Which Version Is The Bible?

Chapter 5: THE GREEK TEXT OF WESTCOTT AND HORT

V. THE THE GREEK TEXT OF WESTCOTT AND HORT

THE MEN WHO CONTROLLED THE 1881 REVISION

Let us return to the 1881 Revision Committee and examine the lives (and the the text which they produced) of two of its leading members - Westcott and Hort. These two men had been working in secret prior to the revision for over twenty years putting together a theretofore unpublished Greek text of the New Testament which was based almost exclusively upon one manuscript, Vaticanus B. Their New Testament altered the 140,521 word text of the Textus Receptus at 5,604 places involving 9,970 Greek words.1 Representing 7 percent of the total word count, these 9,970 included Greek words that were either added, subtracted, or changed.

When the Committee initiated its revision process in 1870, W-H succeeded in getting it to agree to a secrecy pledge concerning the actual product of the revision. On this committee was Vance Smith, a Unitarian scholar who did not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ and had so stated in writing. At the initial meeting, Westcott and Hort insisted that Smith be included in the inaugural communion service. This speaks loudly as to the true commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ that these two "professors" of the faith actually held forth.

In 185l, Mr. Hort wrote:

"I had no idea until the last few weeks of the importance of texts having read so little Greek Testament and dragged on with the villainous Textus Receptus. Think of that vile Textus Receptus leaning entirely on late manuscripts."2 Thus at only age twenty-three and having admitted he had almost no preparatory background, Hort concluded that the Textus Receptus was "vile" and "villainous". At that time he dedicated his life to its overthrow, intending to supplant it with another text. The text he eventually replaced the TR with was Codex Vaticanus B.

At the time of this decision, young Hort had been schooled in Classical Greek and was unaware that the New Testament had not been written in that form of the Greek language. Since the Greek of the New Testament as recorded in the Textus Receptus did not rigidly follow the syntax of the Greek of the classics, Hort deemed it as an inferior quality of Greek.3 This misconception was responsible for his having rashly termed the TR as "vile" and "villanious". Indeed, the Egyptian papyri which proved that the N.T. had been written in Koine (common) Greek rather than Classical Greek had not yet been discovered.

Vaticanus B had been "discovered" in 1481 on the library shelf of the Vatican. To understand Vaticanus B, we have to go back to approximately 200 A.D. to an early so-called "Father" of the church named Origen. If the student researches encyclopedias and other reference materials, he will find Origen, Westcott, and Hort spoken of as having been great men of God - men of faith. They will state how much the Church is indebted to them, that Origen was the first scientific textual exegete of the Scriptures, etc. However, such is not what one finds upon close examination of the facts.

ORIGEN ADAMANTIUS - THE FOUNTAINHEAD OF THE PROBLEM

Origen compiled an Old Testament called the Hexapla (c.245 A.D.). It was, in effect, a parallel Bible which had six columns. The first column was the Hebrew Old Testament. Three other columns portrayed Greek translations by men who were Ebionites. They believed in the ethical teachings of Jesus but did not believe in Paul's doctrines of grace. Indeed, they called Paul an apostate and wholly rejected all his epistles.4 They did not believe Jesus was Deity - that He was God with a capital "G", and taught that Joseph was the father of Jesus. Several of the Ebionites whose translations were included in these columns later apostatized, returning to Judaism.

One of them (Aquila of Sinope, 80-135 A.D.) was excommunicated from the Christian community for steadfastly refusing to give up astrology and for practicing necromancy.5 During the reign of Hadrian (A.D. 117-138), he supervised the building of a pagan temple to Jupiter on the site of the Temple of Solomon and placed a statue of the Emperor where the Holy of Holies had been.6 Aquila produced a new translation of the Old Testament into Greek wherein he deliberately translated many sections of Scripture concerning the Messiah in such a way as to make it impossible to apply these passages to the Lord Jesus Christ.7 He conjectured that the Greek word "parthenos" of Matthew 1:23 was not the virgin Mary but represented a corruption in the original text. According to Aquila, the correct understanding was that Jesus was the bastard son of Mary and a blond Roman soldier of German extraction named "pantheras" (Eng. = panther).8 Origen considered the works of these Ebionites to be "inspired" and thus included them in his "Bible".

