A Detailed History Of The Bible (And The King James Version)

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(Christian Study Topics)

WHAT IS THE BIBLE?

The word Bible is derived from the Greek word “biblos”. It means “a sheet or scroll of writing; book”. The Bible was given this name because it is the book of God’s Words to us. The Bible is also sometimes called Scripture, a word meaning “something written” (inspired by God).

The Bible is like a library of 66 books put together into one big book. But all the books within the Bible talk about the same subject: God’s message to us. The Bible tells us about God, shows us God’s mighty acts in the lives of His people, and describes how people responded to God. From the Bible we learn what God is like and what He expects of us.

HOW THE BIBLE WAS WRITTEN?

It took about 1,500 years for the whole Bible to be written – from Genesis, written at the time of Moses, to Revelation, written by the apostle John about 65 years after Jesus’ death. The Bible was written by about 40 different authors, that lived at different times and in different places. Yet not one of these writers contradicts another. God guided them so that they wrote in their own words what He wanted them to say. This means that the Bible is a completely dependable and trustworthy book. We can believe everything it says because it comes from God.

THE OLD TESTAMENT

The Bible has two major parts – the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is a collection of 39 books. Both Jews and Christians accept these books as Scripture. The Old Testament starts with the creation of the universe and of the human race. Then it continues with the history of God’s chosen people – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants, whom God formed into the nation of Israel.

In the Old Testament God begins to show His plan for saving people from sin. Through His prophets He promised many times to send the Messiah, the savior of sinners.

THE NEW TESTAMENT

The New Testament is made up of 27 books accepted by Christians as Scripture. It tells about the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and about the beginning of the Christian church. It describes the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It explains why He died, and it teaches us how we can be saved from sin.

DESCRIPTION OF THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE

THE OLD TESTAMENT

  • Genesis
    This book describes creation, the first rebellions against God, and God’s choosing of Abraham and his family as God’s people – the Israelites.
  • Exodus
    God rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and led them to the wilderness of Sinai (Exodus 19:1). There, he gave Moses the laws to govern the new nation.
  • Leviticus
    God set up laws for the Israelites. Many of the laws were about being holy and worshiping God.
  • Numbers
    Because of their rebellion and disobedience, the Israelites had to wander in a wilderness for 40 years before entering the promised land.
  • Deuteronomy
    Just before his death, Moses made three emotional farewell speeches, recalling the history of the Israelites and warning them about making more mistakes.
  • Joshua
    After Moses’ death, Joshua commanded the armies that conquered much of the territory in the promised land of Canaan.
  • Judges
    The new nation had a series of failures. God established leaders called “judges” to help rule the people and bring them back to God.
  • Ruth
    This story of love and loyalty between two widows shines out brightly in an otherwise dark period of time.
  • I Samuel
    Samuel became a leader between the time of the judges and the time of the kings. He appointed Israel’s first king, Saul. After his own failure, Saul tried to prevent God’s next king, David, from taking the throne.
  • II Samuel
    David, a man after God’s own heart, brought the nation together. But after committing adultery and murder, he suffered family and national failures.
  • I Kings
    Solomon became the next king. At his death, a civil war tore apart the nation. Later kings were mostly bad. The prophet Elijah had dramatic confrontations with evil King Ahab.
  • II Kings
    This book continues the record of the rulers of the divided kingdom. None of the northern kings followed God the way he wanted, and eventually Israel was destroyed by another nation. The southern kingdom of Judah lasted much longer, but finally Babylon conquered Judah and took away the people.
  • I Chronicles
    This book opens with the most complete genealogical record in the Bible, then adds many events from the life of David (often the same as those in II Samuel).
  • II Chronicles
    Often telling similar things as the books of I and II Kings, this book records the history of the rulers of Judah, emphasizing the good kings.
  • Ezra
    After being held captive in Babylon for decades, the Jews were allowed to return to their homeland. Ezra, a priest, helped lead the people as they rebuilt the city.
  • Nehemiah
    Nehemiah returned from the Babylonian captivity after the temple had been rebuilt. He concentrated on restoring the protective wall around Jerusalem and joined Ezra in leading a religious revival.
  • Esther
    this story is set among captive Jews in Persia. A courageous Jewish queen stopped a plan to exterminate her people.
  • Job
    Job, a good man, suffered great personal tragedy. The entire book deals with the question, “Why do people Suffer?”
  • Psalms
    These prayers and hymns cover the full range of human emotion. Together, they represent a personal model of how to relate to God. Some were also used in public worship services.
  • Proverbs
    The proverbs offer advice on many areas of life. Wise living is described here as leading to a fulfilled life.
  • Ecclesiastes
    this book reminds us that a life without God leads to meaninglessness and despair.
  • Song Of Solomon
    This beautiful poem celebrates romantic love and can be seen as an example of how God loves us.
  • Isaiah
    Isaiah looked at the failures of all the nations around him and pointed to a future Messiah (Jesus) who would bring peace for the people of Israel.
  • Jeremiah
    Jeremiah had many bad things happen to him, yet he held to his stern message that the people needed to turn back to God. He spoke to Judah in the last decades before Babylon destroyed the nation.
  • Lamentations
    All Jeremiah’s warnings about Jerusalem came true, and Lamentations records five poems of sorrow for the fallen city.
  • Ezekiel
    Ezekiel spoke to the Jews who were captive in Babylon. He often used dramatic stories and sometimes acted out illustrations to make his point.
  • Daniel
    Although he was a captive in Babylon, Daniel became prime minister in the government. Daniel lived a life of obedience even when he was faced with pressure from others.
  • Hosea
    By marrying a woman who was unfaithful to him. Hosea lived out his message: Israel has been spiritually unfaithful to God.
  • Joel
    Beginning with a recent plague of locust in Judah, Joel foretold God’s judgement on Judah.
  • Amos
    Amos preached to Israel during a time of prosperity. He told the people that God would judge them for not helping the poor.
  • Obadiah
    Obadiah preached warnings to Edom, a nation bordering Judah.
  • Jonah
    Jonah reluctantly went to Nineveh and found Israel’s enemies responsive to God’s message.
  • Micah
    Micah exposed corruption in every level of society. But he ended his book with a promise of forgiveness and restoration for God’s people.
  • Nahum
    Long after Jonah had preached in Nineveh and the people had turned to God, Nahum foretold the mighty city’s total destruction.
  • Habakkuk
    Habakkuk addressed his book to God, not people. In a frank dialogue with God, he discussed problems of suffering and justice.
  • Zephaniah
    Zephaniah focused on the coming “day of the Lord,” which would destroy Judah. But God would save Jerusalem in the end.
  • Haggai
    After returning from the Babylonian captivity, the Jews began rebuilding the temple of God. But soon they set aside that task to work on their own homes. Haggai reminded them to put God first.
  • Zechariah
    Writing around the same time as Haggai, Zechariah also urged the Jews to work on the temple. He used a more encouraging approach, describing how the temple would point to the coming Messiah (Jesus).
  • Malachi
    The last Old testament prophet, Malachi faced a nation that had grown indifferent to God. He sought to stir them to turn back to God.

THE NEW TESTAMENT

  • Matthew
    Written to a Jewish audience, this Gospel links the Old and New Testaments. It presents Jesus as a Messiah and King promised in the Old Testament. Matthew emphasizes Jesus’ authority and power.
  • Mark
    Mark’s Gospel stresses action and gives a straightforward, blow-by-blow account of Jesus’ work on earth.
  • Luke
    Luke was a doctor. His Gospel provides many details of human interest, especially in Jesus’ treatment of the poor and needy. A joyful tone characterizes Luke’s book.
  • John
    John has a different, more reflective style than the other Gospels. Its author selected seven signs that pointed to Jesus as the Son of God and wove together everything else to underscore his point.
  • Acts
    Acts tells what happened to Jesus’ followers after he left them. Peter and Paul soon emerged as leaders of the rapidly spreading church.
  • Romans
    Romans describes theology in a logical, organized form.
  • I Corinthians
    A very practical book, I Corinthians talks about some problems of the church in Corinth: marriage, factions, immorality, public worship and lawsuits.
  • II Corinthians
    Paul wrote this follow-up letter to defend himself against accusations by false teachers.
  • Galatians
    A short version of the message of Romans, this book addresses legalism. It shows how Christ came to bring freedom, not bondage to a set of laws.
  • Ephesians
    Although written in a jail, this letter is one of Paul’s most optimistic and encouraging. It tells of the advantages a believer has in Christ.
  • Philippians
    The church at Philippi ranked among Paul’s favorites. This friendly letter tells us that joy can be found in any situation.
  • Colossians
    Written to oppose certain cults, Colossians tells how faith in Christ is complete. Nothing needs to be added to what Christ did.
  • I Thessalonians
    Composed early in Paul’s ministry, this letter gives a capsule history of one church, as well as Paul’s direct advice about specific problems.
  • II Thessalonians
    Stronger in tone than his first letter to the Thessalonians, the sequel goes over the same topics, especially the church’s questions about Christ’s second coming.
  • I Timothy
    As Paul neared the end of his life, he chose young men such as Timothy to carry on his work. His two letters to Timothy form a leadership manual for a young pastor.
  • II Timothy
    Written just before Paul’s death, II timothy offers Paul’s final words to his young assistant.
  • Titus
    Titus ministered in Crete, a difficult place to nurture a church. Paul’s letter gave practical advice on how to go about it.
  • Philemon
    Paul urged Philemon, owner of runaway slave Onesimus, to forgive his slave and accept him as a brother in Christ.
  • Hebrews
    No one knows who wrote Hebrews, but it probably first went to Christians in danger of slipping back into Judaism. It interprets the Old Testament, explaining many Jewish practices as symbols that prepared the way for Christ.
  • James
    James, a man of action, emphasized the right kind of behavior for a believer. Someone who calls himself or herself a Christian ought to act like it, James believed, and his letter spells out the specifics.
  • I Peter
    Early Christians often met violent opposition, and Peter’s letter comforted and encouraged Christians who were being persecuted for their faith.
  • II Peter
    In contrast to Peter’s first letter, this one focused on problems that sprang up from inside the church. It warns against false teachers.
  • I John
    John could fill simple words – light, love, life – with deep meaning. In this letter, he elegantly explains basic truths about the Christian life.
  • II John
    Warning against false teachers, John counseled churches on how to respond to them.
  • III John
    Balancing II John, this companion letter mentions the need to be hospitable to true teachers.
  • Jude
    Jude gave a brief but fiery lesson on dealing with heretics.
  • Revelation
    A book of visions and symbols, Revelation is the only New Testament book that concentrates on prophecy. It completes the story, begun in Genesis, of the battle between good and evil being waged on earth. It ends with a picture of a new heaven and new earth.

THE SILENT YEARS

There are approximately 400 years between the date of the last book of the Old Testament (Malachi) and the date of the first book of the New Testament (Matthew). These years are often referred to as the “Four Hundred Silent Years” or the “Dark Period” of Israel’s history. God was giving no new Word to the Jews. It was a time of wondering and waiting and being acted upon by other nations.

At the close of the Old Testament period (around 435 B.C.), the Persians were the dominant political power. Their control continued until the Greek period, which began around 332 B.C., when the Greeks under Alexander the Great became the great world power. This was followed by rule of the Egyptians, Syrians (around 200B.C.), and then the Romans (around 60 B.C.), with a brief period of self-rule under the Hasmoneans (around 140-37 B.C.). During these periods Jews were being severely oppressed and persecuted.

LOST TEXTS OF THE BIBLE

There are a number of Books alluded to in the Bible that are lost to history. Several books have claimed to be this lost text, but have been appropriately discredited and are widely discounted as pseudepigrapha (falsely attributed works).

  • Book of the Wars of the Lord – Numbers 21:14
  • Book of the Just – Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18
  • Book of the Acts of Solomon – 1 Kings 11:41
  • Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel – 1 Kings 14:19
  • Book of the Annals of the Kings of Juda – 1 Kings 14:29
  • Annals of Samuel the Seer – 1 Chronicles 29:29
  • History of Nathan the Prophet – 2 Chronicles 9:29
  • Annals of Shemaiah the Prophet and of Iddo the Seer – 2 Chronicles 12:15
  • Annals of Jehu son of Hannani – 2 Chronicles 20:34
  • Annals of Hosai – 2 Chronicles 33:18
  • Jeremiah’s Lament for Josiah – 2 Chronicles 35:25

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1946 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the ruins of the ancient settlement of Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea.

The scrolls included approximately 600 manuscripts, about 200 of which are Biblical. In Cave 4 roughly 40,000 fragments of 400 manuscripts were found (100 Biblical). Every book (except Esther) was represented.

In addition to Biblical text, the Dead Sea Scrolls also included Apocrypha and sectarian manuscripts.

The text of the Scrolls was written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, mostly on parchment (writing material made from animal skin), but with some written on papyrus (paper-like material made from the papyrus plant).

These manuscripts are dated between 150 BCE and 70 CE and agree with LXX and the Vorlage (a German term that scholars use to refer to the original text of the Biblical writings).

HOW THE BIBLE CAME TO US?

When the books of the Bible were first written, the only way people could have a copy was for someone to write it out entirely by hand. This work was done by men called Scribes, who spent their entire day copying the Bible letter by letter. Because this was a long, tiresome job, few people had their own copy of the Bible.

The Old Testament was first written in the Hebrew and Aramaic languages. About 250 years before Jesus’ birth, it was translated into Greek – this text was called the Septuagint. All of the New Testament was written in Greek.

PRESERVATION OF SCRIPTURE

The term Torah (Hebrew: תּוֹרָה, “teaching” or “instruction”, or “law”), also known as the Pentateuch (Greek: Πεντάτευχος from πεντα- penta- [five] and τεῦχος teuchos [tool, vessel, book]), refers to the Five Books of Moses—the entirety of Judaism’s founding legal and ethical religious texts. A “Sefer Torah” (סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה, “book of Torah”) or Torah scroll is a copy of the Torah written on parchment in a formal, traditional manner by a specially trained Scribe under strict requirements.

The word “Torah” can also be used to refer to the entire Jewish Bible (the body of scripture known to non-Jews as the Old Testament and to Jews as the Tanakh or Written Torah), or in its broadest sense, to the whole body of Jewish law and teachings.

The Scribes took extraordinary steps to ensure the accuracy of the Tanakh/Torah (Old Testament of the Bible). Some of the rules that dictated the Scribes’ work included:

  • The Scribe must sit in full Jewish dress, and wash his whole body.
  • A synagogue roll [they didn’t have paper back then as we do today] must be written on the skins of clean animals
  • The length of each column of text must not extend less than 48 or more than 80 lines; the breadth must consist of 30 letters.
  • The scribes were not allowed to copy sentence for sentence or even word for word. They had to copy letter for letter.
  • The ink used was made in accordance to a special recipe used for copying Scripture.
  • Between every letter the space of a hair or thread must intervene, between every book three lines.
  • Each line on a new page had to be the exact same as the line on the old page. If the first line on the original page had nine words, the first line on the copy page had to have nine words.
  • After a page was copied, the number of letters on that page was counted and compared with the original.
  • After a page was copied, someone would check to see what the middle letter was on the copy and the original.
  • If just one mistake was committed, the whole sheet was condemned. If there were three mistakes found on any page, the whole manuscript was condemned. Upon completion, the scroll had to be checked for accuracy within a specified period of time.
  • After a page was copied and checked by another, still a third person would check to see what the middle word was on the page. Then, when the whole book was finished, another would count the phrases.
  • There are manuscripts that contained a few typos.  However, due to the vast number of manuscripts that are available, we can easily discern and/or reference the true spelling or meaning of the word.

WHO WROTE THE BIBLE

As previously mentioned, the Bible have 40 different authors, that lived at different times and in different places. The authors of the Bible were from all walks of life including a tax collector, shepherds, fishermen, a military general, kings, etc.

The scripture consists of a number of literary forms. It is a collection of sermons, prayer, letters, law, historical events, praise, poems, prophecies and more.

The Bible is a unique book and there is no other book like it. One of the amazing things about the Bible is the Books do not contradict each other, even though:

  • Most of the authors did not know one another.
  • The Bible was written over a period of fifteen hundred years (1,500).
  • It was written by 40 different authors.
  • The Books of the Bible were written across three continents: Africa, Asia, and Europe.
  • Written in three different languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The Old Testament was written primarily in Hebrew, with some books written in Aramaic. The following are brief snap shots of the beginning and ending of the Old Testament and the reasons for the first two translations of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Aramaic and Greek
    • 1875 B.C. Abraham was called by God to the land of Canaan.
    • 1450 B.C. The exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt.

This is possible because though the authors were the ones that physically wrote the Books, through His Spirit, God guided them so that they wrote in their own words what He wanted them to say.

