Which Bible version should I use?

Today I thought I would do a brief Bible study, but it's more of a study, on the theme which is which Bible version should you and I use for our Bible reading and our Bible study.

You see, brethren, we need to be aware that we are in a spiritual warfare. And as we read in Genesis 3, verse 1, the serpent is, Satan is, more subtle than any other being. And what better way for him to actually change the Bible in such a subtle way that you don't even see it, and you are very unbeknown, being changed ever slightly in important doctrinal subjects.

So we know that the Bible is important as we read in 2nd Timothy chapter 3. The whole Bible is breathed by God. That is something very special, breathed by God, which means God inspired these individual prophets, apostles, to write the Bible. And sure, those individuals wrote, but they were inspired, God breathed by God himself. And so it is very important that we understand that every word is significant. And when a word is ever just slightly changed or omitted or added, that is a red flag. That is a serious red flag. And Satan is doing it without people noticing it.

That's why we need to understand what Satan has done with the New Testament. You see, the New Testament, there are different manuscripts. I just abbreviate them as MSS in future because it's plural, manuscript MS, MSS as manuscripts. There are different manuscripts. The Bible was written, the New Testament was written in Greek. And you know, the very first letter that was written, let's call it, let's say Matthew or Mark or Romans, the very first one it was written, they called that an autograph. But you know, if you write something in paper and it's kind of subject to oxygen and people touching after a while that paper or papyrus or whatever it may be, it will disappear and it will go away.

So it is important to quote-unquote do a photocopy. Now it's fine today, you can do a photocopy, but in those days you could not do a photocopy. So you did by writing copies, and those are called manuscripts. They were manuscripts made by hand manually. And the more you have, the better you can check the accuracy, because if you only have one or two and it was down this chain, you could have the standardcy of things getting changed.

But as you write various parallel copies, you can double check. And if there is ever a little deviation, you can easily correct it, because there are many in parallel. And what what Satan has done is started tweaking some manuscripts, which I will show you how he's tweaked those, and how society today uses those manuscripts as the main source of modern Bibles, particularly in the New Testament. And because of that, even though maybe they are easier to read, subtleties have been inserted that deviate from the truth.

Basically, as far as the New Testament, we're talking about two groups of texts. Just remember, two groups of texts. One is the Byzantine text, and the other one is the Alexandrian. I'm going to explain a little bit more about the Byzantine text, and I'm going to explain a little bit more about the Alexandrian text. But basically, there are two sets of manuscripts. The Byzantine text itself is subdivided into other two. One is the received text, text as receptors, TR, and the other one is the majority text.

So the Byzantine family has two basic, let's call it, legs. Now, the received text is basically, there was this man, the Cedrios Erasmus, that he fled from a city called Byzantium, just before the Moors went there, and he carried with him six copies of manuscripts, and then he and others that followed him recopied, and recopied, and recopied, and recopied, and that's what we have today, as called the received text, because it was copied, and copied, and copied. And they passed from one generation to another, and therefore it was received. So you copy, you pass to the next generation, they copy, they pass to the next generation, they make various copies, of course, but that is the source of the received text.

At the time of the King James Version, then the new King James Version, that's what is used as the source to translate into English and into other languages. It's called the received text. It was came from the Byzantine family, and it came originally from this man, and that was what was commonly available, because it was being copied and available throughout from generation to generation.

But there are other number of manuscripts of that same text family, in other words, the Byzantine text, because after, in the later years, people have found them. They've dug and they found them in caves, whatever it is, and today they are more than 6,500 manuscripts of the same Byzantine family, which are basically identical to the received text. So the majority text and the received text are, for all practical purposes, very identical.

I'm not saying every single word, but they correct themselves, and they are pretty well very parallel. Now, the majority text is the one that is very important for us to understand, because even within the majority text, there are different families that have come out of it. Slightly deviations, but they are basically the same thing.

So the Byzantine family has got the received text, it was the one that was copied and passed and copied and passed, and the other thousands of manuscripts were found more recently when people were doing diggings and things like that, and they found these, and so they are a large number of them, and they are all basically identical.

