Chapter 2

The Greek N.T. Text

      In the 1^st and 2^nd centuries A.D., after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, there were many copies of the Originals of the Greek N.T. books. There was not a printing press at this time in history, so exact copies were by hand, compared to the Original, and then distributed to the various churches. These copies of the Originals became known as the Antioch Manuscripts, then later as the Textus Receptus. Since many of the Jewish people at this time in history were living in surrounding countries with different native languages (Acts 2:5-11), the Originals were translated into their native languages as well. These are now referred to as the Ancient Versions. The Originals, it is known, lasted at least into the 3^rd Century A.D.

      Tertullian (160 - 225 A.D.) makes reference to the Apostles’ Autographs - Originals - as being extant in his day. In his work entitled ‘On Persecution Against Heretics’, back in the year 208 A.D. it states, "…the very thrones of the Apostles are still pre-eminent in their places, in which their own authentic writings are read, uttering the voice and representing the face of each of them severally."

      Then a 2^nd set of manuscripts came along. These manuscripts were corrupt having many changes and omissions to them. These are known as the Alexandrian Manuscripts. They came out in the 3^rd Century A.D. and were made by a man named Origen Adamantius.

      Origen (185-254 A.D.) was the President of a group of teachers at the School of Philo located in Alexandria, Egypt. He believed all worldly wisdom and intelligence came from God. His preference was for Greek philosophy including Gnosticism, Platonism and Mysticism. He believed these were all of God. So when he was presented with a set of the Antioch Manuscripts - he re-wrote them - also in Greek. Origen went about blending the Antioch Text with his own pagan philosophies - in the mistaken belief he was correcting them - to come up with the Alexandrian Text.

      One of Origen’s beliefs which he incorporated into his text was, the Logos Doctrine. In Greek philosophy, Logos was the name of rational world order and a divine principle of creation. In Origen’s mind Jesus was the personification of the Logos (created by God) to bring reason to the world. He believed Jesus was not God but a created being. [This ideology created the foundation for 4^th Century Arian Doctrine, which is the foundation Charles Russell developed into the Jehovah’s Witnesses.]

      These are some of Origen’s other beliefs as pertaining to the Scriptures; he denied a literal hell, and that the Holy Spirit, like Jesus Christ, was created and did not eternally exist as God. He did not believe most of the Genesis account. He taught that the stars have souls and are rational beings, that Satan and infact all beings would eventually be saved, including the stars. As well, he also taught such errors as purgatory and transubstantiation. Origen once wrote, "The scriptures are of little use to those who understand them as they were written."²

      But when he castrated himself, he was terminated from the School of Philo. Castration was the ancient sacrifice expected of the priests of the Great Mother (Gaea presently called Gaia) in Greece. So he then migrated to Caesarea and began his own catechetical, theological School.

      Back to Alexandria, Egypt for a moment. Biblical typology consistently presents Egypt as a type of the world or worldliness - paganism. Also the first mention of Alexandrians to appear in Scripture is to instigate the stoning of Stephen (Acts 6:9). But, according to what is taught in many bible colleges today, they claim it was in this same city of Alexandria that Egyptian scholars preserved the New Testament Greek Text. And you thought mummies were all they preserved in Egypt.

      Now onto the 4^th Century and Constantine.

      Constantine (280? - 337 A.D.) when he became Emperor of Rome, he endeavored to form a union between Christianity and Paganism. So since Origen had ‘successfully’ blended Christianity with pagan philosophy in text; Constantine commissioned Eusebius - his buddy in this scheme, who was a great admirer of Origen - to prepare 50 bibles based upon Origen’s Alexandrian Manuscript. These were for use in the Roman Churches. Thus began the Roman Church. Then a century or so later humanity plunged into the Dark Ages and the Inquisition. Some call this time period, the Millennial Reign of Satan. An excellent book to read about this time period would be, ‘Fox’s Book of Martyrs’ by John Fox.

      For background; Origen’s favorite student was Pamphilus. He became President of Origen’s School in Caesarea when Origen died. Then Eusebius became President when Pamphilus died. Eusebius prophesied that, "Constantine and Christ would reign together throughout eternity".³

      Then Jerome (340 - 420 A.D.) decided to make a new translation into Latin from Origen’s Alexandrian corruption. It was named the Latin Vulgate. The Old Latin N.T. - one of the Ancient Versions - was a translation from the Antioch Manuscript. The Latin Vulgate was made the official bible of the Roman Catholic Church by the Counsel of Trent in 1546.

      After the approximately 1,000 years, in the 15^th Century, the Reformation began. As God’s word began to be translated and taken to the people, ’underground’ so to speak. For the Bible was a forbidden book, punishable by death. Then came the printing press and revival began to spread. So, after the Authorized Version (KJV) came off the presses at the beginning of the 17^th century, revival went worldwide. Then for the next 300 years, men of God with the power of the Holy Spirit within them, led untold thousands upon thousands to the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

      So what’s a Devil to do!?!…, he came up with a plan. In the 1850’s Westcott and Hort began preparing their corrupted Revised Greek Text based on Alexandrian manuscripts. And a man named Charlie Darwin published his book, ‘The Origin Of Species’. The world was being offered new "science" with a new set of scriptures. Both intended to get people to doubt God.

      I Tim. 6:20-21 AV "…avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith…" Somehow centuries before, God knew this Evolution thing was coming to pass.

      There also came new religions with the likes of Ellen White -7^th Day Adventists, Mary Baker Eddy -Christian Science, and Charles Russell -Jehovah’s Witnesses. And Brigham Young revived a fledging one -Mormonism.