Below are the believed authors of the Bible and the time-frame in which the Books were written. It is important to note that the authors and dates are not exact but agreed upon by many Biblical scholars.

THE OLD TESTAMENT:

  • Genesis – – – – – – – – Author: Moses? – – – – – – – – Written Around: ? – 1400 B.C.
  • Exodus – – – – – – – – Author: Moses? – – – – – – – – Written Around: 1400 B.C.
  • Leviticus – – – – – – – – Author: Moses? – – – – – – – – Written Around: 1400 B.C.
  • Numbers – – – – – – – – Author: Moses? – – – – – – – – Written Around: 1400 B.C.
  • Deuteronomy – – – – – – – – Author: Moses? – – – – – – – – Written Around: 1400 B.C.
  • Joshua – – – – – – – – Author: Joshua – – – – – – – – Written Around: 1400-1300 B.C.
  • Judges – – – – – – – – Author: Samuel – – – – – – – – Written Around: 1300-1000 B.C.
  • Ruth – – – – – – – – Author: Samuel? – – – – – – – – Written Around: 1100 B.C.
  • First Samuel – – – – – – – – Author: Samuel/Nathan?/Gad? – – – – – – – – Written Around: 1000-900 B.C.
  • Second Samuel – – – – – – – – Author: Samuel/Nathan?/Gad?/Ezra? – – – – – – – – Written Around: 1000-900 B.C.
  • First Kings – – – – – – – – Author: Jeremiah? – – – – – – – – Written Around: 900-600 B.C.
  • Second Kings – – – – – – – – Author: Jeremiah? – – – – – – – – Written Around: 900-600 B.C.
  • First Chronicles – – – – – – – – Author: Ezra?/Nehemiah? – – – – – – – – Written Around: 500-400 B.C.
  • Second Chronicles – – – – – – – – Author: Ezra?/Nehemiah? – – – – – – – – Written Around: 500-400 B.C.
  • Ezra – – – – – – – – Author: Ezra – – – – – – – – Written Around: 500-400 B.C.
  • Nehemiah – – – – – – – – Author: Nehemiah – – – – – – – – Written Around: 500-400 B.C.
  • Esther – – – – – – – – Author: Mordecai? – – – – – – – – Written Around: 500-400 B.C.
  • Job – – – – – – – – Author: Job?/Moses? – – – – – – – – Written Around: 1400 B.C.?
  • Psalms – – – – – – – – Author: David/Sons of Korah/Asaph/Heman/Ethan/Hezekiah/Solomon – – – – – – – – Written Around: 1000?-400? B.C.
  • Proverbs – – – – – – – – Author: Solomon/Agur?/Lemuel? – – – – – – – – Written Around 1000-700 B.C.
  • Ecclesiastes – – – – – – – – Author: Solomon – – – – – – – – Written Around: 1000-900 B.C.
  • Song of Solomon – – – – – – – – Author: Solomon – – – – – – – – Written Around: 1000-900 B.C.
  • Isaiah – – – – – – – – Author: Isaiah – – – – – – – – Written Around: 800-600 B.C.
  • Jeremiah – – – – – – – – Author: Jeremiah – – – – – – – – Written Around: 650-550 B.C.
  • Lamentations – – – – – – – – Author: Jeremiah – – – – – – – – Written Around: 650-550 B.C.
  • Ezekiel – – – – – – – – Author: Ezekiel – – – – – – – – Written Around: 550 B.C.
  • Daniel – – – – – – – – Author: Daniel – – – – – – – – Written Around: 550 B.C.
  • Hosea – – – – – – – – Author: Hosea – – – – – – – – Written Around: 750 B.C.
  • Joel – – – – – – – – Author: Joel – – – – – – – – Written Around: 850 B.C.
  • Amos – – – – – – – – Author: Amos – – – – – – – – Written Around: 750 B.C.
  • Obadiah – – – – – – – – Author: Obadiah – – – – – – – – Written Around: 750-600 B.C.
  • Jonah – – – – – – – – Author: Jonah – – – – – – – – Written Around: 700 B.C.
  • Micah – – – – – – – – Author: Micah – – – – – – – – Written Around: 700 B.C.
  • Nahum – – – – – – – – Author: Nahum – – – – – – – – Written Around: 700-600 B.C.
  • Habakkuk – – – – – – – – Author: Habakkuk – – – – – – – – Written Around: 600 B.C.
  • Zephaniah – – – – – – – – Author: Zephaniah – – – – – – – – Written Around: 650 B.C.
  • Haggai – – – – – – – – Author: Haggai – – – – – – – – Written Around: 520 B.C.
  • Zechariah – – – – – – – – Author: Zechariah – – – – – – – – Written Around: 500 B.C.
  • Malachi – – – – – – – – Author: Malachi – – – – – – – – Written Around: 450 B.C.

THE NEW TESTAMENT:

  • Matthew – – – – – – – – Author: Matthew – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 55
  • Mark – – – – – – – – Author: John Mark – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 50
  • Luke – – – – – – – – Author: Luke – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 60
  • John – – – – – – – – Author: John – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 90
  • Acts – – – – – – – – Author: Luke – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 65
  • Romans – – – – – – – – Author: Paul – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 50-70
  • 1 Corinthians – – – – – – – – Author: Paul – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 50-70
  • 2 Corinthians – – – – – – – – Author: Paul – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 50-70
  • Galatians – – – – – – – – Author: Paul – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 50-70
  • Ephesians – – – – – – – – Author: Paul – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 50-70
  • Philippians – – – – – – – – Author: Paul – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 50-70
  • Colossians – – – – – – – – Author: Paul – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 50-70
  • 1 Thessalonians – – – – – – – – Author: Paul – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 50-70
  • 2 Thessalonians – – – – – – – – Author: Paul – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 50-70
  • 1 Timothy – – – – – – – – Author: Paul – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 50-70
  • 2 Timothy – – – – – – – – Author: Paul – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 50-70
  • Titus – – – – – – – – Author: Paul – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 50-70
  • Philemon – – – – – – – – Author: Paul – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 50-70
  • Hebrews – – – – – – – – Author: Paul?/Barnabas?/Apollos? – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 65
  • James – – – – – – – – Author: James – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 45
  • 1 Peter – – – – – – – – Author: Peter – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 60
  • 2 Peter – – – – – – – – Author: Peter – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 60
  • 1 John – – – – – – – – Author: John – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 90
  • 2 John – – – – – – – – Author: John – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 90
  • 3 John – – – – – – – – Author: John – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 90
  • Jude – – – – – – – – Author: Jude – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 60
  • Revelation – – – – – – – – Author: John – – – – – – – – Written Around: A.D. 90

LANGUAGES IN WHICH THE OLD TESTAMENT BOOKS WERE WRITTEN

  • 1450-1400 B.C. The traditional date for Moses’ writing of Genesis-Deuteronomy written in Hebrew.
  • 586 B.C. Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. The Jews were taken into captivity to Babylon. They remained in Babylon under the Medo-Persian Empire and there began to speak Aramaic.
  • 555-545 B.C. The Book of Daniel Chapters. 2:4 to 7:28 were written in Aramaic.
  • 425 B.C. Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, was written in Hebrew.
  • 400 B.C. Ezra Chapters. 4:8 to 6:18; and 7:12-26 were written in Aramaic.

TRANSLATIONS AND MANUSCRIPTS

The following is a list of the oldest Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament that are still in existence.

  • The Dead Sea Scrolls: Date from 200 B.C. – 70 A.D. and contain the entire book of Isaiah and portions of every other Old Testament book but Esther.
  • Geniza Fragments: Portions the Old Testament in Hebrew and Aramaic, discovered in 1947 in an old synagogue in Cairo, Egypt, which date from about 400 A.D.
  • Ben Asher Manuscripts: Five or six generations of this family made copies of the Old Testament using the Masoretic Hebrew text, from 700-950 A.D. The following are examples of the Hebrew Masoretic text-type.
    • Aleppo Codex: contains the complete Old Testament and is dated around 950 A.D. Unfortunately, over one quarter of this Codex was destroyed in anti-Jewish riots in 1947.
    • Codex Leningradensis: The complete Old Testament in Hebrew copied by the last member of the Ben Asher family in A.D. 1008.

The Old Testament was translated very early into Aramaic and Greek.

  • 400 B.C. The Old Testament began to be translated into Aramaic. This translation is called the Aramaic Targums. This translation helped the Jewish people, who began to speak Aramaic from the time of their captivity in Babylon, to understand the Old Testament in the language that they commonly spoke. In the first century Palestine of Jesus’ day, Aramaic was still the commonly spoken language. For example, maranatha: “Our Lord has come,” 1 Corinthians 16:22 is an example of an Aramaic word that is used in the New Testament.
  • 250 B.C. The Old Testament was translated into Greek. This translation is known as the Septuagint. It is sometimes designated “LXX” (which is Roman numeral for “70”) because it was believed that 70 to 72 translators worked to translate the Hebrew Old Testament in Greek. The Septuagint was often used by New Testament writers when they quoted from the Old Testament. The LXX was translation of the Old Testament that was used by the early Church.
    • The following is a list of the oldest Greek LXX translations of the Old Testament that are still in existence.
    • Chester Beatty Papyri: Contains nine Old Testament Books in the Greek Septuagint and dates between 100-400 A.D.
    • Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus each contain almost the entire Old Testament of the Greek Septuagint and they both date around 350 A.D.

The New Testament (45- 95 A.D.) was written in Greek.

The Pauline Epistles, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Luke, and the book of Acts are all dated from 45-63 A.D. The Gospel of John and the Revelation may have been written as late as 95 A.D.

There are over 5,600 early Greek Manuscripts of the New Testament that are still in existence. The oldest manuscripts were written on papyrus and the later manuscripts were written on leather called parchment.

  • 125 A.D. The New Testament manuscript which dates most closely to the original autograph was copied around 125 A.D, within 35 years of the original. It is designated “p 52” and contains a small portion of John 18. (The “p” stands for papyrus.)
  • 200 A.D. Bodmer p 66 a papyrus manuscript which contains a large part of the Gospel of John.
  • 200 A.D. Chester Beatty Biblical papyrus p 46 contains the Pauline Epistles and Hebrews.
  • 225 A.D. Bodmer Papyrus p 75 contains the Gospels of Luke and John.
  • 250-300 A.D. Chester Beatty Biblical papyrus p 45 contains portions of the four Gospels and Acts.
  • 350 A.D. Codex Sinaiticus contains the entire New Testament and almost the entire Old Testament in Greek. It was discovered by a German scholar Tisendorf in 1856 at an Orthodox monastery at Mt. Sinai.
  • 350 A.D. Codex Vaticanus: {B} is an almost complete New Testament. It was cataloged as being in the Vatican Library since 1475.

Early translations of the New Testament can give important insight into the underlying Greek manuscripts from which they were translated.

  • 180 A.D. Early translations of the New Testament from Greek into Latin, Syriac, and Coptic versions began about 180 A.D.
  • 195 A.D. The name of the first translation of the Old and New Testaments into Latin was termed Old Latin, both Testaments having been translated from the Greek. Parts of the Old Latin were found in quotes by the church father Tertullian, who lived around 160-220 A.D. in north Africa and wrote treatises on theology.
  • 300 A.D. The Old Syriac was a translation of the New Testament from the Greek into Syriac.
  • 300 A.D. The Coptic Versions: Coptic was spoken in four dialects in Egypt. The Bible was translated into each of these four dialects.
  • 380 A.D. The Latin Vulgate was translated by St. Jerome. He translated into Latin the Old Testament from the Hebrew and the New Testament from Greek. The Latin Vulgate became the Bible of the Western Church until the Protestant Reformation in the 1500’s. It continues to be the authoritative translation of the Roman Catholic Church to this day. The Protestant Reformation saw an increase in translations of the Bible into the common languages of the people.
  • Other early translations of the Bible were in Armenian, Georgian, and Ethiopic, Slavic, and Gothic.
  • 1380 A.D. The first English translation of the Bible was by John Wycliffe. He translated the Bible into English from the Latin Vulgate. This was a translation from a translation and not a translation from the original Hebrew and Greek. Wycliffe was forced to translate from the Latin Vulgate because he did not know Hebrew or Greek.

THE SELECTION OF THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE / THE CANON

The word “Canon” comes from the Greek word “kanon”, which means a rod used to measure. When referring to the Bible, Canon refers to the list of Books considered authoritative as Scripture.

For the Jews living during the Old Testament times there was no need for a Canon – they had the prophets alive and in their presence. Likewise, for the early Church, they had Jesus Christ and the apostles. Once the prophets and apostles were dead, however, it became necessary to gather their writings and preserve them.

This process of preservation and establishment of Canon served several purposes. It sought to:

  • Define what was inspired, and what was not; prevent a corruption of the inspired words of God; ensure the inspired words of God not be lost
  • Reclude the possibility of additions to inspired works.

For the Old Testament, Protestant Christians from the Reformation onward, accept the shorter canon (39 books) from the Hebrew Palestinian canon. Jews now use the same canon as the Protestant Old Testament, but the order and division of some of the Books is different, giving them a total of 24 Books.

Some Catholic Christians accept the longer Old Testament canon (46 Books) from the Greek Septuagint translation of the Alexandrian canon. This includes the 39 Books and the Apocrypha. Nearly all Christians reject the apocrypha as scripture. The apocrypha are explained in more detail later in this text.

The Canon did not happen overnight, neither for the Old Testament, nor the New Testament. The Canon is the result of development through time. The Canon of the Old Testament was mainly fixed (with a few books still in dispute) by the about the year 400 B.C. The Canon of the New Testament was mainly fixed at the council at Carthage in 387 A.D.

THE OLD TESTAMENT:

The formation of the Old Testament was spread over many centuries. The first Holy Books of the Hebrews were Moses’ Books of law, which were placed in the Ark of the Covenant. When Solomon built the temple, he added Books of history and prophecy from Joshua’s to David’s time, as well as writings of his own. About fifty years after the temple was rebuilt, Ezra made a collection of the sacred writings, which now included Jonah, Amos, Isaiah, Hosea, Joel, Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Obadiah, and Habakkuk. To this was added the Books of Nehemiah, Malachi, and Ezra. In addition, Nehemiah gathered the “Acts of the Kings and the Prophets, and those of David,” when founding a library for the second temple, around 432 B.C.

The first significant Canon of the Old Testament in the form we now have it, was the work of Ezra and the Great Synagogue, composed of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. However, there were still some disputes.

By the first century BC, the Hebrew speaking Jews in Palestine were known to generally use the Palestinian Canon. This consisted of 24 Books divided in three Sections: The Law (5 books of Moses or Pentateuch); the Prophets (4 former and 4 latter prophets) and the Writings (11 Books). The Sadducees most likely did not accept Daniel because it supports resurrection of the body, which they did not believe in. Others, like Samaritans, accepted only the Pentateuch as Scripture. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote (c. 90 AD) that Jews recognized 22 Books. The Essenes (around the time of Jesus) did not accept Esther. Greek speaking (Hellenistic) Jews used the Septuagint, a translation put together around the third century B.C. by elders of Israel at Alexandria, Egypt.

After the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 AD, the Jamniaa (Javneh) council, led by Yohanan ben Zakkai, adopted the Palestinian canon as canon.

THE NEW TESTAMENT:

The New Testament was written more quickly than the Old Testament – it was completed within half a century. This means that all the books were completed, copied, and distributed before AD 100. In fact, by AD 95, a letter written by Clement of Rome (an early church father who may have been a student of Paul) shows the influence of Matthew, Luke, Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, Timothy, Titus, and Peter – a sign that the books were well known and circulated within the early church.

The New Testament Canon was gradually added to that of the Old Testament.

By approximately AD 170, the canon was being translated into other languages, and by AD 190, church leaders were beginning to call it the “New Testament.” Though there were other documents that affirmed the canon of the New Testament, the most important confirmation came at the Council of Carthage (AD 397), which listed the 27 books and proclaimed, “Aside from the canonical Scriptures nothing is to be read in church under the Name of Divine Scriptures.”

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Manuscript-wise, we are very fortunate to have fragments dating as close as 20 to 30 years from the original work of the apostles, which is utterly astounding. In fact, there is a manuscript containing the majority of Paul’s epistles that dates to just a few decades after Paul would have written them. Though they have earlier manuscripts containing different parts of the New Testament, one of the earliest complete Bible manuscript (which actually included both the Old and New Testaments) was written around the 4th century, and is known as the Codex Sinaiticus. In the archaeological world, this kind of excellent record is virtually unheard of. Scholars consider the Codex Sinaiticus to be one of the best Greek texts of the New Testament.