So what has happened is, scholars took all these manuscripts, or the major manuscripts of this majority, and they've worked as a group to create what they called the majority text. So they looked at all of them, and you know, you can't always be looking at these things and touching them. They're going to be kept in vaults and away from air so they don't perish, and then these two groups of scholars developed what is called the majority text. One group is the Hodges and Farsad, and the other group is the Robinson Pierpoint. I've got here the Hodges and Farsad majority text of the New Testament. That's a group of people that took, and this is actually an interlinear. So what basically has, it has every Greek word in the majority text, the translation of that Greek word into English, and obviously, as you know, in one language, when you go to another language, you don't have the words exactly in the same sequence. You know, sometimes you put the adjective first before the noun or things like that. So it has them exactly as it is in Greek, and then it has a little number one, two, three, because to put it in English, you put this word first, and then that word, it's got that interlinear, and then it's got also the New King James underneath it. So it has actually a very good piece of scholarship for the majority text.

There's also other additional work that people have done, which is the analytical literal translation. So people have taken this majority text and translated it into English literally. So it's a literal translation for word for word, but they did it analytically. And you have, I forgot an example of a majority text, analytical literal translation of the majority text.

So this one is interlinear word for word, and this is put into a sentence, the majority text, which is literal, but it's been analyzed, and you can see the words there, but it's in English. It's only English. It does not have Greek. This one has the Greek, so you can compare the two.

So, and there are others that did that individual work. Now, one of the people in this group that did this, Hodges and Fassstad, one of those people is a certain individual called Pickering. And that individual Pickering did his own translation, or rather Greek majority text, from what one of the families called the family 35. So some people say, oh well, what do you think of family 35? Well, it's one of the majority text groups of families, and there's an individual that put that together. But basically, this is the group. I usually like prefer a group, because if you have just one person, you could make a mistake. If you have a group of scholars working together, one corrects another one. Like, for instance, in this presentation, I had some spelling mistakes, and then Jonathan quietly picked it up and says, hey, George, there's a spelling mistake. Yeah, correct it. And so, working together, you iron out those little things that improve the overall. So, this is under the Byzantine family. So again, the Byzantine family, you've got the received text, and you've got the majority text. The majority text is some 6,000 plus manuscripts. Now, then you have the Alexandrian text family. What is that? Alexandrian text is that they did some digging in Egypt, in Alexandria, and they found some manuscripts in Alexandria, in Egypt. And, you know, symbolically, we're supposed to leave Egypt, you know, but anyway, leave that. But they found this text, which the time when they found them, they were older than the other manuscripts that they had found of the Byzantine text. They were older, but there are only three manuscripts of the Alexandrian text, and also some small pieces of fragments and things like that.

And because about 100-150 years ago, there was the older manuscripts, the Bible scholars felt, because it's older, it's more accurate, and therefore we are using them. And that's what happened, and most Bible versions today use the Alexandrian text family, which is only based on three manuscripts. So we got the majority, which is 6500, and then we got Alexandria, that is based only on three manuscripts. The Alexandrian was found around Egypt, and as you know, early in the New Testament church, there was already Gnosticism and changes. And we are going to see today changes between a majority text and the Alexandrian text, which will prove to you that the Alexandrian text was already twisted by Satan from what was originally inspired. And therefore, it's very dangerous to use the Alexandrian text. In some of your Bibles, you'll see NU, the abbreviation NU. That is basically the Alexandrian text. Right, so let's compare both. You have the Byzantine text, which has the majority, and also the received text, but a Byzantine, and the difference between the text receptors, the received text, and the majority text are minor. And then you have the Alexandrian text, so-called NU, which has many important differences from the Byzantine text. And we're going to look at that. And then there are other translations that there are the Latin versions that the Catholics use. They make translations. Then the Syrian version, the Syriac version, but they came from the Greek and then they made translations into other languages. But we're focusing today on the Byzantine and Alexandria, and we're going to compare them. So once again, there are three manuscripts based in Alexandria and thousands in the Byzantine, about 6,500 currently, and keeps growing, because as they dig and grow, they find more. So, as I mentioned, most modern Bible versions use the Alexandrian text. The Church of God recommends the majority text. The Church of God recommends the majority text. All right, let's now see why is there a concern about this. The concern is that a lot of different false doctrines have been injected into those manuscripts in Egypt that were found in Egypt and from which the modern translations are derived.

And you know, for instance, in Revelation 22, verse 18 and 19, but also in Deuteronomy 4 and Deuteronomy 12, it says, don't add or take from God's Word. That's very clear. You read in Revelation, you add, then the plagues that are in the spook will be added. And if you take, then your place in the Tree of Life will be taken. So it's very serious stuff. So that's why we need to understand because the majority of people are not aware of these differences.

