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From the Work of Beza in 1598 to Modern Skepticism and the Greek New Testament

January 6, 2025 / 11 Comments on From the Work of Beza in 1598 to Modern Skepticism and the Greek New Testament

F. H. A. Scrivener showed 190 differences between his printed text, representing the underlying text of the King James Version, and that of Theodore Beza‘s printed edition in 1598. This was eighty-two years after the first printed edition of the Textus Receptus (TR) in 1516 and thirteen years before the publication of the King James Version (KJV). Beza had more manuscripts than Erasmus did in his first edition, including Codex Claromontanus and Codex Bezae. He did not overhaul the received text, making some corrections while keeping much of the editions of Erasmus and Stephanus already established within and by church usage.

The number of words different are much greater between Beza 1598 and Erasmus 1516 than Beza 1598 and Scrivener’s, something like 1500 to 190. Scrivener’s, the representation of the text underlying the King James Version, is not Erasmus 1516, as much as critics use Erasmus 1516 text for their Textus Receptus criticism. The KJV translators relied on Beza 1598, which agreed with earlier printed editions of the Greek New Testament, but corrected errors based on words in available Greek manuscripts. The progress between 1516 and 1611 followed the creed, a mistake made in one copy was corrected by another.

The Approach of Theodore Beza

The small number of corrections in the 16th century printed editions of the Greek New Testament showed the consensus among Bible believing and practicing churches for the completion of this work. The doctrine of preservation guided the thinking that this would not continue as an ongoing, never-ending work. Theodore Beza approached his biblical text work with a strong theological conviction that God had preserved His Word through history. He indeed believed that the TR represented a divinely preserved text.

For Beza, the work of Erasmus and Stephanus was a heritage of the divine transmission of Scripture. Beza recognized this and aimed to keep intact the familiar readings embraced by the churches. The reception history played a crucial role in Beza’s decisions. Keeping these was a reliance upon divine providence. By accepting and printing familiar readings, he aimed to ensure that his edition would be embraced by those already accustomed to earlier versions.

Theodore Beza’s theological perspective influenced his textual choices. He believed that certain readings aligned with doctrinal truths central to an orthodox biblical theology. This belief led him to retain readings and make adjustments only when absolutely necessary.

The cessation of further printed editions of the Greek New Testament after the Elzevir Brothers 1633 arrived almost entirely because of the acceptance of the standardization of existing translations of the text. The text should reflect what people read. People in churches read translations, not printed Greek editions. This revealed the settling of an underlying Greek text in the nature of the canonization of scripture. The internal testimony of the Holy Spirit decided the end of this period through the unified testimony of the saints.

The Settling of the Text of Scripture

Samuel P. Tregelles in his An Account of the Printed Text of the Greek New Testament writes (pp. 33-35):

Beza’s text was during his life in very general use amongst Protestants; they seemed to feel that enough had been done to establish it, and they relied on it as giving them a firm basis. . . . After the appearance of the texts of Stephanus and Beza, many Protestants ceased from all inquiry into the authorities on which the text of the New Testament in their hands was based.

According to Tregelles, in the early 18th century, Richard Bentley wrote that the text of Stephanus could not have claimed greater authority if “an apostle had been the compositor” (p. 29).

The reception of the churches indicated a settled text. The saints in the churches understood God’s warning neither to add or take away from the words of this book (Revelation 22:18-19, Deuteronomy 4:2). The text of the Bible was not a personal playbox for the fiddling of scholars. Churches also trusted the providence of God. He was at work in the perfect preservation of scripture.

Changes from “the Enlightenment”

New changes of the text of the Bible did not again arise until what historians call “the Enlightenment.” The late 18th and 19th centuries, almost two hundred years later, brought the rise of skepticism towards traditional authorities, including religious texts. This cultural shift brought a new view as to how biblical texts were viewed and utilized. The rise of modernism, a different world view from previous centuries, introduced methodologies steeped in a critical approach to science and history. This rejected reliance on faith, supernaturalism, highlighted by a denial of miracles.

Scholars such as Jean Astruc and Julius Wellhausen introduced critical methods that questioned the previously accepted understanding of textual integrity. For instance, Wellhausen’s documentary hypothesis suggested that the Pentateuch was composed from multiple sources rather than being authored solely by Moses. This perspective led to a reevaluation of all original texts, suggesting they were not divinely inspired but rather products of historical and cultural contexts.

Secular Methodologies

Scholars began applying secular methodologies to analyze the scriptures. A new approach fostered an environment of interpretation through a historical-critical lens, resulting in conclusions that diminished spiritual significance. The adoption of modernist principles in seminaries blended scriptural beliefs with contemporary critical methods. It was a different epistemology, knowledge no longer attained by faith or at least primarily by faith, but mostly through human observation and reasoning.