      But let us hone in on the N.T. Greek Text and 2-men named Brooke Westcott and Fenton Hort. Up till this time in history there were basically 2-Greek manuscripts. The Antioch line of manuscripts, herein after referred to as the Textus Receptus. And the Alexandrian line of manuscripts, which were the corrupted ones.

      God-fearing leaders of the churches had consistently rejected the Alexandrian line. For almost 1,800 years the Textus Receptus was the accepted Greek Text down through the corridor of history. As of 1967-of the 5,255 extant Greek manuscripts known to exist, 5,210 agree with the Textus Receptus: that’s 99%. The other -45- or 1% are of corrupted variations. Then there are the Ancient Versions, which were translations from the Greek Originals into other languages (Acts 2:5-11) during the first -3- centuries. They also mostly agree with the Textus Receptus.

      Of the 50- bibles referred to earlier, that Constantine had Eusebius put together back in the 4^th Century of Origen’s Alexandrian Text, two are believed to exist today. They are known as Vaticanus and Sinaiticus.

     Now when modern scholars refer as they do, in footnotes and/or other places, including other books and magazines to; "the most ancient manuscripts", "the most reliable manuscripts", "the most reliable early manuscripts", "the earliest and most reliable manuscripts", and here’s my favorite, "many early manuscripts": they are most of the time referring to these -2- manuscripts: Vaticanus and Sinaiticus.

     For example; at Mark 16:9 in modern versions you will find them stating ["Many", "Best" or "Most" reliable early manuscripts do not have Mark 16:9-20]. Well the truth of the matter is that of the 620 existing manuscripts containing Mark chapter 16, there are 618, which contain these verses. Only -2- do not contain them, Vaticanus and Sinaiticus. Also these -2- manuscripts differ from each other in 3,036 places, just in the 4-gospels alone. How‘s that for "reliable". It would seem Eusebius did not put together a good crew of copyists. It also shows that the modern revisers and editors are lying.

     So this takes us to 1853 when Dr. Westcott and Dr. Hort decided there needed to be a re-construction of the Greek Text. Their stated reason for this re-construction was; "we are constrained by overwhelming evidence to recognize the existence of textural error in all extant (manuscript) documents."⁴     Here the "good doctors" flatter themselves by claiming God could not keep His word to preserve His Words. But that by their own professional opinions, they can put it all back together for him. Great guys, that Westcott and Hort!

     At any rate, here we have Westcott and Hort rejecting the Textus Receptus, which had been the accepted Greek Text to that time in history, for the Alexandrian corruptions. They completed their project in 1871. So after all their word changes, omissions and additions; their text was altered from the Textus Receptus in approximately 5,337 instances.⁶ From Origen to Constantine to Westcott and Hort, like a product through an assembly line, a new set of Greek scriptures had been developed!

     Let us take a brief look at Drs. Westcott and Hort. Both men wrote books and many letters (no telephone or e-mail). Each had a son named Arthur, who wrote a 900+ page biography about them, utilizing the books, letters and assorted papers they wrote. Both biographies plainly show by several references that each made sure that Plato, Origen and Aristotle were the central points of their reading schedule. Arthur Westcott states:

Dr. Brooke Westcott himself wrote in a letter to Dr. Hort, "I reject the word infallibility - of Holy Scripture overwhelmingly."⁵

     Dr. Fenton Hort, a dabbler in the occult, founded the Ghostly Guild Society for the classification of ghosts and psychic phenomena. This was during the same time he was coming up with his Revised Greek Text. Dr. Hort also wrote that the doctrine of Evangelicals was, "…perverted, rather than untrue."⁴

     I Timothy 4:1

     Deception seemed to be a motive for the re-constructed Greek Text.

     Dr. Hort wrote in November 1853, a letter to a Rev. Gerald Blunt, stating:

     Then in a letter to a colleague, Dr. Hort cautioned:

     Reasoning in a letter to Dr. Westcott in 1861, Dr. Hort writes:

     II Tim. 3:13 AV

     In further correspondence to Dr. Westcott, Dr. Hort wrote:

     Both men were firm believers in the basics of Plato’s Republic and praised the writings of Darwin.

     Then this dynamic duo -after completing their Revised Greek Text in 1871- headed up the ‘translation’ committee that produced the Revised English Version in 1881, which came to the United States of America in 1901 as the American Standard Version, you know it as the ASV. Recently the ASV has been revamped and is now known as the New American Standard Version or NASV or NASB for short.

     Moving on to the present day. Eberhard Nestle (1851-1913) decided that the Westcott and Hort Revised Greek Text needed a revision. So from 1898 came Nestle’s Greek Text, 1^st edition. Then his son, Ervin Nestle and Kurt Aland decided further revisions needed to be done. So by 1979 you have the Nestle/Aland Greek Text, 26^th edition. That is 26 editions in 81 years, which averages a new edition every 3.1 years. By this 26^th edition they had made 5,604 alterations from the Textus Receptus.⁷ Therefore it is obvious that these men who continually change the Greek text do not really believe on the true God of the Bible. Especially when it is realized that what they are doing is moving it toward acceptability with New Age philosophies and cult religions. Their point seems to be; if you don’t like or want to believe what God stated in the Authorized Version (KJV) or the Textus Receptus, just come up with your own English version. Then go back and change the Greek -or in the O.T. the Hebrew- so you can "prove" yours is a more accurate translation.

     That was a brief look at the history of the N.T. Greek Text; now let us take a quick look at the Hebrew O.T. text.