I know I took a break for several weeks on this series and maybe you thought I was done, I am not. This year, 2011, is the 400th year since the King James Bible version (referred to here as KJV) was first published.
For about the last 130 years newer /modern bible versions translated from a corrupt Greek Text by Westcott and Hort around 1880 have been competing for your allegiance over the KJV. And where did Westcott and Hort get their manuscript evidence to come up with a corrupt Greek text?
Now, version popularity isn’t the issue here, this series is not about some “club” and its not about splitting hairs. I have better things to do with my time than split hairs for blog content. Hello?
At this very moment I’m physically tired and I’m sitting on the floor with a makeshift stack of puzzle and lego boxes for a desk. I do have a real desk, I’m just not at it. My husband and I, when he gets off the phone with his mom, are going to watch a little bit of a movie before heading to bed. But now I’ve really taken this post down a couple notches. Back to business!
In his book, The Answer Book: A Helpbook for Christians, on page 109 Dr. Samuel Gipp answers….
Question #40: Is the New International Version trustworthy?
His answer: No.
He explains it as follows: The New International Version (NIV) “is based on the 26th edition of the Greek text of Eberhard Nestle published in 1979. It, like the New American Standard Version which is based on Nestle’s 23rd edition of 1969, is an Egyptian bible. These and most modern translations (except the New King James Version and New Scofield Version which are handled separately in this book) are all products of Origen’s tainted manuscripts from Alexandria, Egypt.”
To better understand the seriousness of this matter from a practical standpoint you need to know whats missing from your bible, if you indeed use a New International Version. I can take you to two sources but I’m saving my heavy-weight for later. So for now we’ll look at page 93 in Dr. Gipp’s book where he asks…
Question #31: “I can still find the fundamentals in other bibles. So how can they be bad?”
His answer: “Any fundamental found in any version is found purer or more frequently in the King James Bible thus making the King James Bible the best of the field.” page 93-94.
Check out what these few modern versions are doing to scripture…[only a few modern versions are dealt with here]. I encourage you to open up a second tab on your computer and go to www.biblegateway.com and pull up the following verses and check it out.
“The salvation of the Ethiopian Eunich is eliminated in the New International Version and New American Standard Version where Acts 8:37 is removed from the text.” This important verse has been demoted to “footnote” in the NIV.
“The virgin birth of Jesus is denied in the New International Version and New American Standard Version in Luke 2:33 where Joseph is called Jesus’ father.” This is important. Every word of God is pure…but not in all if any of the modern versions! There is a reason why this verse is worded one way in the KJV and another in the modern versions – and they teach two different things. Joseph was not Jesus’ father, God is. Prophecy spoke of the coming Messiah that would be born of a “virgin”.
“The doctrine of the Trinity is either removed or questioned in I John 5:7 where the New American Standard Version and New International Version remove the verse and then split verse 6 and manufacture a false verse 7 and in the New king James Version where a note casts doubt on its authenticity.”
“The doctrine of Hell is watered down in Luke 16:23 in the New King James Version and New American Standard Version where they transliterate ‘Hades’ instead of translating it as ‘Hell.'”
These are just a few of the corruptions in modern bible versions. Take a minute and review this post as to why the individual words in the bible DO matter.
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*Find all my KJV Q&A posts here.
I know that the King James Bible is the only Bible! For those who are still confused, the easiest way to know that the others are NOT Bibles, is by looking at the COPYRIGHT. The King James Bible is NOT copyrighted, only the study notes are. All of the devil’s perversions ARE COPYRIGHTED. In other words, written by man, not God.
Thanks for this post!
It may be a different issue/publication you are talking about regarding the NAS. I know the NIV has changed within itself- I believe more than once too.
I’m still – slowly- working on the KJV series but what you need to keep in mind is that the corrupt versions are not going to say “hey, we’re corrupt!”. The KJV scriptures come from the Antioch, Syria area where the church began and Christians were first called Christians. The stuff Westcott and Hort used to come up with “their modern” bible text comes from Alexandria, Egypt where the scholars were.
Its way too deep to go into in a space this big, hence, the reason I’m taking my time with it. But it sounds like you are studying the issue and I applaud you for that. I hope you’ll follow along and bear with me as I share more that will help you with your study.
God bless!
Just so you know, I am sitting here looking at a comparative study bible, and the NAS DOES contain Acts 8:37. Furthermore, the footnote that it is “demoted” to in the NIV also says that the reason it is removed is because it is only found in LATER manuscripts. So the supposedly corrupt Greek manuscript you mention from the 1800’s, well, what’s to say it might not be a correction rather than a corruption? I am not a biblical scholar by any means, but it seems there are defintely some flaws in your arguments.
For the record I use a comparative study bible with 4 versions on each spread. For the most part I read the NIV first to get the basic idea, then I read the KJV, Amplified, & NAS versions to get a consensus. So far in all of my studies I find the NAS to be the most flawed/out of agreement with the other 3.
Thank you, KM! /so good to hear from someone who ‘gets its’!/ and I can’t blame most people for not ‘getting it’ because they probably have pastors and leaders who don’t seem to ‘get it’. I didn’t take a course in Greek but I have had pastors who ‘got it’ and one shared the 2 books that I’ve been studying from and using for this series.
Oh MY, is right! I’ve only scratched the surface on the topic of this series. All bible believers need to know whats been going on behind the scenes regarding why we have so many bible versions. Its not as innocent as they think or would like to believe.
I went back and read some of your other posts in this series and I’m so suprised by the comments you were getting about “how it’s all the same when you get back to the Greek.” All I can say is Oh, my. It took a course in Greek for me to truly understand the accuracy of the KJV Bible. Not to mention the fact no other English translation of the Bible had such high standards in order to get an accurate translation. The political motivation for a truly accurate translation of an English Bible alone is enough to make me think it’s the most accurate.
Yes you can come to know salvation using a different translation of the Bible, but let’s be honest, if we are saved and sharing our faith with others, why wouldn’t we want the best translation? I do a whole unit in my hymnology course I teach on the importance of the KJV bible on church music and how corrupt versions have lead to corrupt lyrics and misunderstandings of even core doctrines. I could go on and on, but I won’t : ) Great posts.