Translations

Dear Christian,

This page is written in the hope that the Lord will graciously open your eyes to the truth that He has sovereignly preserved His word.

"Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." - Proverbs 30:5-6

The Lord has given us many warnings not to add to or take away from His word:

"For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." - Revelation 22:18-19

"Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you." - Deuteronomy 4:2

Despite these warnings, if you make a comparison between the great Reformation Bibles (such as Tyndale's translation, the Lutheran Bible, the Geneva Bible and the Authorized Version) and many modern Bibles, you will see that there is a lot missing from these modern Bibles. Either, men added to God's word to make the great Reformation Bibles or men took away from God's word to make these modern Bibles and, given the severe warnings in God's word, every born-again Christian needs to look into this issue and prayerfully seek the Lord for direction.

Modern Bibles often have footnotes that claim something like "older and more accurate manuscripts say this or that or exclude this or that" without telling you anything about these so-called "older and better" manuscripts. The truth is that these manuscripts are very old, but are also corrupt. There are two upon which modern Bibles lean very heavily - they are Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus. They disagree with each other in a few thousand places and disagree with the Received Text (representing the majority of Greek manuscripts) in several thousand places. Additionally, Sinaiticus was hidden away for around 1500 years and Vaticanus was hidden away for around 1000 years, whereas the Received Text has been with the church throughout the ages. The Received Text was received by one generation of Christians from the previous - faithfully preserved and reproduced for hundreds of years. Since God has promised to preserve His word forever (Isaiah 40:8), which then is the preserved word of God?

If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you owe it to yourself (and to those you lead) to make sure you are using God's sovereignly preserved word.

If you are entrusted by the Lord to make a translation of His word into a new language then, for the sake of the Lord's sheep in the receptor people-group, please make sure that you use the Ben Chayim Hebrew Masoretic Text and the Textus Receptus as the basis for your translation. You can get a copy of the Ben Chayim Hebrew Masoretic Text and the Textus Receptus from the Trinitarian Bible Society. They also sell other Bibles that are translations of these texts.

Below are some links on the preservation of God's word:

New Testament Translation Preface by Tim Warner

The Greek New Testament

Biblical Text Preservation Chart

John William Burgon Institute for Study of Ancient Manuscripts, Texts and Papyri