The fifth column (written in classical Greek) supposedly is Origen's revision of an older pre A.D. Greek Old Testament translation. Today, this 5th column is referred to by text critics (though they are loathe to admit this) as the "LXX" or the "Septuagint".9

Origen also worked with the New Testament. Whereas he mainly translated the Old, he edited the New. Origen traveled extensively and everywhere he found a Greek New Testament, it was altered to fit his doctrine. He, of course, felt that he was merely "correcting" the manuscripts. However, men of God do not change original manuscript readings. If one does not agree with the text of a manuscript, the place for change is at translation; but to alter the original document - never! Origen had a wealthy patron who supplied seven stenographers and seven copyists to accompany and assist him as he systematically altered Scripture.10

Origen was the third head master of a school in Alexandria, Egypt, which had been founded in 180 A.D. by the Greek philosopher Pantaenus. Pantaenus was succeeded in 202 A.D. by Clement of Alexandria (not to be confused with Clement of Rome) who taught that Plato's work was also inspired in the same sense as Scripture. Their writings indicate they were lost, albeit "religious", Greek philosophers. Neither professed a new birth apart from water baptism; indeed, it was on the basis of their having been so baptized that they declared themselves "Christian".

However, the New Testament repeatedly declares that this is not how one becomes a Christian as water neither saves nor redeems. Rather, the Bible teaches that in order to be a Savior you must live a sinless life, die on a cross and come back to life on the third day. As Mary, the Roman Catholic church, the Baptist church, Calvin, Wesley, or any present day churchmen etc. did not die on the cross and come back to life on the third day, they cannot be the savior of men's souls. Since water did not die on the cross and come back to life on the third day, it also cannot save the soul.

ORIGEN'S BELIEFS

The following is a composite gleaned from many sources11 depicting the beliefs of Origen. Let us examine them to see if he was in fact a "great early Father of the Church" as we are often told.

This Greek philosopher had been taught by the founder of Neo-Platonism (Ammonius Saccas 170-243 A.D.). Neo-Platonism is a strange combination of Aristotelian logic and Oriental cult teachings. It conceives the world as being an emanation from "the one" - the impersonal one (not the personal "Abba" [Daddy or even the more intimate "Dada"] of the Bible) with whom the soul is capable of being reunited while in some sort of trance or ecstasy.

As a follower of that philosophy, Origen attempted to amalgamate its views to Christianity. The problem with Origen, as with many who profess Christianity today, was that he tried to take "the best" of the world system (that which he had learned in school - his old philosophic views etc.) and incorporate them into Christianity; but they do not mix. It will be noted that many of Origen's beliefs coincide with Roman Catholic and Jehovah's Witness doctrine, both of which are "Christian" cults. Origen believed:

1.) In soul sleep (that the soul "sleeps" in the grave until the resurrection). However, the Bible teaches that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (II Cor.5:8);

2.) In baptismal regeneration (belief that one is saved by water baptism). Although Satan was the originator, Origen is the first man we can find who was a strong proponent of this doctrine;

3.) In universal salvation, i.e., the ultimate reconciliation of all things including Satan and the demons;

4.) That the Father was God with a capital "G" and Jesus was God with a little "g" - that Jesus was only a created being. Thus, Origen was not Christian in the most basic of all doctrine, namely the person of the Lord Jesus the Christ;

5.) To become sinless, one had to go to purgatory . This doctrine is nowhere to be found in Scripture;

6.) In transubstantiation (that at communion the bread and wine actually turn to the body and blood of Christ); and

7.) In transmigration and reincarnation12 of the soul. (The resurrection of Jesus corrects that error as He came back to life as the same Jesus. Hebrews 9:27 says "And it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Thus the Bible teaches there is no reincarnation.);

8.) And would not concede that any intelligent person could believe that the temptations of Jesus as recorded in the Scriptures actually happened;13

9.) The Scriptures were not literal (Origen was the "father of allegories");

10.) Neither in an actual "Adam" nor the fall of man and that Genesis 1-3 was not literal or historical;

11.) The correct interpretation of Matthew 19 was that a man of God should be castrated and thereby proceeded to emasculate himself;14

12.) And taught eternal life was not a gift, rather that one must seize hold on and retain it (but Eph.2:8 says "By faith are ye saved through grace; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.");

13.) That "Christ enters no man until he grasps mentally the doctrine of the consummation of the ages" (that would eliminate about 99% at most typical Christian gatherings);

14.) Or intimated that non-baptized infants were hell bound; and

15.) The redeemed would not experience a physical resurrection (yet I Cor.15 teaches the physical resurrection, as do many other Scriptures). Moreover, around 200 A.D. Alexandrian "Christians" taught that Mary was the second person of the Trinity ("Quarterly Journal of Prophecy" [July, 1852], p. 329).

