There is much controversy over which text is the best to use when translating the Bible. Increasingly, recent information favors the textus receptus as the preferred Bible ground text, rather than the critical text which has been popularized over the last 150 years. Here is a brief outline of some of the facts.

1. Bible Translation – Text Issues
R. D. Patton
Missionary to Suriname
8/3/2013 Text Issues 1

2. Basic fundamentals for text
choice for fundamentalists
 The fundamentals of the faith
 Separation from apostasy
 Separation for worldliness
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3. Two basic ground texts
available
 Two philosophies
 Two groups
 One is separated from apostacy
 One is associated with apostacy
 Developed in a time accepting German
rationalism & evolution
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4. Two basic questions:
 Is the Bible inspired by God?
 Liberals – no
 Fundamentalists – yes
 Is the Bible preserved throughout
history of the church?
 Liberals no
 Fundamentalists – some yes, but some no
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5. In terms of inspiration…
 Is it just the ideas – liberals and many
fundamentalists
 Or are the actual words inspired (verbal
plenary inspiration)? Fundamentalists,
but not all
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6. What does the Bible say about
extent to words being true?
 Exodus 20:1.And God spake all
these words, saying,...
 Proverbs 30:5 Every word of God is
pure: he is a shield unto them that
put their trust in him.
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7. What does the Bible say about
extent to words being true?
 Luke 21:33. Heaven and earth shall
pass away: but my words shall not
pass away.
 I Thessalonians 4:8.Wherefore
comfort one another with these
words.
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8. Jesus Himself states that the
“jot and tittle” are important:
 Mt. 5:[17] Think not that I am come to
destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not
come to destroy, but to fulfil.[18] For verily I
say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one
jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the
law, till all be fulfilled.
 This is not merely a preservation of ideas, but
the actual words of scripture.
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9. An eclectic text where many words are
missing cannot meet the requirements
of “every word
 Although no doctrine is completely missing,
many doctrines are watered-down, especially
concerning the deity of Christ.
 In the New International Version, for example,
there are 45 versus missing, and 147 verses
have significant portions of the verses
missing.1.”
 1.Waite, D.A. Defending the King James Bible.
Bibles for Today. 1992
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10. Does the Bible say anything
about preservation?
 Matthew 5:18.For verily I say unto
you, Till heaven and earth pass,
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise
pass from the law, till all be
fulfilled.
 Matthew 24:[35] Heaven and earth
shall pass away, but my words
shall not pass away.
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11. The Bible & preservation
 I Peter 1:23. Being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
the word of God, which liveth and
abideth for ever. [24] For all flesh is as
grass, and all the glory of man as the
flower of grass. The grass withereth, and
the flower thereof falleth away: [25] But
the word of the Lord endureth for ever.
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12. The Bible & preservation
 Psalm 119:[89] For ever, O LORD,
thy word is settled in heaven...
[111] Thy testimonies have I taken
as an heritage forever: for they are
the rejoicing of my heart...
 [152] Concerning thy testimonies,
I have known of old that thou hast
founded them forever.
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13. The Bible & Preservation
 Psalm 12:[6] The words of the LORD are
pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of
earth, purified seven times.[7] Thou
shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt
preserve them from this generation for
ever.
 There is gender dissonance, but the
antecedent still goes to “words”
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14. How many Bibles stick with
the preserved text
 Critical text or eclectic text: 134
complete translations and nearly 300
New Testaments
 Textus receptus & masoretic text: 1 –
the KJV Bible. Some of the New KJV is
from the text as well, but there are
some eclectic changes and 100,000
footnotes that are mostly eclectic
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15. Westcott & Hort revised the
TR text
 D. A. Waite identified 9970 different
changes in the words!
 2800 words are missing from the TR
text
 The total change is approximately 7%
of the text
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16. Three basic positions on
inspiration
 The TR/Masoretic text is inspired (and
preserved) by God
 The eclectic text is to be preferred
though no true final text is available
 The KJV was re-inspired (with 54 men
translating) and actually can correct the
Greek text – I would reject this totally
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17. Basic positions on
preservation
 1. There is no verbal preservation in
any given text or translation.
 This is a typical liberal position
 2. The text is preserved, but you must
study all the texts to find it.
