History of the Bible – Ancient Words

Mark Jantzi – January-March 2015

[Please note that the following text presents only an outline of the history of the Bible. If you would like to learn more on the subject, Chick Publications has a couple of very good and extensive books available by David Daniels and Gail Riplinger.]

Original Hebrew Old Testament

Ten Commandments were written by God on stone; given to Moses on Mt Sinai. Set in ark.

  • Torah – Moses writes first 5 books from God’s instruction, includes 10 commandments.
  • Historical books also written by God’s inspiration
  • Writings – Books of Wisdom
  • Prophets

This was the complete Hebrew Old Testament and was completed in the 5th century BC. This is the scripture that Jesus Christ and the apostles quoted. God gave no other word for 400 years.  Throughout all this period of history, Levites and Scribes carefully hand copied the scripture exactly. The newest version, the Masoretic Text was done between the 5th and 10th century AD.

The New Testament

The 4 Gospels, Acts, Epistles and Apocalypse were all finished before 100 AD. The original letters, known as “Autographs” (none of which are known to exist today), were sent to cities in Asia Minor, Greece and Rome. These were first kept as separate books, assembled in Antioch (where believers were first called Christians) and form the basis of the true New Testament scripture, coming rapidly into being a “Majority Text”( accepted by the main stream of true believers for nearly 2000 years) and what is now known as the Textus Receptus. These books were written in Greek, the universal trade language of the time. It was not until the Council of Carthage (397 AD) that these 27 books were formally declared to be Holy Scripture (the Canon). From Jerusalem, there went forth two main centers of Christian influence:  1) Antioch, Syria 310 miles north of Jerusalem and 2) Alexandria, Egypt, 317 miles to the southwest. From these two locations went forth two different branches of Christianity and two different kinds of Bible versions.

During the 2nd century after the last apostle died, very little is known about the church. It is known that the pattern of elders being overseers of the local churches was already giving way to bishops (the equivalent of controlling pastors), who ruled over local city churches; these bishops assuming their position for the purpose of combating heresy. Examples: 115 AD Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch was martyred; in 156 AD Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna was martyred; as probably also died Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons about 202.  So this was the situation of leadership in the Gentile churches, good men who died for Christ, but were bishops. Paul’s final warning to the elders of Ephesus (Acts 20:29) was that after his departure, grievous wolves would enter among the church, not sparing the flock. Among such wolves of the second and third century include the likes of Clement and Origen of Alexandria and Marcion of Rome.

Alexandria, Egypt

For several centuries before Christ, there were Jews living in Alexandria who had copies of the Hebrew Old Testament. After Christ, Christianity also came down to Alexandria. This city became the home of philosophers, intellectuals and “scholars”. It is falsely claimed (Letter of Aristeas, which is proven a hoax) that in the 3rd century BC the OT was translated by 72 Hebrew scholars into Greek and was called the Septuagint, which incidentally also included the Apocrypha, (which is not God-inspired scripture, but is only historical Hebrew tales and folklore and is now found in Roman Catholic bibles). In reality, this Greek Septuagint (known today as the LXX), is the work of some of these unknown and unreliable Alexandrian “scholars”, principally Origen. Even these Alexandrians could not come to a consensus of agreement on the true translation of the Septuagint or any other of their translations. It might be noted that Latin was the language predominately spoken in Northern Egypt, i.e. Alexandria.

Origen (AD 184-254) of Alexandria, Egypt

Here is a man who did more harm to the Word of God and the early church than any other known man, even though he is regarded by the Roman Catholic Church as a “Church Father”. When very young he became a student in the “Christian” school of theology in Alexandria, where Greek philosophy was taught along with the bible. This philosophical school was first known to be headed by Pantaenus, a pagan Gnostic, followed by Clement, a Christian convert of pagan parents, who eventually was branded a heretic. And he was then succeeded by his student Origen. This “theology school” also taught the beliefs of pagans such as Plato. Interestingly, Plato taught that all religion and religious doctrine should be controlled by the state (can you see Roman Catholicism or communism here?); this dominion is to begin at birth so that “no parent is to know his own child.” Hort, also a student of these doctrines advocated “an artificial family as a substitute for the natural family.” Do I remember Hillary Clinton’s book, “It Takes a Village” to raise a child? Did she also study under the pagan Plato?

