such as Henry Thiessen and others. These men, and the churches and schools they control, usually accept and use the critical Greek text, and later (1937) BHK (Biblia Hebraica Kittel) Hebrew text in their classrooms. Their schools are often organized apart from the local church, usually owned and governed by a "state association," or a "state fellowship," or they are governed by a "board" of pastors and businessmen. Their financial base is often the high tuition fees that they charge.

Their churches generally take a good stand on baptism, eternal security, dispensational premillennialism, and have good music standards, but they sometimes have a slight tendency towards formalism in their services. They often use the old Northern Baptist form of government by committee, have a "board" of deacons acting as an executive committee, often also having a "board of trustees" to oversee the "business" matters of the church, and to act as an advisory committee to advise the Pastor and others in areas both spiritual and temporal. There churches generally have "business" meetings fairly often, such meetings sometimes chaired by a "moderator" instead of the pastor. These churches are often less inclined to emphasize areas of personal holiness such as dress standards and modesty, sometimes characterizing those who do as "legalists."

Position number two is those who separated from the conservative protestant churches over the doctrine of inerrancy at about the same time, but have retained at least some of the characteristics of their former denominations. These characteristics may include, but are not limited to: a tendency toward formalism expressed in the wearing of "clerical" garb such as robes, etc. in the pulpit; an unbiblical or unstated position on baptism; an unbiblical or unstated position on eternal security; an unbiblical or unstated position on eschatology manifesting itself lately in a definite swing towards the covenant position, holding to a mid/post/ or prewrath rapture position.

Much more alarming, many are now denying the necessity of the blood of Christ for salvation, saying the blood is merely the symbol of His death. There is a large segment of this group who are now dividing the Biblical role of pastor into "ruling elders" and "teaching elders." These men also often hold an unbiblical or unstated position on the primacy of the local church; an adherence to the somewhat liberal position of their former denominations in the area of inspiration and preservation of the Scriptures, using the critical Greek text, and later (1937) BHK Hebrew text in their classrooms.

These separatist Protestants often have an incomplete understanding of Biblical standards and personal separation, while practicing what they call "secondary separation" which they often interpret to mean anyone who is not part of their group, fellowship, school, or organization (don't misunderstand what I am saying, I believe in separation, both from the lost and from the unruly saved.

However, I don't believe any separation is "secondary", all separation is "primary", meaning it is a requirement for obedience, consecration, and holiness). Their schools are seldom, if ever, organized under the authority of a local church, and they often hold "church" services in the school auditorium, said "churches" not being congregationally governed, and if this "convenience church" has a "pastor", he is either the school leader, or works for the school leader, thus denying, in practice, the primacy and autonomy of the local church.

These schools are generally organized as "para-church" organizations, a term borrowed from the New Evangelicals, and without Biblical support. These schools and organizations are usually run by one man, but are sometimes governed by a "board" made up of pastors, politicians, and business men. Their financial base comes from the high tuition fees they charge, or occasionally from income associated with other aspects of their "ministry", rather then from the tithes and offerings of God's people given through their local church.

Position number three is held by those who separated from the Southern Baptist Convention, beginning in the mid 1940's, over standards, convictions, separation, etc., before the doctrine of inspiration was called into question in the convention. These men and their churches are generally characterized by strong stands on Baptism, eternal security, the local church, pastoral leadership, and an inspired, infallible, inerrant, preserved scripture. About half of the schools controlled by these men are under the authority of their local churches and are sometimes, but not always tuition free.

These schools generally use the traditional Masoretic Hebrew text (BHK 1906 - 1912), and the Received Greek text in their classrooms, never having fallen under the influence of the modernistic German rationalists of the last century. These men and their churches generally have a strong position on personal separation, expressed as good standards in the areas of music and dress.

The fourth position is held by those who are unaffiliated with any of the conventions, associations, fellowships, and never have been! This group tends toward the historic "Landmark" position, believing in the local church only, Baptist perpetuity, and a faithful Bride identified as the church of the New Testament, and educates their preachers in local church centered Bible schools.

Because of the above differences in background and training, it is no great wonder that there exists a tremendous diversity of opinion among those calling themselves fundamentalists. It is with this great diversity in mind that I endeavored to put on paper a concise, well reasoned statement of the controversial subject of Bible inspiration, preservation, and translation.

Section One - Inspiration

Inspiration is defined as that work of the Holy Spirit of God upon the minds, souls, and bodies of the Scripture writers which makes their writings the record of a progressive divine revelation. When God determined to give to His creation the Self-revelation that we today call the Bible, He selected the Prophets of the Old Testament, and the Apostles of the New Testament, and through the agency of His indwelling Holy Spirit so over came the sin nature of these men that the words which He selected from the reservoir of the culture, education, experience, and personality of the man were His chosen words, and no others.

This process of inspiration was two fold: Verbal, the very words that God selected were the very words that best revealed the mind and will of God to His creation. Thus, every word so inspired was in fact, the Word of God. Plenary, the collection of words that we call the Bible is, in its whole, the complete Word of God, without error or contradiction. The entire Bible, regardless of subject matter, is the infallible, unfailing, Revelation of God.

Now let's look at some of the various theories of inspiration that have been common in historic Christendom.

The Intuition or Natural Theory is held by the typical Modernist today, who believes that inspiration is merely a higher development of that natural insight into truth which all men posses to some degree. In other words, the Bible is merely a book by men with highly religious motivation, and is similar to a book about science written by men with highly scientific motivation.

This theory, holding as it does that natural insight is the only source of religious truth, involves a serious self-contradiction; if the theory is true, then one man is inspired to utter that which another man is inspired to condemn. The Koran and the Bible cannot both be inspired Truth, as they contradict each other. This theory reduces moral and religious truth to the subjective - a matter of private opinion - having no objective reality apart from the opinions of men.

The Illumination or Mystical Theory regards inspiration as merely an intensifying and elevating of the religious perceptions of the believer, the same in kind, though greater in degree, as the illumination of every believer by the Holy Spirit. This position holds that the Bible is not the Word of God, but only contains the Word of God, and that not the writings, but only the writers were inspired. Of course, we must admit that there is an illumination of the mind of the believer by the Holy Spirit as we look into the Word of God, but this illumination only allows us to understand that which has already been written, and cannot impart new truth.

The Dictation or Mechanical Theory holds that inspiration consisted in such a possession of the minds and bodies of the Scripture writers by the Holy Spirit, that they became passive instruments, not participating in any way in the process of inspiration. This theory fails to explain the medical terms used by Luke, the military and sporting terms used by Paul, and the distinct differences between the books written by the various Old and New Testament writers. Of course, we must grant that there are instances when God's communications to mankind were in an audible voice, and took the form of spoken words, and that sometimes God commanded men to commit these words to writing for the edification of all men. However, the Dictation Theory would force this occasional event upon all of Scripture, quite apart from the evidence to the contrary.

The Dynamic or Conceptual Theory states that inspiration is not simply a natural, but also a supernatural fact, and that it is the immediate work of a personal God in the soul of man. This theory holds that the Scriptures contain a human as well as a divine element, so that while they present a body of divinely revealed truth, this truth is shaped in human molds and adapted to ordinary human intelligence, and is thus conceptual (the idea, or thought, or concept is inspired) rather than verbal (the very words are inspired) in its view of inspiration. This is the view held, unfortunately, by many fundamentalists today, and is the basis for the proliferation of the many English language translations of the Scriptures now on the market, each one trying to put into different words the inspired thought, or idea, or concept of the original, while glossing over or even ignoring the words inspired by God.

