Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 

Important Doctrinal Terms 

    Verbal Inspiration means that God breathed upon the hearts and minds of the prophets, apostles, and others to give His word to man. The term is especially related to the original autographs of the books of the Bible. ( See 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:19- 21. ) 

    Divine Preservation means that God has overseen the work of scribes and translators to ensure that His word is accurately preserved unto every generation. ( Psalm 12:6-7; Matthew 5:17 ) 

    Inerrancy of Scripture refers to the infallibility of the Scriptures in its original manuscripts. This is an astrological term that means that the planets in their orbits do not vary. This term was first used to refer to Scriptures by theologians around the turn of the 20th century. 

The Textual Issue 

    The Old Testament was primarily given in the Hebrew language in its original documents. There is little dispute about the text of the Old Testament. The New Testament was in the Greek language in its original documents. Shortly after the completion of the New Testament two schools developed that produced copies of New Testament Greek manuscripts. One was located in Antioch of Syria while the other was located in Alexandra, Egypt. The manuscripts that can be traced back to Antioch of Syria are referred to as the Byzantine, Majority, Received (Textus Receptus) or Ecclestical Text. Those manuscripts that can be traced to Egypt are know as Alexandrian Texts.

    History reveals that by far the accepted text of the New Testament in early times was the Byzantine or received Text. This can be seen by four facts? First copies have been found in the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe. Second, the received text was the only Greek text used as the basis of translations into other languages in early centuries. Third, a survey of early literature reveals that over 90% of the quotes of the New Testament were from the received text. (That is why that the Testus Receptus is sometimes referred to as the Ecclesiastical Text) Fourth, of the more than the 5,000 copies of ancient Greek manuscripts that exists today; over 95% are of the Received Text. (That is why the Texstus Receptus is also referred to sometimes as the Majority Text) 

Erastmus versus Westcott & Hort 

Until the 16th century the Greek texts of the Bible were only found in manuscript or “hand written” form. The first Greek New Testament was published by Desiderius Erasmus in 1516** and was the Textus Receptus. After that point men did not have to work through the painstaking tasks of hand written copies. The Erasmus Greek New Testament became the primary source for the translation in the English language, including the King James Bible. 

    In the 19th century two well-preserved manuscripts of the Greek New Testament were discovered that date back to early centuries. These two Alexandrian manuscripts are referred to as the Vaticanus (because it was found in the Vatican at Rome) and the Siniaticus (because it was found in a monastery in Sinai). There are sometimes referred to as the “the best” manuscripts because they are so well preserved (Note: perhaps this is the case because early church leaders knew that they were corrupted, so they cast them aside. If you don’t use it, it will not wear out!!) 

    These two manuscripts were the primary basis for the development of a “new” text of the Bible in the late 1800’s. This work was done by men, Brook F. Westcott and Fenton J. Hort. The text of the New Testament became know as the “New Text” because it did not exist before their time. In fact the text is what I would call a “synthetic” text that was created by taking bits and pieces and putting them together. This was necessary because the Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus disagreed with each other 3,036 times in the Gospels alone*** (On a normal English Bible this would mean that they disagreed with each other an average of 19 times per page.) The “New Text” is the primary basis of the NIV translation. 

Dynamic or Formal Equivalency? 

    There are two primary philosophies of translation of the Bible. One is called Forman Equivalency and the other is Dynamic Equivalency. Formal Equivalency means that as much as possible the translators of the Bible concern themselves with the very words of scriptures so as much as possible to have a word-for-word translation. This is the philosophy that guided the King James translators. At times when a person tries to translate a world literally from one language to the other it is unreadable. It is for this reason that the King James translators placed in italics those words, which are not found in the original language but were only placed there to make it readable for us in the English language. 

    On the other hand, Dynamic Equivalency means that the translators of the Bible concern themselves with the meaning of the verses rather than the words of scripture. This is the philosophy that guided the translators of the NIV. 

    Jesus said, 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.” ( Mathew 5:18 ) Jesus was concerned not only with the words of scripture but with the smallest letter and the smallest part of the letter of scripture. The NIV is not a word-forword translation but rather the interpretation of those who translated it. I do not want a Bible that tells me what the translators “think” that God was saying. I want the “word” of God so that I can allow the Holy Spirit to interpret them for me. 

Three Views of the Scripture 

    There are three approaches to the issue of Bible translations that need to be discussed. The “modern” view that came out of the work of Westcott and Hort is that Christianity lost the Scripture and man needs to recover it. This view is the doctrine of evolution applied to the scripture. This view is the idea that if man works hard enough and long enough he can recreate the scripture that was lost in the early centuries of Christianity. If a person accepts the “New Text” of the New Testament as authoritative then he believes that from the early centuries until the 1800’s that we did not have the Bible. 

    The “extremist” view is espoused by men like Peter Ruckman who believes that the King James Bible is inspired in the same way that the original autographs were. In fact in some instances these people believe that the King James Bible actually corrected some supposed problems that existed in the Greek text. If a person accepts this view then he believes that we were without the Bible until 1611. 

    The “faith” view is what I believe. By faith I believe that the Holy Spirit inspired the prophets, apostles and others to write the original autographs. By faith I also believe that since that point in time our sovereign God preserved His word to every generation. At no point in history has the world been without the Scriptures. I believe that for the English speaking world the Bible has been preserved in the form of the King James Bible.