Origen supposedly learned Hebrew and for 20 years worked on a Greek translation of the Old Testament which he called the Hexapla; it was an interlinear “bible” of six parallel columns, one Hebrew and five different Greek versions. To this “bible” he added his own perverted understanding of the New Testament.  Origen was a “Christian” Gnostic (one who seeks after secret or hidden knowledge), a man who did not really believe the Bible to be the accurate historical truth, inspired by God, but that it was some sort of an allegory. So in his translations he changed words to conform to what he believed. His surviving “edited” manuscripts (now referred to as the 1% Minority Texts (from which Wescott (who studied him very intensely) and Hort made their “New” Greek Bible translation in 1881) and are said to be the basis upon which the NIV, NASB and all other Modern Versions are based. Here is a sample of some of his heretical beliefs for which he was eventually declared a heretic:

  1. He believed that man was divine (a god)
  2. He believed in the preexistence of souls
  3. He taught that everyone would eventually be saved, including the Devil (ultimate reconciliation).
  4. He said the Trinity was a hierarchy, not an equality of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  5. He believed in baptismal regeneration.
  6. He believed in Purgatory (but not an eternal hell).
  7. He taught that both the Holy Spirit and Christ were created by God.
  8. He taught transmigration of the souls of men after death.
  9. The Genesis account was not literal and there was no natural man named Adam.
  10. He taught that Christ became God when He was baptized.
  11. He denied the physical resurrection of the dead believers, as he denied the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ and he further denied that there will be a bodily or literal second coming of Jesus Christ.
  12. Based on Matt. 19:12 he had himself castrated, which he apparently recommended for other males.
  13. The sun, moon and stars are all living creatures.

His beliefs and teachings were so heretical that in 231 AD even Demetrius, the bishop of the liberal Alexandria church, had him excommunicated as a presbyter. Origen’s counterfeit bible was further copied by other Alexandrian “scholars”.

Constantine Emperor of Rome

Constantine was a pagan, an idolater who worshipped Sol Invictus, the sun god. In 312 AD he was battling his rival, Maxentias for the throne of Rome at the Milvian Bridge. He asked his sun god for a sign and saw a cross (actually an ankh) and was told he could conquer in this sign. So he won the battle and declared himself a Christian. He took on the title Pontifex Maximus  (ruler over the pagan world) and also took on the title of Bishop of Rome. He made Christianity a legal religion, declared an end of persecution (313 AD), and made Christianity the official state religion. Thousands of pagans were now forcibly baptized and declared to be Christians. Constantine was himself eventually baptized the year before his death in 338.

Due to the terrible persecution of Constantine’s successor, Emperor Diocletian, who in AD 303 ordered the destruction of all sacred manuscripts on penalty of death, all of the originals and most of the copies were destroyed. So in 313, in his attempt to unite all of the divided and heterogeneous Christian bishops in one doctrine, Constantine asked Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, a student of and great admirer of Origen, to find and bring to him 50 bibles. So rather than go to the pure and true Syrian Text from Antioch, Eusebius went down to Alexandria, where with the assistance of the scribe Pamphilus, he obtained the 50 tainted bibles copied out of Origen’s Hexapla. These bibles, also known as the Egyptian or Hesychian Texts are probably the origin of the Codex Alexandrius (A), taken from the Septuagint and including the Apocrypha.  Other suspected and corrupted Alexandrian versions of the same origin are: The Codex Vaticanus (B) (350 AD), (discovered in the Pope’s Vatican Library in 1481 AD) and the Codex Sinaiticus (Aleph) (about 350 AD) (which was discovered on a trash pile (or in a trash can) at St Catherine’s Monastery on Mt. Sinai in 1859). While these versions are very old, they are not reliable. Is it not a sign of their lack of acceptance that the true church ignored these manuscripts for 1300 years?  These last two versions, the only two known survivors of the Eusebius’ fifty, are the ones resurrected and used by Wescott and Hort to influence the most modern versions of today, beginning in the late 19th century. More on this will be dealt with later.

