Monday, June 29, 2015

King James is the "best Bible version?" I heartily disagree!

Ugh!  I just love it (NOT!) when someone tells me they have “a word from God” for me, and then proceed to tell me in fluffy “King James English” terms how much God loves me – “I the Lord God say to thee, I love thee and thy family.”

Actually, I could provide an entire dissertation about just that one sentence, but I don't want to make this too long, so I will concentrate on just this point for now:  Honestly – did YHWH, Y’shua or any of the Apostles speak in King James English? King James did some major damage in his “version” because he mistranslated and twisted some MAJOR concepts that made YHWH appear to have contradicted Himself!

Check out, for instance, passages like Leviticus 12:8, 15:29 and Numbers 6:10 where KJV mistranslated the SLANG word "turtles" - meaning "TURTLE DOVES" - supposedly being used as sin sacrifices. The problem is "turtles" could NOT POSSIBLY be used as sin sacrifices because they're not kosher!

And here’s a shocker:  King James perpetuated the “trinity” concept.  Yes, it's true! Nowhere in Scripture do we ever see our ELOHIM referred to as a “trinity” or the Holy Spirit called a “person.”  (Being “saved” in a Baptist church in January 1995, I always wondered how the heck a person would get inside another person to guide their life….)  Let’s see what happened:

I John 5: 7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. (KJV)

So, what's wrong with it? Well, the undiluted truth is: King James added the line! He worded it to make it seem as though John was defining the Father, Son and Spirit as three separate beings in one.

And oddly, all the other "versions" completely omit everything after the word "heaven" in verse 7! For instance the NIV says: “For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.” This is TOTALLY different from the KJV! (Knowing this, and realizing all the various versions added, omitted and mistranslated, is it any wonder why we have nearly 40,000 different Christian "denominations"?)

Here is a footnote from the NIV referencing 1 John 5:7-8:
"Late manuscripts of the Vulgate testify in heaven, the Father, the Word and Holy Spirit, and these three are one. And there are three that testify in earth--not found in any Greek manuscript before the sixteenth century."
This shows that both verses are late additions. Obviously, 5:7 is an addition post-397 CE, after the Council of Carthage and 5:8 is so late as to be meaningless. This is true because trinity was never, and is not, an original Biblical doctrine! It was a formulation of Constantine, Eusebius and others.
 
Here is the passage as seen in Andrew Gabriel Roth’s Aramaic English New Testament:

I John 5: 6. This is he who came by the water and the blood. Y'shua the Mashiyach; not by the water only, but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit testifies; because the Spirit is truth. 7. (Verse 7 is nonexistent in the Eastern Peshitta!) 8. And there are three witnesses, the Spirit and the water, and the blood: and these three are in union.
(AENT)
Footnote:  Appended text:  (For there are three that testify in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Ruach haKodesh: and these three are one.), which is why Murdock puts the brackets and adds: “This verse is not wanting in most MSS., and is omitted in the edit. London, 1826.” The fact is that this line was inserted under the authority of Constantine to promote the Trinity doctrine.  It does not exist in the Peshitta nor the oldest Greek manuscripts of Aleph, A, B and the Vulgate.  Christo-Paganism which originated before Constantine taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are numerically three separate beings, but yet “all the same” is a blatant violation of the First and Second Commandments (see Sh’mot/Exodus 20:1-6).
For more, please see Aramaic scholar Andrew Gabriel Roth’s explanation of “Trinity”.

Disheartening, isn't it?  It would be great if we could all read the original manuscripts...but that's just not possible.  All we can really do is to possess several different Bible versions for comparison purposes - and constantly seek the guidance of the Ruach haKodesh to help us discern the REAL meaning of Scripture.

6 comments:

  1. I think the KJ is the worst translation out there but that is my opinion.There are more misinterpretations in it than most plus I don't care for the Kings English. Now about the scripture you are right about the adding the line in. I am not a Jehovah's Witness but they got the right translation of that scripture in their NWT right. Which made me search it out in other Translations AENT, & a couple of other ones too which it wasn't in. You know you inspire many to search the scriptures and to seek the Truth. You are an inspiration to me. Your website is rich in learning the truths of YHWH's words. Thanks for standing up for what is right.

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    1. Thank you for those kind words, Fallingwaters! We aim to simply cause people to get into Scripture and think for themselves! Nobody has the market cornered on Truth (including us at The Refiner's Fire); we are all just trying our best to get as close to Yah's Truth as possible.....

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  2. Concerning the Trinity, didn't Cyprian bishop of Carthage quote John 5:7 in 250 a.d. Also Tertullian after his conversion in 195 a.d. Was the first to use the term Trinitas(trinity) to describe the Godhead. Not certain why you want to credit the Kjv to this doctrine some 1400 years later. Sounds like maybe the Kjv is only one that got it right?

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  3. Student Bill, yes Tertulian is credited with the first use of the word "trinity" (trinitas), and Tertulinan and Cyprian both argued the concept of trinity but neither (as far as we know) mass marketed a Bible with the phrase "the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost" added to 1 John 7 - that distinction falls to King James. Of course the concept of "trinity" took many centuries to take root, and become a doctrine from its first use in the 3rd century. We'll change the article to state that King James perpetuated the concept rather than that he made it up.

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  4. Jehovah Witness Bible is corrupt. Missing many verses and prefer to use watchtower to help read their Bible. Read 2Peter 1:20-21 say

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  5. 2016-Jun-30 Thu, 8:24 am

    Thanks for the information regards 'trinity' doctrine being perpetuated in the KJV bible.

    I too regard 'trinity' as an introduced and false doctrine.

    Deuteronomy 6:4
    Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:


    John 4:24
    God is a Spirit...


    John 10:30
    I and my Father are one.


    ++++++


    This [below] is a pro KJV site, but they give some good evidence/examples of why the KJV bible version may be the best of a bad bunch.


    http://av1611.com/kjbp/charts/preeminence.html

    http://av1611.com/kjbp/charts/themagicmarker.html

    http://av1611.com/kjbp/


    The KJV bible brought me to the LORD, and it is the bible version i still read.

    Walter

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