Modernism’s focus on empirical evidence encouraged scholars to pay closer attention to textual variants found in different manuscripts. The rise of higher criticism during the modernist movement also played a crucial role in shaping how scholars approached biblical texts. This analytical lens affected how critical texts are constructed. It started with a rejection of the doctrine of providential, divine preservation and a bias toward naturalistic explanations. Scholars began integrating insights from fields such as linguistics and anthropology into their analysis of biblical texts, leading to new methodologies for understanding language use and cultural contexts within the New Testament.

Conclusion

The critical text of the New Testament did not arise from the heritage of the Textus Receptus. These represent two entirely different worldviews, epistemologies, and methodologies. Progress from Erasmus, Stephanus, to Beza represent supernaturalism, divine providence, orthodox biblical belief, and certainty. The Bible stood as final authority for faith and practice.

Modernism gave birth to the critical text out of a cradle of skepticism. It started with doubt in the work of God and the veracity of providential preservation. Human empiricism supersedes belief in God. For this reason, the text of scripture never stops changing with a hopeless future for a settled text. This undermines the faith of God’s people and hardens the hearts of the lost.

What Is the “False Doctrine” of Only One Text of the Bible? (Part Six)

December 27, 2024 / 10 Comments on What Is the “False Doctrine” of Only One Text of the Bible? (Part Six)

Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five

Through the years, I’ve heard many in my audience of evangelism give this answer: “So many Bibles out there!” Is that true though? Are there really multiple Bibles and you can choose which Bible you want? It truly is not true, but that’s what many think because of the glut of English translations. There is only one Bible, yet people think of there as many Bibles. Is anyone responsible for causing this wrong thinking? Yes, the multiple versionists, who promote numerous “Bibles.”

Let’s say I agree with Mark Ward and his hundred plus “false friends” in the King James Version, so I decide I’ll do a Kent Brandenburg Version, the KBV. I add my KBV to modern English translations from the same text as the King James Version. Would that be good for me to do? Doing an update like that would seem to follow a Mark Ward suggestion. My doing my own update, I believe, is not good. I wouldn’t do it, even though I could. It would be right for many reasons. Could some good reasons prohibit another English translation of the Bible? I say, yes.

Biblical Criteria for an Update

Before someone tries an update, he should put together a list of biblical criteria for that undertaking. I’ve thought about it and have in the past produced that list. Several scriptural reasons would keep me from presently doing my own English translation and publishing it. What is the criteria for an update and what makes a translation a standard? Mark Ward has not produced such a list (that I know of). I haven’t seen it. The Bible has the principles that will form a list of criteria as a basis of a standard translation. If an update were justifiable, the leadership for a translation should follow a list with biblical criteria for that update.

What is the purpose of the update? From Mark Ward’s perspective, it’s these false friends or semantical changes that disallow an average person from understanding the Bible as well as he could. I’ve already said that we can address that with marginal notes or footnotes. We could also have a few page guide or booklet to accompany a Bible without notes in it. What is bad about that choice? Who would be against it, whose main concern is semantical change? Apparently marginal notes and footnotes are great for textual variants, but not good for translation explanations?

Scrivener’s Greek New Testament

In my list of five concerns that I’ve read Mark Ward to express, the fifth is the following (as coming from him):

The underlying text behind the King James Version didn’t exist in a single edition until Scrivener in the late 19th century, who himself didn’t support the Textus Receptus.

I agree with this point that many, many men have made, who attack my position. What they’re saying is true. No single printed edition of the Greek New Testament that matches the underlying text of the King James Version existed until Scrivener’s (actual text). Is there some kind of legitimate point to what Mark Ward and others say, using this as an attack of our position on the preservation and availability of the original language New Testament? I don’t see it, have explained it many times, and I will explain it again here. There are a few different points to the answer.

The Scrivener Greek Text Already Existed Before the Printed Edition

I am differentiating between the Greek text and the printed edition. Printed editions of the Greek New Testament did not exist until the invention of the printing press. Please, please get that statement. The text of the Greek New Testament existed before the printing press, but no one printed it until the 16th century. The Bible existed before the invention of the printing press. This is the same issue. It would seem simple to understand.

Kurt and Barbara Aland

The early printed editions of the Greek New Testament are known as the Textus Receptus (TR). The TR never meant one printed edition. Even Kurt and Barbara Aland the famed textual critics, the “A” in “NA” (Nestles-Aland), wrote (“The Text of the Church?” in Trinity Journal, Fall, 1987, p.131):

[I]t is undisputed that from the 16th to the 18th century orthodoxy’s doctrine of verbal inspiration assumed this Textus Receptus. It was the only Greek text they knew, and they regarded it as the ‘original text.’

