King James Scholarship II

The childlike simplicity of "It is written" was spoken by Jesus Christ when Satan challenged His credentials as the Son of God. Luke 4: 3-4:

3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.

4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

When one becomes born-again as Jesus states in John 3, a whole new world of most excellent faith is entered. Here, fear is replaced with faith, and hope replaces hopelessness.

The comforting absolutes of God's promises are staggering. Mark 9:23:

Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

Notice “all things.” Jesus said in Mark 16:18, “they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” The absolute words are “they shall.” Romans 8:28:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

When one is born again, born for the second time, this time of the Spirit, he enters into the Kingdom of God where the Word of God is absolute. This place of glorious absolutes is not accessed by intellect or wealth, beauty or power, but by repentant humility and childlike faith. In this place, “It is written” is the standard and the full authority by which all is measured: a sure foundation.

Are you ready to trade in your old life for a brand new life in Christ Jesus, where all sin, shame, and guilt are erased? Are you ready for a life filled with power and eternal purpose? Then you have come to the right place. Today is your day of salvation. Click onto “Further With Jesus” for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God. Don't wait another minute. Click onto "Further With Jesus" now while you still have time. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Genesis 3:1:

Now the serpent was more subtle 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?

GOD SAID, Deuteronomy 4:2:

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

GOD SAID, Revelation 22:18-19:

18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

GOD SAID, Proverbs 24:21:

My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change:

GOD SAID, I Corinthians 14:33:

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints

GOD SAID, Psalms 12:6:

The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

MAN SAID: The Authorized King James Version of the Bible founded on the majority text is outdated and hard to read. There are newer and better translations based on better scholarship and older manuscripts.

Now THE RECORD. Which Bible? Are all Bibles the Word of God? This question must be answered. There is nothing more important than the accuracy of your copy of the Word of God.

G. A. Riplinger, who has researched and written volumes on Bible translations, has recently added a rebuttal booklet to those challenging the Authorized King James Version. One critic in particular is Robert Morey, author and media personality. Morey says, “Only about 50 readings are problematic and all of them would fit on one page.” Riplinger writes:

A full collation of the Greek editions underlying most modern translations reveals that they differ from the Greek Text underlying the KJV in 9,970 of the 140,521 words. This 7% change would cover 45 pages of text—not, as Morey claimed, 1 page. Of these differences, nearly 3,600 are omissions; it's a much shorter Greek text. This includes the omission of 20 (Nestles 23rd) and 17 (UBS 3rd) whole verses. In another 3,146 places, a completely different Greek word is used (not just a difference in spelling).

In addition to the 7% difference in underlying Greek texts, new versions use ‘Dynamic Equivalencies.’ These are word changes which occur in NO Greek or Hebrew text. The NASB uses about 4,000 and the NKJV used about 2,000. The NIV uses 6,653.

The NIV has 64,098 less words than the KJV. This omission of approximately 10% of the Bible—reduces a typical 1,700 page Bible by 170 pages, not 1 page. [End of Quote]

Note: The number one contender for the Authorized King James Version's position of correctness is the NIV (New International Version). Most who are using the NIV have a translation published before 2011 and are fully unaware that things have changed substantially. Their NIV is no longer being published. The new NIV, which was available online for review November 1, 2010, was scheduled for a printed release of March 2011, but without a name change. It will still be called the NIV, yet 5% of its content will have changed. That's about 76 pages worth of additional changes. Remember, Satan (Genesis 3) added one word and a question mark, which ushered in the law of sin and death. Some will recall that in 2005, the TNIV was published, which some have called the “gender-neutral Bible,” but with no sales success. They have taken the TNIV and merged its content with the pre- 2011 NIV. The following paragraph is from www.biblica.com/niv/:

In addition, particular attention was paid to external feedback in the area of gender language. (See: What was decided about inclusive language, page 4). As the CBT stated in announcing the planned update, every single gender-related change made from the 1984 NIV to the TNIV was reconsidered. Some were preserved, some were rescinded in favor of the 1984 rendering, and many were re-worded in a third, still different way. [End of Quote]

Proverbs 24: 21-22:

21 My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change:

22 For their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of them both?

This is part two in the Authorized King James Version that addresses its scholarship. In the last feature, we published the credentials of six of the 54 scholars selected to translate the King James Version. In this feature, we list the credentials of six more scholars. The following information is from Dr. D. L. Brake's 2011 book titled A Visual History of the King James Bible:

John Overall: dean of St. Paul's Cathedral (1691) and bishop of Lichfield and Coventry (1614).

Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge University, Overall was weak in Hebrew but fluent in Greek and Latin. These language strengths may have increased his influence since much of the translators' discussion was in Latin. Overall had quickly found favor with Elizabeth, who tolerated his Arminian theology. He was a member of the Court of High Commission and attended the original Hampton Court Conference at the invitation of King James.

William Bedwell: vicar of Tottenham High Cross Church.