The Verbal and Formal Inspiration position believes that first of all the Holy Spirit worked in the Prophets of the Old Testament and the Apostles of the New Testament in such a way that the very words of God were selected from the vocabulary of the man, taking into account his culture, education, and experience, and that not only the very words, but also the forms of the words, such as noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, singular, plural, etc., were written at the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

This view is the only one that can give us a completely inspired, inerrant, infallible, preserved Bible, as well as account for such statements as Paul saying that the very form of a word was inspired by God for a specific purpose as in Galatians 3:16, and Christ saying in Matthew 5:18 that not only was each word inspired, but every letter of every word was inspired. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the perfect mirror of the Lord Jesus Christ, which reflects Him and leads us to Him. Authority resides in the Scriptures just as it does in Him. Just as all authority is given to Christ (Matthew 28:18), the living Word, all authority is bound up in the Scriptures, the reflection of Him, the written Word of God.

Now comes the problem we face in fundamental circles today. What exactly was it that God inspired. Was it men? Was it manuscripts? Was it languages? One of the greatest failings of fundamentalism today is this confusion concerning the doctrine of inspiration. If you were to ask every independent, fundamental Baptist Pastor what it was that God inspired, most would reply "the original manuscripts." However, you can search the scriptures forever, and never find a reference to the "original manuscripts."

But you will find, over and over again references to the "words" that God has spoken. God did not inspire men or manuscripts, He inspired words! God did not concern Himself with parchment, vellum, papyrus, and ink, but with words! It was, and still is, the words of God that are inspired. It makes absolutely no difference if those inspired words are written by the hand of Moses, Samuel, David, Daniel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James, or if they were carefully copied by a copyist in his own handwriting, or if they are scrawled on the rest room wall! If they are the same words, they are God's words, and if they are God's words, they are inspired words!

Unfortunately many object to this view of Scripture for various reasons. Some say that factual errors in the Bible disprove this verbal and formal view of inspiration. Now we must ask, does the Bible contain factual errors? Yes, it does, but before you get out the tar and feathers, allow me to elaborate! The pious speeches made by Job's "comforters" contain factual errors. However, inspiration guarantees the accurate recording of these speeches, but not the truthfulness of the content. Satan said "Ye shall not surely die," in Genesis 3:4. That statement is a lie, but is accurately recorded by the Holy Spirit.

The Bible speaks of "the four corners of the Earth" in Isaiah 11:12 and Revelation 7:1, apparently ignorant of the scientific fact that the earth is round. However, this so-called error is nothing more than using the language of appearance. We still say today that the sun rises and sets. However, we know that scientifically speaking, the sun neither rises nor sets, but it is the Earth that rotates upon its axis, producing the appearance of the sun rising and setting. Are we in error then to say that the sun rises and sets?

No, the sun still appears to rise and set, and I for one will continue to enjoy watching the beauty of the swollen red sun setting in the Pacific Ocean, and even though I may be unscientific in my description of a sunset, it remains just as beautiful. Besides which, the Bible clearly teaches that the Earth is round in Isaiah 40:22. Also, we still describe our world as having four directions North, South, East, and West, or some combination thereof. Is it wrong to say that there are four primary directions (corners?), I don't think so.

So then, the honest reader will see that when viewed properly, the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, infallible, and all sufficient Word of God, totally worthy of our full trust and confidence in all matters of faith, practice, knowledge, and understanding, and is able to "make us wise unto salvation", as well as "lead us into all truth."

Section Two - Preservation

The doctrine of preservation is one that is receiving much attention today, and has become as controversial as the doctrine of inspiration was fifty years ago, and will, in all probability have the same effect on Christendom. In the near future, the lines of demarcation will be more boldly drawn, and a new separatism will develop around the proper understanding of the doctrine of Bible preservation.

Those who decide on a preserved Scripture and believe that the local "church of the living God [is] the pillar and ground of the truth" will be the fundamentalists of tomorrow, and those who continue to hold to the idea of a higher "critical" text, and the authority of so-called "scholars" to determine what is, and what is not the Word of God, will go the way of Liberal and Modernistic Christendom, into decline and eclipse. We are already seeing a tendency toward this decline in many of the Christian Colleges that were once great preacher training schools in the past, but are now turning out more accountants or other professionals then they are preachers.

We must first ask ourselves, does the Bible teach that God has promised to preserve His word? I contend that it does, and does so quite emphatically! I believe when God promises something, He keeps and performs that promise. In Psalm 12:6-7 God says: "The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." Here is a plain and simple statement concerning the doctrine of Bible preservation. Notice that God has not just promised to preserve His word, but has promised to preserve it from "this generation (the time of David) for ever."

God has promised that every generation from the time of David until the end of eternity will have a preserved authoritative Bible. In Psalm 78:5-7 God states that he has established His testimony and appointed His law for the purpose of teaching each succeeding generation. Every generation has the promise of a preserved Bible, that they "not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments."

"Forever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven," says the psalmist in Psalm 119:89. God's word has been settled, kept pure, preserved, according to this verse. Some have argued that it is settled in heaven, but not on earth! How foolish! God's word is a revelation from God to man. It is man that needs God's word, mankind right here on earth, not God, or the already redeemed in heaven.

God has promised to preserve His word from generation to generation. Those generations are generated right here on earth, not in heaven! In Matthew 4:4, when Jesus was tempted by the Devil, He replied, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

How can a man live by the Word of God, if he doesn't have it? In order for men and women to live by the Word of God, it must be available to them, God must have preserved it! By the way, I don't want to get too technical with you, but the word "written" is in the perfect tense, meaning that it was written in the past, and has continued right down to the time of Christ, and of course down to this present time also. In other words, God has preserved it!

Let's stick to the truth! There have been many strange statements made of late by both sides of this debate that need to be addressed. The proponents of the Critical Text often assert that the Traditional Text originated with the cleric Erasmus. There is a fundamental dishonesty inherent in that statement. The Traditional Text of the Greek New Testament existed in the vast majority of Greek manuscripts back to at least 450 A. D., and Traditional readings existed in the below mentioned versions and lectionaries back to at least 150 A. D. It must also be noted that the adherents to the Traditional Text sometimes attribute the Critical Text to Westcott and Hort, knowing full well that examples of this text existed at about 350 A.D.

Both sides ought to be very careful concerning such statements. If we believe that our respective position is so weak that it cannot be supported by the facts, resorting to such deceitful tactics will do nothing to advance either position, and certainly will not honor and glorify God, which ought to be our ultimate goal!

The Traditional Text of the New Testament, sometimes called the Textus Receptus, or Byzantine Text, or Syrian Text, is incontestably admitted to have existed virtually unchanged from about 450 A. D. and reigned supreme, without serious challenge, until about 1850 when a copy of the Alexandrian text was discovered in St. Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai (another had previously been found in the basement of the Vatican library in Rome in about 1450.)

Since 1880 the Alexandrian text has enjoyed a rapid rise to ascendancy in the English speaking Christian world. The Alexandrian, Caesarean, and Western Greek texts were virtually unknown for the fourteen centuries between 450 and 1850. If God promised to preserve His word unto all generations (Psalm 12), those generations between 450 and 1850 must be included in that promise. The argument of some that the Latin Vulgate (which primarily follows the Alexandrian text) was much more widely published and circulated during these fourteen centuries and therefore represents the "preserved text", begs the question: Does God preserve His Words, or the words of a translator?

The Latin Version was a translation done by men, and not the original language words inspired and preserved by God. If these men can claim preservation for a Latin translation, then they have no grounds for objection when others claim preservation for an English translation. The question is not "which language", the question is "which text." The only Greek text that has been in continuous use from the early second century to the present was, and is, the Traditional Text!

