Isaiah 40: 21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
24 Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
25 To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.
27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?
28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Changing Gospel in a Changeless World":
Dr. Jackson,
Any thoughts on Concordia's new "Lutheran Study Bible"? They are promoting it as the first Lutheran only study Bible, but they also use the term "pan-Lutheran", which makes me nervous. I'm unfamiliar with the ESV translation that this study Bible uses.
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John has left a new comment on your post "A Changing Gospel in a Changeless World":
Dr. Jackson,
You mention KJV, NIV, Beck and ESV.
How do you feel about the New King James Version?
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GJ - Pardon my summary judgment, but I put all translations into two families - King James and Other. I believe the ESV is a version of the RSV, the first translation to remove the Virgin Birth from Isaiah 7.
The original King James is a version of the Tyndale, who was burned for his trouble. Faithfulness to the Word is always accompanied by the cross, while apostasy is rewarded with money and worldly honors. Ask Church and Change if this is not true.
William Tyndale
William Tyndale was the Captain of the Army of Reformers, and was their spiritual leader. Tyndale holds the distinction of being the first man to ever print the New Testament in the English language. Tyndale was a true scholar and a genius, so fluent in eight languages that it was said one would think any one of them to be his native tongue. He is frequently referred to as the “Architect of the English Language”, (even more so than William Shakespeare) as so many of the phrases Tyndale coined are still in our language today.
William Tyndale (1494-1536) Biblical translator and martyr; born most probably at North Nibley (15 miles south-west of Gloucester), England, in 1494; died at Vilvoorden (6 miles north-east of Brussels), Belgium, Oct. 6, 1536. Tyndale was descended from an ancient Northumbrian family, went to school at Oxford, and afterward to Magdalen Hall and Cambridge.
William Tyndale Overview
Tyndale was a theologian and scholar who translated the Bible into an early form of Modern English. He was the first person to take advantage of Gutenberg’s movable-type press for the purpose of printing the scriptures in the English language. Besides translating the Bible, Tyndale also held and published views which were considered heretical, first by the Catholic Church, and later by the Church of England which was established by Henry VIII. His Bible translation also included notes and commentary promoting these views. Tyndale's translation was banned by the authorities, and Tyndale himself was burned at the stake in 1536, at the instigation of agents of Henry VIII and the Anglican Church.
The Early Years of William Tyndale
Tyndale enrolled at Oxford in 1505, and grew up at the University. He received his Master’s Degree in 1515 at the age of twenty-one! He proved to be a gifted linguist. One of Tyndale’s associates commented that Tyndale was “so skilled in eight languages – Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, English, and German, that whichever he speaks, you might think it his native tongue!” This gift undoubtedly aided him in his successful evasion of the authorities during his years of exile from England.
Early Controversy Surrounding Tyndale
Around 1520, William Tyndale became a tutor in the family of Sir John Walsh, at Little Sodbury in Gloucestershire. Having become attached to the doctrines of the Reformation, and devoted himself to the study of the Scriptures, the open avowal of his sentiments in the house of Walsh, his disputes with Roman Catholic dignitaries there, and especially his preaching, excited much opposition, and led to his removal to London (about Oct., 1523), where he began to preach, and made many friends among the laity, but none among church leaders.
A clergyman hopelessly entrenched in Roman Catholic dogma once taunted Tyndale with the statement, “We are better to be without God’s laws than the Pope’s”. Tyndale was infuriated by such Roman Catholic heresies, and he replied, “I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause the boy that drives the plow to know more of the scriptures than you!”
William Tyndale First Prints The Scripture in English
He was hospitably entertained at the house of Sir Humphrey Monmouth, and also financially aided by him and others in the accomplishment of his purpose to translate the Scriptures into the commonly spoken English of the day. Unable to do so in England, he set out for the continent (about May, 1524), and appears to have visited Hamburg and Wittenberg. The place where he translated the New Testament, is thought to have been Wittenberg, under the aid of Martin Luther. The printing of this English New Testament in quarto was begun at Cologne in the summer of 1525, and completed at Worms, and that there was likewise printed an octavo edition, both before the end of that year. William Tyndale’s Biblical translations appeared in the following order: New Testament, 1525-26; Pentateuch, 1530; Jonah, 1531.
