Essay 1
Our Guide to Eternity:
God's Word or Text-Tinkering of Scholars?
by Dr. L. Bednar, Textual Consultant
Training specific to scholarship goals begins at the high-school level
Today we find that recent graduates of the public high schools may lack even basic academic skills, and the present writer was reminded of this in a recent experience at a local pharmacy. A young clerk, whose youthful appearance was indicative of the age of a recent high-school graduate, thought that 2/10 milligrams of a medication was a greater amount than 3/10 milligrams. I was stunned, and only stared in open-mouth disbelief at this person, who reacted as if I were the ignorant one, and summoned the pharmacist to correct “my error.” The pharmacist assumed I was the one who said .2 mg. was greater, so I informed him of the facts. In reflecting on the incident, it dawned on me that the clerk must have thought that, since the fraction 1/2 is greater than 1/3, then 2/10 mg. is greater than 3/10 mg. The clerk’s total confidence was indicative of total indoctrination by a teacher whose education was woefully lacking in the most basic math skills. Such teachers are turning out students who will become physicians, pharmacists, airline pilots, lawyers, politicians, military leaders, Bible scholars, etc., and the grave implications for our nation’s future are a matter of great concern.
Modern Scholarship: The Absurdities of Humanism
The state of modern scholarship in the science community
Poor scholarship abounds in the world of science as
evolutionists teach that people are just animals so that human life
would have no value, and animal-like behavior would be normal. They've
long taught that we evolved over millions of years, from inanimate
slime to a bacteria-like stage, on to higher forms of life. They can't devise a theory on how life can derive from non-living slime, but they offer a few theories on subsequent stages of life. One of
these latter involves "constructive" mutations that somehow take life from
single-cell microorganisms with no brains, hearts, livers, lung-respiration, blood-circulation etc., to the extreme complexity
of human life. However, constructive mutations are so rare, if they exist
at all, that they’re unproven, and how could these that are so unlikely
to occur just once, occur millions of times in succession without
interruption, to produce just one perfect complex organ of one human
body? (Are hemophilia, 6 fingers on each hand or 3 legs on a torso
constructive mutations?) There is no basis for the slightest
confidence in evolutionism, yet many people think that to disbelieve
it is ignorance since “experts” have spoken, and proven that it's a
"fact." But evolutionists are so fixed in their belief that they ignore all evidence contradicting their belief,
accepting only that which seems to be supportive of it (see
Creationism vs. Evolutionism). And their dogma affects much
more than earthly welfare, having grave implications for the soul.
Anyone who accepts their teaching is committing his eternal destiny
to them, taking an incredible gamble that invented illogical
theory based on mere bias of men is correct. The kind of thinking behind evolutionism spills over into other aspects of academia, and has further effects on the eternal welfare of the soul.
The state of modern scholarship in the biblical-studies community
Many people trust bible scholars who think the Bible text has not been preserved by God over the centuries, and that arriving at a useful text requires their choices & their opinions. We might wonder how confident we can be in text critics whose opinions affect the content & interpretation of the Greek & Hebrew/Aramaic of the Bible, or modern translators whose work determines text wording that controls understanding of great multitudes on instruction of scripture for guidance in life.
About 15 years ago the present writer spoke with a translator on the committee of a popular modern English version, and the man had to follow the Greek with his finger to read properly, indicating his ability to read Greek was notably less than his ability to read English, which contrasts starkly with the very advanced language skills of the KJV committee (see The Learned Men, Article 25. Trinitarian Bible Society - e.g. the KJV translator John Boys at age 7 was fluent in Hebrew, a language differing from English in the extreme, and Lancelot Andrews was an expert in Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic & 18 other languages, ancient & modern). But it was most interesting to learn that this modern translator had never realized that Alexandrian manuscripts, lost to churches for ~1400 years and serving as the main basis of modern critical Greek texts, cannot possibly be part of God’s preservation plan. Indeed, use of Alexandrian texts suggests God lacked the ability to preserve His New-Testament Word for ~1400 years, and the text had to be restored by modern scholars. Now conservative scholars try to avoid this suggestion by saying God preserved a true text piecemeal, scattered among the manu- scripts, and scholars can identify & restore it. This doesn’t change anything, for if scholars are final arbiters of the content of the Word, the true text is still uncertain. Mere men can never know how to separate true scripture from any false portions, for they have no inherent knowledge of the mind of God, and are mere sinners who often exercise bias & other limitations of mankind, presenting a potential for extreme error of all types, as illustrated on the present web site.