 Who can find all the texts? Many are in
restricted countries, or perhaps buried yet
8/3/2013 Les 1 Santa Jejej 17

18. Basic positions on
preservation
 3. God re-inspired the English text.
 This is the KJO position which I reject
 4. God has preserved the original
inspired writings, which are now
available in a given Hebrew and Greek
text.
 This is the position I take – and that God
has providentially preserved the texts
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19. The Holy Spirit will guide
 John 16:[13] Howbeit when he, the
Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you
into all truth: for he shall not speak of
himself; but whatsoever he shall hear,
that shall he speak: and he will shew you
things to come
 John 17:[17] Sanctify them through thy
truth: thy word is truth;.
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20. God uses believing churches
to preserve his Word.
 Timothy 3:[15] But if I tarry long,
that thou mayest know how thou
oughtest to behave thyself in the
house of God, which is the church
of the living God, the pillar and
ground of the truth.
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21. The OT scribes took great
care to copy accurately
 Special skins and ink
 The scribe must read out loud each
word before writing it
 They counted the letters, and which
letter was in the midst
 Any copy with sigificant errors was
destroyed
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22. There were those who
deliberately changed the Word
 . II Thessalonians 2:[1] Now we
beseech you, brethren, by the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our
gathering together unto him,[2] That ye
be not soon shaken in mind, or be
troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word,
nor by letter as from us, as that the day
of Christ is at hand.
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23. Falsifying Paul’s letters
 People were circulating false letters
under the name of Paul. Therefore he
would personally sign his letters to
show that they were genuine.
 II Thessalonians 3:[17] The
salutation of Paul with mine own
hand, which is the token in every
epistle: so I write.
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24. The Bible warned about false
teachers
 Peter, Paul, John and Jude all warned
about false teachers.
 God gave the responsibility to the
believing churches to sift out false
teaching, as the church was the pillar
and foundation of the truth.
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25. Older = better???
 Thus being older was no guarantee of
purity, since there were false teachers
and also false books dating back to the
time of the apostles themselves.
 Plus the best texts were used many
times until they were tattered and must
be replaced. The bad texts were
ignored
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26. The argument from age does
not support the critical text
 The critical or eclectic text is derived primarily
from Vaticanus & Sinaiticus, written about 350
AD
 We have received text translations long before
that – about 150 AD
 Peshitta (Syrian)
 Itala
 The Gothic translation is received form, and
written in 350 AD
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27. The Alexandrian school – from
area of Alexandrian texts
 Alexandria was a center of Greek
learning, and had a large Jewish
population.
 Both Gnosticism and Platonism were
prevalent.
 The Chatechical school was founded by
Pantaenus, who was a gnostic
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28. Alexandrian school
 The church father Clement became its
head, who was also a gnostic.1
 In 232A.D., Origen became the head.
He believed in infant baptism, Arianism,
the veneration of Mary, and allegorical
interpretation.
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29. Alexandrian school – Origen
 Origen was a Universalist who believe
that even demons would be saved. He
felt that the Scriptures were of little use
without allegorical interpretation.
 Eusebius followed, and Constantine
ordered 50 Bibles to be made. Possibly
Vaticanus & Sinaiticus were among
them
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30. 1800 years the church used
the traditional text
 If you believe in divine preservation
through the churches, then you either
believe that the traditional text is the
correct one, or that God allowed the
text to disappear for 18 centuries, and
to be replaced by ones which were
associated with apostates
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31. The Catholic church used the
Vulgate
 This was a translation by Jerome into
Latin which was used for 1000 years
 The Greek Orthodox used basically the
traditional text
 When Erasmus translated from the
Greek, he knew about the Vaticanus,
but rejected it
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32. John Wycliffe
 Translated from the Vulgate into English
 He was attacked by the Catholic church,
but had several very influential friends
who kept him from capture.
 He taught the Lollards, and opposed
the Catholic doctrine of
transsubstantiation…
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33. John Wycliffe
 He died of a stroke and was buried
 His works were condemned by the
Catholic church and burned
 About 40 years later, his body was
exhumed, and the bones burnt and
thrown into the River Swift
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34. William Tyndale
 Brilliant in many languages
 Began translating directly from the
Greek and Hebrew into English
 Excellent translations, which are the
basis for further translations till the KJV
 Completed the New Testament and a
good part of the O.T.
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35. William Tyndale
 His books were burned in England. A
friend sold his books to the Bishop who
burned them, but the price the Bishop
paid allowed them to print many times
that number.
