ANSWERING AGAIN THE “WHAT TR?” QUESTION

Part One

1.  God Inspired Specific, Exact Words, and All of Them.
2.  After God Inspired, Inscripturated, or Gave His Words, All of Them, to His People through His Institutions, He Kept Preserving Each of Them and All of Them According to His Promises of Preservation.
3.  God Promised Preservation of the Words in the Language They Were Written, or In Other Words, He Preserved Exactly What He Gave.

Ahhh certainty, what some people call “epistemic hubris,” but I digress.  One thing that modern version and critical text supporters are certain about?  You can’t be certain about the text of the New Testament.  They’re certain of that.  And how do they know with such certainty so as to call people dangerous and extremist, who are certain?  They know the same way that any one of you are certain that Covid arose from an animal in a wet market in Wuhan, China.  You can’t be certain about the text of scripture even though scripture teaches certainty on the text of scripture.  No, only a degree of confidence somewhere less than the efficiency of Tide detergent.

So I can get behind a keyboard and be a tough guy.  That’s easy.  But what about putting a blog where my mouth is.  Let us continue.

Meaning of Kept

In His high priestly prayer in John 17, Jesus says in verse 6, “They have kept thy word.”  “Kept” is the Greek word tareo, which BDAG says means:

1.  to retain in custody, keep watch over, guard . . . .  2. to cause a state, condition, or activity to continue, keep, hold, reserve, preserve someone or something.

Jesus uses the word tareo a few verses later in verse 12, saying:

While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

The word kept that Jesus uses in verse 6, He defines in verse 12.  Twice he says He “kept them.”  And then He says, “None of them is lost.”  If someone keeps something or someone, then nothing or no one was lost.  If something or someone is lost, it or he was not kept.  Let’s say Jesus originally saved 100,000 people, but in the end only 99,995 or so were saved.  He couldn’t say, “None of them is lost.”  Five of them were lost.  If you were one of the five, you would take a change in the definition of “kept” very seriously.

Consider this dialogue.

“I gave you those fifty marbles.  Did you keep them?”

“Yes.”

“So how many do you have?”

“I have 48 of them.”

“I thought you said you kept them.”

“I did.”

“No you didn’t; you lost two of them.  That’s not keeping the marbles.  That’s losing.”

That’s a basic tutorial on the concept of keep or preserve.

Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic Words

The Bible promises preservation of what God gave, inscripturated, or inspired.  What He gave were words almost exclusively in Hebrew and Greek, and a few in Aramaic.  What He gave He also kept or preserved.  God didn’t give, inscripturate, or inspire English words.  He gave Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic words and those were the ones He also kept or preserved.

What Jesus said in Matthew 5:18 corroborates this obvious idea of kept or preserved.  Jesus said:

For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Jesus was speaking of the Old Testament and a jot and a tittle were both Hebrew letters, not some other language.  Again, this was not a promise to preserve one particular manuscript or physical scroll.  In its context (Matthew 5:17-20) it did mean that scripture, its letters and words on pages, would remain available to read and heed.

4.  God’s Promise of Keeping and Preserving His Words Means the Availability of His Words to Every Generation of Believers.

Availability or General Accessibility

Keeping means availability.  Availability means general accessibility.  Scripture shows this again and again.  God kept the words for people to know and obey.  Keeping them for His people to whom He gave them means their availability for those people to use.

Saying “general accessibility” means that someone may not have his own copy of scripture at home.  The words were available in general for believers in general.  Words not generally accessible were not the words God kept for His people.  Because a single ancient manuscript was on earth somewhere does not mean it was available or generally accessible.  It wasn’t.  God’s people did not have it to read and heed.

Versus Buried Text View

A doctrine of availability accompanies a true doctrine of preservation.  I call the alternative a “buried text view.”  Critical text proponents are still searching for lost hand copies and ancient translations for the sake of restoring a lost text.  Every time a person or organization announces that he or it found a very old page of scripture, critical text scholars relish with great expectation to find new information for possible purposes of correction.

Those who believe in perfect preservation for every generation of believer do not expect to find a buried or lost text that will correct the present text of scripture.  They believe in preservation and availability.  That lost copy was not available.  It couldn’t be what God preserved or kept.

New Testament Language of the Received Text

The language, “received text,” elicits the truth of availability.  Something not available was not received by anyone.  “Received text” itself, as a description of the preserved New Testament text, comes from scripture.

Gospels

Matthew 13:19-20, 22-23, “When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it.

He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

Luke 8:13, “They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.”

John 17:8, “For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.”

Acts

Acts 2:41, “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.”

Acts 8:14, “Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John.”

Acts 11:1, “And the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.”

Acts 17:11, “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”

Epistles

1 Thessalonians 1:6, “And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost.”

1 Thessalonians 2:13, “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”

James 1:21, “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.”

How could believers or churches receive God’s Word or Words if they were not available?  They couldn’t.  But this was not the case.  They could receive His Words because of the general accessibility of them for every generation of believer.

More to Come