The Glorious Tischendorf Manuscripts Are "Parents Without Children" - Pickering

 

 Tischendorf

 Tischendorf's Aleph, the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet. 

The Calvinist Warfield broke the ice for modernism by affirming that the original texts of the Bible were inerrant. He influenced A. T. Robertson, who influenced Lenski in playing with the original Greek text. In the Age of Billy Graham, the same was stated by Graham himself - the originals (which are lost) are inerrant. That meant all the Hebrew and Greek texts of today are errant, not inerrant.

Wonders of wonders, the two books (codices) most famous are Codex Sinaiticus, dubbed Aleph to be first on the manuscript lists, and Codex Vaticanus, or B on the lists, only after A for Alexandrinus. Tischendorf made himself famous by promoting both Aleph and B.

 Westcott and Hort used their Greek New Testament stealthily to affect the KJV Revision.

Westcott and Hort jumped on the Tischendorf bandwagon with their Greek New Testament, which I bought for $5, and their influence on the 19th century revision of the King James Version, 1881. The initial failure to gain traction on their ideas was replaced decades later  with awe and respect for them.

The Westcott-Hort argument was simple - the oldest and best sources were to dominate the text, which meant Aleph and Vaticanus. However, that also meant the leading sources (Aleph and B) were "parents without children" - Pickering.

Pickering, my favorite author on the Greek New Testament, distilled the arguments into one phrase. If those two codices (bound books) were so great, why were they not copied as exemplars?

Using some common sense, there must be a reason why 90-95% of the witnesses are the Majority (Traditional, Byzantine, Ecclesiastical) Text, while the exceptions to this dominance are few and often unrelated to each other. Aleph and B disagree about 40%, so neither one is the parent or sibling of the other.

Many scholars concede that spurious copies of New Testament books came from the deliberate alterations of early heretics. That seems to have stopped around 200 AD as the known Majority Text established itself. 

Thanks to Alexander the Great, Greek was not only the international language three centuries before Jesus Christ, but also the most beautiful and expressive language of all. The Apostolic Church did not archive manuscripts of skin (parchment) and paper (papyrus) because that could not be done with constant copying and the effects of weather. Once a standard text was outside a useful life, it was burned to protect it from heretics, after a new template was copied to use for the paper versions. Skin was extremely expensive and paper was fragile, so parchment served for the example and paper served the expanding population of churches. The Apostolic Church did not save up money for five acres, a busy highway, and a WEF to get started. They began with the inerrant Word of God.

Because they depended on the Word of God, the early Christians did not consider the value of gimmicks, fads, and evasions. As the Church pushed forward into new lands, based on preaching and persecution, translations were useful and necessary. Those copies are available and show the Majority Text was the standard back to 200 AD.

So which is "earliest, best, and most accurate"? Aleph and B have to be considered very late, even though Tischendorf raved about them. The highly promoted stars disagree with each other, but are "the best and most accurate"? Let us pause for some pious laughter. 

In comparison, the Majority Text has to be the earliest and best because the papyrus discoveries after the 19th century reveal the affinity between them and the KJV text. As the Church expanded into many areas and languages, the Bible was translated accordingly. The Majority text is the example, not the childless Aleph and B.

That is why I have little use for the New KJV. First of all, the New KJV honors the changes made by the rationalist text critics, using footnotes for NU - Nestle Aland United Bible Society. Secondly,  the New KJV changes its own wording, willy-nilly, proving their great breakthrough in the English language is only good for a few years at a time.

 WELS-LCMS-ELCA leaders love every Bible translation but their own - the English version of Luther's Bible - the KJV. They do not like sacramental language but adore "making disciples." They see the Calvinism of the modern rationalist paraphrases and hold fast to the latest and worst Bibles. They start up cell groups with eyes bulging with Enthusiasm. 

LCMS-WELS: Feet of Clay and Lying LIps. Enlarged from Last Night

Readers get me into new areas or authors. No one has done more about great books than Alec Satin. 

One person got me involved in the great pipe organs of America, and I have a beautiful photo book of the largest one.

Another got me involved in Wilbur N. Pickering on the Greek New Testament text, and I thought I had a good library of books on that topic.

I wrote about this before, but I think the following example from Pickering, with help from Gateway (the NIV in disguise) fixes in concrete the collapse of Biblical knowledge among the modernists. I do mean LCMS and WELS, not much different from ELCA.

It is impossible to unload all the ammunition against the modernists and their hatred of the KJV, so I am offering one example that squashes the pretensions. Remember this haughty statement, "I don't use the NIV," (nose in the air) "I use the ESV." The ELDONUTs use that bait and switch routine. They don't use the worst of the bad translation but the rest of the translations are up for grabs, another adiaphoron in an archdiocese where the most important norms are the bishop's regalia, fish hat, stick, cope. chasuble, and patent leather sandals. I admired Pope John Paul II, who wore white tennis shoes with golden shoelaces. Nothing says "gone on himself" better than that.

Back to the topic. I Timothy 3:16 is extremely important, because it is either a creed or hymn or confession - or all three. And, the Objective Justification fanatics use it to say the entire world was resolved the moment Jesus rose from the dead. They combine 1 Timothy 3:16 with Romans 4:25 (but never quote Romans 4:24).

KJV 1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the [i]mystery of godliness:

God was manifested in the flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among the Gentiles,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory.

The is the Apostle Paul writing and it is a concise, poetic, confession of faith in Jesus as God.

I am getting closer to the thesis now. The overwhelming majority of all manuscripts have God instead of a word that seems to be the relative pronoun "who" if the inner "h" fades away or is rubbed away by use.

 Theos is the Greek word for God, but if the inner H is left out or fades or is rubbed away from the first letter by use, the word becomes "who" - which then is translated as He. 

NIV - Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory. [Which yahoos picked "vindicated" for justified? The same morons making money and getting free trips for their treachery.]

ESV - Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

KJV - And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

New KJV - And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory. Footnote for God - from Nestle Aland - 

1. 1 Timothy 3:16 NU Who, not God - NU meaning Nestle Aland United with Catholics Bible Society

The Bible Gateway (NIV, ESV, NKJV!) footnotes are a way of saying, "You do not have to accept the KJV version of this passage."

Stephanus or Byzantine - 16 και ομολογουμενως μεγα εστιν το της ευσεβειας μυστηριον θεος εφανερωθη εν σαρκι εδικαιωθη εν πνευματι ωφθη αγγελοις εκηρυχθη εν εθνεσιν επιστευθη εν κοσμω ανεληφθη εν δοξη

Part II, The Explanation

The Modernists, who deny Jesus is the Son of God, have seized upon this reading to confirm their denial of His Divnity. They have included just enough to let any apostate pivot and say, "But they capitalized the h in He. They used these words to keep the reading clear and uncomplicated." 

Those who use the New KJV, ESV, and NIV are financing the Road to Hell with their intentions. If the LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC-ELDONUT clergy spent as much time with Greek in seminary as they did in the tavens, they would know this. They would fight like Trojans to keep the Biblical witness free of Unitarian, rationalistic nonsense.