 He was eventually betrayed by a man
he helped – imprisoned for months,
and then burned at the stake
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36. William Tyndale
 His last prayer: Lord, open the King of
England’s eyes. One year later, they
printed the Matthew Bible, which was
largely Tyndale’s work.
 The Coverdale Bible, Matthew’s Bible,
the Great Bible, the Geneva Bible, and
the King James Version were largely
based on Tyndale’s work
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37. Erasmus and the Greek text
 Erasmus was the foremost authority in
Greek and Latin in his day
 He had a friend review Vaticanus, but
he rejected it as inferior. Erasmus had
access to several other texts
 Erasmus never left the Catholic church,
but his doctrine came close to that of
the anabaptists before death
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38. Erasmus text
 Modified by Robert Stephanus and
reworked by Theodore Beza
 The Beza text is still essentially what we
use today.
 The believing churches have accepted
this as the received text. The Catholics
have not…
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39. The time of the eclectic text
 German rationalism was prominent,
with removal of the supernatural,
especially Semler and Griesbach
 Evolution was accepted – by Darwin
 In England, the Broad Street school of
Anglicans was liberal and anti-
supernatural
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40. Westcott & Hort
 Both were Anglican bishops, but of the
modernist Broad Church party.
 They denied
 Adam and Eve
 The virgin birth
 The resurrection of the body
 The inspiration of the scriptures
 They believed in universalism of a sort
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41. Westcott & Hort
 They accepted evolution
 They participated in a number of
different occult groups over a number
of years
 They were to modernise the KJV but
instead they created a new text
 They supported a unitarian on their
committee
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42. Westcott & Hort rules
 Shorter is better – assuming scribes add
more than forget (but studies have
shown the opposite tendency)
 More complicated or obscure is better
 A teaching divergent from the usual is
better
 Comment: This is “scientific method”?
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43. Westcott & Hort are obscure
 They had “conjectural emendations” – why
not just say “educated guess” – probably
because then people would understand and
object
 Their followed by Bruce Metzger, Kurt and
Barbara Aland, Carlo Martini (archbishop of
Catholic church), and Eugene Nida – most are
apostate (except Nida)
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44. A “recension”
 Westcott & Hort had a problem with the
numerical predominance of the traditional text
(99%) They postulated that the churches got
together, rejected the Alexandrian text, and
made a common traditional (Byzantine) text,
which means that the others are mearly
copies. Then we will count the whole group
as a single copy!
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45. Problems with recension
 No historical evidence
 Then you must postulate a recension of all
church fathers, whose writings also were of
the traditional type – including those older
than the “so-called” revision
 If the churches rejected the Alexandrian
type, then they should be considered corrupt
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46. United Bible Societies
 Favor eclectic text
 In favor of Unitarians
 Accepted by Roman Catholics, and
works with them
8/3/2013 46

47. We are to content for the faith
 Jude 1:[3] Beloved, when I gave all
diligence to write unto you of the
common salvation, it was needful
for me to write unto you, and
exhort you that ye should
earnestly contend for the faith
which was once delivered unto the
saints.
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48. Separate from apostacy
 II Cor. 6:[14] Be ye not unequally yoked
together with unbelievers: for what
fellowship hath right eousness with
unrighteousness? and what communion
hath light with darkness?[15] And what
concord hath Christ with Belial? or what
part hath he that believeth with an
infidel?
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49. Separate from apostacy
 II Cor. 6:[16] And what agreement hath
the temple of God with idols? for ye are
the temple of the living God; as God hath
said, I will dwell in them, and walk in
them; and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people.[17] Wherefore come
out from among them, and be ye
separate, saith the Lord, and touch not
the unclean thing; and I will receive you.
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50. Separate from apostacy
 II Cor. 6:[18] And will be a Father unto
you, and ye shall be my sons and
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
 Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man that
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor
sitteth in the seat of the scornful.[2] But
his delight is in the law of the LORD; and
in his law doth he meditate day and night.
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51. Who first questioned God’s
words?
 Genesis 3:[1] Now the serpent was
more subtile than any beast of the
field which the LORD God had
made. And he said unto the
woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye
shall not eat of every tree of the
garden?
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52. What must we do?
 Rom. 16:[17] Now I beseech you,
brethren, mark them which cause
divisions and offences contrary to the
doctrine which ye have learned; and
avoid them.[18] For they that are such
serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their
own belly; and by good words and fair
speeches deceive the hearts of the
simple.
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