KJV - The Perfect Bible, Part 4

A series of sermons by David Moyer

Pastor Beacon Baptist Church

God Committed The O.T.   To The Jews. Romans 3:1-2 Says, "What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God." The Lord Specifically Committed To Or Entrusted The Jew With The Oracles Of God, Which Are The Words Of God. The 'Jewish' Masoretic Scribes Preserved The O.T. Text As It Was When God Spoke It.

Note Some Of The Particulars In The Copying Process Used By The Masoretes.

1. The parchment on which copies were made had to be made from the skin of clean animals; it had to be prepared by a Jew only, and the skins had to be fastened together by strings taken from clean animals.

2. Each column had to be no less than 48 nor more than 60 lines. The entire copy had to be first lined.

3. The ink had to be of no other color than black, and it had to be prepared according to a special recipe.

4. No word nor letter could be written from memory; the scribe had to have an authentic copy before him, and he had to read and pronounce aloud each word before writing it. He had to pronounce it aloud, he could not simply envision it in his mind.  This was to avoid any errors, duplications, or omissions.

5.  He had to reverently wipe his pen each time before writing the word for "God" (which is Elohim) and he had to wash his whole body before writing the name 'Jehovah' (which is translated "LORD" almost all of the time in our KING JAMES BIBLE) lest the Holy Name be contaminated.

6. Strict rules were given concerning forms of the letters, spaces between letters, words, and sections, the use of the pen, the color of the parchment, etc.

7. The revision of a roll had to be made within 30 days after the work was finished; otherwise it was worthless. One mistake on a page condemned the page; if three mistakes were found on any page, the entire manuscript was condemned.

8. Every word and every letter was counted, and if a letter were omitted, an extra letter inserted, or if one letter touched another, the manuscript was condemned and destroyed at once.

For 500 Years The Masoretes Copied And Copied The Scriptures. These Were Used Until Around 1,500ad Until A Man By The Name Of Daniel Bomberg (A Jew) Published A Complete Volume Of These Faithful Copies. Seven Years Later A Second Edition Of The Same Was Published, Called The Ben Chayim Edition. These Great Rabbinic Bibles Stayed With The Pure Masoretic Text. This Is The Text That Was Used By The Translators Of The AV 1611 For Their Translation Of The O.T.

Why Should Anything Outside This "Preserved" And "Traditional" Text Be Used? This Is A Rock; Preserved As It Was In The Originals! I Believe One Can Plainly See That Our King James Bible Was Based On The Rock.

II. THE TEXT BEHIND

THE MODERN BIBLES

The Rock Or The Sand?

Note Just Three Of The Modern Versions. These Three Speak Boldly For Almost All Of The Remainder Of The "Modern" Translations:

A. THE NEW AMERICAN STANDARD VERSION (PREFACE, PAGE VIII)

The NASV Uses Rudolph Kittel's Hebrew Bible For "Some" Of Its O.T. Translation. The First Two Editions Of This "Bible" Were Supposedly Based On The Pure Masorectic Text As Found In The Ben Chayim Editon. However The 1937 Edition Has About 15-20 Suggested Changes In The Hebrew Text Placed In The Footnotes On Each Page. Multiply That By Its 1,424 Pages And You Have Some 21,360 To 28,480 Total Suggested Changes To The Traditional Masoretic Text. This Is The Primary Text For Their O.T. Translation. The Translators Use It Simply Because The Leningrad Codex, On Which It Is Based, Has An Older Date Attached To It Than The Ben Chayim Edition Of The Masorectic Text. Correct Me If I'm Wrong, But, Older Date Or Not, "Textual Changes" Cannot Be Classified As Bible Preservation. Furthermore We Shall See In A Future Message - "Older Is Not Always Better."

B. THE NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (PREFACE, PAGE VIII)

This Translation Also Uses Rudolph Kittel's Hebrew Bible For "Some" (The Reason Why We Say "Some" Will Be Clarified In The Next Message) Of Its O.T. Translation.

C. THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION (PREFACE, PAGE V)

The NKJV Uses The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. It Is Similar To Rudolph Kittel's Hebrew Bible In Its 20,000 - 28,000 Suggested Changes To The O.T.

Anything That Changes The Traditional Text Is Not A Preservation Of The Word Of God. The Modern Versions Are, Therefore Based On "Shifting" And "Shaky" Sand!

However These Hebrew Bibles Are Not The Only Texts Used By Modern Translators. They Use Many Other Spurious Articles To Change The Masoretic Text. However These Will Be Covered In Our Next Message.

CONCLUSION:

In Conclusion We Have Seen That The King James Bible Was Based On The Traditional Masoretic Text. We Have Further Seen That The Modern Bibles Are Based On Texts That "Greatly" Detour From The Traditional Text. In This It Is Plain To See Where We Stand Already When It Comes To Translations. When Building On Sand, One Builds On Movable Or "Changing" Ground. However When One Builds On A Rock, They Build On Unmovable, Solid, Unchanging Ground. Thank God In Heaven That We Have His Words In Our O.T. As They Were The Day They Were Spoken: Preserved For Us In Our King James Bible.


 To be continued