The Traditional readings found in the Syriac Version, the Old Latin versions, and the Greek lectionaries provide strong evidence to the open minded and honest researcher as to the existence of the Traditional Text clear back to the mid-second century, or to about 150 A. D. It is quite clear then to the honest, open minded researcher that the Traditional Text is the only text that has been in constant, uninterrupted usage from the first century until the present time, and therefore is the only text that qualifies for the term "preserved."

I must also now address the reluctance on the part of many fundamentalists to refer to the English Bible as "inspired." Many today insist that the term inspired applies only to the original languages, and that referring to the King James Bible as inspired, is to be a "Ruckmanite" or to believe in "double inspiration." (By the way, I have never met Dr. Ruckman, never listened to one of his tapes, never read one of his books. I came to my present position by studying the Bible, not Dr. Ruckman or his writings.)

God did not inspire the Bible twice. He didn't have to, He did it right the first time! The theological term for the inspiration of the English Bible is "derivative inspiration." This simply means the English Bible is inspired because the Hebrew and Greek texts from which it is derived are inspired. Things that are equal to the same thing, are equal to each other.

The verbal and formal translation technique provides for the English words to be equal to the Hebrew and Greek in meaning and form. If the Hebrew and Greek are inspired, and the English equals the Hebrew and Greek in form and meaning, the English is also inspired. The only alternative to an inspired Bible is an expired Bible. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that expired means dead! Those who refuse to call the English Bible inspired, are admitting they preach and teach from a dead book! This will be dealt with more completely in the next section, Translation.

Now let's look at the position that is taken by others that there are deliberate deceptions in the Authorized King James Bible. These men state in part, "...When the King James translators came to the Greek word baptizo, they did not translate the word. Rather, they transliterated the word. If they had translated the word, they would have had to translate it to 'dip', or to 'immerse.' However, the Church of England at that time taught sprinkling for baptism.

If the translators had translated the word 'immerse,' they would have been in trouble with the Church of England. So in order to avoid the trouble and to hide the true meaning of Baptizo, they transliterated the word. To claim that God inspired the translators in that deception borders on blasphemy. If someone wishes to accuse God of that kind of deception, that is his business. But that is not a position that we at The Sword Of The Lord wish to take." I realize that I have already dealt with this kind of statement from another source, but it is so common I believe it needs to be restated before we go on.

This sort of statement is an exact illustration of the main problem in fundamentalism today. Far too many preachers are ignorant of the simple truths of Bible inspiration and preservation. God did not inspire men, he inspired His Word, and those inspired words we call Scripture. 2 Timothy 3:16 tell us that "All scripture is given by inspiration of God," if the King James Bible is Scripture, then it must be inspired, or God is a liar! Furthermore, we are not accusing God of deception, we are accusing these foolish men of deception through ignorance.

As far as their criticism of the word Baptism is concerned, let me again point out a few facts, not opinions.

First, our English word baptism was not transliterated from the Greek word baptizo, by the King James translators, but was an English word in common usage since five hundred years before the King James translators began their work. The word did not come into the language as a transliteration of the Greek, but from the French "Baptiste", at the time of the Norman conquest in 1066! The French got it from the Romans (Latin) as the Romans moved north into Gaul (present day France). It was the Romans who got it from the Greek, and carried it throughout their empire, where it has lived on in French, Italian, Spanish, English, and other languages, even after the death of the Latin language.

Second, it is ridiculous to say that the translators "would have had to translate the word to 'dip' or to 'immerse'. Any competent researcher can see from a quick look into the standard reference book on the origin and usage of the English language, "The Oxford English Dictionary", (any good library will have one) that "immerse" did not appear in English until 1605, the year after the King James translators started their work, and even then, did not have the same meaning as it does today.

The word "immerse" originally meant to "merge with", and only came to mean "submerge in" in 1613, two years after the King James Bible was published. As far as "dip" is concerned, the word is used ten times in the King James Bible, and never once is it used to describe Christian Baptism. It is used nine times in the Old Testament, and only once in the New Testament to describe what the rich man in hell requested Abraham to have Lazarus do with his finger because of his terrible thirst.

Third, great ignorance and inconsistency is shown by criticizing the word baptism, while calling yourself a Baptist, which comes from the same word! If we are to remove the word baptism from our King James Bibles, we must also remove "angel," "apostasy," "apostle," "blaspheme," "blasphemous," "blasphemy," "paradise," "psalm," "prophecy," and "prophet!" In fact, you are going to have to remove about seventy percent of the English language, for it is just about that much that has come from foreign sources.

One thing we as Christians must never forget is that God the Holy Spirit has the same power to preserve His Word as He had to inspire it. If God could inspire His Word, but has not been able to preserve it for us, intact, then He is not the Omnipotent God of Creation, but a mere imposter, posing and posturing in cheap imitation of the Almighty. That does not describe my great God and Savior! My God is able to do all that He has promised, without exception!

Section Three - Translation

We must now ask ourselves the question: Which Bible did God preserve for us who speak English? Which English language translation is the best, and why is one superior to the others? When studying Bible translation we must divide our study into three areas: 1. The text from which we are translating. 2. The translators that are doing the translation. 3. The technique, or rules that the translators use in producing the translation. Herein, or course, lies the controversy. Let's look deeper into the identity of the texts.

The Old Testament Texts. In 1516, Daniel Bomberg published a text of the Old Testament under the name "First Rabbinic Bible." This text was followed in 1524 by a second edition that had been compiled from ancient manuscripts by a Hebrew scholar and converted Jewish Rabbi named Abraham Ben Chayyim. Today this work is called the Ben Chayyim Masoretic Text, and is the text that underlies the Old Testament of the King James Bible. The word "masoretic" comes from the Hebrew word "mesor" meaning traditional. The Masoretes were the scribes that were given the responsibility of guarding and keeping the text of the Old Testament, and keep it well they surely did, as we shall soon see.

The Ben Chayyim Masoretic text was the uncontested text of the Old Testament for over four hundred years. The Ben Chayyim text was used in the first two editions of "Biblia Hebraica" by Rudolph Kittel, usually referred to as BHK, published in 1906 and 1912. However, in 1937, Kittel changed his Hebrew text from the Ben Chayyim to the Ben Asher text.

The Ben Asher text was based on a text call the Leningrad Manuscript (B19a; also called simply L), which was dated around 1008 A. D. Using the peculiar logic of that day, which believed that older must always be better, Kittel published his 1937 edition based on this "older" text. His 1937 edition had about 20,000 changes (most of them minor, vowel points, etc.,but changes nevertheless) from the Ben Chayyim text. Both texts are still referred to as "Masoretic," so care must be taken as to which text is being referred to. It had apparently not dawned on Kittel that the Ben Asher version was based on very few minor manuscripts similar to B19a, while the Ben Chayyim text followed the vast majority of the manuscripts available.

Why would Kittel throw out the evidence provided by the vast majority of manuscripts to follow only a small minority of texts? May I suggest, very carefully, that profit may have been the motive? Kittle had not published a major work for many, many years, he was growing older, funds for his retirement were low, and he was living in the rapidly fading glow of past glory. One final work would not only propel him back into the limelight of scholarly recognition, but would provide the funds for his impending retirement. He found a large and receptive market in the rapidly growing modernist camp that had grown to hate the traditional texts of both the Old and New Testaments.

In 1966 there was a further revision of Kittel's "Biblia Hebraica" called "Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia," which was also based on the "older" Ben Asher text. This new edition of Kittel is generally referred to as BHS. The revision was the work of unbelieving German rationalists, and represents theologically liberal modernism in its worst form. The 1937 BHK and the newer BHS are not only based on a few minor Hebrew manuscripts which contain many erroneous footnotes, but "corrections" were often made to these already inadequate and corrupt texts by referring to such things as the "Septuagint" or "LXX", which is nothing more than the Hebrew Scriptures translated into the Greek language.