Constantine also, attempting to unite all of the churches, convened and chaired the Council of Nicea in 325, the first of many of these type councils, which will follow for many years. Over 300 bishops attended, including Arius, the bishop of Alexandria, who tried to defend his rogue doctrines, for which Alexandria was known. An agreement of beliefs was made at the conclusion of the council, which Arius refused to sign and was subsequently excommunicated. Ecumenicism and central control was now well in order and the roots are now established for the formation of the Roman Catholic Church, in which the Roman bishop, Siricius (384-398), would also be taking on the title of Pontifex Maximus (Pope) in less than 100 years.

The Old Latin Vulgate Bible (Completed 157 AD)

At least by the second century, the pure gospel of Christ had spread into Europe and beyond Rome. Some of these people were known as the Waldenses (also known as Vaudois, people of northern Italy who dwelt in the mountain valleys of the western Alps), also the Gauls (French), Celts (includes people of the British Isles) and Albegenses (People of southern France). Latin was then a common language of the Roman Empire and these people desired a bible in their own common language. Although no copies exist today, it is believed that by AD 157 they had gone to Antioch and obtained or made a Latin translation, which became a favorite among the true believers. It took on the name “Vulgate” which means the “common” language spoken by the people. It was so esteemed for its faithfulness and its accurate reproductions of the originals, that in 382 when the Roman Catholic Pope Damascus 1 commissioned his secretary, a scholar (monk) named Jerome, to produce a New Latin Vulgate, they would soundly refuse to accept it.

Jerome (Catholic “Saint” and church “Father”) – The New Latin Vulgate

At the time of Jerome there were reliable Greek texts of the Bible that were available. But whereas there were many Latin bibles, there were also many corrupted and erroneous versions that had originated in Alexandria, Egypt. So rather than starting with the reliable Old Latin Vulgate Bible as a basis for a new bible, he started with Origen’s corrupted Greek Old Testament version of the Septuagint. After moving to Bethlehem and learning a little Hebrew and studying the Hebrew Old Testament, he changed some of Origen’s words, but still inserted his own beliefs. While with the Jews, he discovered that the Rabbis did not accept the Apocrypha as Holy Scripture, but under pressure from Rome he included it in his New “Roman Catholic” Latin Vulgate, which was finished about 400 AD.

Augustine (another “Saint” and church “Father”)

Augustine is another of the North African church “scholars”. He is the son of a pagan father and a Christian mother. In his youth he was known for his sexual escapades and for studying the pagan philosophies of Plato. After being baptized into the Roman Catholic Church in 387 (about age 32), he returned to North Africa, became a monk, and a few years later became Bishop of Hippo, now in Algeria. He is regarded by the Roman Catholic Church as one of their greatest theologians. While he never translated a bible (nor could he read or understand Greek), he did plead with Jerome to stick with the Septuagint in making his Latin Vulgate Bible.  Since he could not read Greek, he made his theologies without being able to understand what Paul and the apostles actually said in their original Greek writings, but he instead took Jerome’s extremely biased Latin version as authoritative. He held to the Manichean dualistic doctrine that flesh and the natural things are sinful and impure, but the spirit is life and light. This teaching was a comfort to him as he could blame his continuing sexual sins on his lower fleshly nature, but still claim to be morally pure in his other spiritual nature. One can easily see how this has influenced the Roman Catholic clergy and doctrines unto this very day. So he holds the informal title, “The Doctor of Grace”. He is also known to have encouraged the doctrine of salvation through the sacraments of the organized Church; therefore there can be no salvation outside of the Church. He supported the use of relics and the belief in purgatory. He also sanctioned the Church’s use of force to bring men within the fold of the Catholic Church, a practice carried on for many years by the popes and Catholic rulers, resulting in the spilling of the blood of thousands of martyrs. So according to his teaching, everyone who did not give full allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church was a “heretic” and worthy of pain, suffering and ultimately death. So this is the man who was considered the Great Teacher of the Church. Can you see how a wrongly translated bible, even an ancient version, can lead to such a travesty as we have now in the great harlot, the Roman Catholic Church?