He also wrote in his The Text of the New Testament (p. 11):

We can appreciate better the struggle for freedom from the dominance of the Textus Receptus when we remember that in this period it was regarded even to the last detail the inspired and infallible word of God himself.

His wife Barbara writes in her book, The Text of the New Testament (pp. 6-7):

[T]he Textus Receptus remained the basic text and its authority was regarded as canonical. . . . Every theologian of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (and not just the exegetical scholars) worked from an edition of the Greek text of the New Testament which was regarded as the “revealed text.” This idea of verbal inspiration (i. e., of the literal and inerrant inspiration of the text) which the orthodoxy of both Protestant traditions maintained so vigorously, was applied to the Textus Receptus.

Theodore Beza, Richard Capel, and Edward Hills

The specific editions of the Textus Receptus, published in the 16th century, almost identical (but not identical) to Scrivener’s, were those produced by Theodore de Beza, particularly his 1588–89 and 1598 editions. The differences between those of Beza and the underlying Greek text of the KJV were like those between each of the editions of the printed editions of the Textus Receptus. It represents the common belief of the saints, communicated by Richard Capel, “what mistake is in one print, is corrected in another.” This also corresponds to the well-known expression of Edward Freer Hills in his The King James Version Defended:

The King James Version ought to be regarded not merely as a translation of the Textus Receptus but also as an independent variety of the Textus Receptus.

Scriptural Presuppositions

According to scriptural presuppositions, God preserved every Word and all of His Words in the language in which they were written, and made them available to every generation of believer. Read that last sentence again. That doesn’t say that God promised to preserve one printed edition.

I don’t want to go through this again. The King James Translators translated from a text. They used the Textus Receptus. It was available. They didn’t turn it into a printed edition. Why? I don’t hear the critics answering that question, maybe because they don’t care. The text was available. King James himself made an explicit instruction that his translators proceed from manuscripts written in the original languages of the Bible, Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament. He explicitly instructed that the translation should not alter the originals.

Commentators

Commentators wrote from 1500 to 1800 and referred regularly and constantly to the last twelve verses of Mark, 1 John 5:7, and John 8:1-11, including as examples, John Gill, Matthew Henry, and Albert Barnes. They say, “God was manifest in the flesh,” instead of “he was manifest in the flesh,” in 1 Timothy 3:16. They very often refer to the Greek words that are not included in the modern critical text. What were they looking at to refer to these words, but the Greek text that they possessed?

John Berriman quotes the Greek text of 1 Timothy 3:16, using Theos (“God,” not “he”) in his 1741 dissertation on 1 Timothy 3:16. Commentator after commentator refers to the “book of life” in Revelation 22:19. You know what I’m saying. People referred to, exegeted, exposed, taught, and preached the same underlying text of the King James Version. They weren’t waiting for the publication of Scrivener’s.

“Where Is the Printed Edition?”

Men ask as a part of an rhetorical argument: “Where is the printed edition?” I’ve never said once that we believed in the preservation of a printed edition, so the question is a strawman. Scripture teaches the preservation of words and their availability. That happened. Those were presuppositions upon which succeeding generations depended.

Another presupposition is a settled text. This required settling on a text. The presupposition guides the interpretation of history. On what text did believers settle? All of these presuppositions become a matter of faith as an epistemology (“by faith we understand”).

The presupposition of a settled text also relates to the canonicity argument. The inward testimony of the Holy Spirit in believers becomes the guiding factor. Where is the agreement of believers? It isn’t a critical text or eclecticism, which contradicts the presuppositions. One can see this is a so-called text not received by the churches. I say “so-called” because an eclectic text has no historical precedent. It never existed until its doctors constructed it, hence the nickname, “Frankentext.”

Requests

I would like, even request, three things from this series of posts. One, I would like the other side of this debate to steelman my position. I’m pretty done with the misrepresentations. The worst thing to the other side is not distorting what I say, but being called a liar for their distortions. Two, cease bringing up counters like no one answers their questions. Three, please try to stop the judging of motives. I read one yesterday, a pastor who says that the King James Version is an idol. Really? This really is coming from the side that incessantly touts its own humble tone.

The other side does not start with scriptural presuppositions. At the best, it has tried to answer our biblical ones. These are also historical presuppositions and we’ve proven that. The other side fulfills themselves this statement: “you overplayed your hand and committed the classic error of an ideological extremist by refusing to give me a millimeter.” I don’t see them give a millimeter to historical and biblical presuppositions. They’ve got to deny them with all their being, and attack, attack, and attack.