Origen is often depicted as a "man of God", especially because he "died for his beliefs". That is certainly a commendable character trait, but Mussulini, Karl Marx and Hitler also died for their beliefs. That does not mean they were Christians. Many people have believed in a cause enough to give their lives for it, but it does not follow that they were Christian. Origen's beliefs clearly show that he was a religious gnostic Greek philosopher and not truly a born again son of God.

Before closing this section it must be noted that the frame of reference taken in selecting the correct text from among the variant readings during the 1870-1881 revision was said to be that of a "neutral" approach. This meant that the problem was to be approached with the mind set that said readings should not be chosen which "reflect a doctrinal bias" - that Scripture displaying a doctrinal bias should be viewed suspiciously.15 Thus if the variant being examined read to the effect that Jesus Christ is God come in the flesh, that should be viewed as highly suspicious for it is very doctrinal. The problem with such a priori is that the Bible is a book of doctrine (II Tim.3:17).

Most modern scholars who work on Bible revision also like to think of themselves as being "neutral" maintaining that they translated or chose a reading having come to the problem with a "neutral" approach. But do we really believe that God would take a "neutral" point of view toward His Son and upon His finished work of redemption? When we read the letters of Paul and John, do we conclude that they were neutral? The standpoint that Jesus is Jehovah God - the Creator - come in the flesh is not a neutral position. Neither Peter nor Luke took a neutral position! Indeed, there is no such thing as a neutral position concerning the deity of Christ Jesus.

Westcott and Hort championed the so-called "neutral" method and it has been with us ever since. The question that must be faced is - would a man who fits the spiritual description of Origen as outlined on the two previous pages (whose work W&H used) ever produce a neutral text? Some of these textual critics are sincere but deceived. However, most are wolves in sheep's clothing. Origen was the first wolf in this cult and the fifth column of his Hexapla along with his edited N.T. are the fruits of that wolf cult. This concludes the first installment in our expos‚ of this great horror.

ENTER CONSTANTINE (288-337 A.D.)

The second important event in the history of the Text began when Constantine became Emperor. Although he professed to embrace Christianity, it is extremely doubtful that he ever converted. The facts concerning his "conversion" have been distorted in order to help perpetuate the adoration of the cross image in the church.

Constantine was going into a major battle amid division among his ranks. Many of his troops were Christians and many more were not. He knew he was out-numbered and stood to lose the battle. On the day before the Battle of Milvian Bridge (located under the walls of Rome), Constantine prayed to the sun-god and there appeared a cross - so we are told - over the setting sun with the inscription: "In hoc signo Vinces" ("in this sign conquer"). Research into the matter indicates that the cross which Constantine is supposed to have seen resembled a capital "T" with a little loop at the top. In Egypt it was known as an ankh. Such was never a Christian symbol. It has always been a religious symbol of the Babylonian cult, a pagan sect which spread all over the world and is known in different cultures under many different names. Everywhere the cultic symbols were the same - the main object of worship was that of an image of a mother holding an infant.

THE "MYSTERIES" AND THEIR BEGINNING16

The origin of this image may be traced back to Babylon at the time of the Tower of Babel. The Tower was built under the direction of the founder of the world's first kingdom, Nimrod-bar-Cush, the son of Cush ("the black one") and grandson of Ham ("the dark or the sunburned one"). Secular records state that Nimrod (Orion, or Kronos [a corona or crown] "the horned one") married the infamous Semiramis I. She is reputed to have been the foundress of the Babylonian "Mysteries" and the first high priestess of idolatry. Tradition also ascribes the invention of the use of the cross as an instrument of death to this same woman.