While John Layfield traveled west, Bedwell was fascinated by the east. An Orientalist and Arabic scholar educated at St. John's College, Cambridge University, he wrote a dictionary in Arabic and a lexicon in Persian. His profound ability in other languages helped in the translation of words encountered in the Hebrew Bible that descended, not from Hebrew, but from related languages.

Miles Smith: final revisionist of the project, Brasenose College (originally named Kings Hall), Oxford, prebendary of Hereford and Exeter Cathedrals, and bishop of Gloucester.

Smith was a scholar in classical and oriental studies (Chaldean, Syriac, Arabic, and Hebrew). His contributions to the King James Version are perhaps greater than any other from among the translation teams. His responsibility was to edit the entire Bible once it was completed by the various companies as well as to write the preface to the new version.

George Abbot: dean of Winchester, vice-chancellor of Oxford, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, bishop of London, and archbishop of Canterbury.

Abbot was one of the greatest scholars in Elizabethan England. Committed to a strong Reformed theological position, he supported the Puritan cause even as a loyal subject to the king. Perhaps because of his Puritan leanings, he was not invited to Hampton Court but was quickly chosen as a translator of the new version. The death of Richard Bancroft in 1611 led to Abbot's installation as archbishop of Canterbury.

John Harmer: Regius Professor of Greek and warden of St. Mary's College, Winchester.

A strong supporter of the Puritan Geneva Bible, Harmer was invited to participate in the King James revision based on his knowledge of Greek. His name appears twice in the notes left behind by John Bois (Second Cambridge Company), suggesting he may have been one of the team of twelve (two from each group) who made the final revisions of the whole Bible in Stationers' Hall, London, in 1610.

John Richardson: Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University, later vicar of Algarkirk in Lincolnshire, and finally vice-chancellor of Cambridge.

Born in the same year as William Shakespeare (1564), the year of the Great Plague, Richardson became a renowned teacher of Greek and Latin. [End of Quote]

Because the scholarship was beyond reproach in the KJV, detractors challenged the manuscripts. The following excerpts are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Which Bible (Updated) Part I:”

In this colossal question of “What did God say,” the concept of something known as the “majority-text” is pivotal!

● There are over 5,000 handwritten manuscripts of the New Testament alone, which contain all or part of the New Testament. If the majority of manuscripts said a particular verse was there, then it was written in the “majority-text.”

● “Majority-text” is also known as the Traditional Text, Syrian Text, Byzantine Text, Kappa, or common text.

● Harvard scholar, Hill, states that during the Byzantine Period, which spanned from 312 AD to 1453 AD, and for nearly three centuries of the Protestant Church, the “majority-text” was the authority.

● Hodge, Professor of New Testament Literature and Exegesis at Dallas Theological Seminary and co-editor of a Greek New Testament book, writes, “Thus, the majority-text, upon which the King James Version is based, has in reality the strongest claim possible to be regarded as an authentic representation of the original text...based on its dominance in the transmissional history of the New Testament text.”

● Again, Hodge writes, “Modern criticism repeatedly and systematically rejects majority readings on a large scale. This is monstrously unscientific. The Textus Receptus was too hastily abandoned.” (The majority-text was gleaned from over 5,000 handwritten manuscripts.)

William Pickering, author of Identity of the New Testament Text, recipient of a Th.M. in Greek Exegesis from Dallas Theological Seminary, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Toronto, wrote:

● The new versions ignore the over 5,000 Greek manuscripts now extant. (Extant meaning “now existing.”)

● The majority-text comes from manuscripts from Greece, Constantinople, Asia Minor, Syria, Alexandria, Africa, Gaul, Southern Italy, Sicily, England, and Ireland.

● A reading found in only one limited area cannot be original. If a reading died out in the fourth century, we have the verdict of history against it.

● The King James Version has the majority-text and geography.

● Metzger, author of The Text of the New Testament, writes, “Readings which are early and are supported by witnesses from a wide geographical area have a certain initial presumption in their favor.”

Note: Another name for the majority-text is the Syrian Text. Central to the Apostle Paul's ministry was the Syrian city of Antioch.

Acts 11:26:

And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

Now let us take a look at the minority-text. In 1881, a “new” Greek text using the Vatican Manuscript (B) was introduced by Westcott and Hort and has been used as the Greek text for all subsequent versions.

● Philo's School in Alexandria, Egypt, produced manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments, altered to conform to the school's esoteric teachings. Westcott and Hort used these very manuscripts to alter the traditional Old and New Testaments.

● Westcott and Hort used Vatican Manuscript (B), which was from only one geographical area: Alexandria, Egypt. Remember, the majority-text, on the other hand, comes from manuscripts from Greece, Constantinople, Asia Minor, Syria, Alexandria, Africa, Gaul, Southern Italy, Sicily, England, and Ireland.

Again, Pickering states, “A reading found in only one limited area cannot be original. If a reading died out in the fourth century, we have the verdict of history against it.”