New List of Reasons for Maximum Certainty for the New Testament Text (Part 5)

May 28, 2024 / Leave a comment

ANSWERING AGAIN THE “WHAT TR?” QUESTION

Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four

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.
4. God’s Promise of Keeping and Preserving His Words Means the Availability of His Words to Every Generation of Believers.
5. God the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, Used the Church to Accredit or Confirm What Is Scripture and What Is Not.
6. God Declares a Settled Text of Scripture in His Word.

THE APPLICATION OF THE PRESUPPOSITIONS, PRINCIPLES, AND PROMISES OF AND FROM SCRIPTURE

God’s Word is truth. It provides the expectations for Christians, not feelings or experience. People can count on what God says. True believers go to scripture to get their views for things.

The Lord in His Word gives the expectations regarding the future of scripture. What would God do? If God says He will do it, then He will do it, and believers will believe that He did.

The presuppositions, principles, and promises of and from scripture provide a model, paradigm, or template for knowing what God’s Words are. The true view will follow a biblical model.

Epistemology

What I’m writing in this series considers how people know or can know what they know, what’s called “epistemology.” The critical text and its modern versions are different than the received or traditional text and the King James Version. They can’t both be right. Of the two, how do we know which one is right?

Knowledge starts with God’s Word. Faith in what God says is the primary way of knowing what people ought to know. Someone can open to Genesis 1:1 and know what it says occurred based on God saying it.

Only one text and version position fits the principles, presuppositions, and promises of scripture. The above six true principles lead one to the received text or textus receptus. Only the received text, the underlying text of the King James Version, corresponds to what God said would occur.

Which Textus Receptus?

Opponents or critics of the received text position, critical text proponents, very often ask, “Which Textus Receptus (TR)?” I saw someone recently mock the TR by calling it the “Texti Recepti.” The idea of this criticism is that there is more than one edition of the TR, so which one is it?

The textus receptus is a very homogenous text. All the varied editions are very close and essentially the same. However, the differences would contradict perfect, every word preservation and a settled text. This criticism becomes a major presupposition for a critical text position. It says, “No one knows what the text is, so everyone continues with textual criticism.”

Following the presuppositions, principles, and promises of scripture, one witnesses settlement on the text of scripture. Even though each of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament were considered scripture immediately, its aggregation or collation into one book took one or two hundred years. This occurred through the agreement of God’s people and the testimony of the Holy Spirit, termed “canonicity.”

History of the Received Text

Through church history, God’s people continued to ascertain and identify scripture in the keeping process. Churches kept agreeing on the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. They also received the words of the New Testament, the text of the New Testament. Churches had already been receiving the same text of scripture in the manuscript or hand-written era. A few years ago, I wrote the following.

Kurt Aland

The TR never meant one printed edition. Even Kurt and Barbara Aland the famed textual critics, the “A” in “NA” (Nestles-Aland), wrote (“The Text of the Church?” in Trinity Journal, Fall, 1987, p.131):

[I]t is undisputed that from the 16th to the 18th century orthodoxy’s doctrine of verbal inspiration assumed this Textus Receptus. It was the only Greek text they knew, and they regarded it as the ‘original text.’

He also wrote in his The Text of the New Testament (p. 11):

We can appreciate better the struggle for freedom from the dominance of the Textus Receptus when we remember that in this period it was regarded even to the last detail the inspired and infallible word of God himself.

Barbara Aland

His wife Barbara writes in her book, The Text of the New Testament (pp. 6-7):

[T]he Textus Receptus remained the basic text and its authority was regarded as canonical. . . . Every theologian of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (and not just the exegetical scholars) worked from an edition of the Greek text of the New Testament which was regarded as the “revealed text.” This idea of verbal inspiration (i. e., of the literal and inerrant inspiration of the text) which the orthodoxy of both Protestant traditions maintained so vigorously, was applied to the Textus Receptus.

I say all that, because Aland accurately does not refer to an edition of the TR, neither does he speak of the TR like it is an edition. It isn’t. That is invented language used as a reverse engineering argument by critical text proponents, differing with the honest proposition of Aland, quoted above. They very often focus on Desiderius Erasmus and his first printed edition of the Greek New Testament. That’s not how believers viewed what the Van Kleecks call the Standard Sacred Text, others call the Ecclesiastical Text, and still others the Traditional Text.