Westcott & Hort begin modern textual-criticism error:
These 19th-century critics promoted a supposed superiority of a long-lost text recovered by them. They saw the sacred text as no different from
the secular ones; Hort said, For ourselves, we
dare not introduce considerations which could not reasonably be
applied to other ancient texts, supposing them to have documentary
attestation of equal amount, variety and antiquity
(which means they had no faith in God's power). They had a low view
of text quality, yet denied any tampering, saying, Even
among the numerous unquestionably
spurious readings of the New Testament,
there are no signs of delib- erate falsification of the text for
dogmatic purposes. (1)
1. The
New Testament in the Original Greek. Vol. 2.
London. MacMillan. 1881. p277-82
Some text critics eventually reject Westcott and Hort. Most scholars will not abandon the Westcott/Hort text-type, and are on a course of disillusionment, as seen by conclusions of some notable text critics who were early followers of Westcott/Hort theory, but became so disgusted with it that they publicly denounced it. They also spoke of widespread text falsification for dogmatic purposes, and their text criticism event- ually led them to discredit all texts, a likely end for all those lacking faith in God.
A. J.R. Harris: He said the New Testament text wasn’t settled, calling it, more than ever, and perhaps finally, unsettled. (2)
B. Harris also said all manuscripts, including Vaticanus and Sinaiticus were actually reeking with dogmatic falsifications. (3)
C. Kirsopp Lake: In spite of the claims of Westcott and Hort and Von Soden, we do not know the original form of the gospels, and it is quite likely that we never shall. (4)
D. F.C. Conybeare. The ultimate text, if there ever was one that deserves to be so called, is forever irrecoverable. (5)
2. Harris, J.R. Side
Lights on New Testament Research. London. James Clarke &
Co. 1908. p3
3. Harris R. Bulletin of the Bezan Club. Nov. 1926. p5
4. Lake, K. & S. Family 13 (Ferrar). Phil. U. of PA Press. 1941. pV11
5. Conybeare, F.C. History of New Testament Criticism. London. Watts & Co.1910. p129
Such cases illustrate that substituting man's notions for traditional scripture texts that have endured the test of time can result in an end of trusting scripture as God's Word, leaving people with no guidance for life & eternity, and leaving instructors in bible colleges & seminaries stubbornly clinging to the text-type of Westcott & Hort, refusing to admit the obvious error. Such instructors & their students are those that the public trusts just because they are deemed to have the necessary educational background. People tend to believe that scholars know what they are doing when they reject the traditional Greek text, and assemble one based on their theories on which manuscripts are suitable and which are not. But did God really not preserve His Word entirely so that today we must rely on mere sinful men to identify truth with certainty in matters that are vital, yet inherently unknowable by means of the intellect of men, matters like the true method of salvation, the nature of eternity and standards of our earthly living acceptable to God?
The Only Path to Truth
We are wise to heed the words of Christ the Creator who
is infinitely superior to men, and He said, Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God (Mt.4:4). Now inerrancy characterizes all words from the mouth of God,
and their inerrant state must be preserved for us if we are
to live by them. Further, the Word of God preserved from the beginning for His people will be found only in traditional texts, and those of the KJV
and its textual basis are the traditional ones in our culture & related ones. Finally, if we're to live by every inerrant word
from God, they must be preserved in the language that
we understand, and the proof that the KJV preserves it in English is
strong, as illustrated by subjects of the present website. The
traditional KJV and its Greek & Hebrew/Aramaic textual basis
prove to be totally reliable, yet are discredited by
scholars today, revealing the folly of trusting in men.
Evidence of God’s Hand on the traditional texts: Inerrancy preservation.
The wisdom of heeding Christ’s word becomes evident as we examine passages that reveal God’s Hand on traditional texts through inspiration by His dictation of the text words to human writers to ensure inerrancy. Among English translations, only the KJV consistently preserves inerrancy produced by this dictation-type inspiration.