Now, there's also another way that false doctrine can be injected, is through what they call paraphrasing. You see, you have a literal translation, which is, what is there in Greek?

It's what is in English or in another language, where it's translated literally. But then you have the paraphrase, which says, well, it says this in Greek, but to make it easier for you to read, I'll just say it means this. You paraphrase. The danger is that whoever's doing that, if they come from a background with wrong beliefs, they are going to paraphrase to accommodate unintentionally, innocently, but they're going to accommodate their wrong beliefs. And therefore, you have a Bible, which has been paraphrased. Oh, it's so nice and easy to read. Yes, it is.

But God's Word has not been faithfully transmitted to you and I through that. And therefore, you've got to be careful. I'm not saying that it's wrong to use an easy-to-read version, but I'm saying that if you're always reading these easy-to-read versions, these subtle changes, you don't pick them up. And because you don't pick them up, you then are getting the wrong information, the wrong doctrine. And it's very, very subtle because everything from Satan is subtle.

So the question is, which Bible version should I use?

I am not going to tell you which one you should use. I'll tell you which one I prefer, and you'll see why I prefer that. But we're going to compare these two major sets of manuscripts, Alexandrian and Byzantine. Alexandrian has got three, and Byzantine has got thousands, and we don't compare them. Because of these important differences, there are a period there.

And so the intent, therefore, is to make you aware of these subtleties, and then you make your decision. You make your decision.

And then you have knowledge why you should make whatever decision you're going to make.

The differences between the Byzantine and Alexandrian basically can be summarizing to a few of them to do a way of Christ's divinity, to do a way of God's law, and or basically to avoid Judaizing. In other words, they are anti-Semitic. Does that the three major, let's call it causes of these changes that we see in the Alexandrian text? And you can see, Satan had this orchestrated nearly 2,000 years ago to deceive us today.

And obviously there are a few other false ideas.

So we're going to look at ideas that kind of bring the concept against what is in other words the anti-Christ. You see, because we know the world became Christ, but these ideas do ever so slightly, these changes do away with that. That's one example.

You know, because for instance, Trinity is one doctrine that is preached today, which is basically anti-Christ, because it says Christ does not come in the flesh.

That's basically what it says. So let's look at some examples. Now look at your own Bible, whichever version you have. Look at whichever version you have. I'm basically comparing, and I'm not against any one version, please, but I'm just used two sets of Bible manuscripts. The top one, the New King James, uses the Byzantine. The other two, the NIV and the NLT, the New International Version and the New Language Translation, they use the Alexandrian manuscripts. And you will see a very clear difference between Byzantine, New King James, and Alexandrian, NIV, NLT. I am not against these other versions, please, but I understand that you need to be aware of these manuscript differences that come up in these modern translations that use the Alexandrian text. Sorry, so I was referring to Matthew 8 verse 2. Look at it in your Bible, and it says, worshiped. In the Byzantine text, it talks about worshiping. In the Alexandrian text, it says, melt. Subtle difference, but it's an important difference.

Of course, you kneel to worship, but there is an important difference between kneeling and worshiping. But it's not just in Matthew. In Matthew 9, 18 is the same thing.

Then you read it in your own Bible and see what version you have, because one is knelt and the other one is worshiped. Look at 1 Timothy 3 verse 16.

And in the Byzantine text, it says, God was manifested in the flesh.

God was manifested in the flesh. In the Alexandrian text, it says, He, or Christ, was manifested in the flesh. Of course, it's true, but there is a subtle difference between using the word God and just using He or Christ.

Isn't it? It's an important difference. Now, you read this, you read this NIV or NLT. You don't notice that, but subtly, you're being, quote-unquote, indoctrinated in some different understanding. Let's move forward.

Ephesians 3 verse 9. In the Byzantine, it says that all, in other words, the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ. So the Father delegated to Christ to create everything through Jesus Christ, but the Alexandrian text, they've deleted the through Jesus Christ words. Read it in your own Bible.

It just says, you know, hidden in God, who created all things deleted through Jesus Christ. I'll show, for instance, the NLT and the mysterious plan that God, the creator of all things, had kept secret and secret. Of course, God is the creator through Christ, but they omitted the words through Christ. Can you see the subtlety and the danger?

Look at Luke chapter 2 verse 33.

Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him, of Christ, Joseph and his mother. Now look how subtle that is. When you read the other says, the child's father and mother, or the parents. Oh, of course, I mean, what's the difference?

Well, there is a big difference because Joseph was not the father.

The father was God.

So when he says the child's father and mother, just a subtle modification.

Slowly, over time, you read this, read this, read this, and you're being indoctrinated with an incorrect doctrinal belief.

1 Corinthians 9 verse 20.

And it says, and those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those that are under the law.

And look at it, the Alexandrian, it adds, though I myself am not under the law.

Why? Adding that. You see that subtlety? Now you read this, and you read continuous of this, the NLT, the new language translation, says, even though I'm not subject to the law.

You see, it's a very subtle thing to do away with God's law. Now, understand, Paul, he's in the context, he's talking about the ceremonial law. But the point is, it's so subtle, so subtle.

Revelation 22.14.

The Byzantine says, blessed are those that do his commandments. It was that keep God's commandments.

The Alexandrian text says, blessed are those who wash their robes.

That is such a difference.

He's implying, oh well, you just wash your robes in Christ's blood, and they are.

But the 6,500 manuscripts, the Byzantine text, all of them agree that it is, do his commandments.

Can you see how subtle that is? John 7, verse 8. Look at what it says.

Christ saying about, I'm not yet going to the feast. I'm going to go later, but I'm not yet going to the feast. But the others have taken the word, yet out. And they say, I am not going to the feast of Tabernacles. You know that section, that you didn't go to the feast of Tabernacles with them, but he went a little later, privately, quietly.

Okay. Can you see the subtlety? Now, you read this Bible. It's easy to read, but you have these, and I'm just pointing to you a few. There's hundreds, Latas. There's hundreds. Okay. I'm just pointing to you a few, and you read this, and read this, and read this, and read this, you know, over year after year. You read the Bible, and you get the wrong understanding.

Galatians 3.

Mark That you should not obey the truth. Not obey the truth is gone. It's removed.

And see, brethren, this is very dangerous stuff that we're talking about here.

Mark 719. It says, because what it enters into your heart, but not into the belly, and goes out, and so, you know, you've got to be careful what comes out of your mouth, not what goes into your mouth. I mean, of course, you're not going to get into your mouth, poison and things like that, but, or unclean food, but you've got to be careful what comes out of your mouth, because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Well, the others, what they say, well, they added, they added by, in brackets there in the NIV says, by saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean. Well, that is a blatant addition to what is in the text. And in NLT, he says, by saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God's eyes. Can you see how subtle this is?

It's very, very dangerous, brethren. Look at Acts 18 verse 21, and it says, you know, Yah, it says, but he took leave of them, saying, I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem, but I will return again to you, God willing.

And the NIV and the NLT, the Alexandrian says, he says he left, but I'll come back if it's God's will.

No mention about keeping the feast in Jerusalem.

But again, when you just read these other versions, it's easy to read, it's very attractive, but you can see how subtle it is. And then there's other false ideas. For instance, Yah, we have one where it says, talks about the firstborn son. And the other one just says, well, a son, or until a son was born. Subtle differences, but they are important. They all end up.

For instance, in Romans 8 verse 1, there is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. That section was just no method. Just gone. Gone. That is important. That is very important.

And so that's why the church says the majority text is a more accurate version, because there are 6,500 manuscripts, and the Alexanderan is only three. And we believe they've already been corrupted.

Look at Mark 9 verse 29. And this kind, you know, was talking about taking this demon out, and they couldn't take this demon out. And it says, this kind of demons only come out for prayer and fasting. But the Alexanderan text says, by prayer, no mention of fasting.

Reverend, this is dangerous.

Now, besides all that, there's a whole bunch of verses that are missing in the Alexandria text. I've just listed here in Matthew. There's a number of verses missing in the Alexandria text. In Mark, in Luke, a whole section from Mark, from verse, in chapter 16, from verse 9 to 20, is just not there in the Alexandria text, in those three corrupt manuscripts from Egypt. But the other 6,500 of the Byzantine texts, they all have that section.

You see, but Satan has many, many schemes up his sleeve.

He also injected, some years down the road, things into the received text.

And you can see that they were injected because they're not on the majority text, and they're not on the Alexandria text, because they were injected into the received text in somewhere in the 13 or 1400s. That means like 500 years or 600 years ago.