Roman Catholic Persecution of the Waldensians (For 500 Years)

From the time of Jerome’s Latin Vulgate Bible, let us move forward about 700 or 800 years. This Latin Vulgate is now the standard of the Roman Catholic Church and in the course of time the popes have ruled that only her priests are qualified to interpret the bible and that furthermore, common men are not allowed to possess any bible. It should be noted that during this period of time (dark ages) even most of the Catholic clergy did not have access to reading the bible and were ignorant of the Word. And so the campaign of eliminating true believers and their bibles is being carried out. While there are other groups who hold to a true faith and a true word, there is a group of believers in the western Alps who are singled out for persecution by the Roman Catholic Church. In 1184 they were all excommunicated. Crusades were organized against them to force them into the Church: in 1437 by Pope Innocent VIII, in 1476 by the Duchess of Savoy. In 1560 the pope attacked and destroyed their villages, whereupon the people fled to the high mountains and hid in caves. A year later in 1561 they were granted amnesty by the Pope. But again in 1655 the Duke of Savoy sent his army in to conduct a general massacre, which was so severe that even Oliver Cromwell of England threatened to send his army to help them if the French did not relent. In 1685, Louis V revoked the Edict of Nantes (which granted religious freedom to the Protestants) and again sent his soldiers to invade the Piedmont Valleys, perpetrating grevious cruelties against these believers. Whereas they once numbered 20,000, they were brought down to a mere 400 souls. This wave of persecution did not end until Spain, Austria and England declared war on France, when they were finally permitted to return to their home valleys and live in peace. These people were able to hold out faithfully because they very early had copies of the pure word of God. Since these people lived in the Alps on the border area between Italy and France, they very early had the old original Latin Vulgate (157 AD). About 1000 years later, Peter Waldo (for whom they get their more recent name) had a New Testament translated (about 1175-1185) in the Arpitan (a French dialect) vernacular.

The Making of an English Bible – John Wycliffe (1330s-1384)

It is not our current purpose to track every Bible translation into every other tongue or to follow the Roman Catholic persecution of the many other groups who faithfully held to the true faith as was given by the apostles. But at this time let us look to that line of translation that will eventually take us to the King James Version of the Bible. By the 14th century, the Catholic Church had managed to destroy most of the Old Latin Vulgate Bibles. But a man by the name of Wycliffe had an Old Latin Bible and began to translate it into English. He was not conversant in Hebrew or Greek but he was a good Latin Scholar. By 1380 he had finished the first English translation of the New Testament and two years later he completed his full Wycliffe English Bible. His work was done by carefully hand copying the word. He was also a publisher of gospel tracts. Whereas he had been a Catholic priest, but by reading the true word he came to understand that the doctrine of transubstantiation was a blasphemous deceit. He recognized Christ as the head of the true church (not the pope) and he believed in the priesthood of all believers. He sent out many poor and simple men as preachers of the word; these men became known as “Lollards”, who drew a great following, even congregations. But persecution followed to scatter these preachers, since it became a capital offense to read the Scriptures in English. It was during the last years of Wycliffe’s life that the Roman Church was split by a schism (1378) in which there were two popes; during this 40 year period there was not much persecution of true believers.  In 1415, 21 years after his death the Catholic Church hated his work so much that they dug up his body, tried him as a heretic, burned his body and then poured his ashes into the River Swift.

It was about the time of Wycliffe’s death that a man, Jerome of Prague came to Oxford to study and returned to his country under the influence of Wycliffe’s teachings and doctrines. His witness was the cause of bringing another man, John Huss into the understanding of this message. About the year 1414 both men were to give their lives as martyrs.