At the time of the formation of the New Testament Canon (early 4th century) twenty out of the twenty-seven Books were readily and universally accepted as genuine, and therefore called “Homologoumena” (i.e. acknowledged). These twenty Books were the four Gospels, the Acts, the epistles of Paul (except that to the Hebrews), and the first epistles of John and Peter. The other seven Books–Hebrews, 2 and 3 John, 2 Peter, Jude, James, Revelation–were disputed for a time by particular churches, and were therefore styled “Antilegomena” (or disputed).

The question at issue with regard to the Books called “Antilegomena,” was not so much that of the canonicity of the writings, as whether they were really written by the men who were called their authors. Hebrews bore no name of its author, and differed in style from the acknowledged Pauline epistles; 2 Peter differed in style from 1 Peter; James and Jude styled themselves “servants,” and not “apostles”; the write of 2 and 3 John called himself an “elder” or “presbyter,” and not an “apostle”; Jude recorded apocryphal stories. For these reasons these books were not at once allowed their place in the Canon.

After a deliberate examination, however, they were at last received as genuine, the very delay proving the close scrutiny which their claims had undergone.

At the beginning of the fourth century they were received by most of the churches, and at the end of that century they were received by all.

The Holy Spirit – When discussing the Canon of the Bible, one must always remember the Holy Spirit. The Canon of the Bible was ultimately made by “the spiritual consciousness” of Godly people. In order to appreciate what this statement means, let us note the activity of the Holy Spirit in the affairs of men. Both Scripture and experience make it abundantly clear that in the lives that are surrendered to God there is definite light and guidance that come from the Holy Spirit. Men become wondrously wise spiritually when they permit Him to instruct them. Jesus spoke of this to His disciples when He assured them of the Spirit’s help whenever they came into a difficult situation: “For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.” (Luke 12:12). And on another occasion He told them that the Holy Spirit “will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13).

The divinely guided consciousness of Godly people in Bible times enabled them to judge what was spiritually true and what was false in the Books that circulated among them and to detect the evidences of inspiration. There were, to be sure, certain specific standards set up as time went on, such as authorship, time of writing, language used, and the like.

ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE

Archaeology cannot prove that the Bible is God’s written word to us. However, archaeology can (and does) substantiate the Bible’s historical accuracy. Archaeologists have consistently discovered the names of government officials, kings, cities, and festivals mentioned in the Bible – sometimes when historians didn’t think such people or places existed. For example, the Gospel of John tells of Jesus healing a cripple next to the Pool of Bethesda. The text even describes the five porticoes (walkways) leading to the pool. Scholars didn’t think the pool existed, until archaeologists found it forty feet below ground, complete with the five porticoes.

The Bible has a tremendous amount of historical detail, so not everything mentioned in it has yet been found through archaeology. However, not one archaeological find has conflicted with what the Bible records.

Many of the ancient locations mentioned by Luke, in the Book of Acts in the New Testament, have been identified through archaeology.

Archaeology has also refuted many ill-founded theories about the Bible. For example, a theory still taught in some colleges today asserts that Moses could not have written the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible), because writing had not been invented in his day. Then archaeologists discovered the Black Stele. It had wedge-shaped characters on it and contained the detailed laws of Hammurabi. Was it post-Moses? No! It was pre-Mosaic; not only that, but it was pre-Abraham (2,000 B.C.). It preceded Moses’ writings by at least three centuries.

Another major archaeological find confirmed an early alphabet in the discovery of the Ebla Tablets in northern Syria in 1974. These 14,000 clay tablets are thought to be from about 2300 B.C., hundreds of years before Abraham. The tablets describe the local culture in ways similar to what is recorded in Genesis chapters 12-50.

Archaeology consistently confirms the historical accuracy of the Bible.

 Archaeological Find And Significance:

  • Mari Tablets – – – – – Over 20,000 cuneiform tablets, which date back to Abraham’s time period, explain many of the patriarchal traditions of Genesis.
  • Ebla Tablets – – – – – Over 20,000 tablets, many containing law similar to the Deuteronomy law code. The previously thought fictitious five cities of the plain in Genesis 14 (Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar) are identified.
  • Nuzi Tablets – – – – – They detail customs of the 14th and 15th century parallel to the patriarchal accounts such as maids producing children for barren wives.
  • Black Stele – – – – – Proved that writing and written laws existed three centuries before the Mosaic laws.
  • Temple Walls of Karnak, Egypt – – – – – Signifies a 10th century BC reference to Abraham.
  • Laws of Eshnunna (ca. 1950 BC) – – – – – Signifies a 10th century BC reference to Abraham.
  • Lipit-Ishtar Code (ca. 1860 BC) – – – – – Signifies a 10th century BC reference to Abraham.
  • Laws of Hammurabi (ca. 1700 BC) – – – – – Show that the law codes of the Pentateuch were not too sophisticated for that period.
  • Ras Shamra Tablets – – – – – Provide information on Hebrew poetry.
  • Lachish Letters – – – – – Describe Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion of Judah and give insight into the time of Jeremiah.
  • Gedaliah Seal – – – – – References Gedaliah is spoken of in 2 Kings 25:22.
  • Cyrus Cylinder – – – – – Authenticates the Biblical description of Cyrus’ decree to allow the Jews to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem (see 2 Chronicles 36:23; Ezra 1:2-4).
  • Moabite Stone – – – – – Gives information about Omri, the sixth king of Israel.
  • Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III – – – – – Illustrates how Jehu, king of Israel, had to submit to the Assyrian king.
  • Taylor Prism – – – – – Contains an Assyrian text which detail Sennacherib’s attack on Jerusalem during the time of Hezekiah, king of Israel.

Past Charges By Critics That Were Answered By Archaeology:

  • Moses could not have written Pentateuch because he lived before the invention of writing. – – – – – Writing existed many centuries before Moses.
  • Abraham’s home city of Ur does not exist. – – – – – Ur was discovered. One of the columns had the inscription “Abram.”
  • The city built of solid rock called “Petra” does not exist. – – – – – Petra was discovered.
  • The story of the fall of Jericho is myth. The city never existed. – – – – – The city was found and excavated. It was found that the walls tumbled in the exact manner described by the biblical narrative.
  • The “Hittites” did not exist. – – – – – Hundreds of references to the amazing Hittite civilization have been found. One can even get a doctorate in Hittite studies at the University of Chicago.
  • Belshazzar was not a real king of Babylon; he is not found in the records. – – – – – Tablets of Babylonia describe the reign of this coregent and son of Nabonidus.

A Comparison Of The New Testament To Other Ancient Writings:

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The Dead Sea Scrolls

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The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1946 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the ruins of the ancient settlement of Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea.

The House Of David Inscription

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On July 21, 1993, at the Tel Dan north of Israel at the foot of Mount Hermon archeologist discovered a fragment of a large monumental inscription. The fragment mentions King David’s dynasty, “the House of David.” The pavement and the wall where the fragments were found was laid at the end of the 9th or beginning of the 8th century BC, according to pottery fragments recovered in probes beneath the flagstone pavement. The partially reconstructed text reads:

1. [ … …] and cut [ … ]

2. [ … ] my father went up [against him when] he fought at [ … ]

3. And my father lay down, he went to his [ancestors]. And the king of I [s-]

4. rael entered previously in my father’s land. [And] Hadad made me king.

5. And Hadad went in front of me, [and] I departed from [the] seven [ …-]

6. s of my kingdom, and I slew [seve]nty kin[gs], who harnessed thou[sands of cha-]

7. Riots and thousands of horsemen (or: horses). [I killed Jeho]ram son of [Ahab]

8. king of Israel, and [I] killed [Ahaz]iahu son of [Jehoram kin-]

9. g of the House of David. And I set [their towns into ruins and turned]

10. their land into [desolation … ]

11. other [ … and Jehu ru-]

12. led over Is[rael … and I laid ]

13. siege upon [ … ] [6]

Ketef Hinnom Amulets

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Two tiny silver scrolls in the form of amulets were discovered in 1979 at a burial cave at Ketef Hinnom. Written in ancient Hebrew script dated to the 7th century BCE, the scrolls comprise the earliest-known fragments of a biblical text and pre-date the earliest scrolls from Qumran by more than 300 years. A form of what is known as the priestly blessing is contained in the scroll to the left: “The Lord bless you and protect you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance to you and give you peace.” It also contains the oldest-known form of the Divine Name of God (Known as the Tetragrammaton).

Galilee Boat

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A severe drought in 1985-86 brought the Sea of Galilee to unusually low levels, exposing large areas of the lakebed along the shoreline. Two brothers–Moshe and Yuval Lufan–from Kibbutz Ginnosar, near Tiberias along the northwest shore of the sea, discovered the remains of a 2,000-year-old boat buried in the mud along the shore. Israeli archaeologist Shelley Wachsman, an expert in marine archaeology, examined the sunken boat in situ and was able to confirm that it was an ancient rather than a modern craft. His judgment was based on a construction technique used in antiquity in which the planks of the hull were edge-joined with mortise and tendon joints held together by wooden pegs.

Baruch Bulla

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Sometime during the 1970’s, a bulla (ancient clay seal used on writing material) containing the stamp and name of the scribe of Jeremiah appeared on the antiquities market and was acquired by a collector, Dr. R. Hecht. He permitted Israeli archaeologist Nahman Avigad to publish the bulla, which came from an unidentified place, now thought to be the “burnt house” excavated by Yigal Shiloh. The bulla is now in the Israel Museum. It measures 17 by 16 mm, and is stamped with an oval seal, 13 by 11 mm. A single line borders the impression, and it is divided by double horizontal lines into three registers bearing the following inscription:

  • lbrkyhw – Belonging to Berechiah
  • bn nryhw – son of Neriah
  • hspr – the scribe.

The script used is the pre-exilic ancient Hebrew linear script, rather than the post-exilic script adopted by Jews from the contemporary Aramaic script. Reading the Hebrew from right to left, the first letter, Heb (l), is the preposition “to, belonging to,” and the last three letters, heb. (yhw) is a shortened form of the name of God, Heb. (YHWH), the shortened form was likely pronounced “yahu.” Baruch’s name means “Blessed of the Lord (Yahweh).”

This bulla was without doubt from the impression of Baruch ben Neriah, the scribe who wrote to the dictation of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 36:4).

Ossuary Of Caiaphas

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Found in November, 1990, in the Jerusalem Peace Forest… An ossuary is a stone bone box, used for secondary burials. Initially the body is laid to rest in a burial niche. After decomposition, the bones were collected and placed in an ossuary, making the burial niche available for a subsequent burial. Tombs belonged to families, so subsequent burials were normal.

Two of a dozen ossuaries in the tomb contained a form of the name Qafa’, or Caiaphas. Several of the ossuaries were decorated with traditional carved rosettes, zig-zag patterns, and other designs. The most intricately carved ossuary was decorated with two circles each containing five rosettes, and twice carved into an undecorated side appears the name, “Yehosef bar Qafa'” (Joseph son of Caiaphas). The ossuary contained the remains of six people: two infants, a child aged two to five, a boy aged 13 to 18, an adult female and a man about 60 years old. The latter are believed to be the bones of Caiaphas, before whom Jesus was brought for questioning (Matt 26:3, 57; Luke 3:2; John 11:49, 18:13, 14, 24, 28; Acts 4:6)

Pontius Pilate Inscription

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Pontius Pilate was the fifth governor of Roman Judea, under whose governance Jesus of Nazareth was crucified (Matt 27:2, plus 60 additional occurrences in the gospels, Acts, and 1 Timothy). He was appointed by the emperor Tiberius in AD 26 and suspended by L. Vitellius, Roman governor of Syria, in AD 37, after slaughtering a number of Samaritans at Mt. Gerizim.

Although Pilate is also mentioned in Josephus, Philo and Tacitus and coins issued during his governance exist, inscriptional evidence for Pilate was discovered in Italian excavations at Caesarea Maritima in 1961.

Antonio Frova, director of the excavations, found a dedicatory stone that bore a three-line inscription: Tiberieum/[Pon]tius Pilatus/[Praef]ectus Iuda[eae], “Tiberius [the Roman emperor of the period]/Pontius Pilate/Prefect of Judea.” The stone, in secondary use in the theatre at Caesarea, had been shaped to fit its new use and in the process some of the inscription had been mutilated, although it was easily reconstructed. The inscription not only confirms the historicity of Pilate; it clarifies the title that he bore as governor. It is now on display in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Ekron Inscription

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In 1993, archaeologists Seymour Gitin of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and Trude Dothan of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, were in their thirteenth and final season of excavations at Tel Miqne in Israel. They had long suspected that Tel Miqne was the site of one of the main cities of the Philistine pentapolis, specifically biblical Ekron (Josh 13:3, plus 23 other references in the Old Testament). Then a royal dedicatory inscription carved into a slab of limestone dramatically confirmed the place name, along with the names of five of its rulers, and two of them are specifically mentioned in the Bible.

The inscription was found in a destruction layer attributed to the Babylonian conquest dating to 603 BC It was within a 186 by 124-foot structure, considered a temple complex. The complex followed the design of known Assyrian palaces, and one section contained a sanctuary with a stone pavement; the inscription had fallen in the destruction to the pavement. The five lines of the inscription reads:

1. The temple which he built, ‘kysh (Achish, Ikausu) son of Padi, son of

2. Ysd son of Ada, son of Ya’ir, ruler of Ekron,

3. For Ptgyh his lady. May she bless him, and

4. protect him, and prolong his days, and bless

5. his land.

Both Ikausu and his father, Padi, are known from Assyrian records as kings of Ekron. Sennacherib’s annals mention Padi, in connection with the Assyrian campaign against the region in 701 BC that included the siege of King Hezekiah’s Jerusalem. Padi also paid his taxes to his Assyrian overlord in 699 BC, as recorded on a royal clay sealing, indicating a contribution of a light talent of silver, about 67.5 pounds. Ikausu is numbered among twelve regional kings who transported building materials to Nineveh for the construction of the palace of Esarhaddon (680-669 BC) and also in a list of kings who assisted Ashurbanipal in his first campaign against Egypt in 667 BC The other three kings in this Philistine dynasty, Ysd, Ada and Yair, are otherwise unattested.

Ugarit

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Tell Ras Shamra contains the ruins of an ancient city known as Ugarit. The name was known, although the location was not, from references in the Amarna letters of Egypt and the political correspondence from ancient Mari prior to the discovery in 1928. The major excavator was Claude F. A. Schaeffer followed after his retirement by several other French directors. Excavations still continue in the face of growing urbanization both at the tell and at a seaside site a few kilometers away, Ras Ibn Hani.

Apart from the architecture and artifacts of a wealthy, cosmopolitan center recovered, the significance of Ugarit is in the recovery of thousands of cuneiform tablets, written in several languages current in international circles of the day, but particularly a heretofore unknown language now bearing the name Ugaritic, after the site.

When deciphered, the cuneiform signs used for writing were discovered to be based on the Semitic alphabet rather than on the syllabic signs of Mesopotamia. Even more important were the contents of the documents written in Ugaritic. Some were recovered from palace complexes and were primarily administrative and economic texts, opening a window on the international diplomacy and trade current before the city’s destruction and demise c. 1180 BC. Others were recovered from temple complexes, including the legends and myths of Ugarit. Two legendary epics focus on ancient kings, Keret and Danel. Mythological texts recount the stories of Baal and Anath, Kathir-and-Khasis, El (the patriarch of the gods), Athtart, Mot (the god of sterility and death), Yam (the sea monster god) and others.

The myths and legends of Ugarit permit us to glimpse the conceptions of the supernatural that infused Canaanite life and thought and to observe their cultic rites and practices. The Canaanites were polytheists, and their gods were primarily deified aspects of nature. What we have is an unbiased view into the culture which dominated the land of Canaan into which the Israelites came, permitting us to understand the religious and cultural environment that in part Israel conquered and in part which conquered Israel.

Historical Tiberias

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Excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have been taking place in Tiberias at three different locations on the Sea of Galilee. Archaeologists discovered a Roman stadium dating back to the first century, which is also mentioned in the writings of Flavius Josephus.

A Just Weight

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The IAA, the Customs Authority and the Postal Authority worked together to prevent a precious artifact, a lead weight, from being smuggled out of the country. The weight dates back to the time of Bar Kochba (the second century AD) and is decorated with traditional Jewish symbols, including a palm tree and menorah.

Crucified Man

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An ossuary bearing the name “Yehochanan” contained the full skeleton of a man crucified in the first century and buried with a bent crucifixion nail through his heel bone.

Herodian Sundial

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This tiny sundial (only 2 inches wide by 2 inches high) may be the only known surviving artifact from the Temple of King Herod. It was found during excavation of a pile of debris attributed to the destruction of the Temple. There is a seven-branched menorah carved on its back, which is a symbol that was usually reserved for the Temple Priests.