Metzger

Neither does Bruce Metzger refer to an edition of the Textus Receptus; only to the Textus Receptus (The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, 4th ed. [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005], pp. 106-251):

Having secured . . . preeminence, what came to be called the Textus Receptus of the New Testament resisted for 400 years all scholarly effort to displace it. . . . [The] “Textus Receptus,” or commonly received, standard text . . . makes the boast that “[the reader has] the text now received by all, in which we give nothing changed or corrupted.” . . . [This] form of Greek text . . . succeeded in establishing itself as “the only true text” of the New Testament and was slavishly reprinted in hundreds of subsequent editions. It lies at the basis of the King James Version and of all the principal Protestant translations in the languages of Europe prior to 1881.

[T]he reverence accorded the Textus Receptus. . . [made] attempts to criticize or emend it . . . akin to sacrilege. . . . For almost two centuries . . . almost all of the editors of the New Testament during this period were content to reprint the time-honored . . . Textus Receptus. . . . In the early days of . . . determining textual groupings . . . the manuscript was collated against the Textus Receptus . . . . This procedure made sense to scholars, who understood the Textus Receptus as the original text of the New Testament, for then variations from it would be “agreements in error.”

The Textus Receptus does not refer to a single printed edition of the New Testament. The language of a received text proceeds from true believers in a time before the printing press in hand copies and then leading to the period of its printing.

Edward Freer Hills

Churches up to the printing press ‘received’ the “received text,” hence, “the received text” of the New Testament. This bore itself out in the printed edition era, as churches only printed editions of the received text. However, they didn’t permanently continue printing editions of the TR. They settled, as seen in the discontinuation of printing further editions after about a hundred years. This was a shorter period of time than the settlement or agreement on the twenty-seven books of scripture.

What I’m writing here corresponds to the now well-known position expressed by Edward Freer Hills in his book, The King James Version Defended. He wrote:

The King James Version ought to be regarded not merely as a translation of the Textus Receptus but also as an independent variety of the Textus Receptus. . . . But what do we do in these few places in which the several editions of the Textus Receptus disagree with one another? Which text do we follow? The answer to this question is easy. We are guided by the common faith. hence we favor that form of the Textus Receptus upon which more than any other, God, working providentially, has placed the stamp of His approval, namely the King James Version, or, more precisely, the Greek text underlying the King James Version.

King James Version Translated from Something

Some critical text adherents want to make Hills statement a “gotcha” or “aha” moment. “Look, this is an English priority!” I say, “No, the King James translators were translators, so they translated from something.” From which they translated is represented by the writing and teaching in all the centuries after the last printed edition of the textus receptus and the acceptance of the King James Version.

The King James Version translators translated from available words. They relied on the printed editions of the textus receptus. Their text was its own independent variety, like Hills said. However, that text pre-existed the translation, even if it wasn’t in one printed edition. Again, scripture doesn’t argue for the preservation of an edition.

Those translations forerunning the King James Version also relied on the textus receptus. The necessity of a settled text, that particular presupposition, looks on which the vast majority of believers settled. The concluding certainty comes from faith in what God said He would do.

Printed Editions of the TR

Almost one hundred percent of the words for the King James Version came from the printed editions of the textus receptus. Maybe two or three words total in the King James Version don’t appear in any printed edition of the textus receptus but had textual attestation elsewhere. A vast majority of true believers were not reading the Greek New Testament. They accepted or received the textus receptus by receiving the translation from the textus receptus. This helps explain the Hills statement of an “independent variety of the Textus Receptus.” It’s not unique though in a fair understanding of the word. It reflects what God’s people received as the text of the New Testament since its original writing.

In 1881, F. H. A. Scrivener took on the monumental project of printing the received text underlying the King James Version New Testament. For many decades the Trinitarian Bible Society has printed this edition of the textus receptus. The printing of this as its own edition suggests the independent variety of the Textus Receptus underlying the New Testament of the King James Version.

The Ecclesiastical Text

Some call the textus receptus, “the ecclesiastical text.” I don’t mind that title. It acknowledges the testimony of the Holy Spirit toward His words through the church. God uses the church to attest to the words of God as a means of settling the text. Naturalistic and rationalistic modern textual criticism does not settle the text. It uses naturalistic means as a basis for speculating the original text of the New Testament. It does not claim certainty or knowing what the text is. Because of its means or instrumentality, it doesn’t and can’t claim to know the original text. It also does not acknowledge the truth of the above principles, promises, and presuppositions.

I know I’m saved. Scripture assures me of my salvation. The Bible also assures me that I know what is the text of the New Testament. I know the New Testament text like I know the twenty-seven books of the New Testament.

Acting in Faith

Faith acts. It will bite down on what God said and what He said He would do. You don’t believe if you sit back and taste without swallowing. Faith isn’t a sample-fest.