Apparently when Nimrod (a black) died, Semiramis became pregnant out of wedlock. The child, like its father, was white. Semiramis acting to save the moment declared that Nimrod's spirit had become one with the sun - incarnated with the sun - and that he had come to her in the night so that she had miraculously conceived a god-son. As the first mortal to be so deified, Nimrod thus became the actual "father of the gods". Semiramis presented the infant to the people and hailed him as the promised "seed of the woman" - the deliverer. Thus was introduced the "mystery" of the mother and the child, a form of idolatry that is older than any other known to man. The rites were secret. Only the initiated were permitted to know its mysteries, and it - along with all of its "offspring" cults - became known as various "mystery" religions. The whole system of the secret Mysteries of Babylon was intended to glorify a dead man while Semiramis gained glory from her dead husband's "deification". The people did not want to retain God in their knowledge, but preferred some visible object of worship. Wherever the Negro aspect of Nimrod was found to be an obstacle to his worship, a simple solution was found. As the Chaldean's believed in reincarnation and the transmigration of souls, it was taught that Nimrod had reappeared in the person of his fair complected, supernaturally conceived son (Hislop, p. 69) - thus the father and son were one. It was Satan's attempt to delude mankind with a counterfeit imitation that was so much like the truth of God that man would not know the true Seed of the woman when He came in the fullness of time.

Eventually this mystery religion spread from Babylon to all the surrounding nations. Everywhere the symbols were the same. The image of "the queen of heaven" (Semiramis - Jer.44:19, 25; compare Isa.47:5 where she is referred to as "the" or "our lady" - notre dame in French) with the babe in her arms was seen everywhere. It became the mystery religion of the seafaring Phoenicians and they carried it to the ends of the earth. It was known as Baal (Nimrod - the sun-god) worship in Phoenicia where the mother was known as Astoreth and the child as Tammuz (Tammuz Adonis). In Egypt the cult was known as that of Osiris, Isis and Horus. The mother and child were worshipped as Aphrodite and Eros in Greece, Venus and Cupid in Italy (in Rome the child was formerly called Jupiter). The Chinese called the mother goddess Shingmoo or the "Holy Mother". She is pictured with child in arms and rays of glory around her head (Hislop, p. 21). Among the Druids, the "Virgo-Paritura" was worshipped as the "Mother of God". In India, she was known as Indrani. Elsewhere in and near India, the mother and child were known as Devaki and Krishna; in Asia they were Cybele and Deoius.

They were known by many other names in other parts of the world, but regardless of her name and place - she was the wife of Baal, the virgin mother (Hebrew = alma mater), the queen of heaven who bore a child although she supposedly never conceived. The mother and child were called by different names, due to the dividing of the languages at Babel. With the passing of time, some of the rites and parts of the doctrine and story varied from place to place and cult to cult, but the essential story always remained the same.

Allied with this central mystery were countless lesser mysteries. Among them were: the teachings of purgatorial purification after death, salvation by countless sacraments such as sprinkling with holy water, priestly absolution, the offering of round (sun disks) cakes to the queen of heaven (Jer.7:16-18; 44:15-30), the dedication of virgins to the gods, and weeping for Tammuz for a period of 40 days prior to the festival of Ishtar (Easter) to commemorate Ishtar's (another name for Semiramis) having received her son back from the dead. Tammuz was said to have been ripped to pieces and slain by a wild boar (the traditional Christmas pig) and afterward brought back to life (Hislop, p. 99). The egg became a sacred symbol depicting the mystery of his "resurrection". The evergreen tree became the symbol of his never ending life and birth at the winter solstice, when a boar's head was eaten (ham on New Year's day) in memory of his conflict. The burning of a yule log always accompanied this winter celebration. In the cult teaching, the ankh - a distinctive cross - was the sacred symbol of Tammuz. As it was the first letter of his name, it signified the life-giving principle (Ezekiel 8 - the women weeping for Tammuz). It is an ancient pagan symbol and did not originate with Christianity as most suppose.