And that is the case of 1 John 5, 7 through 8. That section in yellow was inserted into the received text, the one that went and copied and copied and copied, around about the years of 13-1400. That was inserted into the received text. But it's not on the majority text, which is this majority text, nor is it in the Alexandrian text, because it was put in much lighter than those manuscripts. And that's why, for instance, in the English Standard Version, or the NIV, that doesn't show that inserted section, which is in the New King James Version, because the New King James Version comes from the received text. So it is important for us to be aware of these things, and we need to compare carefully. So that's why I have a majority text.

I like to always go and compare against the majority text. So I'm not reading from the majority text every time. I personally use the New King James Version, but if I have any questions, I go into the majority text and see all the analytical, literal majority text to read it and compare.

See, Satan is very clever. And then on top of it, these translators ad lib. You know, they say, oh well, let me add something. And look at this example. In the New King James Version, you know very well what it says, let no man judge you regarding these matters, but the body of Christ.

But the body of Christ, you know, the word is in italics, which is not in the original. And so it says, let no man judge you on these matters, but the Church of God. That's what it means.

Colossians 2, 16 and 17. Let no man judge you how you keep the holy days, how you what you eat and how you celebrate those holy days, or how you keep the Sabbath. Let no man judge you but the Church of God. But look at N.L.T. In N.L.T., it says, don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days, or the new moon ceremonies or Sabbath. What? They changed it completely.

They changed it completely. Now, I picked this up because I had somebody coming to church, not here in Dallas, but in Lexington, and this person said, yeah, what about Colossians 2, 16? And quite often, I said, okay, let's look in your Bible. And he picked out his Bible, which is N.L.T. And I went like this. I said, what? I was surprised because I didn't know it had that.

It's just unbelievable. Nowadays, you practically can't tell people, look in your own Bible, because you're going to encounter things like this. It's you have translators own ad-libbing that is also dangerous. So we've got to be careful. So there's no perfect version today.

There's no perfect version today. That's the bad news. There's no perfect version today.

You've got to make a decision. I believe, that's my belief, I might be wrong, because we use Zephaniah 3 verse 9 saying that we'll have one pure language in the world tomorrow. The Hebrew word days lip. That could also, I believe, could also have a meaning that we will have a pure Bible, a clean Bible. That all these fake versions will be gone and will only have a pure word of God so that we all may call on the Lord to serve him with one accord. I believe that will be so in the world tomorrow. So that is an alternative understanding of Zephaniah 3 verse 9.

I'm not saying that it is a standard church policy. No, I'm just saying the standard church policy is that we all speak one language. But I just think it could also have an additional meaning that we will only have one Bible version so that everybody knows when it goes to the Bible, that's what it is. It's clean, a pure language, a pure lip, a lip of God.

But today you've got to do your own research. Do your own research.

Which Bible version should you use? I would suggest that you should avoid versions that use the Alexandrian manuscripts. That is my advice. Because you're reading these things, for instance, every day you're reading a Bible, and these subtleties, you don't even pick them up, but they become part of what you're reading all the time. So be careful of that. So preferably use the received text or the majority text. You know the received text as an alteration in 1 John. I've highlighted that to you, but otherwise the received text and the majority text are basically identical. And also compare translations. Compare translations, particularly when you're studying for doctrine. For instance, if you find a section which is difficult to understand and read, yes, go to one of those easy-to-read versions and you read through it. Oh, I can't understand it a bit better. Fine. But get back to the regular reading with the literal translations which are based on the majority text. And when you do study guides, there's a lot of study guides from the United Church of God. Use them on their website. There's a section about the Bible commentary. It's got the whole of the Old Testament Bible commentary, and they are working in the New Testament. We're probably going to see soon the Book of Acts coming out in the Bible commentary section on our website. And they were hoping to get the Gospels out, but it's just so much work that it's taking longer than what we thought we would take.

Just remember, Satan is a deceiver. Satan is deceiver. But God has given his word, and if you are careful and you do your study, you will be able to see the truth.

I've given you some, let's call it, examples of seeing where are differences. As you do your diligent study, you will find many others. But it is important to know which manuscripts the Bible you are reading is using as its basis for where they translated it from.

You see, these manuscripts that have been adulterated, they are doctrinally, spiritually dangerous. And so they lead people away from the truth ever so subtly.

And we, as God's people, studying God's Word, we need to be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove and get into our minds through regularly reading the literal Word of God, because it is God-breathed for all of us.