On this subject, some are reticent to say what is the text of the New Testament. They anticipate the attack coming, including mockery. Those mocking do not bite down. They instead adjust based upon their naturalistic presuppositions. They say something like “confidence” instead of “certainty.” That doesn’t follow what scripture says about itself. This should embarrass them. I think it does many of them, which is why the angry reaction and the resultant mockery.

The trail of faith on this issue ends with the underlying text behind the King James Version. The closest to that is all the words found in the printed edition. That sort of settles, but it leaves wiggle room. It’s a harder-to-defend position, based upon the plain scriptural presuppositions.

More to Come

Yes and Then No, the Bible with Mark Ward (part two)

November 30, 2021 / 9 Comments on Yes and Then No, the Bible with Mark Ward (part two)

Earlier this week, I wrote part one concerning two separate videos posted by Mark Ward. The second one I saw first, and since my name was mentioned, I answered. He cherry-picks quotes without context. Ward made what he thought was a good argument against the Textus Receptus.

In part one, I said “yes” to his assessment of IFB preaching. I didn’t agree, as he concluded, that a correction to preaching was the biggest step for IFB. A distorted gospel, I believe, is of greater import, something unmentioned by Ward.

NO

Bob Jones Seminary (BJU) invited Ward to teach on problems with the Textus Receptus (received text, TR), the Greek text behind the New Testament (NT) of the King James Version (KJV) and all the other Reformation Era English versions. It was also the basis for all the other language versions of the Bible. There is only one Bible, and subsequent to the invention of the printing press, we know the TR was the Bible of true believers for four centuries. Unless the Bible can change, it’s still the Bible.

Ward accepted the invitation from BJU, despite his own commitment against arguing textual criticism with anyone who disagrees with him. For him to debate, his opposition must agree with his innovative, non-historical or exegetical application of 1 Corinthians 14:9. It’s the only presupposition that I have heard Ward claim from scripture on this issue.

Critical text supporters, a new and totally different approach to the Bible in all of history, oppose scriptural presuppositions. They require sola scientia to determine the Bible. Modern textual criticism, what is all of textual criticism even though men like Ward attempt to reconstruct what believing men did from 1500 to 1800, arose with modernism. Everything must subject itself to human reason, including the Bible.

In his lecture, Ward used F. H. A. Scrivener to argue against Scrivener’s New Testament, giving the former an alias Henry Ambrose, his two middle names, to argue against Scrivener himself. It is an obvious sort of mockery of those who use the NT, assuming they don’t know history. The idea behind it is that Scrivener didn’t even like his Greek NT.

What did Scrivener do? He collated the Greek text behind the KJV NT from TR editions, and then printed the text underlying the NT of the KJV. It was an academic exercise for him, not one out of love for the TR. Scrivener was on the committee to produce the Revised Version.

The Greek Words of the New Testament

Did the words of that New Testament exist before Scrivener’s NT? Yes. Very often (and you can google it with my name to find out) I’ll say, “Men translated from something.” For centuries, they did.

The words of Scrivener were available in print before Scrivener. Scrivener knew this too, as the differences between the various TR editions are listed in the Scrivener’s Annotated New Testament, a leather bound one of which I own. Ward says there are massive numbers of differences between the TR editions. That’s not true.

Like Ward’s pitting Scrivener on Scrivener and the KJV translators against the KJV translation, claiming massive variants between TR editions is but a rhetorical device to propagandize listeners. The device entertains supporters, but I can’t see it persuading anyone new. It’s insulting.

When you compare Sinaiticus with Vaticanus, there you see massive differences, enough that Dean Burgon wrote, “It is in fact easier to find two consecutive verses in which these two MSS differ the one from the other, than two consecutive verses in which they entirely agree.” There are over 3,000 variations between the two main critical manuscripts in the gospels alone. That is a massive amount. Moslem Koran apologists enjoy these critical text materials to attack the authority of the Bible. It is their favorite apologetic device, what I heard from every Moslem I confront at a door in evangelism.

There are 190 differences between Beza 1598 and Scrivener’s. Scrivener’s is essentially Beza 1598. Many of those variations are spelling, accents, and breathing marks. As a preemptive shot, I know that all those fit into an application of jots and tittles. We know that, but we also know where the text of the King James Version came from and we know that text was available for centuries. God preserved that text of the NT. Believers received it and used it.

Men Translated from Something

When you read John Owen, what Greek text was he reading? He had one. Ward says there wasn’t a text until Scrivener. Wrong. What text did John Gill use? What text did Jonathan Edwards use? They relied on an original language text. What text did John Flavel and Stephen Charnock use? They all used a Greek text of the New Testament.