In only a few more years, 1450, a German man by the name of Johannes Guttenberg invented a moveable printing press. He started by printing letters of indulgences, which people bought from priests to stay out of purgatory. In a few years he also took a contract to print 200 Catholic Vulgate Bibles. The secret was soon out and printing presses began showing up all over Europe.

Erasmus (1466-1536)

Desiderius Erasmus was born to a father who made a living by copying documents and did very well at it. But his parents died young and his catholic “guardians” sent him to a monastery to train to be a monk and then the Church confiscated all of his estate. By the age of 20 he was forced to take the vows of priesthood, though he despised popery. His decision to seek a Doctorate Degree however kept him from really becoming a functioning priest but permitted him to have access to all of the Church libraries first in Paris and then in Italy. He was able to compare Bible manuscripts including the Old Latin. From there he moved and lived his life in England and northern Europe. He came to the conclusion that some versions were corrupted and false, while others were the true word of God. In 1516 he finished the translation of a Greek New Testament, the Textus Receptus also known as the Received Text, which is the text that has since been acknowledged by true Christians as the genuine word of God. He even got the pope to endorse it (briefly) and had it printed with copies spread all over Europe, before the Catholics discovered what had been done. It is this version that stirred the men of the Reformation and is the basis of the King James Version. It is said that he also made a new Latin Translation to accompany the Greek. He fully believed that the scripture should be made available in the common tongues of the people.

Luther (1483-1546)

Martin Luther was a priest who had the opportunity to read Erasmus’ New Testament in 1516 and he understood what God had said about salvation. A year later (1517), he reacted to the pope’s sale of indulgences by posting the 95 Theses, challenging the pope’s doctrines, on the Wittenberg Church door. So stirred was Luther by the word that in 1522 he made a German translation of the New Testament and in 1534 he had made an entire German Translation similar to a German version (Tepl) that had been made in 1389 from the Old Latin. So Germany had become the heart of the Reformation.

William Tyndale (1494-1536)

As you can clearly see from the dates, Tyndale was a contemporary of both Erasmus and Luther. Since Erasmus’ bible was in Greek and Luther’s’ translation was in German, Tyndale desired to make a new English version. The political climate in England would not permit him to do the work in England, so he went to Worms, Germany where he finished his translation of the Tyndale English New Testament in 1526. So he began printing bibles and smuggling them into England, which the Catholic leaders promptly bought and burned as many as they could find. But this sale of bibles permitted Tyndale to print even more bibles, written in the everyday language of the common people. Tyndale was so shocked to realize how ignorant the Catholic clergy were of the Bible that he once made a statement to one “learned” theologian in England, “If God spares my life, ere many years I will take care that a plough-boy shall know more of the scriptures than you do”. So Tyndale was put on a “most wanted list” and (Catholic Saint) Sir Thomas Moore put a contract out on him. He was betrayed by a “friend”, imprisoned for 16 months and then executed by being burned at the stake in 1536. His prayer that the English King’s eyes would be opened was answered within a year of his death.

Coverdale’s revision of Tyndale’s Bible was printed in England one year later (1537) by the order of King Henry VIII. Common people, farmers and plow boys were reading the precious word and many were learning English by reading the bible. Miles Coverdale’s translation was not to be the final English version but was to be another building block.

The Geneva Bible. The political climate in England became very stormy during the reign of Mary 1 (Bloody Mary) from 1553 until 1558, while she tried to forcibly bring Roman Catholicism back into Britain. Due to this severe persecution about 800 English scholars fled from England, many to Geneva, Switzerland, where they decided to make a superb revision of Tyndale’s bible, using Greek and to be the first English bible in which all of the Old Testament was translated directly from Hebrew manuscripts. Most of the work was done by William Whittingham with the assistance of Miles Coverdale and other godly men such as John Knox. The full bible was finished in 1560, predating the King James Version by 51 years. It was the first bible to be divided into numbered chapters and verses. It was a study bible with cross reference verse citations. It also included many marginal notes from reformers such as John Calvin. This popular bible was carried to America on the Mayflower and by many others later. It was a common man’s bible and could be purchased for a little less than a week’s wages even for the lowest paid workers.