The mystery religion of Babylon, which had begun under Nimrod's direction until its dispersal at the Tower of Babel (Gen. 10 & 11; Isa. 47), continued over the centuries to flourish in the "land of Shinar". When the city of Babylon was destroyed, the high-priest fled with a group of initiates and their sacred vessels and images to Pergamos (Rev.2:12-17). There, the symbol of the serpent was set up as the emblem of the hidden wisdom. From there, many of them crossed the sea and settled in the Poe Valley of northeast Italy where the Etruscans lived. When Rome conquered the Etruscans, the Etruscans brought their Babylonian cult religion to Rome where the child was known as Mithras (the mediator). Thus, when Christianity came to Rome, the whorish cult, the counterfeit, was waiting to join in an unholy union with it. These mystery cult teachings eventually invaded the Catholic church which is still full of its traditions, the roots of which lie deep in paganism. Every Roman emperor belonged to this cult. Everyone of means - the upper class - was an initiate. It was the "country club" to which to belong, much as is Freemasonry in many parts of the world today.17

BACK TO CONSTANTINE18

So when Constantine told his troops that he had seen the sign of the cross, the Christians thought he was speaking of the "Christian" cross. The pagans perceived it to be the symbol of Tammuz or Nimrod. It united them together for the battle. Actually, there is little reason to consider this vision as authentic, especially since it has no real historical basis. The only authority from whom the story has been gathered by historians is Eusebius, who confessedly was prone to edification and was accused as a "falsifier of history." Another account, supposedly given by Lactantius - the tutor of Constantine's son Crispus - speaks only of a dream in which the emperor was directed to stamp on the shields of his soldiers "the heavenly sign of God" and thus go forth to battle.19 That the Lord would command a pagan emperor to make a military banner with the cross emblazoned upon it and to go forth conquering and killing under that sign is altogether inconsistent with the general teaching of the Bible and with the spirit of true Christianity. It is more the spirit of the Crusades, which was not of the Spirit of God.

Further, the Roman Empire of which Constantine was the head had been described in the Scriptures by the prophet Daniel as a "Beast" that was so terrible in the eyes of God that it could not be compared to any earthly beast (Dan.7:1-8). Are we to believe that the Lord Jesus would become the leader of this beast system or that He would give a sun-worshipping emperor a vision, telling him to kill and enter into battle as His representative? We trow not!

Constantine never believed that Jesus was Deity - that He was God with a capital "G". The entire time he professed Christianity he was, as emperor, the high priest or Pontifix Maximus of the mystery cult in Rome.20 Moreover, after his supposed conversion, he committed several murders - including those of his wife and son!21 Constantine died the high priest of the worshipers of the sun and at the same time claimed to be the "pope" of the church of God on this earth! When Constantine dedicated Constantinople (Istanbul), he used both pagan and Christian rites in the ceremony. His determination to mix together both paganism and Christianity is also witnessed on the coins which he had made.22 He had a cross placed on them (especially to please the professing Christians) along with representations of Mars or Apollo (Nimrod). At the same time he continued to believe in pagan magic formulas for the protection of crops and the healing of disease.

Why then, if he were not truly a Christian, did he show numerous favors toward the Christian faith? Constantine was a consummate politician. He had seen that years of severe and brutal persecutions had not destroyed the Christian faith. His position was being challenged by a rival Emperor (Maxentius) and as he was in dire need for support from every section of the populace, he thus turned to the Christians in order to unite his divided empire. This was fairly easy to do for by this time the majority of the church leaders were thinking in terms of numbers and popularity, rather than in terms of spirituality and truth. They were ready to compromise with the various "mysteries" in order to achieve those ends. This was especially true at Rome.

By adopting the cross as a symbol on the banners of his army, and having a transverse letter "X" (a Greek Chi) marked on the shields of his soldiers, Constantine hoped to establish unity among his troops. The apostate and/or worldly Christians would think they were fighting for the cross of Christ; the pagans had already been fighting for years under a standard bearing a mithraic cross of light.23 The ploy worked and the battle at Milvian Bridge was won on 28 October, 312 A.D.

THE COUNCIL OF NICEA

In the year 325 A.D., the Nicean Council was called to put down and settle the Arian heresy. Arius believed that Jesus was not God come in the flesh - that He was only a created being - and not God with a capital "G". To him, Jesus was more than a man but not quite God.