House of God Ostracon

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This Ostracon (writing on pottery) was discovered in Arad, an ancient Judean administrative center. Written in ancient Hebrew script dated to the early 6th century BCE, it is presumed to be one of the earliest epigraphic references to the Temple in Jerusalem. A portion of the inscription reads: “To my lord Elyashib, may the Lord seek your welfare and as to the matter which you command me-it is well; he is in the House of God.”

Sundial from Qumran

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A solar calendar with a 364-day year, based on ancient Jewish traditions, was used by Sectarians, and time was a matter of great significance for keeping a precise daily schedule.

Biblical Temple Tablet Found

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Israeli geologists have declared an ancient stone tablet detailing repair plans for the Jewish Temple of King Solomon is genuine, an Israeli newspaper has reported.

The fragment is said to date from the period of the Jewish King Joash, who ruled the area 2,800 years ago.

THE SEPTUAGINT

The Septuagint (/ˈsɛptuː.ədʒɪnt/), or simply “LXX” (70), referred to in critical works by the abbreviation Image, is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible. Jewish scholars first translated the Septuagint between the 3rd and 1st century BCE (said to be completed before 132 BCE). It is the oldest of several ancient translations of the Hebrew Bible into Greek.

The history behind this Greek translation dates back to the days of Alexander the Great. When the armies of Alexander defeated the Persians in 331 B.C., and established themselves in the lands of Israel, Greek became one of the common languages in the Mediterranean world. After Alexander died, his four generals divided his kingdom between themselves.

During this time, the Jewish Greek-speaking population of Alexandria Egypt continued to grow and flourish. The primary language of the Jews in Alexandria was Greek; Hebrew became more archaic over time, in Egypt.

Spoken and written Hebrew remained strong in the lands of Judea/Palestine, as opposed to Alexandria. This lack of familiarity with the Hebrew Scriptures gave impetus for Greek speaking Jews, to translate the Hebrew scriptures. The process of translating the Hebrew text to Greek also gave many non-Jews a glimpse into Judaism.

At this time, during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BC), the ruler of Ptolemaic Kingdom, sent a request to Eleazar, the chief priest in Jerusalem. He wanted him to send translators to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, for his library at Alexandria. The letter known as the Letter of Aristeas describes how Ptolemy II requested translators and Eleazar sent 72 scribes. The term “Septuagint” means seventy (70) in Latin, and the text is so named to the credit of these 70 scholars.

THE APOCRYPHA

The Septuagint contains the standard 39 books of the Old Testament canon, as well as certain Apocryphal books.

The term “Apocrypha” (means “hidden”) was coined by the fifth-century Biblical scholar, Jerome, and generally refers to the set of ancient Jewish writings written during the period between the last book in the Jewish scriptures, Malachi, and the arrival of Jesus Christ.

The Apocryphal books were included in the Septuagint for historical purposes, but are not recognized by Protestant Christians or Orthodox Jews as canonical (inspired by God).

After the Reformation, many Protestant Bibles began to exclude the additional books. Roman Catholics, however, include some of these books in their canon (authorized books) while many Eastern Orthodox Churches use all the books of the Septuagint except the Psalms of Solomon. Many Anglican lectionaries also use all of the books except Psalm 151, and the full Authorized (King James) Version includes these additional books in a separate section labelled the “Apocrypha”.

Why the Apocrypha Isn’t In The Bible Or Recognized As Scripture:

  • Not one of the Apocryphal books is written in the Hebrew language, which was alone used by the inspired historians and poets of the Old Testament. All Apocryphal books are in Greek, except one which is in Latin.
  • None of the Apocryphal writers laid claim to inspiration.
  • The Apocryphal books were never acknowledged as sacred scriptures by the Jews, custodians of the Hebrew scriptures (the Apocrypha was written prior to the New Testament). In fact, the Jewish people rejected and destroyed the Apocrypha after the overthrow of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
  • The Apocryphal books were not permitted among the sacred books during the first four centuries of the Christian church.
  • The Apocrypha contains many statements which not only contradict the “canonical” scriptures but themselves. For example, in the two Books of Maccabees, Antiochus Epiphanes is made to die three different deaths in three different places.
  • The Apocrypha includes doctrines in variance with the Bible, such as prayers for the dead and sinless perfection. The following verses are taken from the Apocrypha translation by Ronald Knox dated 1954:
    • Basis for the doctrine of purgatory:
      2 Maccabees 12:43-45, 2.000 pieces of silver were sent to Jerusalem for a sin-offering…Whereupon he made reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin.
    • Salvation by works:
      Ecclesiasticus 3:30, Water will quench a flaming fire, and alms maketh atonement for sin.
      Tobit 12:8-9, 17, It is better to give alms than to lay up gold; for alms doth deliver from death, and shall purge away all sin.
    • Magic:
      Tobit 6:5-8, If the Devil, or an evil spirit troubles anyone, they can be driven away by making a smoke of the heart, liver, and gall of a fish…and the Devil will smell it, and flee away, and never come again anymore.
    • Mary was born sinless (immaculate conception):
      Wisdom 8:19-20, And I was a witty child and had received a good soul. And whereas I was more good, I came to a body undefiled.
  • It teaches immoral practices, such as lying, suicide, assassination and magical incantation.
  • Jesus and the New Testament writers never once quote the Apocrypha, although there are hundreds of quotes and references to almost the entire book of the Old Testament.
  • The manuscripts at the Dead Sea make it clear no canonical book of the OT was written later than the Persian period.
  • Josephus (30-100 AD.), a Jewish historian, explicitly excludes the Apocrypha; numbering the books of the Old Testament as 22 (which according to Jewish numbering is the same as the 39 in the Protestant Old Testament) neither does he quote the Apocryphal books as Scripture.
  • The Jewish scholars of Jamnia (90 AD) did not recognize the Apocrypha.
  • No canon or council of the Christian church recognized the Apocrypha as inspired for nearly four centuries.
  • Many of the great fathers of the early church spoke out against the Apocrypha—for example, Origen, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Athanasius.
  • Jerome (AD 340-420), the great scholar and translator of the Latin Vulgate rejected the Apocrypha as part of the canon.
  • Not until 1546 AD in a polemical action at the counter-Reformation Council of Trent (1545-63), did the Apocryphal books receive full canonical status by the Roman Catholic Church.

Apocryphal Books Of The Old Testament:

  • The First Book of Esdras (also known as Third Esdras)
  • The Second Book of Esdras (also known as Fourth Esdras)
  • Tobit
  • Judith
  • The Additions to the Book of Esther
  • The Wisdom of Solomon
  • Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach
  • Baruch
  • The Letter of Jeremiah (This letter is sometimes incorporated as the last chapter of Baruch. When this is done the number of books is fourteen instead of fifteen.)
  • The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men
  • Susanna
  • Bel and the Dragon
  • The Prayer of Manasseh
  • The First Book of Maccabees
  • The Second Book of Maccabees

The Apocryphal Books of the New Testament – The Old Testament Apocrypha is usually thought of when one mentions the Apocryphal books. Nevertheless, there are other Apocryphal writings, many of which are known as the New Testament Apocrypha. The New Testament Apocrypha include a variety of literary types: Gospels, Acts, Epistles and Apocalypses. These were written under assumed names of the apostles and others during the second century and later. They contain fanciful stories about Jesus and the apostles.

The Apocryphal Gospels often deal with the early years of Jesus and portray him as a temperamental child, causing the death of some of his playmates and giving life to a dried fish. The Apocryphal Acts and others indulge in similar stories. The writings of the Apostolic Fathers (80-180 A.D.) are not to be classified as New Testament Apocrypha. They are simply letters of edification and encouragement written by ordinary Christians; they do not profess apostolic wisdom and authority. These writings, along with the Apocryphal books, are sometimes erroneously described as “the lost books of the Bible,” a sensational and misleading title because these books were never a part of the Bible. It should be noted that these books were recorded long after the New Testament scriptures and often portray a vastly different Jesus than the writings of the New Testament.

Some of these books may be useful for some historical purposes but are not to be regarded as Scripture.

CODEX SINAITICUS AND CODEX VATICANUS

Our knowledge of the original text of the Bible comes from ancient hand-written manuscripts. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and the New Testament was written in Greek. No one has the original articles, but thousands of ancient copies have been discovered. Since these copies are hand-written, there are variations in spelling, word order, and sentence structure among them. Even though those variations do cause some confusion about the biblical text, most of the manuscript readings are in agreement. Out of about 500 pages in the Greek New Testament, the manuscript variations represent only about half of a page.

The majority of ancient manuscripts contain only small portions of the biblical text, like a book or a portion of a book. Among these manuscripts there are papyrus fragments, which are the remains of the most ancient scrolls, and typically represent only a few pages of text. These papyrus fragments have all been discovered during modern archaeological digs. Another group of manuscripts is the Uncials, which use all capital letters and are written on parchment or vellum, which is a smoother writing surface than papyrus, and allows for curved letters. The Uncial manuscripts were written between the 3rd and 8th centuries and were often bound as pages in a book, or codex, rather than a scroll. A few of these ancient codices have survived intact, giving us a solid view of the Bible used by the ancient church.

Two of the oldest complete (or nearly complete) manuscripts are the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus. They are both written on parchment, and have a large number of corrections written over the original text.

Codex Sinaiticus, also known as “Aleph” (the Hebrew letter א), was found by Count Tischendorf in 1859 at the Monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai. Portions of the manuscript were found in the monastery dump, and a larger portion was presented to Tischendorf by one of the monks. It is a large codex, with 400 pages (or leaves) comprising about half of the Old Testament in the Septuagint version and the full New Testament. It has been dated to the second half of the 4th century and has been highly valued by Bible scholars in their efforts to reconstruct the original biblical text. Sinaiticus has heavily influenced the translation work of modern Bible versions. Though it is considered by some scholars to represent an original form of the text, it is also recognized as the most heavily corrected early New Testament manuscript.

Codex Vaticanus, also known as “B,” was found in the Vatican library. It is comprised of 759 leaves and has almost all of the Old and New Testaments. It is not known when it arrived at the Vatican, but it was included in a catalog listing in 1475, and it is dated to the middle of the 4th century. Vaticanus was first used as a source document by Erasmus in his work on the “Textus Receptus.” Because he viewed the text of Vaticanus to be erratic, he seldom followed it when it differed from other Greek texts.

There are varying theories on how these ancient texts should be viewed by modern scholars. On one hand, some believe that the most ancient reading should be followed, as it is closest in time to the original (ie Sinaiticus and Vaticanus). On the other hand, some believe that the majority should rule. Since there are thousands of ancient manuscripts, they believe we should give precedence to the reading that is represented by the most documents.

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THE MASORETIC TEXT

The Hebrew text of the Old Testament is called the Masoretic Text because in its present form it is based upon the Masora—the Hebrew, textual tradition of the Jewish scholars known as the Masoretes (or Masorites).

The Masoretes were rabbis who made it their special work to correct the faults that had crept into the text of the Old Testament during the Babylonian captivity, and to prevent, for the future, its being corrupted by any alteration. They first separated the apocryphal from the canonical books, and divided the latter into twenty-two books, being the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Then they divided each book into sections and verses.

There is a great difference of opinion as to when the Masoretic Text was written, but it was probably completed in the 10th century AD. Several editions existed, varying considerably, but the received and authoritative text is that of Jacob ben-chayim ibn Adonijah, who carefully sifted and arranged the previous works on the subject. It was published in 1524.

Although the existing copies of the Masoretic Text date back only to the tenth century, two other important textual evidences bolster the confidence of textual critics that in the accuracy of the Masoretic Text.

The first is the successive discoveries of manuscripts at Qumran by the Dead Sea since 1947 (Dead Sea Scrolls. These revealed portions of manuscripts several centuries older than any previously known.

The second is the comparison of the Masoretic Text to the Greek translation called the Septuagint (or LXX), which was written 200—150 BC. The oldest existing manuscript of the LXX dates to the fourth century AD. Both the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls are amazingly consistent with the Masoretic Text, assuring us that God was indeed divinely and sovereignly protecting His Word through thousands of years of copying and translating.

JEROME’S LATIN VULGATE BIBLE

As the number of Latin-speaking Christians grew, the Bible was translated into Latin so that the Christians of the time could understand it. The first Latin manuscripts are believed to have been created in North Africa, for it seems that the church in North Africa was Latin-speaking from the start as compared to the predominantly Greek-speaking churches in Asia and Europe.

The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin version of the Bible (about 350 years after Jesus’ death), and is the popular name given to the Latin version of the Bible. It is largely the result of the labors of Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations. By the 13th century this revision had come to be called the versio vulgata, that is, the “commonly used translation”, and ultimately it became the definitive and officially promulgated Latin version of the Bible in the Roman Catholic Church.

Jerome did not embark on the work with the intention of creating a new version of the whole Bible. There were as many different Latin versions of the Bible as there were different forms of the text, and Damasus wanted the church to have a standard version to promote universal doctrine. Jerome started by revising the Gospels, using the Greek manuscripts available.

In 385 Jerome was forced out of Rome, and eventually settled in Bethlehem, where he produced a new version of the Psalms, translated from the Hexapla revision of the Septuagint. Jerome was responsible for at least three slightly different versions of the Vulgate.

The Latin Bible used before the Vulgate and usually known as the Vetus Latina, or “Old Latin”, was not translated by a single person or institution, nor even uniformly edited. The individual books varied in quality of translation and style — modern scholars often refer to the Old Latin as being in “translationese” (odd, unnatural language which appears in translations) rather than standard Latin. Jerome did not completely re-translate the original Greek and Hebrew and exactly how much revision he did is unclear. He certainly translated the Old Testament from the Hebrew and the Gospels from the Greek. Whether he translated other parts of the New Testament or just revised them from Old Latin translations is not known with certainty.

In his prologues, Jerome described those books or portions of books in the Septuagint that were not found in the Hebrew as being non-canonical: he called them Apocrypha. At first, Jerome did not want to include the Deuterocanonical books. However, Augustine of Hippo argued for their inclusion, and Pope Damasus insisted on it. Which resulted in – at least in part why – the Apocrypha is found in all complete manuscripts and editions of the Vulgate.

Several hundred years later, most people no longer spoke Latin. But even so, Jerome’s Vulgate was the official Bible in Western Europe for more than 1,000 years. This is largely due to the tyranny of the Roman Catholic Church.

THE WYCLIFFE BIBLE

The first hand-written English language Bible manuscripts were produced in the 1380’s AD by John Wycliffe, 1328 – 1384, an Oxford professor, scholar, and theologian. Wycliffe, (also spelled “Wycliff” & “Wyclif”), was well-known throughout Europe for his opposition to the teaching of the organized Church, which he believed to be contrary to the Bible. With the help of his followers, called the Lollards, and his assistant Purvey, and many other faithful scribes, Wycliffe produced dozens of English language manuscript copies of the scriptures.

Unfortunately, Wycliffe had no access to any of the original Greek or Hebrew manuscripts for his work in translating the Bible. They were translated out of the Latin Vulgate (first produced around CE 390), which was the only source text available to Wycliffe.

Each chapter of the Wycliffe Bible was written as one unbroken block of text. There were no verse numbers and no paragraph breaks, these would be later refinements. The Bible contained the now familiar 39 Old Testament and 27 New Testament Books plus the 14 Apocryphal books contained in Jerome’s Latin Bible, now recognized as non-scriptural books, for a total of 80 books.

The Pope was so infuriated by his teachings and his translation of the Bible into English, that 44 years after Wycliffe had died, he ordered the bones to be dug-up, crushed, and scattered in the river!

John Purvey, 1354 – 1421, was an associate and close friend of John Wycliffe and worked with Wycliffe in translating the Early Wycliffe Bible discussed above. Following Wycliffe’s death in 1384 Purvey revised their earlier Bible using a more readable prose style. The revision was first completed around 1395, although portions were circulated much earlier. This was referred to as the Later Wycliffe Bible and found much wider acceptance, as it was less literal and more readable.

MARTIN LUTHER / JOHN HUS

One of Wycliffe’s followers, John Hus, actively promoted Wycliffe’s ideas: that people should be permitted to read the Bible in their own language, and they should oppose the tyranny of the Roman church that threatened anyone possessing a non-Latin Bible with execution. Hus was burned at the stake in 1415, with Wycliffe’s manuscript Bibles used as kindling for the fire. The last words of John Hus were that, “in 100 years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed.” Almost exactly 100 years later, on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses of Contention (a list of 95 issues of heretical theology and crimes of the Roman Catholic Church) into the church door at Wittenberg. The prophecy of Hus had come true. Martin Luther went on to be the first person to translate and publish the Bible in the commonly-spoken dialect of the German people; a translation more appealing than previous German Biblical translations. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs records that in that same year, 1517, seven people were burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church for the crime of teaching their children to say the Lord’s Prayer in English rather than Latin.