The Bishop’s Bible The Geneva Bible, because of its heavy Calvinistic margin notes and its Presbyterian (government by lay elders) threat to the Episcopal system of the Church of England, was indeed an offense to the clergy. So the Archbishop of Canterbury commissioned a new version, a pulpit edition, for the clergy. The translation was not well done, with poor checks and balance between the translators. It was published in 1568 and had to undergo a number of corrective revisions. It never became very popular and the King James Version soon took its place.

The Roman Catholic Counter Reformation

This was the origin of the Jesuits (The Society of Jesus). In 1540 Ignatius Loyola got the permission of the pope to build a (secret) army of priests whose goal was to tear down the protestant movement and to counter the spread of the written translation of the English language Bible. This resulted in the production of what is now called the Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible in the English language. The New Testament was made in Rheims, France in 1582 and the Old Testament in Douay, France in 1610. This Catholic translation never did sell well in England. Of course they had to know that the King James Bible translation process was well underway from 1604-1611.

Their other action was to set up the Council of Trent, a series of meetings of Catholic clergy representatives between 1545 and 1560. One thing the council did was to affirm the unscriptural Catholic doctrines such as: salvation by baptism and works (not by faith), defends the “wafer god”, makes Rome the Mother of all churches, outside of which there is no salvation, there is no priesthood of all believers (only Catholic clergy), declares the pope to be supreme (in place of God) and condemns the Protestant Bibles, putting them on the Index of Prohibited Books.

Whereas this was not the beginning of the torture, murder and confiscation of the property of “heretics”, (true believers who would not submit to Roman Catholicism) this Council gave new life to and formalized The Inquisition (it had already been going on for about 300 years).  This cruel and wicked system was visibly run by the Dominicans but secretly run by the Jesuits. This Inquisition resulted in the murder of millions of true believers along with the destruction of their bibles and the confiscation of their property.

The King James English Bible 1611

It was about the time of Tyndale’s death and the printing of Coverdale’s English Bible that King Henry VIII, in 1534, formally severed England’s ties to Roman Catholicism and the rule of the Pope. Thus the political climate would be ripe for an officially sanctioned production of an English Bible. It was not until 1604 that another king, James 1, ordered that the process of translation to begin and he set up six companies of scholars at three institutions (Oxford, Cambridge and Westminster) to do the job. Although the Apocrypha was included due to political pressure, it was set aside as a separate word (recognized as not being scripture) and placed between the two testaments (a later revision removed it).  The work of Erasmus’ Greek New Testament, The Textus Receptus was heavily relied upon, as was the work of Tyndale. The translators were instructed to take the Bishop’s Bible as a basis, but in reality took more from the Geneva Bible. As the translators considered many old versions they did not find reliability in any of the corrupted Alexandrian works.

The Unreliable Ancient Texts

Why was Erasmus’ Textus Receptus preferred as superior to other “ancient versions”, in particular the Vaticanus and the Sinaiticus? First of all, these two “corrupted” versions disagree with each other over 3000 times in the gospels alone. Secondly, there were available to be compared with Erasmus’ Greek work, at least 5,309 surviving old Greek manuscripts which contain all or part of the New Testament, and some in other languages dating back to within 100 years of the apostles. These ancient Greek texts agree with each other 95% of the time, enough to get a pure and true word that can be translated.

The Vaticanus, for example, the one discovered in the Vatican Library in 1481; it omits the following passages:

  • Genesis 1:1 – Genesis 46:28 (Remember Origen didn’t believe the creation story).
  • Psalms 106-138
  • Matthew 16:2-3
  • Paul’s epistles to Timothy and Titus (pretty strong on church order)
  • Hebrews 9:14-13:25 (the old order priesthood being done away with)
  • The book of Revelation (identifies the Great Whore and mystery Babylon)
  • In addition it leaves out 237 words, 452 clauses and 748 whole sentences that are found in the other more reliable copies.