1. Job 26:7: Job dates to ~2000 B.C. (This dating can be deduced – see the final item below). Job 26:7 presents modern technical knowledge in saying of God, He…hangeth the earth upon nothing. Earth hangs upon nothing as part of a universe that hangs upon nothing, all bodies being positioned relative to each other by interactive gravity counteracted by relative motion. Now hangeth refers to no support under the earth, and this combines with upon nothing referring to no support from above the earth, thus picturing earth as suspended in space without any support, and this provides accurate modern science in the oldest bible book, written ~4000 years ago. By contrast, men in such ancient days thought of the earth as a great weight resting on giant animals or giant pillars (what the latter rested on wasn’t too clear ( note: the NIV suspends the earth over nothing is extremely poor since suspends means no support under the earth, and over nothing simply repeats the same sense so that there is no reference concern- ing support from above. This can imply that the earth is suspended over empty space by a support from above, like a giant rope attached to the earth on one end, and to a "sky hook" on the other end, lending support to ancient ignorance about some type of material support of the earth in space). God alone knew modern science so early in history, and thus dictated knowledge of this matter to the human writer, and the KJV properly preserves a true modern-science concept.
2. Bethlehem birth of Jesus Christ: God dictates peoples' acts undetected. Mary, Jesus’ mother, was great with child in Nazareth (Lk.2:4,5). If she and Joseph knew Micah 5:2 prophecy on a Bethlehem birth, in the hardship of the final pregnancy stage, she would dread a donkey ride of ~80 miles to Bethlehem. Joseph would dread hazards of labor pains, a miscarriage or a premature delivery in a deserted place along the way. God had to handle such details, but how would He get her to Bethlehem? He would stir up Caesar Augustus, a pagan with no interest in Christianity, to see a need to finance the empire in ways better than resented harsh taxes (Lk.2:1-5). There likely was much fear of a tax rebellion at this time (Acts 5:37 speaks of a tax rebellion later when Cyrenius was the Roman governor of Syria, (1) and this may be the taxing which sent Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem - Lk.2:2, but Cyrenius ruled in Syria in a post like that of a governor earlier when Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem, so there could have been an earlier taxing at that time). (2) God would move Caesar to require that empire residents enroll for taxation at their native cities to establish each one’s tie to family assets by local authorities (the publican private-contractor system was likely altered by the use of locals like Matthew Levi & Zaccheus). All empire residents would pay accord- ing to their ability, the richer ones paying their share, and the masses not being afflicted enough to incite a rebellion (that occurred later). Caesar introduced a graduated prop- erty tax (Thompson tells us the enrollment for the taxing began at the time of Jesus' birth, as is logical, for it accords with his Pax Romana, a time of relative prosperity, peace & tax reform). (2) It was indeed appropriate that a just system of taxation would appear at the coming of the Just One, the Savior (The modern-version census, in lieu of taxing, overlooks a contextual implication regarding the motive for enrollment since a census can be for reasons other than taxing). This business moved Mary and Joseph to travel to Bethlehem, Joseph's city of origin as a descendant of David, and the summons was timed too close to the birth to allow enough time for delivery of the Child before both had to begin the trip. Thus God dictated His will to a vast empire without anyone realizing it, and the final proof of this is presented in the fact that all necessary details of events that reveal this dictation are found only in God's book.
1. King James Bible Commentary. 1999. Nashville. Thomas Nelson. p1343.
2. Thompson, J.A. 1962. The Bible and Archaeology. Gr. Rap. Eerdmans. p375-77
3. Review & added commentary on the home-page discussion of Ps.22:8. We can indeed know God's will for us in matters inherently unknowable to men if God personally dictates words of scripture to human writers. Dictation is truly unique in that a writer can retain his faculties & writing style, as supervision of his writing by the Holy Ghost by-passes his awareness. Consider words spoken by David in Ps.22:8, words of persecutors who taunt him saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him…As he speaks of his persecutors, David prophesies words of persecutors of Jesus at the Cross ~1000 years later. In Mt.27:43, priests, scribes & elders taunt Jesus saying, He trusted in God; let him deliver him.* In a spirit of free-will malice, Jesus’ worst enemies fulfilled David’s prophecy on His behalf to authenticate Him as the Son of David, God’s Messiah, the last thing in the world they would willingly do. If they had known this meaning of their words, they would never have spoken them. This is dictation by-passing speaker awareness, and making use of irreverent speaking style, free-will word choice and literal word meaning. It’s said they deliberately mocked Jesus with David’s prophecy, but they revered David, and would never identify with those who vilified him. And they would never relate the words of David to Jesus, lest they themselves represent the words as fulfillment of prophecy to authenticate Jesus’ Messianic claim. Actually, they wouldn’t see the verse as prophecy useful for a feigned mocking fulfillment, since of itself, it says nothing about prophecy, speaking only of David’s history.