The "Septuagint" is a poor translation at best of the Hebrew due mainly to the fact that it does not follow the verbal and formal rules of translation, but is largely a paraphrase, changing the wording wherever the translators desired, seeking to "clarify" the meaning of the original.

The Syriac Version. This was a version of both the Old and New Testaments translated into the Syriac language. The source language is in doubt, some insisting it was translated by Jews from the Hebrew, and others insisting it was translated by early Christians from the Greek.

The Latin Version was the complete Bible translated into Latin, portions of which may date to the second century A. D. Jerome is generally credited with the first complete Latin version, called the Latin Vulgate, or Jerome's Vulgate, which dates to the fourth century.

God's appointed guardians of the Old Testament Text were the Jews according to Romans 3:1-2, "What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there in circumcision? Much in every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God." The methods used by the Jews in fulfilling their responsibilities as the guardians of these sacred texts is an interesting study. There were eight rules that the Jewish copyists used in the copying of the texts:

1. The parchment must be made from the skin of a clean animal (clean meaning ceremonially clean according to the Old Testament sanitary laws); must be prepared by a Jew only, and the skins must be fastened together by strings taken from clean animals.

2. Each column must have no less than forty-eight, nor more than sixty lines. The entire copy must be first lined.

3. The ink must be of no other color than black, and it must be prepared according to a special recipe.

4. No word nor letter could be written from memory; the scribe must have an authentic copy before him, and he must read and pronounce aloud each word before writing it.

5. He must reverently wipe his pen each time before writing the word for "God" (Elohim), and he must wash his whole body before writing the name "Jehovah" (LORD in our King James Bibles), lest the Holy Name be contaminated.

6. Strict rules were given concerning forms of the letters, spaces between letters, words and sections, the use of the pen, the color of the parchment, etc.

7. The revision (to correct any errors) of a roll must be made within thirty days after the work was finished; otherwise it was worthless. One mistake on a sheet condemned the entire sheet. If three mistakes were found on any page, the entire manuscript was condemned.

8. Every word and every letter was counted, and if a letter was omitted, or if an extra letter was inserted, or if two letters touched one another, the manuscript was condemned and destroyed at once.

NOTE: H. S. Miller, writing in his book "General Biblical Introduction", says: "Some of these rules may appear extreme and absurd, yet they show how sacred the Holy Word of the Old Testament was to its custodians, the Jews, and they give us strong encouragement to believe that we have the real Old Testament, the same one that our Lord had and which was given by inspiration of God."

So then, our only choice is between the traditional Hebrew Masoretic Text that has been the standard text of the Old Testament for well over two thousand years, and is represented by the vast majority of the existing Old Testament manuscripts, or the new, modern text that has only a little minor manuscript support, and introduces errors into the text. The choice is obvious, only the Traditional (Ben Chayyim) Text can lay claim to uninterrupted use for all the generations from the time of David (Psalm 12) until now.

The New Testament Manuscripts

The Traditional Text

The Traditional text of the New Testament has existed from the time of Christ right down to the present. It has had many different names down through the years, such as Byzantine Text, Eastern Text, Received Text, Textus Receptus, Majority Text, and others. Although no complete Bible manuscripts have survived which would allow us to date the Traditional text to the first century, there is a strong witness to the early existence and use of the Traditional text by the early church in its lectionaries. These lectionaries were portions of the Scripture that were read in the churches on certain days.

Because modern printing technology had not yet been invented, many of the early Christians did not have personal copies of the Bible. It was a custom of the early church to read a portion of the Gospels, then a portion from the Epistles each day. This practice is similar to our reading a verse of Scripture from our daily devotional booklet, then starting the day in prayer, the only difference being, it was done in the church house rather than in your own house.

Nearly every lectionary in existence contains Traditional readings, attesting to the very early existence and use of the Traditional text. The early Baptist church, called "Waldensians" by their enemies, which can be dated to 120 A. D., was known to have quoted from the Traditional text in many of its writings.

Also, the vast majority of all existing manuscripts, somewhere around ninety percent, follow the Traditional text. The Greek Orthodox Church used, and still uses, the Traditional text, and they are experts in the Greek language, as it is their native tongue! (Allow me to say here that the attempt by some "scholars" to identify the Traditional Text as being merely the "liturgical text of the Greek Orthodox Church" is hypocritical at best, and deliberately deceptive at worst. Such a pathetically weak attempt to attach the word "liturgical" to the Traditional Text is sophomoric and moronic. It would be like saying the King James Bible is merely the liturgical text of the Anglican Church simply because it was used exclusively by them for over three hundred years.

If such condemnation by association is valid, then the Revised Version (which they love so much) is the liturgical text of the Presbyterian Church, the New American Standard Version (which they also seem to love), and the New International Version are the liturgical texts of the New Evangelical Church, and the Living Bible is the liturgical text of the Charismatic Church. Such deliberately deceptive statements have no place in an honest inquiry into the true identity of the preserved text of the Holy Scriptures!)

The earliest translations of the Greek text into a foreign language produced versions that follow the traditional text.

The Syriac Peshitta, which I mentioned earlier, bears such strong witness to the antiquity of the Traditional text of the New Testament, the early proponents of the Critical Text had to get it out of the second and third centuries (100-300 A. D.), where it has been historically agreed to have been produced, and make it appear as if it were of later origin. J. A. Hort theorized a late revision to account for it, and F. C. Burkitt went even farther than Hort and specified Rabbula, Bishop of Edessa (411-435 A. D.) as the author of the revision!

The complete absence of even one shred of evidence to support any part of this theory has very conveniently been ignored by the proponents of the Critical text. The true evidence of course points in exactly the opposite direction, namely that Rabbula himself used the Older Syriac text in his earliest writings! Additional strong evidence against this poorly constructed fraud of a theory is found in the fact that one of the early sects, called the Nestorians, used the Peshitta extensively and thought of it as the authoritative Word of God. This would be unthinkable if the Peshitta were the work of Rabbula, who was a great adversary of the Nestorians and openly denounced them as heretics!

I seriously doubt they would consider any of their greatest enemy's work as being authoritative! The Italic church in northern Italy in 157 A. D. was known to use a version based on the Traditional text, and the Gallic Church in what is now southern France was known to have used a Gallic version in 177 that followed the Traditional text. The Gothic Version of the fourth century (300-400 A. D.) was also based upon the Traditional text.

The Old Latin texts were texts that were translated into the Latin language, not only in North Africa, but also in the East, possibly even in Antioch. These Old Latin translations, going back in their earliest form to about the middle of the second century (150 A. D.), are very early witnesses to the Greek text from which they were translated. They are very literal translations, and the fact that they are often quoted by the church fathers of these areas, enables us to see which Greek text was generally in use in that area at that time. The vast majority of these Old Latin versions follow, in almost word-for-word format, the Traditional text.

Churches all down through the ages have used the Traditional text. The churches of the reformation period all used versions based on the Traditional text. Martin Luther's German Bible was based on the Traditional text. The French version of Oliveton was based on the Traditional text. The Czech Version and the Italian version of Diodati were based on the Traditional text. All of the early English versions including William Tyndale's Bible, The Coverdale Bible, The Matthews Bible, the Taverners Bible, The Great Bible, The Geneva Bible, and the Bishops' Bible were all based on the Traditional text.

