WHICH VERSION IS THE RIGHT VERSION?

What does God's Word mean to us today? If it is the final authority upon which all of our decisions are based, and our very lives are to be lived, we need to treat it with the utmost respect, and take it most seriously! While studying God's Word, the author noted considerable variance when going from version to version, and was led into research regarding the sources of the various translations. The information yielded in this research will doubtlessly be surprising to many, and should be considered as we select the version that we will acknowledge as the very Word of God.

The King James Version was taken from the Textus Receptus" or Received Text. This text was derived from the majority of Greek manuscripts, which maintain almost complete integrity of agreement. The central theme of this text was salvation only through faith in Yeshua.

Conversely, the modern versions were based upon Alexandrian manuscripts, the reliability of which are highly questionable. When examined closely, a trend develops in the versions derived from these manuscripts; a dangerous trend which attacks the virgin birth of Yeshua, the deity  of Christ, the declarations of the Trinity in God's Word, salvation through faith and faith alone, and even the very infallibility of the Word of God itself. These Alexandrian texts often are not even in agreement with each other. Wescott and Hort are principals in the initiation of the modern versions, and take much of their translation from two of the Alexandrian manuscripts, the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus.

In Let's Weigh the Evidence by Barry Burton, the following facts are quoted regarding the Vaticanus manuscript. "... it omits Genesis 1:146:28, Psalm 106-138, Matthew 16:23, the Pauline Pastoral Epistles, Hebrews 9:1413:25, and all of Revelation ... in the gospels alone it leaves out 237 words, 452 clauses and 748 whole sentences, which hundreds of later copies agree together as having the same words in the same places, the same clauses in the same places and the same sentences in the same places. The Vaticanus was available to the translators of the King James Bible, but they didn't use it because they knew it is unreliable ...."

The same book quotes that the Sinaiticus manuscript was "found in 1844 in a trash pile in St. Catherine's Monastery ... it adds the Shepherd of Hermes and the Epistle of Barnabas to the New Testament ... is extremely unreliable ... on many occasions 10, 20, 30, 40 words are dropped ... letters, words or even whole sentences are frequently written twice over, or begun and immediately canceled; while that gross blunder, whereby a clause is omitted because it happens to end in the same word as the clause preceding, occurs no less than 115 times in the New Testament ... on nearly every page of the manuscript there are corrections and revisions, done by 10 different people. Some of these corrections were made about the same time that it was copied, but most of them were made in the 6th or 7th century."

Both the Vaticanus and the Sinaiticus have omitted the last passage of Mark which tells of the resurrection of Christ, included in the other manuscripts. When the modern versions do include this text, they supplement with notations saying that it was not a part of the original texts. Such notations can cause confusion to the reader, casting doubt upon the validity of many crucial doctrinal truths as well as to the congruency and inerrancy of the entire Biblical text.

Addressing the variations, Let's Weigh the Evidence by Barry Burton also states, "The modern versions had to use the Textus Receptus, since it contains the majority of surviving Greek manuscripts. The problem is that when the Textus Receptus disagreed with the Vaticanus or the Sinaiticus, they preferred these corrupted manuscripts over the Receptus."

The question to be resolved is how to determine which is the correct text to use in the areas where the manuscripts disagree. When looking at the Alexandrian manuscripts, one must wonder why all the deletions and obvious changes occurred. It is important to be reminded that attempts have been made to destroy the Bible and subvert its impact upon humanity since its very origin. His intent to separate mankind from the will of God was known as early as Adam and Eve. Though the body of Believers in the early church had carefully hidden away a multitude of copies of these manuscripts in order to preserve the untarnished text of God's Holy Word, it appears that Satan has found a way to violate the long-standing credibility of the truths as revealed in these texts.

Let's take a logical look at the scenario here. The King James Bible was a word-for-word translation by a group of about 50 scholars from the Textus Receptus manuscripts. It was begun in 1604 and completed in 1611, and for centuries it was known by the true body of Christ to be God's complete and Holy Word, the only acceptable English Bible. (Other attempts at translation during this period were merely patchwork compilations of other language translations. They were promptly rejected, and rapidly disappeared.) Those of us who acknowledge the inerrancy of God's Word, believe in His Biblical promise to preserve His Word throughout time. As each generation is directly responsible to pass God's Word to the next, a sovereign God would surely see that the only Bible we had was uncorrupted. Long after the King James Bible was fully accepted as God's whole and complete truth as revealed to mankind, two highly suspect manuscripts became revered. In spite of the fact that they contained numerous additions, deletions, and changes to the Bible God had given us as His Word throughout time, mankind reached out to embrace the modern versions which were based upon them. There is a warfare referred to in Ephesians 6:12-18 which is of a spiritual nature. This warfare is not well understood, but the Christian is told here how to guard against the enemy of the spiritual realm. The only offensive armor mentioned in this passage is the sword of the Lord, which is the Word of God. Wouldn't it make sense for the enemy to try to attack the only offensive weapon we have been told to use? Verse 18 emphasizes also the importance of prayer, and it is the heartfelt prayer of this author that everyone would seek and study the issue regarding the modern versions, as God's Word is far to important to take lightly.