JOHANN GUTENBERG

Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1450’s, and the first book to ever be printed was a Latin Language Bible, printed in Mainz, Germany. Gutenberg’s Bibles were surprisingly beautiful, as each leaf Gutenberg printed was later colorfully hand-illuminated. Born as “Johann Gensfleisch” (John Gooseflesh), he preferred to be known as “Johann Gutenberg” (John Beautiful Mountain). Ironically, though he had created what many believe to be the most important invention in history, Gutenberg was a victim of unscrupulous business associates who took control of his business and left him in poverty. Nevertheless, the invention of the movable-type printing press meant that Bibles and books could finally be effectively produced in large quantities in a short period of time. This was essential to the success of the Reformation.

THOMAS LINACRE

In the 1490’s another Oxford professor, and the personal physician to King Henry the 7th and 8th, Thomas Linacre, decided to learn Greek. After reading the Gospels in Greek, and comparing it to the Latin Vulgate, he wrote in his diary, “Either this (the original Greek) is not the Gospel… or we are not Christians.” The Latin had become so corrupt that it no longer even preserved the message of the Gospel… yet the Church still threatened to kill anyone who read the scripture in any language other than Latin… though Latin was not an original language of the scriptures.

JOHN COLET

In 1496, John Colet, another Oxford professor and the son of the Mayor of London, started reading the New Testament in Greek and translating it into English for his students at Oxford, and later for the public at Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London. The people were so hungry to hear the Word of God in a language they could understand, that within six months there were 20,000 people packed in the church and at least that many outside trying to get in! (Sadly, while the enormous and beautiful Saint Paul’s Cathedral remains the main church in London today, as of 2003, typical Sunday morning worship attendance is only around 200 people… and most of them are tourists). Fortunately for Colet, he was a powerful man with friends in high places, so he amazingly managed to avoid execution.

DESIDERIUS ERASMUS

Desiderius Erasmus, 1466 – 1536, attended Oxford and Cambridge. He was a highly respected Christian and humanist scholar all over Europe. He worked for approximately 15 years copying, sorting and classifying the fragmentary original Greek manuscripts since Eusebius’ work in the fourth century. He was determined to produce a New Testament that was as accurate as possible. His New Testament Greek, with a parallel column in Latin was first published in 1516 with the help of printer John Froben.

The Latin part was not the corrupt Vulgate, but his own fresh rendering of the text from the more accurate and reliable Greek, which he had managed to collate from a half-dozen partial old Greek New Testament manuscripts he had acquired. This milestone was the first non-Latin Vulgate text of the scripture to be produced in a millennium… and the first ever to come off a printing press. The 1516 Greek-Latin New Testament of Erasmus further focused attention on just how corrupt and inaccurate the Latin Vulgate had become, and how important it was to go back and use the original Greek (New Testament) and original Hebrew (Old Testament) languages to maintain accuracy… and to translate them faithfully into the languages of the common people, whether that be English, German, or any other tongue. No sympathy for this “illegal activity” was to be found from Rome… even as the words of Pope Leo X’sdeclaration that “the fable of Christ was quite profitable to him” continued through the years to infuriate the people of God.

THE TYNDALE NEW TESTAMENTS

William Tyndale, 1494-1536, was an ordained priest and highly educated scholar who had studied at both Oxford and Cambridge.

Tyndale was the first person to translate the New Testament into English directly from the original Greek. Working primarily from Erasmus’ newly produced Greek New Testament, and also from Martin Luther’s 1517 German translation, the Latin Vulgate, the original Greek manuscripts, and whatever other sources he felt necessary. Except for Luther’s 1517 German translation this was the first translation into any language directly from the Greek since Jerome’s questionable Latin translation in CE 390.

Tyndale was a master linguist, reading and speaking 8 languages fluently, including Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German and of course English. He originated many of the words and phrases we know today, such as “scapegoat”, “Passover”, “Jehovah”, “shewbread” and “peacemaker”. Tyndale was a friend and associate of Martin Luther, who was doing the same translation during this time into the German language, and crafting a unified German language. These two men were leaders of the Reformation movement, which evolved into the various Protestant denominations we have today.

Tyndale published his first translation of the New Testament in 1526. He continued to refine his New Testament translation, and began working on his fresh translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew. He printed his translation of the Pentateuch, the first 5 Books of the Old Testament (the Jewish Torah or Law), in 1530 and did another complete translation of the New Testament which was printed in 1534.

Tyndale placed the text for the Books of the New Testament in paragraphs but there were no verse numbers. This is a much more pleasant reading than the modern style of individual verses. He also placed reference letters in the margins with minimal cross references for the first time, and added some explanatory marginal notes. The final additions provided by Tyndale were to include an explanatory prologue to the Gospels and to each epistle. Tyndale wrote in a simple, direct style intended for the common person, to be read and studied alone or in small study groups.

Tyndale was thanked for all of his efforts by being thrown into prison and eventually strangled and burned at the stake, before he was able to complete translating all of the books of the Old Testament. What a disappointed loss.

The one valid criticism of Tyndale’s work is his placing of the word “Easter” into the mouth of Jesus in the gospels, which is of course absurd. Why he chose this word as opposed to “Passover” or “Pasch” I cannot say, but this is no way detracts from his other outstanding work.

WILLIAM TYNDALE AND MARTIN LUTHER

Martin Luther had a small head-start on Tyndale, as Luther declared his intolerance for the Roman Church’s corruption on Halloween in 1517, by nailing his 95 Theses of Contention to the Wittenberg Church door. Luther, who would be exiled in the months following the Diet of Worms Council in 1521 that was designed to martyr him, would translate the New Testament into German for the first time from the 1516 Greek-Latin New Testament of Erasmus, and publish it in September of 1522. Luther also published a German Pentateuch in 1523, and another edition of the German New Testament in 1529. In the 1530’s he would go on to publish the entire Bible in German.

William Tyndale wanted to use the same 1516 Erasmus text as a source to translate and print the New Testament in English for the first time in history. Tyndale showed up on Luther’s doorstep in Germany in 1525, and by year’s end had translated the New Testament into English. Tyndale had been forced to flee England, because of the wide-spread rumor that his English New Testament project was underway, causing inquisitors and bounty hunters to be constantly on Tyndale’s trail to arrest him and prevent his project. God foiled their plans, and in 1525-1526 the Tyndale New Testament became the first printed edition of the scripture in the English language. Subsequent printings of the Tyndale New Testament in the 1530’s were often elaborately illustrated.

They were burned as soon as the Bishop could confiscate them, but copies trickled through and actually ended up in the bedroom of King Henry VIII. The more the King and Bishop resisted its distribution, the more fascinated the public at large became. The church declared it contained thousands of errors as they torched hundreds of New Testaments confiscated by the clergy, while in fact, they burned them because they could find no errors at all. One risked death by burning if caught in mere possession of Tyndale’s forbidden books.

Having God’s Word available to the public in the language of the common man, English, would have meant disaster to the church. No longer would they control access to the scriptures. If people were able to read the Bible in their own tongue, the church’s income and power would crumble. They could not possibly continue to get away with selling indulgences (the forgiveness of sins) or selling the release of loved ones from a church-manufactured “Purgatory”. People would begin to challenge the church’s authority if the church were exposed as frauds and thieves. The contradictions between what God’s Word said, and what the priests taught, would open the public’s eyes and the truth would set them free from the grip of fear that the institutional church held. Salvation through faith, not works or donations, would be understood. The need for priests would vanish through the priesthood of all believers. The veneration of church-canonized Saints and Mary would be called into question. The availability of the scriptures in English was the biggest threat imaginable to the wicked church. Neither side would give up without a fight.

Today, there are only two known copies left of Tyndale’s 1525-26 First Edition. Any copies printed prior to 1570 are extremely valuable. Tyndale’s flight was an inspiration to freedom-loving Englishmen who drew courage from the 11 years that he was hunted. Books and Bibles flowed into England in bales of cotton and sacks of flour. Ironically, Tyndale’s biggest customer was the King’s men, who would buy up every copy available to burn them… and Tyndale used their money to print even more! In the end, Tyndale was caught: betrayed by an Englishman that he had befriended. Tyndale was incarcerated for 500 days before he was strangled and burned at the stake in 1536. Tyndale’s last words were, “Oh Lord, open the King of England’s eyes”. This prayer would be answered just three years later in 1539, when King Henry VIII finally allowed, and even funded, the printing of an English Bible known as the “Great Bible”. But before that could happen…

MYLES COVERDALE (THE COVERDALE BIBLE)

Myles Coverdale and John “Thomas Matthew” Rogers had remained loyal disciples the last six years of Tyndale’s life, and they carried the English Bible project forward and even accelerated it. Coverdale finished translating the Old Testament, and in 1535 he printed the first complete Bible in the English language, making use of Luther’s German text and the Latin as sources. Thus, the first complete English Bible was printed on October 4, 1535, and is known as the Coverdale Bible.

JOHN ROGERS / THOMAS MATTHEW

John Rogers went on to print the second complete English Bible in 1537. It was, however, the first English Bible translated from the original Biblical languages of Hebrew & Greek. He printed it under the pseudonym “Thomas Matthew”, (an assumed name that had actually been used by Tyndale at one time) as a considerable part of this Bible was the translation of Tyndale, whose writings had been condemned by the English authorities. It is a composite made up of Tyndale’s Pentateuch and New Testament (1534-1535 edition) and Coverdale’s Bible and some of Roger’s own translation of the text. It remains known most commonly as the Matthew-Tyndale Bible. It went through a nearly identical second-edition printing in 1549.

THOMAS CRANMER

In 1539, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, hired Myles Coverdale at the bequest of King Henry VIII to publish the “Great Bible”. It became the first English Bible authorized for public use, as it was distributed to every church, chained to the pulpit, and a reader was even provided so that the illiterate could hear the Word of God in plain English. It would seem that William Tyndale’s last wish had been granted… just three years after his martyrdom. Cranmer’s Bible, published by Coverdale, was known as the Great Bible due to its great size: a large pulpit folio measuring over 14 inches tall. Seven editions of this version were printed between April of 1539 and December of 1541.

KING HENRY VIII

It was not that King Henry VIII had a change of conscience regarding publishing the Bible in English. His motives were more sinister… but the Lord sometimes uses the evil intentions of men to bring about His glory. King Henry VIII had in fact, requested that the Pope permit him to divorce his wife and marry his mistress. The Pope refused. King Henry responded by marrying his mistress anyway, (later having two of his many wives executed), and thumbing his nose at the Pope by renouncing Roman Catholicism, taking England out from under Rome’s religious control, and declaring himself as the reigning head of State to also be the new head of the Church. This new branch of the Christian Church, neither Roman Catholic nor truly Protestant, became known as the Anglican Church or the Church of England. King Henry acted essentially as its “Pope”. His first act was to further defy the wishes of Rome by funding the printing of the scriptures in English… the first legal English Bible… just for spite.

QUEEN “BLOODY” MARY

The ebb and flow of freedom continued through the 1540’s…and into the 1550’s. After King Henry VIII, King Edward VI took the throne, and after his death, the reign of Queen “Bloody” Mary was the next obstacle to the printing of the Bible in English. She was possessed in her quest to return England to the Roman Church. In 1555, John “Thomas Matthew” Rogers and Thomas Cranmer were both burned at the stake. Mary went on to burn reformers at the stake by the hundreds for the “crime” of being a Protestant. This era was known as the Marian Exile, and the refugees fled from England with little hope of ever seeing their home or friends again.

THE GENEVA BIBLE

Geneva Switzerland in the latter half of the 16th century was a center for textual scholarship and research in Europe, both scriptural and secular, and had become the home of many Protestant reformers escaping the persecution of Queen Mary I (Bloody Mary) of England and from elsewhere throughout Europe.

Many of them met in Geneva, led by Myles Coverdale and John Foxe (publisher of the famous Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, which is to this day the only exhaustive reference work on the persecution and martyrdom of Early Christians and Protestants from the first century up to the mid-16th century), as well as Thomas Sampson and William Whittingham. There, with the protection of the great theologian John Calvin (author of the famous theological book, Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion) and John Knox, the great Reformer of the Scottish Church, the Church of Geneva was determined to produce a new translation of the Bible, one for the average person to read and study in detail, a true study Bible.

This Geneva Bible contained lengthy explanatory prologues to all of the Books, as well as extensive explanatory notes to individual verses throughout and extensive cross references. This was the first Bible in English that could truly be called a Protestant Bible.

The New Testament was printed in 1557, the entire Bible in 1560. Due to a passage in Genesis describing the clothing that God fashioned for Adam and Eve upon expulsion from the Garden of Eden as “Breeches” (an antiquated form of “Britches”), some people referred to the Geneva Bible as the Breeches Bible.

This was a true international Bible, simple in phrasing, and went through over one hundred and fifty editions, the last and most advanced being in 1599. The Geneva Bible was so loved that it remained the Bible of choice in England for over half a century after the printing of the King James Bible, until it was eventually banned by King James, who wished to promote the King James Version and to suppress the extensive explanatory notes. William Shakespeare quotes hundreds of times in his plays from the Geneva translation of the Bible.

Examination of the 1611 King James Bible shows clearly that its translators were influenced much more by the Geneva Bible, than by any other source.

The Geneva was the Bible that the Pilgrims brought with them to the Colonies in 1620. This was the first English Bible to break the paragraphs into numbered verses to facilitate across referencing, but they did leave in the earlier paragraph markings for reference.

This was also an 80 book Bible, as were all of the Bibles at this time. Even though these were large and expensive Bibles, the Pilgrims generally tore out and burned the 14 apocryphal books, which they felt were not divinely inspired scripture, but only books of Jewish history.

The list of firsts for the Geneva Bible is truly impressive.

  • This was the first Bible to break the paragraphs into the numbered verses we have today.
  • The first Bible with extensive cross references to the verse numbers.
  • The first truly study Bible, with extensive explanatory notes.
  • The first study Bible with extensive explanatory prologues to each Book.
  • The first committee written Bible.
  • The first truly international Bible, having been written by a committee from several countries and in an easy to understand English as possible.

The 1599 version of the Geneva Bible is expertly brought up to date, complete with all of the extensive explanatory footnotes and cross references, and with spelling corrected to modern standards and proper names normalized to the King James Version.

BISHOPS BIBLE

With the end of Queen Mary’s bloody reign, the reformers could safely return to England. The Anglican Church, now under Queen Elizabeth I, reluctantly tolerated the printing and distribution of Geneva version Bibles in England. The marginal notes, which were vehemently against the institutional Church of the day, did not rest well with the rulers of the day. Another version, one with a less inflammatory tone was desired, and the copies of the Great Bible were getting to be decades old. In 1568, a revision of the Great Bible known as the Bishop’s Bible was introduced. Despite 19 editions being printed between 1568 and 1606, this Bible, referred to as the “rough draft of the King James Version”, never gained much of a foothold of popularity among the people. The Geneva may have simply been too much to compete with.

THE ENGLISH BIBLE

By the 1580’s, the Roman Catholic Church saw that it had lost the battle to suppress the will of God: that His Holy Word be available in the English language. In 1582, the Church of Rome surrendered their fight for “Latin only” and decided that if the Bible was to be available in English, they would at least have an official Roman Catholic English translation. And so, using the corrupt and inaccurate Latin Vulgate as the only source text, they went on to publish an English Bible with all the distortions and corruptions that Erasmus had revealed and warned of 75 years earlier. Because it was translated at the Roman Catholic College in the city of Rheims, it was known as the Rheims New Testament (also spelled Rhemes). The Douay Old Testament was translated by the Church of Rome in 1609 at the College in the city of Douay (also spelled Doway & Douai). The combined product is commonly referred to as the “Doway/Rheims” Version. In 1589, Dr. William Fulke of Cambridge published the “Fulke’s Refutation”, in which he printed in parallel columns the Bishops Version alongside the Rheims Version, attempting to show the error and distortion of the Roman Church’s corrupt compromise of an English version of the Bible.

THE KING JAMES BIBLE

In 1603 Prince James VI of Scotland succeeded Queen Elizabeth I as King of England and was crowned King James I. This was a time of religious turmoil in England as well as the rest of Europe.

The Protestant clergy approached the new King in 1604 and announced their desire for a new translation to replace the Bishop’s Bible first printed in 1568. They knew that the Geneva Version had won the hearts of the people because of its excellent scholarship, accuracy, and exhaustive commentary. However, they (including King James I) did not want the controversial marginal notes (proclaiming the Pope an Anti-Christ, etc.) Essentially, the leaders of the church desired a Bible for the people, with scriptural references only for word clarification or cross-references.