Eusebius, a great historian who wrote a history of the early church, was also an Arian - a unregenerate religious man and a friend of Arius. Under great pressure from the orthodox Bishops at the Council, Constantine and Euseibus "took a more conciliatory view" concerning the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, they would no longer go all the way to Arianism, but they would not completely deny it either. But this simply cannot be done with Jesus. One cannot take a "conciliatory point of view" about the deity of Christ. The fundamental issue in whether one is actually a Christian or not is "Who is Jesus to you?" If a person does not believe unto the committing of his life that Jesus is God the creator (Jehovah) come in the flesh, that He died for the sins of the world and was raised from the dead on the third day to make the final blood atonement for mankind's sins, that person is not a Christian. That is the Biblical definition of a Christian. It is not someone who has been merely water baptized, confirmed, or has his name on the membership roll.

Arius did not relent and was banished. However, two years later Constantine allowed him to return. Constantine and Eusebius, like Arius, did not hold to the doctrine of "Consubstantiation" - that Jesus and God the Father were of one essence. Constantine had become not only the Emperor of the Roman Empire but, in effect, a Pope. As such, it was his duty and privilege to appoint all bishops, archbishops, etc., within the Church. From the human standpoint, the organized church had come completely under the authority of the Roman government. His son, Constantius II, inherited that power when he became Emperor. Like his father, Constantius was Arian (his brother Constans was orthodox) and all the bishops appointed by him were Arian in doctrine. As a consequence, for the next three hundred years every bishop in the Roman Catholic Church was Arian.24

CONSTANTINE COMMISSIONS EUSEBIUS TO PREPARE 50 BIBLES

In 331, Constantine instructed Eusebius to prepare fifty copies of the Bible so that he could place them in the major churches. This Eusebius did. The question is, what did Eusebius use for his guide in preparing these 50 Bibles for Constantine? Eusebius considered Origen to have been the greatest of men; he claimed to have collected 800 of Origen's letters and to have used his Hexapla. Thus, Eusebius - assisted by Pamphilus - selected the fifth column of Origen's Hexapla, with alternate readings from the other columns, for the Old Testament,25 adding the Apocrypha (books not included in the Hebrew canon such as 1st and 2nd Esdras, Tobit, Judith, The rest of the Book of Esther, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Bel and the Dragon, 1st and 2nd Maccabees, Baruch, etc.) and completed the work using Origen's edited New Testament. These were prepared for Constantine on fine vellum and backed by the stamp of the Roman government. The vellum (animal skin) was of such high quality that one antelope would be used just to make two sheets of finished product. Only the throne would have had sufficient funds to pay for such an undertaking.

THE INQUISITION

What does this have to do with Vaticanus B and Sinaiticus Aleph? The Roman Catholic Church has tried for years to destroy Protestantism and return all Christendom under Rome's Authority. Millions of people were put to death, not in war, but by various means of torture and murder during the Inquisition. The Roman church, using the Inquisition, made Adolph Hitler look like Little Lord Fauntleroy. Hitler murdered six million Jews - a most heinous sin and crime - but during the Inquisition from just after 1200 to around 1750 A.D. as many as sixty eight million human beings were cruelly slain, all in the name of God! A sizable number of the slain were themselves Roman Catholics who had been falsely accused for political and selfish motives. It was a blood bath, a horror story!

Most of the major wars fought in Europe beginning in the middle 1500's and extending for several centuries were conducted for the purpose of bringing the Protestants back under the dominion of the Pope. Then, in 1870, when it was decided by a portion of the Church to "update" the Bible of the Reformation which had brought about the breaking away from Romanism (that wicked system that had strangled Tyndale and burned his body, that had murdered sixty-eight million people who would not bow to it, that had slaughtered 70,000 people at one time in the St. Bartholomew's day massacre) the Great Whore said in effect: "You Protestants are going to update your Bible? Here, look what we just found on the Vatican shelf. Would you like to use Vaticanus B to assist you toward that end?" Yet the revisors were not even the least suspicious. Is not that amazing? When a similar ploy was tried on Erasmus in 1515, he saw through it. Why should the Vatican suddenly want to help the Reformers? We shall examine why presently.