*Scholars say the initial Ps.22:8
clause should be the imperative, Commit
yourself to the Lord (as in the NASV), not
He trusted on the Lord,
but that would nullify Mt.27:43 fulfillment of the Psalm prophecy.
Hebrew grammar indicates an imperative or infinitive, but an
imperative links a 2nd person command (Commit
yourself to the Lord) directly to a 3rd
person declaration
(let
Him deliver
him) in
one thought
in absurd syntax
& grammar;
the scholars try to justify
this, saying the clause after the imperative is an aside, taunters speaking to each other and indirectly to Jesus. Now declarative clauses in different
persons can link in poetic/prophetic Hebrew to vary perspective
(e.g. Is.52:14 & 61:7), but linking a command to a
declaration, with a difference in person, all in one thought, requires extra words not in the text. Scholars try to justify the
notion of an aside after the imperative by separating the two with a
semicolon to indicate a pause, but that would require a Hebrew disjunctive accent after Lord, and the actual conjunctive accent indicates a continuing thought without a pause, which is why the KJV correctly inserts that after Lord. If the NASV rendering were correct,
the Hebrew text would read, Commit yourself
to the Lord that he would deliver him, an absurd mixing of second & third persons in
one thought. The only proper pronoun mixing is that of first & third persons to illustrate God dictating the scripture text to writers.
The infinitive expressed as perfect tense (He trusted) appears in the inerrant New Testament. Ps.22:8 relates to Mt.27:43 where priests, elders & scribes address the people, but aim their talk at Jesus on the Cross to taunt Him (indirect taunting is distinguished from direct taunting of others in Mt.27:40,44). Words of indirect address aimed at Jesus, but spoken to others, are those of earlier indirect address aimed at David but spoken to others. The imperative applies to direct address (e.g. Ps.37:5, Pr.16:3), and there's no verb form for the indirect. The form needed will correlate with a jussive verb sense (wish) ending the verse, as the infinitive expressed in perfect-tense form does (He trusted in the Lord…let him deliver him).
Now would the Holy Ghost work in priests, elders &
scribes right after they were used by satan? In Mt.27:42 they said
of Jesus…let him now come down from the
Cross, and we will believe him, which indicates satan controlling them in his effort to nullify salvation for mankind. One possible
alternative to a Spirit role is that God put just the right men of
just the right mentality in just the right circumstances to fulfill
His will in just the right way at the Cross. With the prophecy made
~1000 years before the Cross, this would mean God logistically or
genetically controlled millions of people in 40-50 generations over
1000 years of time to fulfill His will. He would intervene in natural
processes & human interaction to connect results of free-will
decisions in a way that fulfills His will. Mt.10:29,30 supports this
saying, Are not two sparrows sold for a
farthing (small value)? And
one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the
very hairs of your head are all numbered. One
way or another, God made evil men in control of their faculties &
speaking style, speak words He wishes, doing so contrary to their
will, without their awareness, and without any appearance of dictation.
Thus the Holy Ghost can certainly dictate to obedient servants, using their intellect & writing style, without any appearance of dictation. This is thought motivation, God’s still small voice by-passing writer awareness. We consider Luke 1:1,3 where Luke says …It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write…He seems to write at a whim by memory, but the Spirit moving on his mind without his awareness explains why he said, It seemed good to me…to write, which explains his perfect understanding of all things (experienced in the ministry), for perfect understanding is impossible without Spirit empowerment. Luke would write according to his intellect & style, but the Spirit would supervise his writing, motivating his thoughts and permitting or negating his word choices in a word-editing type of process (i.e. Keep this word Luke, not that one). God can dictate each word, using Luke's intellect & style to avoid all appearance of dictation. Such Inspiration is suggest- ed in 2 Pet.1:20,21 that says…the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The sense here is that of a writer borne along in his mind in a process occurring apart from his conscious will, his words being willed by the Spirit.