The King James Bible, may appear to be somewhat harder to understand on the surface level, but once the reader becomes acclimated to reading "thee" and "thou" rather than the pronouns we use today, the message should still be apparent to all who are truly seeking to find it. It is the purpose of a good commentary as well as the responsibility of pastors, teachers, and the mature members in Christ of Bible believing, Bible teaching churches to help new Christians grow in the understanding of God's Word. If someone receives Yeshua in all sincerity, that heart will be yielded to the desire to grow in Christ, and even as that one reads in the quaint and unfamiliar style of the King James Bible, the Holy Spirit will minister, and that one will grow in the understanding of God's true Word.

The real issue at hand is what that new one in Christ will learn! Will this babe in Christ be grounded in God's truth as it has been known and passed on to us throughout the centuries, or will that unsuspecting babe in Christ be led astray through speculation and doubt prompted by the notations, deletions, and subtle but heavily impacting changes that have occurred in the creating of the modern versions? In the King James Bible, for example, Isaiah 14:12 clearly identifies Lucifer and tells of his fall from heaven. Most modern versions refer to the "morning star" instead of to Lucifer, allowing the inference that what fell was merely an object. Some of the later printings of the modern versions pervert the Scriptures even one step further, by noting the Scriptural reference of Revelation 22:16 in conjunction with this verse, leaving the novice reader with the direct and blasphemous inference that it was none other than Yeshua who had fallen from heaven. Maybe we need again to be reminded of the last warning God gave us in His Word, found in Revelation 22:18-19 regarding the severity of the consequences for the adding to and deleting from the things which are written in His Word. To change the context, literally or by inference, is to both delete what is not desired and to add in its place what is desired. Those who have tampered with the wording of the Alexandrian manuscripts, and the authorized version of our Biblical text may have to answer one day very soon to the original author of them for what they have done!

The author realizes that those who have been mature Christians for some time will probably have no problem in relating their doctrine to the new versions. These mature Christians are already firmly rooted in the knowledge of the true doctrine of Christ, and the realities of God's true Word are firmly imprinted upon their minds. Thus they can easily mentally convert the new version interpretations to their previous knowledge, without even noticing the watering down effect the changes of wording really has on the intended message. The author further realizes that new hearts can be brought to a saving belief in Yeshua through the use of the modern versions. The question this author would ask is how, after examination of the source of the new versions and the awareness of their potential destructiveness (especially to the babes in Christ), we can justify their acceptance.

Attempts to subvert the Word of God are extremely subtle, and many viable and convincing reasons have been offered to accept the altered wording of our Biblical text. In debates regarding the modern versions, it is often mentioned that the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus are older, therefore better manuscripts, and that the new versions are more readable and understandable. Older, however, does not always mean better, and more readable and understandable does not address the integrity  of what is being read and understood. In these last days, it is necessary to be consistently aware of wolves in sheep's clothing; realizing that because something "appears" to be good does not meant that it is actually good in origin and intent. It is indeed very difficult to spot the enemy's devises, see through his guises, and avoid his traps. The New Age movement, in all its subtlety conceived aspects, is rapidly and consistently gaining new footholds (even in the Christian church) each day. This movement has been long planned and carefully devised, and is almost certainly the means by which the "falling away" will occur in the body of Christ during these last days, per II Thessalonians 2:3. The author has found many links between the revised wording of these new versions and the concepts of the New Age movement, and the doctrinal deletions fit perfectly into the agenda of the soon to come "One World Religion" of the Anti Christ. (For further reading in this area, the author would highly recommend the excellent work of G. A. Riplinger Fur entitled New Age Bible Versions.) Could there be a hidden agenda in the meticulously formed wording and inferences of these new versions, an attempt to subvert the messages of God , in His long established Word to us? Could it be a Trojan Horse to the Body of Christ? Such possibilities should prompt our immediate attention. God bless you as you examine this issue, pray about it, and form your own conclusions.