It amazes me that the issue of Bible translation is constantly in a state of flux. Every time one turns around there is some new something that has been found and discovered that will bring us closer to the actual words of God. I’m so glad I got off this squirrel cage.
Now mind you, if you’re going to proclaim yourself a proponent of the King James Bible you should get ready for a barrage of criticism. (It’s almost as bad as saying you’re “Messianic.”) Eyes role and you’re immediately placed into the unenviable position of being considered unscholarly. Anybody who is anybody knows we’ve gone way past the KJV. How out of date and ignorant can one be?
I just saw the following this week. I believe it came out November of this year.
Here it is:
“Book Notice: A New Approach to Textual Criticism: An Introduction to the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method.
Published by SBL [Society of Biblical Literature] Press, and hot off the presses, is this new work on CBGM. Here’s what the SBL Press website has to say about the book:
An essential introduction for scholars and students of New Testament Greek
With the publication of the widely used twenty-eighth edition of Nestle-Aland’s Novum Testamentum Graece and the fifth edition of the United Bible Society Greek New Testament, a computer-assisted method known as the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method (CBGM) was used for the first time to determine the most valuable witnesses and establish the initial text. This book offers the first full-length, student-friendly introduction to this important new method. After setting out the method’s history, separate chapters clarify its key concepts such as genealogical coherence, textual flow diagrams, and the global stemma. Examples from across the New Testament are used to show how the method works in practice. The result is an essential introduction that will be of interest to students, translators, commentators, and anyone else who studies the Greek New Testament.” — (I think we used the 26th edition of the Nestle-Aland text in Bible college. It’s outdated. But good news: it’s been updated, twice!)
Matthew 24:35 says: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
That’s true enough. The only problem is: we can’t seem to find all these words in any one place anywhere. Where in the world are they? Will they ever be found? Who can help us find them?
What happens if, at some point, when they use this Coherence-Based Genealogical Method, they come to the conclusion that Yeshua actually said: “but some of my words shall pass away?” What are we going to do then?
I don’t serve a God that keeps His children on a constant Easter Egg Hunt for the words He told us won’t pass away. But, that’s what has been happening since Westcott and Hort in the late 1800’s. Interestingly, none of this stuff had been an issue for 1800 years. Was God sleeping? Did He turn His head and not notice His Words got sort of lost and scattered and in need of reassembling?
Interestingly, Dan Wallace of the Dallas Theological Seminary (and also The Center For The Study of New Testament Manuscripts as well as the author of the NET Bible) states:
“Scholars are not sure of the exact words of Jesus. Ancient historians were concerned to get the gist of what someone said, but not necessarily the exact wording. A comparison of parallel passages in the Synoptic Gospels reveals that the evangelists didn’t always record Jesus’ words exactly the same way. The terms ipsissima verba and ipsissima vox are used to distinguish the kinds of dominical sayings we have in the Gospels. The former means ‘the very words,’ and the latter means ‘the very voice.’ That is, the exact words or the essential thought. There have been attempts to harmonize these accounts, but they are highly motivated by a theological agenda which clouds one’s judgment and skews the facts. In truth, though red-letter editions of the Bible may give comfort to believers that they have the very words of Jesus in every instance, this is a false comfort.”
I don’t know about you, but I had more comfort in my (supposed) blissful ignorance before I read that pathetic statement. Didn’t the Holy Spirit guide the “ancient historians” of Scripture as they penned the Word of God? Or, are we left with the premise that they maybe sort of got “the gist”?
Doesn’t anyone see the handiwork of Satan in all of this? Not to mention the pockets that continually get lined because of all of this nonsense. Can’t you just smell the new translations coming off the presses using this new method? I’m sure Rupert Murdoch must be happy about all this.
Those that have gone from the KJV, to the NASV, to the ESV will once again be placed in the precarious position of needing to get the next “better and best” translation. And … not to mention the various updated editions that will have to come out. If you think about it, by their own admission (that is, the various needed updating they do), they never do get it quite right.
There is a Book that has been around over 400 years. Doesn’t that account for anything? Don’t get sucked into the argument that it’s been “updated” just like the other translations that came after it. That’s just not true. Most of the new translations have had more updates in their short histories than the KJV. And that’s over the 400 years of it’s existence. Check into it for yourself. It’s all smoke-and-mirrors.
The sad part is, that instead of strengthening peoples’ faith in the Word of God, this “better and best” scam has had just the exact opposite.
“Yea, hath God said?” is alive and well and still producing it’s deadly and damning results.
Do you, with absolute assurance, have a Book you can hold in your hands knowing it’s the Word of God? Thankfully I, and countless others, do.
Stick With The Tried and Tested King James Version.