What then are Vaticanus B and Sinaiticus Aleph? They are two extant (still existing) MSS of the original fifty which Eusebius had copied out for Constantine beginning in 331 A.D.26 Of course, Eusebius did not copy them personally but oversaw and supervised the work. B was discovered in 1481 in the Vatican library. Tischendorf, a German text critic, discovered Sinaiticus Aleph in a waste basket at a monastery near the foot of Mount Sinai in 1844. They are derived from Origen's fifth column of the Hexapla and his New Testament. Again, Origen was the "Christian" infidel who deliberately altered Biblical text and, with the aid of fourteen stenographers, changed it to fit his own beliefs.

JEROME AND THE LATIN VULGATE

There is one more piece of the puzzle to be added. Jerome, the hermit of Bethlehem, was commissioned by Pope Damasus to revise the entire Latin Bible. Jerome completed the Gospels around A.D. 384. About 386, he came to Jerusalem under the auspices of the Church at Rome and began to update the Old Latin Bible. What did Jerome use as his standard for this task? Jerome based his Old Testament primarily on the Hebrew text in Origen's Hexapla and admits to using the other columns (his 5th and those of the Ebionites) to "correct" the text. He relied heavily upon Origen's edited New Testament to finish the revision. The entire work was completed c.405.



1 D.A. Waite, Defending the King James Bible, op. cit., pp. 41-42. Missionary Dr. Jack Moorman personally counted every word in the TR, and Dr. Waite numerated the 5,604 changes made in it by W-H.

2 A.F. Hort, Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 211.

3 Jay P. Green, Sr. (ed.), Unholy Hands on the Bible, Vol. II, (Lafayette, IN: Sovereign Grace Trust Fund Pub., 1992), p. 454.

4 Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 2 Vols., The Loeb Classical Library, trans. by Kirsopp Lake, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1980), Vol. 1, Book III, ch. 27.

5 Foy E. Wallace, A Review of the New Versions, (Ft. Worth, TX: Noble Patterson Pub., 1973), Addenda, section 3, p. 21. Wallace reprints Professor R.C. Foster's "The Battle of the Versions" in his Addenda, 3rd & 4th sections, pp. 13-36.

6 Ibid., pp. 22-23.

7 Ibid., pp. 16 & 18. Irenaeus assailed Aquila as a wicked perverter of Scripture, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. I, Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1867; rpt 1978), "Against Heresies", Bk. III, ch. XXI, p. 451.

8 Wallace, A Review of the New Versions op. cit., Addenda, section 3, p. 17.

9 Jones, Floyd Nolen, The Septuagint: A Critical Analysis, op. cit., p. 19.

10 Elgin S. Moyer, Who Was Who in Church History, (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1962), p. 315; also see John H. P. Reumann, The Romance of Bible Scripts and Scholars, (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1965), pp. 98-103 for a more detailed account.

11 Albert Henry Newman, A Manual of Church History, (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1902), Vol. I, pp. 284-287; Herbert Musurillo, The Fathers of the Primitive Church (New York: Mentor-Omega Pub., 1966), pp. 31, 38, 195, 198, 202-203; Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 16, (1936-esp. point 4, later editions omit this fact), pp. 900-902, to name but a few.

12 Transmigration means that one comes back to life as something else, i.e., a frog, or some other animal or even a tree. Reincarnation means that you come back to life as someone else - another human. Someone may reply "Well, reincarnation should be the case so that we can have a second chance." Such is heresy. Never should God give a "second chance." How terrible and wicked it would be of God to give only two opportunities to be saved! God has given every man during his lifetime literally hundreds and thousands of opportune moments to have his soul saved from the terrible consequences of sin, by simply receiving Jesus as his substitute - as his Lord and Savior.

13 Origen went on to even correct Jesus, for in Matthew 13:38 in the parable of the sower Jesus says that the field is the world (Mat.13:34). Origen said "the field was Jesus." Later, he changed his mind, deciding that the field was the Scriptures.