In January of 1604 King James assembled a group of religious leaders to discuss resolution of sharp religious conflicts within England. This meeting eventually led to the establishment of panels of 54 of the best Hebrew, Greek, and religious scholars of the day at Oxford, Cambridge and London that produced the most widely printed Bible in history, the well-known King James Version. King James ordered that this not be a new translation, but a revision of the heavily Latinized Bishops Bible of 1568 and have almost no explanatory notes. Evidence of this Latinized origin can be seen throughout the King James, in the tone and sentence structure.

Although obligated to follow the King’s orders, the committee also drew very heavily from Tyndale, Geneva, and even the Catholic Douay-Rheims. This is clearly evident in comparing many of the passages. The King James Version has retained its reputation as one of the most popular of the Bible translations, even to this day, in spite of its sometimes awkward and difficult to follow Latinized sentence structure.

The King James Version was first printed in 1611, in large size pulpit format. A typographical discrepancy in Ruth 3:15 rendered a pronoun “He” instead of “She” in that verse in some printings. This caused some of the 1611 First Editions to be known by collectors as “He” Bibles, and others as “She” Bibles.

The first smaller size Bibles, for individualized study, were first printed around 1613. These were all 80 book Bibles, containing what we now refer to as the “Apocrypha”. This was a monumental undertaking.

The Anglican Church’s King James Bible took decades to overcome the more popular Protestant Church’s Geneva Bible. One of the greatest ironies of history, is that many Protestant Christian churches today embrace the King James Bible exclusively as the “only” legitimate English language translation… even though it is not a Protestant translation. It was printed to compete with the Protestant Geneva Bible, by authorities who throughout most of history were hostile to Protestants… and killed them.

While many Protestants are quick to assign the full blame of persecution to the Roman Catholic Church, it should be noted that even after England broke from Roman Catholicism in the 1500’s, the Church of England (The Anglican Church) continued to persecute Protestants throughout the 1600’s. One famous example of this is John Bunyan, who while in prison for the crime of preaching the Gospel, wrote one of Christian history’s greatest books, Pilgrim’s Progress. Throughout the 1600’s, as the Puritans and the Pilgrims fled the religious persecution of England to cross the Atlantic and start a new free nation in America, they took with them their precious Geneva Bible, and rejected the King’s Bible. America was founded upon the Geneva Bible, not the King James Bible.

Nevertheless, the King James Bible turned out to be an excellent and accurate translation, and it became the most printed book in the history of the world, and the only book with one billion copies in print.

In 1769 the spelling of the original 1611 version was significantly updated, along with minor word and punctuation changes, and changes in some of the marginal notes. This was the little known and rarely acknowledged Baskerville – Birmingham revision of the King James Version. This is the spelling and wording contained in the King James Bibles that are sold today. The Baskerville – Birmingham revision was also an 80 book Bible.

Although the first Bible printed in America was done in the native Algonquin Indian Language by John Eliot in 1663; the first English language Bible to be printed in America by Robert Aitken in 1782 was a King James Version. Robert Aitken’s 1782 Bible was also the only Bible ever authorized by the United States Congress. He was commended by President George Washington for providing Americans with Bibles during the embargo of imported English goods due to the Revolutionary War. In 1808, Robert’s daughter, Jane Aitken, would become the first woman to ever print a Bible… and to do so in America, of course. In 1791, Isaac Collins vastly improved upon the quality and size of the typesetting of American Bibles and produced the first “Family Bible” printed in America… also a King James Version. Also in 1791, Isaiah Thomas published the first Illustrated Bible printed in America… in the King James Version.

While Noah Webster, just a few years after producing his famous Dictionary of the English Language, would produce his own modern translation of the English Bible in 1833; the public remained too loyal to the King James Version for Webster’s version to have much impact.

It was not really until the 1870’s that England’s own planned replacement for their King James Bible, the English Revised Version (E.R.V. (of 1881-1885)) would become the first English language Bible to gain popular acceptance as a post-King James Version Modern-English Bible (actually the Baskerville – Birmingham revision). It reflected then current spelling and punctuation standards. Likewise, it omitted the Apocrypha and was the first widely distributed Bible to be printed in the now familiar 66 Book format.

For the past 200 years, many King James Bibles published in America are actually the 1769 Baskerville – Birmingham spelling and wording revision of the 1611. The original “1611” preface is included by the publishers, and no mention of the fact of the version is to be found. The only way to obtain a true, unaltered, 1611 version is to purchase an original pre-1769 printing of the King James Bible.

The greatest difference between the original 1611 and subsequent revisions of the King James Version is the updating of spelling and punctuation to the developing standards. Many of the footnotes and italics were also changed in the subsequent revisions.

KING JAMES BIBLE – TIMELINE

100 = The first century saw the completion of all the gospels and epistles that now make up the New Testament in their original Greek.

390 = Jerome’s Latin Vulgate manuscripts are produced at the direction of roman Emperor Constantine I, containing 80 Books (39 Old Testament, 14 Apocrypha, 27 New Testament).

1384 = John Wycliffe produces the first hand written manuscript copy of the complete Bible in English (80 Books) from the Latin translations then in use.

1395 = John Purvey revises the Wycliffe Bible.

1455 = Gutenberg invents the printing press and prints the first book ever printed, the Gutenberg Bible in Latin.

1516 = Erasmus prints the first consolidated New Testament in Greek from original manuscripts.

1522 = Martin Luther prints the first New Testament in German translated directly from Erasmus’ Greek.

1526 = William Tyndale prints the first New Testament in English translated directly from Erasmus’ Greek.

1530 = Tyndale prints the first Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament, the Jewish Torah or Law) in English.

1534 = Tyndale prints his revised New Testament

1535 = Myles Coverdale prints the first complete Bible in English translated directly from Greek (80 Books).

1537 = Matthews Bible, the second complete Bible to be printed in English, John “Thomas Matthew” Rogers (80 Books).

1539 = Matthews “Great Bible”, the first English Bible to be authorized for public use in print (80 Books).

1560 = The Geneva Bible, the first English Bible to add numbered verses within each chapter is printed, containing extensive references and commentaries (80 Books).

1568 = The Bishops Bible, the Bible which King James ordered to be the basis for the King James Bible was printed (80 Books).

1611 = The original King James Bible is printed (80 Books).

1769 = The Baskerville-Birmingham revision to the original King James Bible is printed, with spelling updates and minor word changes (80 Books).

1885 = The English Revision Committee revised the King James Bible, removing the Apocrypha and leaving the current 66 Books. This is known as the English Revised Version today.

KING JAMES BIBLE VERSION COMPARISON

From the early 20th century until today many new English Bible Translations have been produced. The biggest argument for the new translations is that the old English translation(s) is difficult to read due to the fact that many of the words and phrases used then are no longer used now. The argument goes, a modern translation is needed so the Bible can be better understood by today’s society.

An important need for some of the newer translations (such as the New American Standard Bible (NAS)) is that much has been learned and/or discovered since the days of the “old” translations (i.e. the King James Version).

Another factor to consider is Copyright. According to copyright law, “To be copyrightable, a derivative work must be different enough from the original to be regarded as a “new work” or must contain a substantial amount of new material. Making minor changes or additions of little substance to a preexisting work will not qualify the work as a new version for copyright purposes.” Only the King James Version (KJV aka AKJ (Authorized King James)) and the American Standard Versions (ASV) are not under copyright (they are public domain).

In addition, copyright holders of the English Bible translations often require permission and/or a fee to print or duplicate their translations after using a certain amount of the text.

For study purposes only, below is a list of 300 verses that are different in seven of the most popular Bible versions – compared to the King James Version. Practically all of the differences are rightfully done based on manuscript comparison and/or historical context.

ACRONYM DESCRIPTIONS

  • NINC = Not Included
  • CHG = Changed
  • ADD = Added
  • NI = New International Version Bible
  • NAS = New American Standard Version Bible
  • NKJ = New King James Version Bible
  • RS = Revised Standard Version Bible
  • NRS = New Revised Standard Version Bible
  • LB = The Living Bible
  • NC = New Century Version Bible

