Battle of the Bibles - Present Truth

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2 Peter 2:9 "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished'. RV "and to keep the unrighteous under punishment unto the day of judgment". RSV "and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment ". NIV "and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment". It seems strange that the Roman Douay and Jerusalem Bibles do not go this far in upholding an intermediate state of punishment such as purgatory. Rather, they seem content to leave it to the so-called Protestant versions. However, the New Jerusalem Bible (1985) has yielded to interconfessional desires as has the New King James Version! Revelation 13:18 "Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man; and the number is Six hundred three score and six". It has been a source of strength among Waldenses and other Christians who have been persecuted by the Church of Rome, and later among early Protestants, to know that God has identified their persecutor as the "beast" of Revelation. The martyrs would not be impressed by the doubt-fostering revisionists whose cankerous suggestions infest some versions. RV Note "Some ancient authorities read, Six hundred and sixteen ". RSV Note "Other ancient authorities read six hundred and sixteen ". JB Note "Some commentators have claimed that 666 is the total of the number values of Nero Caesar". Dean Burgon has some pertinent and telling comments on this perversion. "Not one ancient version advocates this reading", but only one uncial and cursive copy. He claims that Iranaeus (170 AD) knew of these corruptions by rejected them saying that 666 is, "Found in all the best and oldest copies and is attested by men who saw John face to face" ("The Revision revised", pp 135, 136). It is hoped that all fair-minded readers will, after studying the foregoing brief analysis of Scriptural deviations, realise that important Christian doctrines have been seriously undermined. We have not attempted to examine the many seemingly minor alterations to Scripture that, on their own, do not appear to be important. But let us not be complacent, for Drs Westcott and Hort, on whose critical method of translation most of the modern translators rely, realised the importance of the cumulative impact of even seemingly innocuous changes in translation. Commenting on the work of the 1881 revisionists, Westcott declared: "But the value of the revision is most clearly seen when the student considers together a considerable group of passages, which bear upon some article of the Faith. The accumulation of small details then produces its fuller effect. Points on which it might have seemed pedantic to insist in a single passage become impressive by repetition. " (Westcott, "Some Lessons", p 184, emphasis supplied). Such an insight into the thoroughness of the "scheme" entered into by Westcott, Hort and Ellicott, designed to tamper with articles of accepted faith, reflects on the probity of all those who engineered the fraud of "revision". Truly, it is axiomatic that dishonest enterprises must employ dishonest means. Despite the fact that the charter 14
handed to the revisers stipulated that changes were to be limited to "plain and clear" errors, the finished revision brought forth a staggering 36,000 changes in the English of the KJV and close to 6,000 in the Greek Text. Canon Cook had no doubts as to the origin of those changes: "By far the greatest number of innovations, including those which give the severest shocks to our minds, are adopted on the authority of two manuscripts, or even one manuscript, against the distinct testimony of all other manuscripts, uncial and cursive .... The Vatican Codex, ... sometimes alone, generally in accord with the Sinaitic, is responsible for nine-tenths of the most striking innovations in the Revised Versions" (Cook, "Revised Version", pp 227, 231; cited in "Our Authorised Bible Vindicated", pp 175, 176). It should be a matter of great concern for all honest Christians that the vast majority of succeeding revisers have enthusiastically followed the fraudulent example of Westcott and Hort. A quick glance over the foregoing analysis shows a decided trend on the part of modern versions to emulate and build upon the doubt fostering suggestions and depravations of the Revised Version. Yet, another very significant observation is pertinent. Glancing back over the foregoing comparison of Scripture, one is struck by the frequent absence of conflict between the Douay and the King James Version, especially in those texts which deal with the divinity of Christ and His incarnation. Why is it that the Douay stays closer to the KJV than most later versions? Is it, as claimed by the Roman Church, because the translators of the KJV relied heavily on the Catholic Vulgate? The short answer is no! And, here are two reasons. First, let us