14 In so doing, Origen mutilated that which supposedly was the temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was not so teaching. When Jesus gave an example about plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand rather than to enter hell - He was teaching how dreadful sin was, how terrible hell was and with how radically sin had to be dealt. Jesus knew that no man in his right mind would really pluck out his eye or cut off his hand. Jesus was speaking to that person who would rationalize and say "Oh, I didn't want to do it. I did not want to gaze at her with an adulterous eye but my eye just did so. I didn't want to seize the money but my hand simply took it. I am basically a fine person. The problem is that my hand (or eye, he, she or even the devil) made me do it. Anybody, everybody but it is not my fault!" Jesus was saying in effect - Oh, if that is the case, simply cut off your hand or pluck out your eye.

Jesus desired to jar mankind out of its complacent self-satisfied lifestyle into an honest appraisal of the situation to the intent that they might repent. Again, He knew that they would not really pluck out their eyes nor did He mean for them to do so. He was teaching the horror and reality of hell. In Matthew 12 and 15 and in Jeremiah 17:9, Jesus taught that sin was a matter of the heart. One can pluck out an eye or cut off a hand but still think about and long to sin.

15 From J.J. Griesbach: "When there are many variant readings in one place, that reading which more than the others manifestly favors the dogmas of the orthodox is deservedly regarded as suspicious." Novum Testamentum Graece (Halle: 1796), p. 62.

16 Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, (Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Bros. Inc. 1916). This is the classic on text on this subject.

17 The Lodge drew all of its basic teachings from various "denominations" within this mystery religion. The major writers within Freemasonry freely confess this, but almost no one reads these works to so learn.

18 Ralph Woodrow, Babylon Mystery Religion: Ancient and Modern, (Riverside, CA: Ralph Woodrow Evangelistic Asso., Inc., 1981), pp. 55-59; much of the data under this heading has been derived from Woodrow's excellent study.

19 Interestingly, Constantine was not "baptized" until 337 A.D. after he fell sick unto death, some 25 years after his "vision". Some investagators have suspected that he had already expired prior to the baptism. Regardless, the officiating Bishop was Eusebius of Nicomedia, the champion of the Arian party (Moyer, Who Was Who in Church History, op. cit., p. 137).

20 Woodrow, Babylon Mystery Religion: Ancient and Modern, op. cit., p. 58.

21 Ibid., p. 56.

22 Ibid., p. 58.

23 Will Durant, The Story of Civilization. Caesar and Christ, Vol. 3, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1944), p. 654. The X was also the symbol of the god Ham in Egypt: Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, op. cit., p. 204.

24 E.H. Broadbent, The Pilgrim Church, (London: Pickering & Inglis, 1931), pp. 21-22.

25 Ira M. Price, The Ancestry of our English Bible, 2nd ed., rev., (New York: Harper and Bros., 1949), p. 79.

26 David Otis Fuller, Which Bible?, op. cit., p. 163. Both Hort and Tischendorf believed that these were two extant copies which Eusebius had prepared. A.T. Robertson, among many others, concurs: Introduction to Textual Criticism, op. cit., p. 80.


Chapter 6

Chapter 1-PRESERVATION OR RESTORATION?
Chapter 2-BIBLICAL COMPARISONS DEPICTING THE MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM
Chapter 3-THE 1881 REVISION
Chapter 4-THE "TEXTUS RECEPTUS"
Chapter 5-THE GREEK TEXT OF WESTCOTT AND HORT
Chapter 6-HOW HORT CONTROLLED AND SEDUCED THE 1881 COMMITTEE
Chapter 7-THE HORTIAN-ECLECTIC THEORY REFUTED
Chapter 8-THE BELIEVING FRAME OF REFERENCE
Chapter 9-THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER
Appendix A-THE PERICOPE OF ADULTERA
Appendix B-THE JOHANNINE COMMA
Appendix C-EXAMPLES OF MODERN CRITICISM
Appendix D-HISTORY OF TEXTS TRANSMISSION
Bibliography
Index

Dr. Jones other book, Ripped From The Bible.

Dr. Thomas Holland's 12 Lessons on the King James Bible
Take The Bible Test

For a more complete Table Of Contents, click HERE

"Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."    -Mark 8:38

1996
Twelfth Edition
Revised and Enlarged
(First Edition 1989)
FLOYD NOLEN JONES, Th.D., Ph.D.
© FLOYD JONES MINISTRIES, INC.
8222 Glencliffe Lane
Houston, Texas 77070

"Which Version Is The Bible"?, by Dr. Floyd Nolen Jones.

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