16th through 19th century Bible preachers and scholars refer to their Greek New Testament. Matthew Henry when writing commentary on the New Testament refers to a printed Greek New Testament. He also writes concerning those leaving out 1 John 5:7: “Some may be so faulty, as I have an old printed Greek Testament so full of errata, that one would think no critic would establish a various lection thereupon.”

The Greek words of the New Testament were available. Saints believed they had them and they were the TR. This reverse engineering, accusation of Ruckmanism, is disinformation by Ward and others.

The Assessment of Scrivener and the Which TR Question

Ward uses the assessment of Scrivener and the preface of the KJV translators as support for continued changes of the Greek text. This is disingenuous. The translators did not argue anywhere in the preface for an update of the underlying text. They said the translation, not the text, could be updated. That argument does not fit in a session on the Greek text, except to fool the ignorant.

Just because Scrivener collated the Greek words behind the KJV doesn’t mean that he becomes the authority on the doctrine of preservation any more than the translators of the KJV. It grasps at straws. I haven’t heard Scrivener used as a source of support for the Textus Receptus any time ever. I don’t quote him. If there is a critique, it should be on whether Scrivener’s text does represent the underlying text of the KJV, and if it does, it serves its purpose.

I have written on the “Which TR question” already many times, the most used argument by those in the debate for the critical text. It’s also a reason why we didn’t answer that question in our book, Thou Shalt Keep Them. If we addressed it, that would have been all anyone talked about. We say, deal with the passages on preservation first. We get our position from scripture.

I digress for one moment. Ward talks and acts as if no one has heard, which TR, and no one has ever answered it. Not only has that question been answered many times, but Ward himself has been answered. He said only Peter Van Kleeck had answered, which he did with a paper available online. Vincent Krivda did also.

The position I and others take isn’t that God would preserve His Words in Scrivener’s. The position is that all the Words are preserved and available to every generation of Christian. That’s why we support the Textus Receptus.

Ward never explains why men point to Scrivener’s. I have answered that question many times, but he doesn’t state the answer. He stated only the position of Peter Van Kleeck, because he had a clever comeback concerning sanctification. But even that misrepresented what Van Kleeck wrote.

The position I take, which fits also the position of John Owen, I call the canonicity argument. I have a whole chapter in TSKT on that argument. I’ve written about it many times here, going back almost two decades.

If pinned to the wall, and I must answer which TR edition, I say Scrivener’s, but it doesn’t even relate to my belief on the doctrine. What I believe is that all of God’s Words in the language in which they were written have been available to every generation of believer. I don’t argue that they were all available in one manuscript (hand-written copy) that made its way down through history. The Bible doesn’t promise that.

Scriptural Presuppositions or Not?

The critical text position, that Ward takes, cannot be defended from scripture. The position that I take arises from what scripture teaches. It’s the same position as believed by the authors of the Westminster Confession, London Baptist Confession, and every other confession. That is accepted and promoted by those in his associations.

Ward doesn’t even believe the historical doctrine of preservation. Textual variations sunk that for him, much like it did Bart Ehrman. Ward changed his presupposition not based upon scripture, but based upon what he thought he could see. It isn’t by faith that he understands this issue.

Some news out of Ward’s speech is that he doesn’t believe that God preserved every word of the Bible. He says he believes the “preponderance of the manuscripts” view. I call it “the buried text view.” Supporters speculate the exact text exists somewhere, a major reason why Daniel Wallace continues looking. That is not preservation.

“The manuscripts” are an ambiguous, sort of chimera to their supporters. They don’t think they have them yet, so how could there be the preponderance of anything yet? That view, the one supported by two books by BJU authors, From the Mind of God to the Mind of Man and God’s Word in Our Hands, they themselves do not believe. Ward walked it back during his speech too. They don’t really believe it. It’s a hypothetical to them. Men of the two above books don’t believe at least that they possess the Hebrew words of 1 Samuel 13:1 in any existing manuscript. At present, like a Ruckmanite, they correct the Hebrew text with a Greek translation.

In the comment section of the above first video, Ward counsels someone in the comment section to use a modern translation from the TR, such the NKJV. The NKJV, Ward knows, doesn’t come from the TR. There are variations from the TR used in the NKJV, a concession that Ward made in a post in his comment section after being shown 20-25 examples. He wrote this:

First the concession: I am compelled to acknowledge that the NKJV does not use “*precisely* the same Greek New Testament” text as the one underlying the KJV NT.

He could not find 2 John 1:7 of the NKJV in any TR edition. Does it matter? It does, especially a translation that calls itself the NEW King James Version. The translators did not use the same text as the KJV used, however Ward wants to represent that. I would happily debate him on the subject. I’m sure Thomas Ross would.