Matt. 1:25 – – – – – NINC “Firstborn” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 5:22 – – – – – NINC “without a cause” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 5:44 – – – – – REM 12 WORDS “bless them that curse you…” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 6:13 – – – – – NINC LAST 14 WORDS (For thine is the kingdom…) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 6:27 – – – – – CHG “cubit to his stature” TO “hour to his life” et. al. – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 6:33 – – – – – NINC “of God” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 8:29 – – – – – NINC “Jesus” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 9:13 – – – – – NINC “to repentance” (see also Mark 2:17) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 11:23 – – – – – NINC hell – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, NC
Matt. 12:6 – – – – – NINC “one greater” TO “something greater” – – – – – NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Matt. 12:35 – – – – – NINC “of the heart” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Matt. 12:40 – – – – – CHG “whale” TO “fish”, sea monster – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 12:47 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE VERSE – – – – – NI, RS, NRS,
Matt. 13:51 – – – – – NINC “Lord” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 15:8 – – – – – NINC “draweth nigh unto me with their mouth” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 16:3 – – – – – NINC “o ye hypocrites” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 16:18 – – – – – NINC hell – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, NC
Matt. 16:20 – – – – – NINC “Jesus” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 17:21 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE VERSE – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Matt. 18:11 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE VERSE (key verse) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Matt. 18:26 – – – – – NINC and worshipped him (for Jesus) – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, NC
Matt. 19:9 – – – – – NINC LAST 11 WORDS – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 19:17 – – – – – CHG “Why callest thou me good” TO “Why do you ask me about what is good” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Matt. 19:17 – – – – – NINC “God” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS
Matt. 20:7 – – – – – NINC “and whatsoever is right that shall ye receive” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 20:16 – – – – – NINC “for many be called but few chosen” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 20:20 – – – – – CHG “worshipping him” TO “kneeling down” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS
Matt. 20:22 – – – – – NINC 12 WORDS “baptized with Christ’s baptism” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 21:44 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE VERSE – – – – – NI, RS, NRS, NC
Matt. 23:14 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE VERSE – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Matt. 23:33 – – – – – CHG damnation TO condemn, et. al. – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 24:36 – – – – – ADD “nor the Son” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 24:36 – – – – – CHG “my Father” TO “the Father” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 25:13 – – – – – NINC “wherein the Son of man cometh” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB
Matt. 27:35 – – – – – NINC LAST 25 WORDS – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 27:54 – – – – – CHG “the Son of God” TO “a son of God” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 28:2 – – – – – NINC “from the door” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Matt. 28:9 – – – – – NINC “And as they went to tell his disciples” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 1:1 – – – – – NINC the Son of God – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Mark 1:2 – – – – – CHG “prophets” TO “Isaiah” (blatant LIE) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 1:14 – – – – – NINC “of the kingdom” (gospel … of God) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 1:31 – – – – – NINC “immediately” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 2:17 – – – – – NINC “to repentance” – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, NC
Mark 3:29 – – – – – CHG “eternal damnation” TO “eternal sin”, et al. – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 6:11 – – – – – REM LAST 23 WORDS – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Mark 7:8 – – – – – NINC LAST 15 WORDS – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 7:16 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE VERSE – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 9:24 – – – – – NINC “Lord” (refers to Jesus) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 9:44 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE VERSE (about hell) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 9:46 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE VERSE (about hell) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 9:49 – – – – – NINC “and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 10:21 – – – – – NINC “take up the cross” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 10:24 – – – – – NINC “for them that trust in riches” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Mark 11:10 – – – – – NINC “that cometh in the name of the Lord – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 11:26 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE VERSE – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 12:23 – – – – – NINC “when they shall rise” – – – – – NI, RS, NRS, LB,
Mark 12:40 – – – – – CHG greater damnation TO punished most severely”, greater condemnation” – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 13:6 – – – – – CHG I am Christ TO I am He, the One – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 13:14 – – – – – NINC “spoken of by Daniel the prophet” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 13:33 – – – – – NINC “and pray” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 14:68 – – – – – NINC “and the cock crew” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS
Mark 15:28 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE VERSE – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Mark 16:9-20 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE LAST 12 VERSES of Mark 16 – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 1:28 – – – – – NINC “blessed art thou among women” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 2:14 – – – – – CHG good will toward men TO to men on whom his favor rests”et al – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 2:22 – – – – – CHG “her” TO “their” (makes Jesus a sinner) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Luke 2:33 – – – – – CHG “Joseph” TO “his father” (attacks virgin birth) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Luke 2:43 – – – – – CHG “Joseph and his mother” TO “parents” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 4:4 – – – – – NINC “but by every word of God” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 4:8 – – – – – NINC “get thee behind me, Satan” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 4:18 – – – – – NINC 8 WORDS “he hath sent me to heal…” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Luke 4:41 – – – – – NINC “Christ” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 6:48 – – – – – CHG “founded upon a rock” TO “well built” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 9:54 – – – – – NINC “even as Elijah did” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 9:55 – – – – – NINC 9 WORDS “ye know not what manner of spirit…” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 9:56 – – – – – NINC FIRST 16 WORDS For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 9:57 – – – – – NINC Lord – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 10:15 – – – – – NINC hell – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, NC
Luke 11:2 – – – – – NINC 15 WORDS from Lord’s prayer – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 11:4 – – – – – NINC but deliver us from evil (Lord’s prayer) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 11:29 – – – – – NINC “the prophet” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 16:23 – – – – – NINC “hell” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 17:36 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE VERSE – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 21:4 – – – – – NINC “cast in unto the offerings of God” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 21:8 – – – – – CHG I am Christ TO I am He, the One – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 22:64 – – – – – NINC “they struck him on the face” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Luke 23:17 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE VERSE – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 23:38 – – – – – NINC “letters of Greek, Latin, Hebrew” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 23:42 – – – – – NINC “Lord” (thief on the cross – getting saved!) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Luke 24:6 – – – – – NINC “He is not here, but is risen” – – – – – RS, NRS
Luke 24:49 – – – – – NINC “of Jerusalem” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB
John 1:14, 18 – – – – – NINC “begotten”(refers to Jesus) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 1:27 – – – – – NINC “is preferred before me” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 3:13 – – – – – NINC “which is in heaven” (refers to Jesus) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 3:15 – – – – – NINC “should not perish” (believeth in him…) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 3:16 – – – – – NINC “begotten” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 3:18 – – – – – NINC “begotten” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 4:24 – – – – – CHG God is a Spirit TO God is Spirit – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 4:42 – – – – – NINC “the Christ” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 5:3 – – – – – NINC LAST 7 WORDS – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 5:4 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE VERSE – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 5:16 – – – – – REM “and sought to slay him” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 5:29 – – – – – CHG damnation TO condemn, judgement – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 6:47 – – – – – NINC “on Me” (He that believeth…) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
John 6:69 – – – – – CHG “Christ, the Son of the living God” TO “Holy One of God” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 7:53-8:11 – – – – – NINC VERSES 7:53 – 8:11 – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 8;9 – – – – – NINC “being convicted by their own conscience” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 8:47 – – – – – NINC “heareth God’s words” TO “hears what God says” – – – – – NI, NC
John 8:59 – – – – – NINC LAST 10 WORDS “going through the midst… – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 9:4 – – – – – CHG “I must work the works” TO “We must work the works” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 9:35 – – – – – CHG “Son of God” TO Son of Man , Messiah – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 11:41 – – – – – NINC “For the place where the dead was laid” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 14:2 – – – – – CHG “mansions” TO “rooms”, “dwelling places” – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 14:16 – – – – – CHG Comforter TO Helper, Counselor, et. al. – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, NC
John 16:16 – – – – – NINC “because I go to the Father” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
John 17:12 – – – – – NINC “in the world” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 1:3 – – – – – CHG “infallible” TO “convincing” et al. – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 2:30 – – – – – NINC “he would raise up Christ – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 2:31 – – – – – NINC “hell” – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, NC
Acts 2:38 – – – – – CHG remission of sins TO forgiveness of sins – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 4:27,30 – – – – – CHG “holy child” TO “holy servant” (attacks deity) – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 7:30 – – – – – NINC “of the Lord” (angel of the Lord) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 7:37 – – – – – NINC “Him shall ye hear” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 8:37 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE VERSE (major salvation verse) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 9:5 – – – – – NINC “it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 10:6 – – – – – NINC “he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 15:11 – – – – – NINC “Christ” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 15:18 – – – – – CHG beginning of the world TO …eternity, …ages – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 15:34 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE VERSE – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 16:31 – – – – – NINC “Christ” (Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 17:16 – – – – – CHG “stirred” TO “provoked”, distressed et al. – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 17:22 – – – – – CHG “Mars Hill” TO” Areopagus” – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, NC
Acts 17:22 – – – – – NINC “superstitious” TO “religious” – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 17:26 – – – – – NINC “blood” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 17:29 – – – – – CHG Godhead TO Divine Nature , divine being – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 19:35 – – – – – NINC worshipper – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 20:21 – – – – – NINC Christ – – – – – NI, NRS, NC
Acts 20:24 – – – – – NINC “none of these things move me. . .” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 20:25 – – – – – NINC “of God” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB
Acts 23:9 – – – – – NINC “let us not fight against God” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 24:7 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE VERSE – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Acts 24:14 – – – – – CHG heresy TO sect – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB
Acts 24:15 – – – – – NINC “of the dead” (Resurrection) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB
Acts 28:16 – – – – – NINC 11 WORDS – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Acts 28:29 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE VERSE – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 1:3 – – – – – NINC “Jesus Christ our Lord” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS
Romans 1:16 – – – – – NINC “of Christ” (gospel of Christ) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Romans 1:18 – – – – – CHG “hold the truth” TO “suppress the truth” – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 1:25 – – – – – CHG “changed the truth” TO “exchanged the truth” – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 1:29 – – – – – NINC “fornication” – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 5:8 – – – – – CHG commendeth TO demonstrates , et al. – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 6:8 – – – – – CHG we be dead TO we died – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 6:11 – – – – – NINC our Lord – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Romans 8:1 – – – – – NINC LAST 10 WORDS – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 9:28 – – – – – NINC “in righteousness” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 10:15 – – – – – NINC LAST 9 WORDS – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 10:17 – – – – – CHG “word of God” TO word of Christ – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 11:6 – – – – – NINC “LAST 18 WORDS ARE OMITTED” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 13:2 – – – – – CHG damnation TO judgment et al. – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 13:9 – – – – – NINC “Thou shall not bear false witness” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 14:6 – – – – – NINC 15 WORDS – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 14:10 – – – – – CHG “the judgement seat of Christ” TO “God’s judgment seat” et al. – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 14:21 – – – – – NINC “or is offended, or is made weak” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 14:23 – – – – – CHG damned TO condemned – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 15:8 – – – – – NINC Jesus – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Romans 15:19 – – – – – NINC “of God” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, LB, NC
Romans 15:29 – – – – – NINC “of the gospel” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 16:18 – – – – – CHG good words and fair speeches TO smooth talk and flattery – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Romans 16:24 – – – – – NINC ENTIRE VERSE – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
I Cor. 1:21 – – – – – CHG “foolishness of preaching” TO “foolishness of the message preached” – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
I Cor. 1:22 – – – – – NINC “require” TO “request”, ask (Jews require a sign) – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
I Cor. 5:4 – – – – – NINC  “Christ” (TWICE) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
I Cor. 5:7 – – – – – NINC “for us” (Christ sacrificed) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
I Cor. 6:9 – – – – – CHG effeminate TO male prostitutes et al. – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
I Cor. 6:20 – – – – – NINC “and in your spirit, which are God’s” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
I Cor. 7:5 – – – – – NINC “fasting” (with prayer) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
I Cor. 7:39 – – – – – NINC “by the law” (The wife is bound) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
I Cor. 9:1 – – – – – NINC “Christ” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
I Cor. 9:27 – – – – – CHG “I keep my body” TO “I beat my body” et al. – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
I Cor. 9:27 – – – – – CHG “castaway” TO “disqualified” et al. – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
I Cor. 10:28 – – – – – NINC LAST 10 WORDS (“the earth is the Lord’s…”) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
I Cor. 11:11 – – – – – NINC “in the Lord” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
I Cor. 11:24 – – – – – NINC “take eat… broken…” (Lord’s Supper) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
I Cor. 11:29 – – – – – CHG damnation TO judgment (Lord’s Supper) – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
I Cor. 11:29 – – – – – NINC “unworthily” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
I Cor. 14:33 – – – – – CHG “author of confusion” TO “a God of disorder” et al. – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
I Cor. 15:47 – – – – – CHG Lord from heaven TO man from heaven – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
I Cor. 15:55 – – – – – CHG “grave” TO “Hades”, death – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
I Cor. 16:22 – – – – – NINC “Jesus Christ” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
I Cor. 16:23 – – – – – NINC “Christ” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
2 Cor. 2:10 – – – – – CHG “person of Christ” TO “presence of Christ” – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
2 Cor. 2:17 – – – – – CHG “corrupt” TO “peddle”, sell (word of God) – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
2 Cor.4:6 – – – – – NINC “Jesus” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, LB, NC
2 Cor. 4:10 – – – – – NINC “the Lord” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
2 Cor. 5:17 – – – – – CHG “creature” TO “creation” – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
2 Cor. 5:18 – – – – – NINC “Jesus” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
2 Cor.10:5 – – – – – CHG “Casting down imaginations” TO “We demolish arguments” et al. – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
2 Cor.11:6 – – – – – CHG rude in speech TO untrained in speech – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
2 Cor.11:31 – – – – – NINC “Christ” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS
Gal. 2:20 – – – – – NINC “nevertheless I live” – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Gal. 3:1 – – – – – NINC that ye should not obey the truth – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Gal.3:17 – – – – – NINC “in Christ” (confirmed… of God in Christ) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Gal. 4:7 – – – – – NINC “through Christ” (heir of God through Christ) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Gal. 5:4 – – – – – CHG “no effect” TO “estranged from”, alienated – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Gal. 6:15 – – – – – NINC “For in Christ Jesus” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Gal. 6:17 – – – – – NINC “the Lord” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Ephesians 1:6 – – – – – NINC “accepted in the beloved” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Ephesians 3:9 – – – – – NINC “by Jesus Christ” (who created all things by) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Ephesians 3:14 – – – – – NINC “of our Lord Jesus Christ” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Ephesians 5:9 – – – – – CHG fruit of the Spirit TO fruit of the light – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Ephesians 5:30 – – – – – NINC “of his flesh, and of his bones” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Philippians 2:6 – – – – – CHG “thought it not robbery to be equal with God TO did not consider equality with God something to be grasped et al. – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Philippians 2:7 – – – – – CHG “made” TO “emptied” – – – – – NAS, RS, NRS, LB,
Philippians 3:8 – – – – – CHG dung TO rubbish , trash – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Philippians 3:16 – – – – – NINC LAST 13 WORDS – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Philippians 4:13 – – – – – CHG through Christ TO through him – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS
Colossians 1:2 – – – – – NINC “and the Lord Jesus Christ” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Colossians 1:14 – – – – – NINC “through His blood” (redemption through…) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Colossians 1:28 – – – – – NINC “Jesus” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Colossians 3:6 – – – – – NINC “on the children of disobedience” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, LB, NC
1 Thess. 1:1 – – – – – NINC LAST 9 WORDS (from God our father…) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 Thess. 2:19 – – – – – NINC “Christ” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS
1 Thess. 3:11 – – – – – NINC “Christ” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 Thess. 3:13 – – – – – NINC “Christ” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 Thess. 5:22 – – – – – CHG “all appearance of evil” TO “every form of evil” – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
2 Thess. 1:8 – – – – – NINC “Christ” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS
2 Thess. 1:12 – – – – – NINC Christ – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS
1 Timothy 1:1 – – – – – NINC Lord – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
1 Timothy 1:17 – – – – – NINC “wise” (the only wise God) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 Timothy 2:7 – – – – – NINC “in Christ” (…the truth in Christ) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 Timothy 3:16 – – – – – CHG “God” TO “he” (God manifest in the flesh) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 Timothy 4:12 – – – – – NINC “in spirit” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 Timothy 5:21 – – – – – NINC Lord – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
1 Timothy 6:1 – – – – – CHG blasphemed TO spoken against et al. – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, LB, NC
1 Timothy 6:5 – – – – – CHG gain is godliness TO godliness is a means of gain et al. – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 Timothy 6:5 – – – – – REM “from such withdraw thyself” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
1 Timothy 6:10 – – – – – CHG “root of all evil” TO “root of all kinds of evil” – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 Timothy 6:19 – – – – – CHG “eternal life” TO “the life that is truly life” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 Timothy 6:20 – – – – – CHG “science” TO “knowledge” – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
2 Timothy 1:11 – – – – – NINC “of the gentiles” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
2 Timothy 2:15 – – – – – NINC “study” (only command to study the word) – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
2 Timothy 3:3 – – – – – CHG of those that are good TO good – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, NC
2 Timothy 4:1 – – – – – NINC “the Lord” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
2 Timothy 4:22 – – – – – NINC “Jesus Christ” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Hebrews 1:3 – – – – – CHG “by himself purged our sins” TO “provided purification for sins” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Hebrews 2:7 – – – – – NINC  LAST 10 WORDS (and didst set him over the works…) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Hebrews 3:1 – – – – – NINC “Christ Jesus” (High Priest of our…) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Hebrews 7:21 – – – – – NINC “after the order of Melchisedec” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Hebrews 10:34 – – – – – NINC “in heaven” (ye have in heaven a better) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Hebrews 11:11 – – – – – NINC “was delivered of a child” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
James 5:16 – – – – – CHG “faults” TO “sins” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
1 Peter 1:22 – – – – – NINC “through the Spirit” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 Peter 2:2 – – – – – NINC “of the word” (sincere milk of the word) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 Peter 2:2 – – – – – CHG “grow thereby” TO “grow up in your salvation” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 Peter 3:15 – – – – – CHG the Lord God TO Christ as Lord et al. – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 Peter 4:1 – – – – – NINC “for us” (Christ hath suffered for us) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 Peter 4:14 – – – – – NINC LAST 15 WORDS – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 Peter 5:10 – – – – – NINC “Jesus” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 Peter 5:11 – – – – – NINC “glory (to Him be glory and dominion) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 Peter 5:14 – – – – – NINC Jesus – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
2 Peter 2:1 – – – – – CHG damnable TO destructive – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
2 Peter 2:17 – – – – – NINC “for ever” (darkness is reserved for ever) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
2 Peter 3:9 – – – – – NINC “us” TO “you” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 John 1:7 – – – – – NINC “Christ” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 John 3:16 – – – – – NINC “of God” (love of God) – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 John 4:3 – – – – – NINC “Christ is come in the flesh” (antichrist) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 John 4:9 – – – – – NINC “begotten” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 John 4:19 – – – – – NINC him (We love him, because he first…) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 John 5:7 – – – – – NINC LAST 15 WORDS – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 John 5:8 – – – – – NINC FIRST 9 WORDS – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 John 5:13 – – – – – NINC LAST 13 WORDS – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
1 John 5:13 – – – – – ADD continue to (denies eternal security) – – – – – NKJ
2 John 1:3 – – – – – NINC the Lord – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Jude 1:25 – – – – – NINC “wise” (Referring to God) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Rev. 1:8 – – – – – NINC “the beginning and the ending” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Rev. 1:9 – – – – – NINC Christ (TWICE) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Rev. 1:11 – – – – – NINC “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Rev. 1:18 – – – – – NINC hell – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, NC
Rev. 2:13 – – – – – CHG Satan’s seat TO Satan’s throne – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Rev. 2:15 – – – – – NINC “which thing I hate” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Rev. 5:14 – – – – – NINC “Him that liveth for ever and ever” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Rev. 6:8 – – – – – NINC Hell – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, NC
Rev. 6:17 – – – – – CHG his wrath TO their wrath – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Rev. 8:13 – – – – – CHG “angel” TO “eagle” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Rev. 11:15 – – – – – CHG “kingdoms” TO “kingdom” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Rev. 11:17 – – – – – NINC “and art to come” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Rev. 12:12 – – – – – REM “inhabiters of” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Rev. 12:17 – – – – – NINC “Christ” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Rev. 14:5 – – – – – NINC “before the throne of God” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Rev. 15:3 – – – – – CHG King of saints TO King of the ages et al. – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Rev. 16:5 – – – – – NINC and shalt be (refers to deity of Jesus) – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Rev. 16:7 – – – – – CHG And I heard another out of the altar say TO And I heard the altar respond – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS
Rev. 16:17 – – – – – NINC “of heaven” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Rev. 20:9 – – – – – NINC “from God out of” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Rev. 20:12 – – – – – CHG “God” TO “throne” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC
Rev. 20:13 – – – – – NINC hell – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Rev. 20:14 – – – – – NINC hell – – – – – NI, NAS, NKJ, RS, NRS, NC
Rev. 21:24 – – – – – NINC “of them which are saved” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Rev. 22:14 – – – – – CHG “do his commandments” TO “wash their robes” – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, LB, NC
Rev. 22:21 – – – – – NINC Christ – – – – – NI, NAS, RS, NRS, NC

MODERN ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATIONS UNDER COPYRIGHT

  • New Century Version (NCV)
  • New English Bible (NEB)
  • New English Translation (NET)
  • New Jerusalem Bible (NJB)
  • New International Reader’s Version (NIRV)
  • New International Version (NIV)
  • New Living Translation (NLT)
  • New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
  • New World Translation (NWT)
  • Philips New Testament
  • Revised English Bible (REB)
  • Revised Standard Version (RSV)
  • The Living Bible (TLB)
  • Today’s English Version (TEV)
  • Today’s New International Version (TNIV)

QUESTIONS OF AUTHORITY

The King James Version uses the “Byzantine Text” (also known as the “Syrian” “Antiochian” and “Received” texts) for its main manuscript of the New Testament. This text circulated throughout the Byzantine Empire. It also circulated in Syria and in its capital, Antioch. Scholars often call it Koine (Greek: “common”) to designate its 95% accuracy.

There are some small differences among the almost 5,000 Greek manuscripts that was used to compare. But most of these differences do not change the intent or meaning of the verses.

The Bible is inspired by God in such a way that we cannot base doctrine on any one verse. Doctrine or teaching is not found nicely wrapped up in one place. “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little” (Isa. 28:10).

The actual differences in manuscripts involve words or phrases that do not change the intent of the verse. By putting all the verses together on any particular subject, you can come to a sound decision on what the verses’ intent is.

There are only two places in the New Testament that come into question about authenticity: Mark 16:9-20 and John 7:53-8:11.

The last part of Mark’s gospel is not found in some of the oldest manuscripts, but it is found in some copies. The language used is somewhat different than that of the rest of the book, leading some to believe that someone other than Mark actually finished this section. But if these last verses are left out, the chapter does not come to a logical ending. Because God does things decently and in order (I Cor. 14:40), these verses do belong; they were inspired by God to be there.

Referring to John 7:53-8:11, the margin notes in the New King James Version (NKJV) state, “NU brackets 7:53 through 8:11 as not in the original text. However, they are present in over 900 manuscripts of John.”

TYPES OF TRANSLATIONS

There are two basic types of translations: (1) Literal (or formal equivalence), in which translators use the original manuscripts to interpret word for word; (2) Free interpretation/paraphrase (or dynamic equivalence), in which translators render meaning by meaning.

Translations such as the KJV (King James Version), NKJV (Revised Authorized Version), NASV (New American Standard Version), NASB (New American Standard Bible), and RSV (Revised Standard Version) are literal translations. They follow the Greek and Hebrew text word for word wherever possible. But where the English idiom does not correspond with the original text, the words often come out sounding cumbersome and not understandable.

The KJV often sounds odd because it uses 17th-century language. People then generally knew whether a speaker was talking to one person or many. This is preserved in Classical English. If a speaker were addressing one individual, he would use “thee” or “thou.” If he were addressing a group of people, he would say, “you” or “your.” The NKJV has replaced “thee” and “thou” with the more modern “you” and “your.”

Some other literal translations are the King James II Bible by Jay P. Green; The Holy Bible in Modern English by Ferrar Fenton; Young’s Literal Translation of the Holy Bible by Robert Young and the Jewish Publication Society translation of 1917.

Many of the newest Bible versions use the second method of translating, describing the meaning of each passage.

First, a translator tries to understand what the verse is saying. Then he/she attempts to convey this message to the reader using his/her own way of explaining what the verse means. If the translator has little or no knowledge, or a wrong understanding, of a particular verse, he/she does a great disservice to the reader. This is one way in which an individual’s own ideas are promoted.

A translator may also need to add words or phrases in order to convey their message or translate other words into a more modern usage (for example, “feet” instead of “cubits”).

Some examples of free translations are Today’s English Version, The New English Bible, The Bible, A New Translation (Moffatt) and New International Version (NIV), the English Standard Version, and the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

The NIV was revised again. It is called Today’s New International Version. This newest of the new translations is gender neutral. “Sons of God” replaced with “children of God,” in Matthew 5:9, and “a man is justified by faith” will be changed to “a person is justified by faith” in Romans 3:28.