When the Roman Catholic cleric Jerome was commissioned by the Bishop of Rome to produce a new Latin version, he wrote a letter in 383 A. D. to the person commissioning the translation stating: "Thou compellest me to make a new work out of an old so that after so many copies of the Scriptures have been dispersed throughout the whole world I am as it were to occupy the post of arbiter, and seeing they differ from one another am to determine which of them are in agreement with the original Greek.

If they maintain that confidence is to be reposed in the Latin exemplars, let them answer which, for there are almost as many copies of the translations as manuscripts. But if the truth is to be sought from the majority, why not rather go back to the Greek original, and correct the blunders which have been made by incompetent translators, made worse rather then better by the presumption of unskillful correctors, and added to or altered by careless scribes."

It was Jerome's contention that in his day a number of manuscripts existed that had been "altered, " "corrected," and otherwise corrupted by "careless scribes" and "incompetent translators," and the only way to insure the new Latin translation was to be accurate was to allow him to go to the majority of the Greek manuscripts that were in common usage in his time. Unfortunately, has Roman masters did not allow him to do so, and his Vulgate was simply a revision of the already existing corrupt Latin versions.

The Greek manuscripts. There are at present about 5,255 manuscripts of the New Testament in existence, and approximately 90% of those manuscripts follow the Traditional text. Let's take a closer look at these manuscripts to see what they are.

1. The Papyrus fragments are small pieces of papyrus, which is a type of paper made from the papyrus plant which grows in Egypt. This paper is very brittle, and crumbles easily when handled. Most of these fragments are broken pieces with a few verses on them. The oldest existing manuscripts are these papyrus fragments, or papyri. These manuscripts date from the second century (100-200) A. D., to the seventh century (600-700).

Frequently the earliest papyri support the distinctive Traditional readings. These Traditional readings caused a problem for those who hold to the Critical text, providing a strong witness for the early existence of the Traditional text. One of the oldest, the fragment called P66, which dates to the second century (100-200) A. D., gives strong support for the Traditional text in over 25% of its readings, thus destroying the theory of the proponents of the Critical text that states the Traditional text did not originate until the mid- fourth century (350 A. D.). However, care should be taken not to overstate the evidence of the papyri as they will often side with the Critical text against the Traditional text.

2. The Uncials are Greek manuscripts that are written in all capital letters. These uncials or majuscules as they are sometimes called have no punctuation or spaces between the letters. As of this writing there are 274 uncials dating from between the third century (200-300 A. D.) to the tenth century (900-1000 A. D.). Over 85% of the readings from these uncials follow the Traditional text.

3. The Cursives, sometimes called minuscules, are Greek manuscripts written in what we would call "longhand", or cursive writing. During the ninth century (800-900 A. D.) the scribes who were responsible for the copying of the New Testament abandoned the uncial (all capital letters) script in favor of the small-lettered cursive (minuscule) script. There are about 2800 of these cursive manuscripts, and the overwhelming majority of these (90%) side with the Traditional text.

The textual implication of this change of writing style has often been overlooked in the textual debate. Jakob van Braggen says: "It is assumed that after this transliteration process the majuscule was taken out of circulation.... The import of this datum has not been taken into account enough in the present New Testament textual criticism, for it implies, that just the oldest, best, and most customary manuscripts come to us in the new uniform (cursive style)." (From "The Ancient Text of the New Testament", pages 26, 27; as cited in "The Identity of the New Testament Text," Wilbur Pickering, Nelson Publishing Company, 1980, page 131.)

It seems only logical and reasonable to understand that the scribes of the ninth century would be in a better position to decide on what constitutes the "oldest and best" manuscripts then the textual critics of the twentieth century! Why, during this period of change-over from the uncial to cursive style, did the scribes decisively reject the Critical text in favor of the Traditional text, if they did not realize the Traditional text represented the best readings available. It becomes obvious to any honest researcher that the scribes of the ninth century knew the Traditional text was the inspired, inerrant, preserved text of the New Testament Scriptures!

4. The Lectionaries. The word lection means "to read," and the Lectionaries were portions of Scripture that were read in the churches on certain days. Of the 2,143 Lectionaries, every one attests to the Traditional text. 100% of the evidence from the Lectionaries supports the Traditional text as being the text used by the early churches.

What about the other texts of the New Testament? It is generally agreed among textual critics that accept the "critical" viewpoint that there are four basic types of texts represented in the manuscript evidence. However, upon closer careful examination, we find that the evidence for the existence of these so- called "text types" is very thin, if not non-existent! Although J. A. Hort claimed the results of his genealogical evidence proved to an absolute certainty that the manuscripts could be grouped into four basic "families" or "types," it is now clear to the careful researcher that Mr. Hort's "results" were either wishful thinking at best, or pure fabrication at worst.

How could there be a "result" if his method for gathering of genealogical evidence was never applied to the manuscripts? Yet, Hort's "results" have been accepted as fact by many of the so-called textual scholars of today, without the slightest thought being given to his rules of evidence, and the non-application of those rules to the manuscripts! M. M. Parvis, in his article "The Nature and Task of New Testament Textual Criticism," (The Journal of Religion, XXXII, 1952, page 173) states. "We have reconstructed text-types and families and sub- families and in so doing have created things that never before existed on earth or in heaven. We have assumed that manuscripts reproduced themselves according to the Mendelian law. But when we have found that a particular manuscript would not fit into any of our nicely constructed schemes, we have thrown up our hands and said that it contained a 'mixed text'."

Bruce Metzgar (no friend to the Traditional text) stated in his book Chapters in the History of New Testament Textual Criticism, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1963, page 67) the "Caesarean" text-type is disintegrating. By this he did not mean the material upon which the text was written was crumbling, but rather, the concept of a "Caesarean text-type" was itself now largely understood to have been a false assumption.

He went on to ask: "Was there a fundamental flaw in the previous investigation which tolerated so erroneous a grouping?" The evidence says there is indeed a fundamental flaw in the theory concerning the existence of "text-types." Those men who have done the most extensive collating of manuscripts, as a rule, have not accepted the idea of such groups or families. Let's look at the so-called "text-types" themselves and see what we can discover.

1. The Western Text is now generally agreed, even among the proponents of the Critical Text, to have been the result of the over-active imagination of Hermann von Soden, and did not, in fact, ever exist.

2. The Caesarean Text, as we have already seen, is now understood to have been based on less than ideal scholarship.

3. The Alexandrian Text. E. C. Colwell, in his article entitled "The Significance of Grouping of New Testament Manuscripts," (New Testament Studies IV, 1957-1958, pages 86, 88) stated, "After a careful study of all alleged Beta Text-type (Alexandrian) witnesses in the first chapter of Mark, six Greek manuscripts emerged as primary witnesses: Aleph, B, L, 33, 892, and 2427. Therefore, the weaker Beta manuscripts C, delta, 157, 517, 579, 1241, and 1342 were set aside. Then on the basis of the six primary witnesses an "average," or mean, text was reconstructed including all the readings supported by the majority of the primary witnesses.

Even on this restricted basis the amount of variation recorded in the apparatus was dismaying. In this first chapter, each of the six witnesses differed from the "average" Beta Text-type as follows: L, nineteen times (Wescott and Hort twenty-one times); Aleph, twenty-six times; 2427, thirty-two times; 33, thirty-three times; B, thirty-four times; and 892, forty-one times. These results show convincingly any attempt to reconstruct an archetype of the Beta text-type on a quantitative basis is doomed to failure. The text thus reconstructed is not reconstructed but constructed; it is an artificial entity that never existed."