Researcher G. A. Riplinger weighs in with the following:

Out it comes! Harvard scholar, Hill, writes, “This...theory has been abandoned by most present-day scholars.” The ninety-six papyri (ancient writing materials) (with the exception of P3, 4, 7, and 14) were all discovered after 1890, after Westcott and Hort's 1881 new Greek text. Pickering observes:

In Hort's day...the early papyri were not extant (existing); had they been, the W-H theory could scarcely have appeared. Each of the early papyri (AD 300 or earlier) vindicates some Byzantine [KJV] reading. Bodmer II shows some Syrian readings to be anterior (preceding in time; prior) to corresponding [Aleph and B] readings. The early papyri vindicate Byzantine readings in 660 places where there is a significant variation.

Remember, the Byzantine text is what you have in the King James Bible.

Pickering cites H.A. Sturz, who wrote The Byzantine Text-Type and New Testament Textual Criticism, and summarized his research concerning the superiority of the KJV text-type, based on the discoveries in the papyri:

H.A. Sturz...surveyed all the available papyri...each new MS discovered vindicated added Byzantine readings. The magnitude of this vindication can be more fully appreciated by recalling that only about 30% of the New Testament has early papyri attestation. If we had at least three papyri covering all parts of the New Testament, all of the 5,000+ Byzantine readings rejected by the critical (eclectic) texts would be vindicated by early papyrus. Henceforth, no one may reasonably or responsibly characterize the Byzantine text-type as being...late (meaning not as old). Although modern editors continue to reject these readings, it can no longer be argued that they are late.

● A.F.J. Klijn, in his book A Survey of the Researches into the Western Text of the Gospels, compared Aleph and B (fourth century) readings with the papyri (second century). Pickering added to his research and compared the Textus Receptus (received text) to Aleph and B. He concluded that the KJV readings (TR) dominated the early papyri to a greater percentage than the readings of Aleph and B, seen in the new versions.

● Pickering concludes, "The TR has more early attestation than B and twice as much as Aleph - evidently, the TR reflects an earlier text than either B or Aleph."

● Other scholars' findings reveal results which vindicate the KJV readings.

● G. Zuntz, in The Texts of the Epistles, writes, "KJV type readings previous discarded as late are in P46...Are all Byzantine readings ancient? G. Pasquali answers in the affirmative. Papyrus 46 and 45 support the majority-text readings."

● Metzger says, "Papyrus 75 supports the majority-text dozens of times. In relation to the majority-text, P46 (about AD 200) shows that some readings...go back to a very early period. P66 has readings that agree with the majority-text type.

● Hill notes, "Byzantine readings, which most critics have regarded as late, have now been proved by Papyrus Bodmer II to be early readings."

● The Journal of Theological Studies (London: Oxford University Press) says, "Papyrus 66 supports the readings of the majority-text."

Remember, the majority-text is the King James Version.

John W. Burgon, Dean of Chichester, was a contemporary of Westcott and Hort. He said, “[T]he two manuscripts honored by Westcott and Hort are the most depraved.”

● Burgon went on to say, “[W]ithout a particle of hesitation, that B and D are two of the most scandalously mutilated texts which are anywhere to be met with: have become, by whatever process (for their history is wholly unknown), the depositories of the largest amount of fabricated readings, ancient blunders, and intentional perversions of truth, which are discovered in any known copies of the Word of God.”

● Finally, Burgon wrote concerning dissenting manuscripts Vaticanus (B), Sinaiticus (ALEPH), Bezae (D), and Papyrus 75: “All four are discovered on careful scrutiny to differ essentially, not only from the 99 out of 100 of the whole body of extant manuscripts, but even from one another.” [End of Quotes]

The Authorized King James Version of the Bible is the gold standard of the Word of God. Its scholarship is unassailable and its manuscripts the authority. It took seven years, 1604 to 1611, for the translators and the printers to complete their labor. Psalms 12:6:

The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

At the end of this feature, a list of GodSaidManSaid features are listed for your review. There is nothing more important than your copy of the Word of God.

GOD SAID, Genesis 3:1:

Now the serpent was more subtle 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?

GOD SAID, Deuteronomy 4:2:

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

GOD SAID, Revelation 22:18-19:

18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

GOD SAID, Proverbs 24:21:

My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change:

GOD SAID, I Corinthians 14:33:

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints

GOD SAID, Psalms 12:6:

The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

MAN SAID: The Authorized King James Version of the Bible founded on the majority text is outdated and hard to read. There are newer and better translations based on better scholarship and older manuscripts.

Now you have THE RECORD.

GodSaidManSaid Features to Review:

God Said Answers KL

Irrelevant Challenges GodSaidManSaid

King James Scholarship

King James Version, Apocrypha, Septuagint, Canon

Pastor A.J. Contends with King James

Pastor T. and the KJV

The World's Greatest Minds on the Bible

Which Bible (Updated) Series

 

 

 

 

References:
Authorized King James Version

Brake, D. L., A Visual History of the King James Bible, Baker Books, 2011, p 97, 99- 101, 103-104, 107-108

www.GodSaid ManSaid.com, Which Bible (Updated) Part I

Riplinger, G. A., Blind Guides, A.V. Publishing Corp., p 19

www.biblica.com/niv/

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