His literary activity during that interval was extraordinary. When he left England, his knowledge of Hebrew, if he had any, was of the most rudimentary nature; and yet he mastered that difficult tongue so as to produce from the original an admirable translation of the entire Pentateuch, the Books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, First Chronicles, contained in Matthew's Bible of 1537, and of the Book of Jonah, so excellent, indeed, that his work is not only the basis of those portions of the Authorized King James Version of 1611, but constitutes nine-tenths of that translation, and very largely that of the English Revised Version of 1885.
So the KVJ is really an official version of the Tyndale, and Tyndale is directly linked to Luther himself.
The KJV we use today is an updated version of the original, so there is no sin in updating it again. However, the non-Lutherans love the KJV and they produce all the updated KJVs, such as the New KJV, KJV II, etc. Those variations have adopted the Reformed elimination of the Sacraments and change "teach all nations" into "make disciples." As one Lutheran observed, "They know their market."
People tolerate the sacraments in the old KJV but the same wording disappears in the newer versions. "Baptism now saves you" - that has to go. "Communion with the body of Christ" - vanished.
If someone has not grown up with the old KJV and does not know German, the New KJV is a good solution. I have yet to see any other modern effort better than the New KJV.
I know the old KJV has readings that would simply baffle any younger reader, but so does Shakespeare. Anyone can compare the New KJV to the older one to see what some peculiar wordings actually mean.
After we confess all the supposed faults of the old KJV, can anyone read the above passage from Isaiah and not get goosebumps?
Paul McCain, colporteur of the LCMS, may hype their newest product, but I am reminded of the Concordia One Volume Commentary, based on the wretched NIV. The book denied key Messianic passages in the Psalms. One of the key editors bragged afterward that upon retiring from Concordia Seminary as a professor, he could say anything he wanted. He denied Luther's justification by faith in favor of some Romanizing version. That was Robert Hoerber.
McCain and Barry were key players in allowing the Church Shrinkage Movement to take over the LCMS, while posing as conservatives. They also did nothing about LCMS Pentecostalism and Benke's pan-religious unionism.
McCain now has a grand total of three years as a parish pastor, most of the time spent campaigning for Al Barry, conniving with Herman Otten while denying and bragging about it. Schlepping books is not a divine call.
Sure, I would buy any book McCain recommends! After I win the lottery, and I never play the lottery.
Not getting behind a new Lutheran KJV was a disaster for WELS, Missouri, and the ELS. Not backing the New KJV (lazy, cheap alternative for synod executives) was another major mistake.
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RSV Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
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GJ - It is worth noting that all new versions feel free to change their publications willy-nilly. I was reading the NKJV at one service in Nicollet and again in New Ulm. I was startled by a word change. Imagination? Too much coffee? Not enough? I checked the next week. The two NKJVs disagreed. The NIV has been all over the place with its trendier versions. Willow Creek demanded a feminist version and would not order Bibles unless the Word of God agreed with Hybels - typical Church Growth thinking.
Another value of the KJV was its consistency from one generation to the next, making memorization relatively easy. How does one memorize a version where changes are made annually?
I wrote in another post that most--if not all--new versions accept the fantasy textual criticism started by Wescott-Hort and carried on by new generations of theological fiction writers. They expel the Byzantine tradition (Greek Christian Empire for 1100 years) because there are so many Byzantine manuscripts. They slobber on Vaticanus and Sinaiticus because one man fortuitously (?) found them and made his reputation with them, even though no one really knows the origin of either one. And to top it off - these two great, perfect, best manuscripts do not agree with each other.
Where did lack of trust in the revealed Word of God start? Wescott and Hort. Let me know if a modern version (apart from the KJV family) disavows the snip and clip of the modernists. For verification, look at the footnotes in the NIV, including the ending of Mark.