Mark Ward has committed not to debate on the text behind the KJV. He is committed now to taking shots from afar, leaving the safe shores of vernacular translation to hit on the text. Even though he says the variations do not affect the message of the Bible, he continues to argue against the text behind the King James Version.

Yes and Then No, the Bible with Mark Ward (Part One)

November 28, 2021 / 12 Comments on Yes and Then No, the Bible with Mark Ward (Part One)

My last post of last week, the shell game with Bible words, if you followed the links, referred to a session Mark Ward did at Bob Jones Seminary, where he did refer to Thomas Ross and myself. Someone sent that to me, and in my path to watching it, I became curious in another of his videos. I’ll deal with both here. One I essentially agreed with, and the other, no.

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Chronologically, Mark Ward first made a podcast from his greenhouse about attending an IFB meeting close to where he lived. An IFB pastor invited him because R. B. Ouellette was going to preach on the King James issue. He didn’t say which church this was. It was surely revivalist in the Hyles/Sword realm. Ward started out ready to deal with KJVOnlyism, but it turned into something else. Here’s the podcast.

Ward traveled to a special meeting at a revivalist IFB church to interact with KJVO. Based upon a heads-up from its pastor, he expected something promoting KJVO. Ward reported much he liked about the service all the way up to the Ouellette sermon. Ouellette opened to Job 31:35-36 to defend KJVO. A plain reading of Job 31 does not appear to do that.

Ward and Ouellette both graduated from Bob Jones University. In his criticism, Ward distinguished between using the Bible for what a man wants to say and preaching what the Bible does say. By his account, Ouellette did the former. He was not a herald, who delivers the Word of the King. Ward titled his podcast, “The Biggest Step the IFB Needs to Take.” He treats IFB with generosity, more than what I would. Instead of the KJVO issue, he found a “preaching” one instead.

YES

Bad Preaching

I wrote, “Yes,” in this title. I agree with the criticism of this typical, popular IFB preaching. If IFB apparently cares for the perfection of its Bible, then preach the Bible. Its leaders very often preach like Ward described. He reported loud “Amens” shouted all around, which supported a message that twisted the Word of God. Ward exposed a reason for someone to separate from IFB churches and men. I say “Yes” to Ward. I agree with him.

What causes a man to preach like Ouellette? It’s not that he is unable to preach the Bible. Why would he settle for something entirely not what the passage says? Underlying doctrinal problems exist especially regarding the Holy Spirit. Keswick theology, second blessing theology, or revivalism, all similar error but with a nuance of difference, affect preaching.

Many IFB believe the preacher becomes a vessel for a message from the Holy Spirit. They believe that through the Holy Spirit God gives the preacher something others can’t even see in a text. This is called “preaching.” God uses “preaching,” but by that they don’t mean the Bible. The Bible is used, but the preaching is something unique. They trust the man of God has been given something they haven’t ever seen and can’t see.

However, I dispute preaching as the biggest step for IFB. It isn’t the “I” (independent) or the “B” (Baptist) in IFB that’s the problem. “F” for Fundamentalism is at the root of the problem. Actual preaching of the Bible isn’t a fundamental of fundamentalism. In general, IFB does not confront bad preaching. It allows it and even encourages it. If someone spiritualizes or allegorizes a passage and reads something into a text, it doesn’t bring condemnation. However, the biggest step for fundamentalism isn’t its preaching.

False Gospel

Fundamentalism is rife with a corrupted gospel. Ward commended the evangelism of IFB. What is the evangelism of IFB? Look all over the internet at the gospel presentations. Most IFB removes biblical repentance and the Lordship of Christ. Let’s say Ouellette rejected KJVO and started using the ESV, or even just the NKJV. Would he become acceptable to Ward, reaching his primary goal? Ouellette argues against repentance as necessary for salvation (I write here, here, and here). When you read doctrinal statements and the plans of salvation of those churches most associated with Ouellette, they’re the same.

A few years ago, James White participated in an interview with Steven Anderson. In White’s many criticisms of Anderson, he never mentions his false gospel. Anderson hosts an anti-repentance website. Anderson is worse than Ouellette, but both fall short of a biblical gospel. As White ignores Anderson’s gospel, Ward does Ouellette’s. This diverges from the often stated emphasis of evangelicals, the gospel of first importance. The version issue stokes greater heat than the gospel does.

Some IFB churches preach a true gospel even as some preach biblical sermons. Yet, a false gospel subverts IFB unrelated to the version of the Bible it uses. Years ago IFB allowed and even promoted the introduction and then acceptance of a false doctrine of salvation. I am happy Ward noticed the bad preaching of Ouellette, but his focus harms his ability to see the biggest IFB problem. Ward doesn’t mention the wrong gospel.

WHAT IS TRUTH