Facts
on New Testament
One
reason we read the King James Bible exclusively is that it is translated from completely different source material from almost every other modern English version.
The New Testament of the King James Version (KJV) is a word for word translation taken from
the Received Text (Textus Receptus) Which is known by many proofs to have been used extensively by the early church.
The Old testament of the KJV is translated from Ben-Chayyim Masoretic text (There are different
Masoretic Versions as well, and virtually all subsequent Bible versions use a different edition of the Masoretic
Text - resulting in vast contradictions between the KJV and other versions--and between the modern versions themselves--for
information on Masoritic texts see http://www.wilderness-cry.net/bible_study/kjvissue/criticism3.html ).
Almost all modern English translations of the New Testament scriptures originated
from either the Hort Westcott Greek New Testament which was presented to the English Speaking world in 1881 or the United
Bible Society's Nestle-Aland text (the two texts are virtually identical).
This is how it all began, In the late 1800's two Anglican clergymen set out to give us a
greater understanding of the ancient manuscripts.
They did this by first rejecting all previous scholarship.
Do we honestly believe that from the days of Christ until almost 1900 there was no
reliable translation of the scriptures available?
Because that is essentially what Hort and Wescott were saying when they rejected all previous
scholarship.
The scriptures say that God honors his Word above his name,
and that his word endures to all generations. If Hort and Westcott were correct in rejecting all previous
scholarship, then God is a liar.
They attempted to ( and succeeded to a great degree) discredit the Received
Text altogether by composing a Greek New Testament that rejected not only all previous
scholarship up to that point, but also the very source material
that from the first century up until the 19th century had been considered sacred, inspired and reliable.
Bishop Brook Foss Westcott and Professor Fenton John Anthony Hort rejected entirely the Received
Text that had been used, trusted (based on reliable evidence) and born incredible
fruit for almost two thousand years and chose instead for their translation almost exclusively two very poor manuscripts (Mss.) "Aleph" (Sinai) and "B" (Vatican).
Not only do the Mss. they chose differ significantly from one another but also from
99 out of 100 other more reliable manuscripts.
So, the question is why did
they reject all previous scholarship?
It helps to know something about the people who were undertaking this revolutionary
project. Bishop Wescott was a publicly professed disbeliever
in the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ (his
work and choice of source material reflect that slant).
In fact the Hort Westcott Greek refutes and/or dilutes every major doctrine of Christianity.
When 1Timothy 3:16 (KJV) is compared with most modern translations, the flawed theology
of Bishop Westcott is clear.
Changing the more specific "God"
in this verse to the generic "he" completely changes
the message of one of the most profound statements of the Diety of Christ found in the New Testament.
(It must be noted here that the Received Text which clearly says "God" in 1 Timothy 3:16 has the agreement
of around 4000 texts--either mss,versions or writings of the early Church fathers) that is a lot of evidence--witnesses
to integrity of the texts chosen by the translators of the King James Bible.
The Received Text that was
used extensively by both the early and the modern church is very specific in this case that God was manifest in the flesh. The Hort Westcott Greek, on the other hand, clouds the issue.
It is also important to understand that the Hort Westcott Greek New Testament is not true
source material. It is neither original nor inspired.
The
Hort Westcott Greek New Testament is nothing more than the interpretation
of two men as to what they thought the writers of the
source material they chose for their project were trying to say (and they chose texts that reflected their biases regardless
of reliabililty).
The Hort Westcott Greek New Testament, along with the United society's Nestle-Aland, is a hodgepodge,
a "frankenstein," of a text.
Portions that were missing altogether in one text were simply filled in from portions of other "selected"
texts that were also missing portions.
The
sad truth is that most modern translations of the Bible are translated from the Hort Westcott Greek or from an eclectic text (United Bible Society/Nestle - Aland) that is virtually identical to the Hort Westcott translation.
These versions either subtly attack the major doctines of Christianity or they boldly attack
them. And in hundreds of ways dilute the doctrines given to us by God that pertain to life and Godliness.
Those who love the Hort Westcott Greek (which both the New Testament of the Amplified
Bible and Watchtower's New World Translation are based entirely on) work tirelessly and
often successfully to discredit the King James Version and convince many who are seeking the truth into believing that the
modern translations derived from the corrupt texts of Sinai and Vatican are the most accurate.
This is simply not true.
It
is a blatant lie propogated by the enemies of the truth that King James insisted on his particular doctinal beliefs being
brought forth in the translation that bears his name.
He did not. He only authorized (legalized) the undertaking which up until that time was a
crime punishable by death.
The KJV is one of a very few word for word translations of the Holy Scriptures we have. Every
word in it can be looked up in the **Strong's Exhaustive Concordance Bible Dictionary.
**When
purchasing a "Strong's" make certain you purchase the Original Strong's - not the New Improved
or the Strongest Strongs - with the "updated" Greek and Hebrew! (these new Strongs are full of the
corrupted Hort Westcott/Nestle-Aland "eclectic" Greek texts).
The
"original" Strong's contains the words (and meanings) of the Received Text as well as the Ben Chayyim Masoretic
Text, and the Berry
Interlinear contains a complete copy of the Received Text.