Working to preserve gender specific language, the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood said, “This is incredibly serious to evangelicals, how the Bible is translated… We believe the Bible is the word of God, so changing these things deliberately is dangerous.”

As a general rule, a translation produced by just one man will tend to be slanted toward that man’s ideas.

A translation by a committee or team of scholars will be more moderate or conservative. Sometimes though, a compromise will take place in order to please all. If this happens, then the original thought may be lost altogether.

Despite some the (very) few known translated inaccuracies of the King James Bible, I recommend it as one of your primary study Bibles, not only because it is one of the most accurate, but because many study tools, such as Strong’s Concordance, Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon and others, are based on the KJV. The numbering system that these study aids use makes it easier to cross-reference and study the meaning of certain words.

To conclude, the KJV, ESV, NASB, and ASV are very accurate and use old English or are awkward to read. The modern translations use new English but are less accurate… The inaccuracy is multiplied when you consider the changes that affect meaning of the original text.

KING JAMES BIBLE REVISIONS 1611 – 1873

There were slight differences in the early editions of the King James Versions of the Bible. Most differences involve only spelling, punctuation, and italics, and few variations materially affect the meaning of the text.

As early as 1611 there were systematic attempts to revise and standardize the King James Version. These revisions include the Bibles of 1612, 1613, 1616, 1617, 1629, 1630, 1634, 1638, 1640; and the significant editions of Dr. F.S. Paris (1762), Dr. Benjamin Blayney (1769) and Dr. F. H. A. Scrivener (1873). The standardization included:

  • Italic Type – Italic type was used in the KJV, as in the Geneva Bible, to indicate words in the English translation that have no exact representative in the original language. Many earlier KJV translators were noticeably inconsistent in their use of italics, sometimes even in the same paragraph and verse. To cite one small pattern from the 1611 edition, Leviticus 11:20 has “upon all foure,” while for the same Hebrew 11:21 and 42 have “upon all foure,” and 11:27 has “on all foure.”
  • Punctuation – Later printings of the KJV added a great deal of punctuation to the editions of 1611, and used commas and semicolons to help divide longer sentences into more manageable units for reading.
  • Spelling and Capital Letters – Spelling of proper names and common words was very fluid in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: “Inquire” and “enquire” were interchangeable, as were “ceiling,” “cieling,” and “sieling.” Most differences between modern settings of the KJV and early settings involve standardization of spelling.

THE NEW ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE

American Standard Version, ASV (1901) – Formal equivalence, long regarded as one of the most literal translation of the Bible, which makes the ASV very popular for careful Bible study, but not for ease of reading. This revision of the Revised Version incorporates many of the readings first suggested by the American members of the Revision committee of 1881-1885.

Analytical-Literal Translation, ALT (2000) – Formal equivalence, Majority Text. Extremely literal translation produced by Gary Zeolla, includes extensive notes and aids. One of only two current versions based on the Majority Greek Text.

Amplified Bible (1964/1965) – Formal equivalence, Critical Text. The Amplified Bible seeks to bring out nuances of the original languages. The text is expanded with sets of brackets and parenthesis to bring out the hidden meanings and concepts of Greek and Hebrew words. Revised in 1987. This Modern English Version was sponsored by the non-profit Lockman Foundation of California. Committees of Hebrew and Greek scholars tried to pay particular attention to the true translation of key words in the ancient texts. A very popular Bible, the bracketing poses a problem for simple reading of the text. Published by Zondervan Corporation of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Berkley Version (1959) – This modem English version was done under the direction of Dr. Gerrit Verkuyl. Dr. Verkuyl translated the New Testament from the Greek, himself. The Old Testament was translated by a committee of 20 scholars with Dr. Verkuyl overseeing the project. The Berkley Version was never widely accepted or used.

Complete Bible: An American Translation (1939) – Often referred to as the Goodspeed version, this translation was done by Edgar J. Goodspeed and J.M. Powis Smith. Using as many ancient texts as possible, Smith and Goodspeed produced a very readable and yet accurate translation.

Contemporary English Version, CEV (1995) – Dynamic Equivalence, Critical Text. Written at an elementary-school reading level in simple English.

Cotton-Patch Version, CPV (1960) – Extreme dynamic equivalence, to the point of absurdity. Translated by Clarence Jordan. Replaced items and places of ancient culture with items of modern ones. Palestine became transformed into the modern American South; Jerusalem turned into Atlanta; Matthew the tax collector worked for the Internal Revenue Service; and Jesus became a roughshod inhabitant of Valdosta, Georgia.

Darby Translation (1890) – First published in 1890 by John Nelson Darby, an Anglo-Irish Bible teacher associated with the early years of the Plymouth Brethren. Darby also published translations of the Bible in French and German.

Douay-Rheims, DRV (1609) – Catholic translation based on Jerome’s Vulgate. The standard English translation for Catholics for several hundred years. Revised in 1752 by Bishop Challoner.

English Revised Version (1881-1884) – Formal equivalence. Designed to be a revision of the KJV, the Revised Version, had the advantage of being able to access some of the ancient manuscripts. Although this revision was sponsored by the Church of England, many American scholars were invited to participate.

God’s Word (1995) – Dynamic equivalence, reportedly designed to be an accurate, readable translation, using modern English language idioms to convey the meaning of the original texts. Produced by a denominationally diverse, 75-member team of translators, linguists, English experts, and independent biblical-language scholars.

Jerusalem Bible (1966) – Dynamic equivalence, basically a Roman Catholic translation. translated from the French La Sainte Bible (from the Ecole Biblique et Archeologique in Jerusalem). The French version was praised as being “one of the greatest achievements of renascent Catholic biblical scholarship” because of the abundance of footnotes and introductions. The English version, included the notes and added text. The Jerusalem Bible also includes the Apocrypha. Revised and re-released as New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) in 1966.

King James Version, 1611 (KJV) – Formal equivalence, Textus Receptus. In 1604, King James I of England decreed a new translation of the Bible into English be started, “to deliver God’s book unto God’s people in a tongue which they can understand.” With the hard work of 54 translators, it was finished in 1611, just 85 years after the first translation of the New Testament into English appeared (Tyndale, 1526). The Authorized Version, or King James Version, quickly became the standard for English-speaking Protestants. While technically easy to read because of shorter words and smaller vocabulary, the 17th-century English makes it difficult for many people to understand.

Literal Translation of the Bible, LITV (1995) – 3rd Edition; Formal equivalence, based on 1894 Scrivener Textus Receptus. Translation by Jay P. Green, it grew out of his work on the Interlinear Greek-Hebrew Bible. The Interlinear Hebrew-Greek-English Bible is listed in parallel, with the original words, Strong’s numbers and the English meanings beneath; all words added by the translator are in italic type.

Living Bible, LNB (1974) – This is the work of one man, Kenneth N. Taylor. Not a translation in the true sense, Mr. Taylor set out to produce a paraphrase of the ASV Bible using the words and terms his children could readily understand. After founding Tyndale House Publishing, Mr. Taylor then expanded the availability of the LNB to include study Bibles and cassettes. The current Bible entitled “The Book” is essentially the LNB version.

The Message (199?) – Paraphrase produced by Eugene Peterson, designed to be an easy-to-read, modern language Bible. Uses the tone of modern American English, while maintaining the meaning (and idioms) of the original languages.

New American Bible, NAB (1970) – Formal equivalence, this Roman Catholic translation originally came directly from the Latin Vulgate. The Catholic Biblical Association of America compared this translation to the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts then available. The 3 volumes Old Testament and single volume New Testament were then combined into a single volume. Although some Protestant translators helped on this project, this is still basically a Roman Catholic Bible.

New American Standard, NAS (1971) – Formal equivalence, sought to render grammar and terminology in contemporary English, while preserving the literal accuracy of the 1901 ASV. The Lockman Foundation of La Habra, California (see Amplified Bible) set out to produce the “most technically accurate translation of the Bible possible.” Partially because of their dissatisfaction with the RSV’s revision of the 1901 American Standard Version, the Lockman Foundation chose to use the best Greek and Hebrew texts available to revise to ASV, though many conservative scholars consider this to be one of the most accurate translation available, because of the NAS’s desire for technical accuracy it is not the most readable of the modern translations.

New English Bible, NEB (1970) – Dynamic equivalence. A committee of scholars from the leading denominations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, cooperating with the Universities of and Oxford, was to produce a new translation from the Hebrew and Greek. This Bible was to be used as an authoritative version alongside the KJV. Due to the NEB’s rather free use of the English language, many verses of scripture become almost paraphrases rather than translations. The Apocrypha is included in the NEB. Since the NEB often uses unfamiliar British expressions, this Bible has not received wide acceptance in America. The NEB is jointly published by Cambridge and Oxford University presses.

New English Translation, NET (1996) – Formal equivalence, Critical Text. A completely new translation of the Bible “from the best currently available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts.” Includes over 60,000 text-critical, lexical, and exegetical notes. As of 1999, the New Testament was complete.

New International Readers Version, NIRV (198?) – Dynamic equivalence, Critical Text, based on NIV, with 40 additional translators, stylists, and simplifiers. At a 3rd-grade reading level, it uses simple, short words and sentences for a version that is easy to read and understand. According to Zondervan, is was “designed to help young children and new readers understand the Bible for themselves and create an easy stepping-stone from a children’s Bible to an adult Bible.”

New King James Version, NKJV (1982) – Formal equivalence, Textus Receptus. Written at a 7th-grade reading level in contemporary English, but retains the poetic style of the original King James. It was produced as a revision of the KJV, intended to make it easier to read. Thomas Nelson Bible Publishers and the International Trust for Bible Studies co-sponsored this update of the 1611 KJV Bible. One hundred and nineteen scholars worked on this project to make the KJV version more accurate and readable and yet maintain the grace and beauty of the original KJV text. Generally, the translators used the best available texts in their work, but rather than assuming the oldest was the most accurate, they chose to use the texts found most often in the ancient writings.

New International Version, NIV (1973 / 1978) – Dynamic equivalence, Critical Text: produced by 115 translators, attempt at “an accurate translation, suitable for public and private reading, teaching, preaching, memorizing, and liturgical use.” Approximately 7th-grade reading level. The New York Bible Society sponsored this translation of the Bible. A committee was formed to search world-wide for Bible scholars from colleges, universities, and seminaries that would represent varied backgrounds and denominations. Each book of the Bible was assigned to a different team of scholars, who then used the best available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts to do the actual translation. This combination of accuracy and readability has propelled the NIV to the number 2 spot in Bible sales.

New Living Translation, NLT (1996) – Dynamic equivalence, Critical Text. 90 Bible scholars and English stylists worked seven years on an update of The Living Bible. It was completed in 1996. Based on original sources, the goal of the NLT is to produce the closest natural equivalent, using the vocabulary and language structures of modern English. The publisher states it is, “a general-purpose translation that is accurate, easy to read, and excellent for study.”

New Revised Standard Version, NRSV (1989 / 1991) – Formal equivalence, written in contemporary English, seen as a revision to the RSV with gender-inclusive language. This committee was under the sponsorship of the Division of Education and Ministry of the National Council of Churches. The original Revised Standard Version and the New Revised Standard Version can trace their roots to the King James Version. While maintaining the tradition of the KJV, the New Revised Standard Version aimed for accuracy rather than simply paraphrasing.

New Testament: A New Translation (1968-1969) – Translated by William Barclay in England, this translation is neither technical nor difficult. The problem with this Bible is the extensive intrusion of Mr. Barclay’s own personal views in the text. To properly use this translation, another Bible should be available for comparison.

New Testament in Modern English (1958) – First published in 1958 and revised in 1973, this translation done by British writer J.B. Phillips. It was published today by MacMillan Publishers of New York.

The New World Translation (1961) – The New World Translation, is defined by the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ parent organization (The Watchtower Society) as “a translation of the Holy Scriptures made directly from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek into modern day English by a committee of anointed witnesses of Jehovah.” The NWT is the anonymous work of the “New World Bible Translation Committee.” Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that the anonymity is in place so that the credit for the work will go to God. Of course this has the added benefit of keeping the translators from any accountability for their errors, and prevents real scholars from checking their academic credentials.

Revised English Bible, REB (1989) – Dynamic equivalence. Under the auspices of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, a committee of leading Bible scholars revised and updated the New English Bible. This was the first major revision of the New English Bible since its release in 1970. Particular attention was paid to archaic words, phrases, and sentence structure. This reexamination was done by referring to the most current manuscripts, commentaries, and exegesis. The REB provides the reader with fluent, yet dignified English while still maintaining the full intent of the original texts.

Revised Standard Version, RSV (1946 / 1952) – Formal equivalence. The National Council of Churches of Christ procured the copyright to the 1901 ASV Bible in the 1920’s. Work began on a revision to the ASV but was abandoned in favor of an entirely new translation. Since many more Hebrew and Greek manuscripts were available to these scholars than were available in 1901, the RSV is considered to be much more accurate. A very readable translation, the RSV is used in many Protestant denominations today. The revision committee continues to meet at regular intervals and in 1971 a new release was made of the RSV. This has been dubbed the RSV II edition.

Today’s English Version / Good News Bible, TEV (1976) – Dynamic equivalence, often referred to as the “Good News Bible”, this was a project sponsored by the American Bible Society to produce a Bible in English for people whose primary language is not English. Mr. Robert G. Bratcher did the work on the New Testament, and it was published in 1966. The Society then continued the work to include the Old Testament. Although particular attention was directed toward accuracy, the translators sometimes sacrificed this accuracy for readability. Due to the TEV’s very up-to-date language and in many cases some modern pop art illustrations; it has become a popular edition for teenagers.

Young’s Literal Translation, YLT (1898) – Formal Equivalence, translation by Robert Young who also compiled Young’s Analytical Concordance. Extremely literal translation that attempts to preserve the tense and word usage as found in the original Greek and Hebrew writings.

WHICH TRANSLATION IS BEST

It is probably wise to have access to at least two or three of the major translations KJV (King James Version), NIV (New International Version), NASB (New American Standard Bible), NKJV (New King James Version), ESV (English Standard Version), NLT (New Living Translation), for comparison’s sake. If a verse or passage in one translation is a little confusing, it can be helpful to compare it side-by-side with another version. As previously stated, I personally tend to lean towards the word-for-word- translations.

A good technique when determining if a Bible translation is true to the Word of God is to look at some of the most common verses which speak of the deity of Christ (John 1:1, 14; 8:58; 10:30; Titus 2:13). Despite the multitudes of English Bible translations, we can be confident that God’s Word is truth, and that it will accomplish His purposes (Isaiah 55:11; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Hebrews 4:12).

Sources of text: The Bible;

http://www.wikipedia.com;
http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history;
http://www.genevabible.org/files/Geneva_Bible/6_Version_Comparison.pdf;
http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/apocryph.htm;
http://www.truthnet.org/Bible-Origins/6_The_Apocrypha_The_Septugint/index.htm;
http://www.septuagint.net/;
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Latin_Vulgate;
http://www.gotquestions.org/Latin-Vulgate.html;
http://www.bibletopics.com/biblestudy/23.htm;
http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/how-was-old-testament-preserved.html;
http://www.tecmalta.org/tft104.htm;
http://dynamicchristianministries.org/Publications/Articles/Web1–How%20the%20Old%20Testament%20Was%20Preserved.pdf;
http://www.jewfaq.org/torah.htm;
http://www.biblebelievers.com/jmelton/compare.html;
http://www.internationalbibles.com/catalog/services/versions.htm;
http://www.gotquestions.org/New-World-Translation.html;
http://www.av1611.org John R. Kohlenberger III;
http://www.zimbio.com/Bible/articles/W8nDR0euec6/Happened+Between+Old+Testament+New+Testament;
http://www.templemount.org/0240.html;
http://www.discipleshiplibrary.com/pdfs/NET01052.pdf;
http://seminary.lds.org/manuals/New-Testament-seminary-teacher-Resource-Manual/nt-trm-01-int-1-8.asp;
http://www.everystudent.com/features/bible.html;
http://www.thercg.org/books/hwgtb.html;
http://www.allabouttruth.org/when-was-the-bible-written-faq.htm;
http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-authors.html;
http://lost-history.com/authors.php;
http://www.howtodothings.com/religion-and-spirituality/a2644-how-to-understand-who-wrote-the-books-of-the-bible.html;
http://www.apostate.com/english-bible-versions;
http://www.anabaptists.org/history/howwegot.html;
http://biblicalstudies.info/top10/schoville.htm;
http://www.israelsmessiah.com/biblical_archaeology/recent_discoveries.htm;
http://www.intouch.orghttp://www.godandscience.org/
https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-translations.html


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