4. Other examples of dictation: This website offers more clear examples of God’s dictation of the text to the human writers in Essay 8, including Crucifixion details in Psalm 22:1, the betrayal of Christ by Judas in Zec.11:1-9, the technical principles of wind generation in Job 38:24, and Jonah’s big-fish experience in essay 11f.
Addendum: God began composing the dictation-inspired text
~3900 years before the bumbling textual criticism of Westcott & Hort
Job 26:7 illustrates dictation inspiration in a book written ~2000 B.C, preceding the Pentateuch by more than five centuries. It doesn’t mention Israel, and it shows the man Job personally administering animal sacrifice, as did Abel and Noah long before the priestly-administered one of Moses. It says nothing of Abraham, the greatest man of his time, and Job was greatest of all the men of the east (1:3), so the Job book was written before Abraham’s time, at ~2000 B.C. The name Uz, Job’s land, is extremely old, dating to Noah’s great-grandson (Gen.10:21-23). Job preceded Abraham, the life span of Job being the 140 years he lived after his trials (42:16), plus preceding years in which he grew to manhood and begat ten children old enough to sin (1:1-5), for a likely total of ~200 years. This is close to the 205-year age of Abraham’s father Terah, and greater than the 175 of Abraham, the 147 of Jacob and the 110 of Joseph. This places Job close to Terah in history as the life-span steadily decreased from the near -1000 year level of pre-flood times.
Other indicators that Job is first are a description of ancient dinosaurs, and a logic that places Job first in that it deals with the foremost human dilemma, the hurt & evil that always dominate life, and it presents the solution, the Savior (Job 19:25-27).
Now we must account for links of names of Chaldean & Sabean tribes and the tribe of the friend Elihu to descendants of Abraham & Nahor. The name Chaldean preceded Abraham’s time, his first homeland being Ur of the Chaldees (Gen.11:31), and the name Sabean traces to Seba, Noah’s great grandson (Gen.10:1-7). The Naamathite tribal name of Job’s friend Zophar traces to the name of Cain’s great granddaughter (Gen.4: 22). The links likely are later repeat uses of very early names.
We must also account for Job’s friends Eliphaz &
Bildad who had personal and/or tribal names identified with
descendants of Abraham (Esau, Shuah, Jokshan - Gen. 25:2) and his
brother Nahor (Gen. 22:20,21). Inexact genealogy correlation
indicates that names in descent lines of Abraham and Nahor are repeat
uses of names in Job. For example, Eliphaz in Job is called a
Temanite, while 1 Chron.1:36 says a Teman in Abraham’s line was a
son of Eliphaz; a father doesn’t continue a clan of which his son is
the patriarch, so Eliphaz in Abraham’s line is a different Eliphaz.
Further, Elihu the Buzite of Job has a father Barachel not noted in
the line of Nahor, father of Buz and Huz (Gen. 22:21), and Job’s
Ram in the line of Buz
isn’t in Nahor’s line, the one other Ram in the Bible being in
Abraham’s line (1 Chron.2:9 - Aram
in Nahor’s line & Ram
are different names). And Nahor’s Huz
& Buz are names
likely derived from Job’s land Uz, reflecting a trend in Nahor’s
clan in that his name derived from the name of his town, and the name
of his brother Haran derived from the district of the town of Nahor.
Job could be the son of Jacob’s son Issachar (Gen.46:13), placing
him around 1800-1700 B.C, but this is likely another Job,
for nothing ties this man to Job’s great- ness in the Job book.
Repeat use of names in descent lines of Job & friends, even if the order were similar to some degree, would be no surprise. Children have long been named for figures in the Bible. As Abraham was the greatest man in his age, Job was in his, and children would be named after names in Job, this being the only Bible book at Abraham’s time and for the next 500 years. Similar order would reflect honoring of the first Bible book, and descendants of Abraham & Nahor would want their children’s names to reflect the Job book due to the great faith in God common to Job & Abraham. Inaccuracy in repeating names in a line would be due to conflicting human preferences, limited availability of the biblical text so early in history, and an uncertain nature of early record-keeping. Accurate record-keeping evidently began later in the book of Numbers, and developed in Chronicles, Nehemiah & Ezra.