So then we now see that it is generally agreed, even among those who hold to the Critical text position, that the so-called "text-types" were (1) the result of over-active imaginations, (2) the result of very poor scholarship, and (3) the result of constructing an artificial entity that never existed! There are only two types of texts, the correct text, and the corrupt text! The overwhelming majority of the evidence indicates the correct text is best represented by the Traditional text that has been preserved by God, and all others represent the corrupt, heretical text that has been decimated by the attacks of Satan and his unbelieving hoards.

The Guardians of the New Testament

Just as God appointed the Jews to be the guardians of the Old Testament, so also He has appointed guardians of the New Testament. In 1 Timothy 3:14, 15, the Bible says, "These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: 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", and in John 17:17, the Lord Jesus Christ identifies what exactly that truth is, "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth." The Bible clearly teaches that the local church is the pillar and ground of the truth, and that the truth is the Word of God.

Therefore, the local church is the pillar and ground, the guardian, of the Word of God, the Bible. Unfortunately, in this modern age when even so-called fundamentalists have adopted the methodology of the New Evangelicals, and do not practice the primacy of the local church, the God- given guardianship of the Bible has passed by default to the so-called scholars in the Colleges and Seminaries that are not under the authority of the local church, or the leader of the local church, the God-called, God- gifted, and God-ordained pastor! These men may be members of a good local church, but their work done in the schools is not under their pastor's authority and control, and these so-called scholars have usurped the responsibility and authority away from the God-ordained repository of the truth of His Word, the local church.

When we look at the gifts that the Lord has given to the local church for the work of the ministry and the edifying of the body of Christ, we see in Ephesians 4:11-12, "And he gave some, apostles; and some prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." There are a couple of things I would like to point out here.

First, the gifts of these specially equipped men is given to the local church, for the work of the local church ministry, and for the building up of the local church. Nowhere is the so-called para-church organization, or College, or Seminary mentioned, and nowhere is the "Scholar" mentioned as a specially equipped man who has been given the guardianship of the oracles of God!

Second, when you read the description of the last specially gifted man who is given to the local church for its benefit, you will see that man is called a pastor/teacher. There is no semicolon between pastor and teacher, as there is between all of the other titles, because it is all one gift, vested in one man.

Therefore the scholars may not usurp the title "teacher" in this context unless they are also bearers of the title and office of pastor. I am of the opinion that we must guard very carefully the office and title of pastor. I have heard camp directors and nursing home chaplains referred to as "pastor" so-and-so. A pastor is a pastor only if he is the shepherd of a flock of born-again, baptized believers, organized, and assembled together, having the ordinances, and officers of a true New Testament Church. In reference to that term "scholar", don't get me wrong, I have no problem with scholarly thinking.

The men that I studied under, Dr. Richard V. Clearwaters, and Dr. George W. Dollar were, and still are, two of the most scholarly men who have ever lived. Dr. Dollar is, in my opinion, the worlds foremost expert on Church History, especially as it pertains to fundamentalism in America. However, both of these good and Godly men also held the office of pastor. Dr. Clearwaters was pastor of Fourth Baptist Church in Minneapolis for over forty years, and Dr. Dollar was co- pastor of that same great church during his entire tenure at Central Baptist Seminary. The "scholar" that I am referring to is the man who does not hold the office of pastor, but usurps the duties of that office, and often looks down upon the mere pastor from the lofty heights of academia, thanking God he is not like other men, such as this lowly pastor!

Getting back to our subject, we see that the preponderance of the evidence clearly points to the antiquity and superiority of the Traditional Hebrew and Greek texts. These Traditional texts are the only texts that have been in uninterrupted use from the time of the close of the canon of Scripture (about 100 A. D.) until the present, thus fulfilling the requirement of being "preserved" for every generation.

Why is it, then, that so many otherwise good pastors do not take the Traditional text position? I believe there are two reasons for this. The first is ignorance. Many pastors have been educated in the Critical text position in Bible College and Seminary, and almost every College and Seminary in the country has been infected with the Modernist position that the Scriptures are somehow less than God says they are. Almost every school today has bowed the knee to a Modernistic Baal in the area of Manuscript Evidence, and joined hands with the enemy of our souls in his attempt to continue asking his lying question "Yea, hath God said?"

These deceived men have accepted all that they have been taught as if it were the Gospel itself. They may have heard of the other position, but have not given it any serious thought, nor have they investigated for themselves to find the truth. They have put their faith in their College and Seminary professors, and that is that! The second reason is less wide spread, but much worse. There are men who are aware of the other position, and even have much of the evidence available to them, but because of their pig-headed stubbornness and sinful pride they are incapable of admitting that they may have been wrong. There are none so blind as they who will not see.

So, we may conclude, based upon the evidence, that any translation, in order to be a correct and accurate rendering of the inspired words of God must be based on the Traditional texts of the Old and New Testament, which brings me to my next point.

The Translators. The King James Bible was not translated by any one man, or even by one group of men, but by six groups, or committees, meeting in the cities of Cambridge, Westminster, and Oxford, England. These men began their work in 1604 and completed it in 1611. In the cities of Westminster and Oxford there was one committee on the New Testament in each city. In Cambridge there was a committee on the Old Testament and one for the Apocrypha.

Yes, the original committee for the translation of the King James Bible included the Apocrypha, however, the translators did not believe the Apocrypha was inspired, but translated these non-canonical books because of their historical significance. These six committees were made up of fifty- seven men altogether, each committee having about ten men on it. I believe these fifty-seven men were superior to any man or committee of men that has translated any Bible since the translation of the King James Bible. By way of illustration let's look at the qualifications of just a few of these great men:

Dr. John Hardinge headed up the Oxford Group. Dr. Hardinge was Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford.

Dr. John Reynolds, the originator of the translation project, who presented the idea to the commission appointed by King James to study divisions in the Church of England, died before the Authorized Version was published.

Dr. Richard Brett was one of the world's foremost experts in Latin, Greek, Chaldee, Arabic and Ethioptic languages.

Dr. John Harmer, Professor of Greek at Oxford was a noted linguist having mastered not only Greek, but Latin and Hebrew as well.

Dr. Edward Lively, Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, died in 1605 before the work was truly begun.

Dr. Lawrence Chaderton was skilled in Greek and Hebrew, and a student of the ancient Jewish writings called "The Rabbis ."

Dr. Thomas Harrison was noted for his skill in Hebrew and Greek idioms.

Dr. Robert Spalding, successor to Dr. Lively as Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge.

Dr. Lancelot Andrews was selected to work on the Old Testament at Westminster, and worked on twelve books, Genesis to 2 Kings. Dr. Andrews spoke almost all of the languages spoken in Europe in the seventeenth century. He majored in language at Cambridge University, especially studying the Oriental tongues. Dr. Andrews is said to have been completely fluent in fifteen languages, and had his private devotions in the Greek New Testament, and kept a journal of his devotions written entirely in Greek.

Dr. William Bedwell was also selected to work on the Old Testament at Westminster, working on the same books as Dr. Andrews. Dr. Bedwell was not only fluent in Hebrew and other Oriental languages, but produced a translation of the Epistles of John in Arabic and Latin. He also wrote an entire Arabic dictionary by himself! At the time of his death Dr. Bedwell was working on a Persian dictionary which is still in the Bodlian Library at Oxford. Dr. Bedwell's knowledge of the Shemitic and Cognate languages of Hebrew, Persian, Arabic, Syriac, Aramaic, and Coptic made him an uncontestable expert on the translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into English.

Dr. Miles Smith was in the Old Testament group meeting at Oxford, and was selected to translate the books from Isaiah through Malachi. Dr. Smith was so familiar with the Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic languages that they were as familiar to him as his native English.