This version was available to the King James translators but was not used because it was unreliable. Incidentally it also contains the Apocrypha.

The Sinaiticus is the one that was found in the trash on Mt Sinai in 1844. In addition to the New Testament it adds the “Epistle of Barnabbas” and the “Shepherd of Hermes”. It has been judged as extremely unreliable. On many occasions 10, 20, 30, 40 words are dropped through carelessness. On nearly every page there are corrections and revisions that were done by 10 different people. Both versions leave out the last 12 verses of Mark, concerning the resurrection of Christ; not one other manuscript leaves these verses out. It too has been cast aside by true bible scholars as worthless.

Enter Modern Translators: B.F.Westcott and F.J.A.Hort

You may not think of the Nineteenth Century (the 1800s) as being modern, yet these two men have set in motion the trend of modern English revisions of the Bible that do not conform to the truth of either the King James Bible or the Textus Receptus. How did this come to be? Both of these men were Cambridge (England) educated professors who were regarded by many as intellectual scholars. They did not really believe God’s true word, they were deeply involved in the occult and they hated the Textus Receptus, (Hort called it “vile” and “villainous”) preferring the Catholic “critical” Greek text instead. So they decided to make their own Greek text, based on the corrupt and unreliable Roman Catholic texts, the Vaticanius and the Sinaiticus. And then in 1853 they began to “revise” the King James Bible. 28 years later (1881) the Church of England accepted their Greek Text and a week later their English Revised Version appeared. The pope was also delighted. Now the protestants had a bible that the Catholics could approve. The Vaticanius Text is actually responsible for over 36,000 changes that appear today in the new versions. It is interesting that at the same time (1859), Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution. Since both Westcott and Hort did not believe the literal truth of the first 3 chapters of Genesis, or that Eden had been a real place (quite in agreement with Origen), they both stated that they could easily believe Darwin.  If this is your belief, then what will you be translating and teaching your students?

So the English Revised Version soon opened the floodgates into the next century (the 1900s) of many more new “revisions”, among which included the ASV, RSV, NAS, and the Living Bible (pushed by Billy Graham into a best seller). And now the king of them all, according to the Evangelicals, Charismatics and the Ecumenicals: the New International Version. These new versions are made with the input of Jesuits, Unitarians and other unbelievers.

New Versions – Toward a One World Bible for all Religions   

The changing of wording in the new versions, following ancient corrupt versions or simply changing what the translator wants without the support of any text, such as Wescott and Hort in making a New Greek Text, serves to accomplish the following:

  • Diminish the deity of Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
  • Dilutes the name of the creator God such that it can apply to the “coming” of Satan as the world ruler, god of this world.
  • Diminishes the person of the Holy Spirit to “a spirit”.
  • Changes the personal pronoun and gender (he, him) of the godhead to something neuter.
  • Opens the souls of the readers to the New World Order – One World Government and Religion of the antichrist and the false prophet.
  • The change of wording is more appealing to the eastern thought of New Age, Hindu, Buddha and Luciferians.
  • The new versions are closer to the Jehovah’s Witness’ bible and are also more acceptable to Roman Catholics.
  • Their rewording in the NT encourages anti-Semitism with other racism and may put the true martyrs of Jesus Christ into a deserving “enemy of the new kingdom” position.

Today’s Translators – The Corruption of Eugene Nidia (1914-2011)    

Yes, it even gets worse. It was not sufficient that the English bible should become so defiled, but that the same pollution should reach into other languages as well. I was shocked at how this one man was able to corrupt the Bible Societies as well as the Wycliffe Bible Translators. The translator missionaries (linguists) who joined the WBT with a pure heart are now being trained (brainwashed) to use Nidia’s method of translating the word, using “dynamic equivalence” instead of literal word and meaning (formal) translation. So these new “common translations” will also be known as “interconfessional bibles”. Satan’s goal of a one world religion appears to be on the horizon of probability. Let us hold fast to the true and inerrant word that God has given and preserved through all generations.