hark back to the times of Constantine, Eusebius and Jerome, that have been discussed in Section two, Chapter fourteen. Both the Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus manuscripts are thought to be surviving copies of the fifty Bibles, which Constantine commissioned Eusebius to produce. Being written on vellum (animal skins), and later being made redundant with the official adoption by Rome of Jerome's Latin Bible, it is not surprising that they have survived in isolation. We have noted how Jerome was sensitive to the criticism of the Milan (Waldensian) scholars who used the Itala type Bible (later branded by Rome as the Waldensian Bible). This early Bible was known as the Latin Vulgate or popular Bible. As a measure of the esteem in which the Itala (Vulgate) was held, even by the Roman clergy, let us be reminded of what the celebrated Augustine (354-430 AD) had to say: "Now among translations themselves, the Italian (Itala) is to be preferred to the others, for it keeps closer to the words without prejudice to clearness of expression " ("Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers", [Christian Lit Ed] Vol. II p 542). As noted in chapter fourteen, in the interests of professional credibility Jerome also consulted early Greek manuscripts (such as would have been available to Lucian), and so ended up with a Bible that was closer to the Itala than Constantine's Bible produced by Eusebius. This is not to say that Jerome's Bible did not contain error. It did, for it was a compromise! Today, his Bible could be described as an ecumenical version in the language of the common people. However, it took centuries for Jerome's Bible to gain popularity and eventually it assumed the name first given to the Itala, "the Vulgate". Even so, a full millennium later, at a time when the return of Greek literature and learning were dispelling the gloom of the Dark Ages, notable Catholic scholars were still denigrating Jerome's Catholic Vulgate. 15
Page 1 and 2:
Table of Contents By way of introdu
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Section One Chapters One to Eleven
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Wycliffe's unpretentious priests gl
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Chapter Two Colet and Erasmus Desid
Page 9 and 10:
friends rallied around him and with
Page 11 and 12:
day but they have taken on a more v
Page 13 and 14:
With Erasmus's translation, Tyndale
Page 15 and 16:
Jane Seymour, the third of Henry's
Page 17 and 18:
On March 27, 1555, at the tender ag
Page 19 and 20:
attacked and destroyed monasteries
Page 21 and 22:
convenient to quit his position as
Page 23 and 24:
This was the apogee of Philip's rei
Page 25 and 26:
• That Scripture can only be inte
Page 27 and 28:
Finisterre in North Western Spain t
Page 29 and 30:
negotiated with winds not always fa
Page 31 and 32:
for Protestantism to bring forth a
Page 33 and 34:
Section Two Chapters Twelve to Fift
Page 35 and 36:
which they themselves have shortene
Page 37 and 38:
Perhaps more importantly, it had, b
Page 39 and 40:
Wilkinson sees this as proof that e
Page 41 and 42:
"Having continued his labours in Sc
Page 43 and 44:
John, in his final years, assisted
Page 45 and 46: (By the late nineteenth century, th
Page 47 and 48: they not the fathers of the Roman C
Page 49 and 50: It is very important that the signi
Page 51 and 52: Hort's friend, Westcott, had no pro
Page 53 and 54: family, the original of which is re
Page 55 and 56: A relatively small minority, repres
Page 57 and 58: sales were very good, this was enti
Page 59 and 60: 17 Dr Schaff's attitude to Matthew
Page 61 and 62: was formed, known as the Trinitaria
Page 63 and 64: BATTLE OF THE BIBLES 2C H. H. MEYER
Page 65 and 66: So, the leaders of the SDA Church t
Page 67 and 68: It was not long before wishful-thin
Page 69 and 70: "One of the important advancements
Page 71 and 72: BATTLE OF THE BIBLES 2D H. H. MEYER
Page 73 and 74: the Bible and the Bible only. Inexp
Page 75 and 76: "When the Western world was flounde
Page 77 and 78: The following year an editorial in
Page 79 and 80: many young seminarians trained by t
Page 81 and 82: The laity were still not impressed.
Page 83 and 84: BATTLE OF THE BIBLES 2E Chapter Twe
Page 85 and 86: Isaiah 7:14 "Behold a virgin shall
Page 87 and 88: "A son of God" does not equate with
Page 89 and 90: him". Luke 2:33 "And Joseph and his
Page 91 and 92: Here we have further evidence of Ro
Page 93 and 94: JB "Christ, our, passover, has been
Page 95: Here, and in most other passages of
Page 99 and 100: the Protestant Bible. Having achiev
Page 101 and 102: So, once more, as in the days of Co
Page 103 and 104: while making a futile attempt to ga
Page 105 and 106: 1560. Goa (Indian) Inquisition esta
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Battle of the Bibles - Present Truth

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