Dr. Henry Savile was selected to work with the group that was to translate the New Testament at Oxford. He was chosen to translate the Gospels, the Book of Acts, and the Revelation. Dr. Savile was said to be as great a mathematician as he was a Greek scholar. He was chosen to tutor Queen Elizabeth in both mathematics and Greek. Dr. Savile was not only famous for his translation of the great history of Tacitus from Latin into English, but also translated the mathematical work of Euclid on geometry from Greek into English. However, Dr. Savile was most famous for his editing and translating of the complete works of John Chrysostom, one of the most famous of the early Greek church fathers, from the Greek into English. This was a work similar in size to eight very large dictionaries!

Dr. John Bois was a New Testament translator at Cambridge. At the age of five he had read the entire Bible in Hebrew. At the age of six he could write the Hebrew language in "a fair and elegant" hand. He was equally skilled in Greek. He was one of the twelve, two from each committee, who were sent to make the final revision at Stationer's Hall in London. On top of all of his other duties, he was the secretary for the final revision committee, taking notes on all of the meetings. It is largely through his notes that we have knowledge of the inner workings of the committee in this day and age.

The above cited men were of such stature that they cannot be equaled today. Our system of education is not nearly as thorough as was the educational system that produced these great men. There is not a single translator of any modern version that can even come close to the stature of these great men. Our King James Bible is superior to all others not only because it is translated from superior texts, but because it was translated by superior translators.

Their Superior Technique. It is important to understand that the King James Bible was translated quite differently from the other English versions that are on sale today. Here is a brief overview of the technique used to translate our English Bible.

Team Effort. Each translator had to translate all of the books assigned to his group by himself, then all of the translators from the group would meet together to discuss which of the translations was best. After all of the committee, working together, had decided which translation was the best, a copy of the translation of the book would be sent to one of the other cities where another committee was working, and they would meet and review the other committees' translation, while the first committee was reviewing the second committee's translation.

This process would continue until all six committees had reviewed every book that had been translated. Then the book would be reviewed again by the committee of twelve, two from each of the six committees. If they found any problems, they would send word to the committee responsible for the translation, and their reasons for translating the problem passage in that way would be reviewed. In the end, all of the people on all of the committees would have to be in total agreement before the translation was considered to be complete, and they would go on to the next book! Such a painstaking team effort is unheard of today, which probably explains why there is so much disagreement as to the proper translation of the Bible today. There is almost a "Bible of the Month" club, bringing out some "new," "better," and "easier" version before the last one has had a chance to be read.

Verbal Equivalence. The King James Bible Translators used a translation technique that is known as "verbal and formal equivalence." This simply means that when a word was to be translated, the translator would find the "verbal equivalent" in English. This does not imply that the King James Bible is always a "word-for-word" translation, for there are many Greek words that cannot be accurately translated into one English word. Sometimes it takes two, three, four, and even five English words to give us the proper meaning of the single Greek or Hebrew word being translated.

A perfect example of this is found in 2 Timothy 3:16, where one Greek word theopneustos is translated using five English words, "given by inspiration of God." Many of the so-called "scholars" love to point out that the "correct" translation of this word is "God-breathed." WRONG! The correct translation is "given by inspiration of God!" The term "God-breathed" is not action specific. In other words, when you read "God-breathed" it doesn't tell you anything about the action. "God breathed His Word" gives us very little information. Did God breath out, or in? And how did God breathing affect His Word?

But when you read "given by inspiration of God," you realize that God has breathed into His Word the breath of life, making the Word of God a living thing! Everything that God breathes the breath of life into becomes an eternally living entity. When God breathed into Adam (mankind in federal headship) he became an eternally living entity (every person that was ever born is alive today, somewhere!). So also with His Word. You can see then that the term "God-breathed" focuses our attention on God, when He, in this context, wants us to focus our attention on His Word, thus the correct translation "given by inspiration of God!"

Formal Equivalence means that when a word is translated from the Greek into English, the form of the word must be carried into the new language. In other words, if the Greek word is a noun, the English word must take the same form, that is, a noun. If the Greek word is a verb, the English word must be a verb. If the Greek word is a pronoun, the English word must be a pronoun, and so on.

Also, implicit in formal equivalence is the number of the word, such as singular or plural. If the Greek is singular, then the English must also be singular, if plural, the translation must also be plural. Past tense must always be translated as past tense, future tense as future, perfect tense as perfect, and so on. There is a fellow in Los Angeles who has circulated a tape in which he claims that the word "is" in 2 Timothy 3:16 is in italics, and therefore has no support in the Greek, and it is perfectly alright to change it to "was."

According to this fellow's less then brilliant deduction, the passage should read "All scripture "was" given by inspiration of God." He doesn't believe the Bible which we have today is inspired. He must think it has expired. The problem with this fellow is that he doesn't have a clue about the Greek language. The reason the King James Translators added the word "is" keeping the passage in question in the present tense (as is the Greek), is that they understood that everything that God breathes into is eternal. You will notice that the second "is" before the word "profitable" is also in italics. Does anyone in their right mind suggest we change this word to "was", indicating the Scriptures are no longer profitable? All Scripture is inspired, and all Scripture is profitable.

None of the modern English versions follow this verbal and formal rule of translation, but rather use a system of translation they refer to as Dynamic Equivalence. Dynamic is a word that means moving, or changing. The idea behind Dynamic Equivalence is that the modern translators feel free to change the words that God inspired anytime they feel like it to produce a "better" translation. If the translators feel like changing a noun to a pronoun, they just do it.

If they feel like changing a word from singular to plural, they just do it. If they feel like changing an article from definite to indefinite, they just do it. They add to, subtract from, and change the words to "better preserve the idea, or meaning, or sense, or concept of the original", while ignoring the words that the Holy God of Heaven has inspired. Did God say that His ideas, or meaning, or sense, or concepts were inspired, or did he say that His words were inspired? I believe His words are inspired, and no man can presume to change the words of God with impunity.

Our present day English Bible, the Authorized Version, is the culmination of over seven hundred years of refinement and purification (Psalm 12:6; 19:8). The first known Word of God in English was the Lindisfarne Gospels dating to about 700 A.D. These were in Latin with an Anglo-Saxon interlinear translation added about 950 A.D. In about 1000 A.D., Aelfric translated a condensed version of the first seven books of the Old Testament. However, due to the Norman invasion in 1066, French became the dominant language of England, and the Anglo-Saxon tongue became obsolete. In the fourteenth century, English was again dominant, and by the fifteenth century French had almost disappeared.

In about 1300 the Ormulum appeared, translated by Orm, an Augustinian monk. This work was originally the Gospels, but later Genesis and Exodus were translated into English.

About the same time, Richard Rolle translated the Psalms into Early Middle English, of which 170 manuscripts still survive.

John Wycliffe (1330-1384) was the first known translator of the entire Bible into English. His first translation was published in about 1400, and a later edition, revised by John Purvey, appeared at a somewhat later time.

Tyndale, born in 1494, translated the Bible out of the Greek and Hebrew and published a New Testament in 1525, based on the first printed Greek New Testament, published by Erasmus in 1516. Tyndale was betrayed by a friend, and was martyred on October 6, 1536, for the crime of giving the people the Word of God in their own language. It has been claimed that as much as eighty percent of the King James Bible is taken from the Tyndale Bible, and thus he has been called the Father of the English Bible.

The ecclesiastical authorities hated this Bible so much that only a small fragment of the 1525 edition still exists, in the British Museum, and only two copies of the second edition, published in 1533 are known to exist today. All the rest were burned by the ecclesiastical authorities of that dark day. Myles Coverdale published a work called "The First Complete Bible to be Printed in the English Tongue" in about 1535. This was mostly based on Tyndale's work, with Martin Luther's German translation used for comparison. This work also contains some corruptions from the Latin Vulgate.

In 1537 a Bible was published with a title page suggesting that the translator was Thomas Matthew. The publisher is now known to have been John Rogers, who was an associate of Tyndale, and much of the work had probably been done by Tyndale prior to his death, and the balance was done by John Rogers working from Tyndale's notes. Later editions in 1540 and 1541 contained a preface by Archbishop Cranmer and became know as the Cranmer Bible.

Coverdale revised the Matthew Bible into what became known as the Great Bible, due to its large size (9 by 15 inches). This Bible was used in most Anglican churches from about 1538 until it went out of print in 1569. Ironically, this Great Bible was widely received, while at the same time John Rogers (Thomas Matthews) was imprisoned and later martyred (in 1555). It was through this Matthew's - Cranmer - Great Bible (all of which was just a republication of Tyndale's 1535 edition) that the most influence was exerted on future English versions.

During the reign of Catholic Queen Mary (1553-1558) no Bible was printed in England, but a group of men in Geneva, Switzerland, produced an English version called The Geneva Bible in 1560, with a second edition published in 1562. The New Testament was edited by William Whittingham, who was married to John Calvin's sister. Calvin wrote an introduction to this work. The Geneva Bible was the Bible used by Shakespeare, John Bunyan, Oliver Cromwell, and which was carried to America by the Puritans. Called "The People's Bible", it was pre-eminent among English Bibles for seventy-five years. From 1560 until 1644, 140 editions were published. The first Bible printed in Scotland, and used to start the Scottish Revivals under John Knox, was the Geneva Bible. The verse divisions of Roberre Estienne (also called Robert Stevens and Stefanus), originally employed in his Greek New Testament of 1551, were used in the Geneva Bible.

The popularity of the Geneva Bible motivated the ecclesiastical authorities of the Church of England, after the crowning of Queen Elizabeth, to publish a Bible which could enjoy the authority of the Church of England. Archbishop Parker appointed a committee to work on the new version. This committee was to use the Great Bible as their starting point, and were to compare it to the Greek and Hebrew. Unfortunately, these men were not of the caliber of those who had produced the Geneva Bible. Their finished product was called The Bishop's Bible, and contained very few changes from the earlier work, relying heavily on the Great Bible, and the Geneva Bible, which were, of course, the Tyndale Bible published under other names. Nineteen editions were printed from 1568 until 1606.

The next, and last, Bible of real importance was now ready to arrive on the scene, The Authorized Version of 1611, which we have already dealt with. As you can see, the English Bible has been the product of over seven hundred years of preparation, purification, and publication.

Conclusion. The Bible itself teaches that it is the Words of God that are inspired, and not just the thoughts, ideas, and concepts, as the proponents of the Critical text argue. Those inspired words have been preserved by God in the Traditional Hebrew and Greeks texts, and those superior texts have been translated by superior men using superior techniques to give us an inspired, inerrant, infallible Bible. The unfortunate conclusion we are forced to come to is that the proponents of the Critical text do so due to the influence of Modernists, and Modernistic thinkers and educators in the Colleges, Seminaries, and Bible schools where these men received their educations.

The Bible debate is not new. It is the latest battle in the continuing war between the Modernists and the Fundamentalists, and the sooner we identify the enemy, who will snatch away our Bibles, the sooner our erring brothers will become aware of the fact that they have come under the influence of the malignant spirit of Modernism and take the necessary steps to cleanse their minds, hearts, and pulpits of the poison that is destroying otherwise good men everywhere we look. We as Baptists believe the Bible is the very foundation of our faith.

It is the Bible that tells us of Jesus, our Saviour.

It is the Bible that tells us of heaven, our eternal home.

It is the Bible that tells us of the unquenchable fire of hell, reserved for all those who die without Christ.

It is the Bible that tells us of the coming time of great tribulation, and of the coming glorious Millennial Kingdom.

If we lose our Bibles, we lose all of these great doctrines of our faith. If we begin to doubt the absolute trustworthiness of our Bibles, we will begin to doubt all of the doctrines taught therein. We must guard our Bibles. We must be defenders of the faith. If not, we will surely forfeit everything we hold most dear.

As David asked, "Is there not a cause?"

Think about it.

REFERENCE BIBLIOGRAPHY

Burgon, John W., "The Last Twelve Verses of Mark," Grand Rapids: Associated Publishers and Authors, Inc., no date.

_____________, "The Revision Revised," Collingswood, N. J.: The Bible for Today, 1981.

Cloud, David W., "Myths About the King James Bible," Oak Harbor, WA: Way of Life Literature, 1986. 1219 North Harns Road, Oak Harbor, WA 98277

Coats, Daryl R. "Baptist Dippers, and Immersers", Unpublished paper: Cody, WY, 1981.

Colwell, E. C., "The Significance of Grouping of New Testament Manuscripts," New Testament Studies, IV, 1957-1958.

Custer, Stewart, "The Truth About The King James Version Controversy," Greenville: Bob Jones University Press, Inc., 1981.

Dollar, George W., "A History of Fundamentalism in America," Published by the Author, 612 Peacock Trail, Haines City, FL 33844, 1983.

______________, "The Fight for Fundamentalism," Published by the Author, 612 Peacock Trail, Haines City, FL 33844, 1983.

Fuller, David Otis, "Counterfeit or Genuine: Mark 16? John 8?" Grand Rapids: Grand Rapids International Publications, 1975.

_____________, "Which Bible," Grand Rapids: Grand Rapids International Publications, 1970.

Gipp, Samuel C., "The Answer Book," Shelbyville, TN: Bible and Literature Missionary Foundation, 1989.

_____________, "An Understandable History of the Bible," Pottstown, PA: Bible Believers Press, 1987.

Hills, Edward F, "Believing Bible Study," Junction City, Oregon: Eye Opener Publishers, 1967.

____________, "The King James Version Defended," Des Moines: The Christian Research Press, 1956.

Jackson, Harry D., "A Comparison of Several Verses of Critical Importance," Unpublished Chart, Rochester, NY: 1973.

_____________, "Biblical Authority, The Rock Upon Which We Stand," Fairfield, CA: Calvary Baptist Church, 1992.

Madden, D. K., "A Critical Examination of The New American Standard Bible," Sandy Bay, Tasmania, Australia: 1975.

Massey, Homer, "Where is the Word of God Today: A Look at the Kings James Version Controversy," Virginia Beach: Tabernacle Baptist Press, 1981.

Metzgar, Bruce, "Chapters in the History of New Testament Textual Criticism," Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1963.

Moser, M. L., Jr., "A Critique of the Living Bible," Little Rock: The Challenge Press, 1973.

Paisley, Ian R. K., "The New English Bible: Version or Perversion?", Belfast: Martyrs Memorial Free Presbyterian Church, no date.

Parvis, M. M., "The Nature and Task of New Testament Textual Criticism," The Journal of Religion, XXXII, 1952.

Pickering, Wilber, "The Identity of the New Testament Text," Nelson Publishing Company, 1980.

Ray, John J., "God Only Wrote One Bible," Eugene, Oregon: Eye Opener Publishers, 1955.

Strong, James, "A Concise Dictionary of the Words of the Hebrew Bible," New York, Nashville: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1980.

Strouse, Thomas M., "Gnosticism and the New Testament Text", Virginia Beach, VA, Tabernacle Baptist Press, no date.

Waite, D. A., "The Theological Heresies of Westcott and Hort," Collingswood: The Bible for Today, 1979.

Whitehead, John W., "The New Tyranny; the Ominous Threat of State Authority Over the Church," No City, No Publisher, 1982.

<<Back to Articles Page