I have been reading books by David W. Daniels, who simplifies the long and complicated history of the Bible this way - Catholic Bible versus the real Bible. I will condense it.
The first instance is the promotion of Jerome's Vulgate as the first Latin Bible. That is not true. The first Latin Bible is called the Old Latin - and they differ.
As you may know, Lutherans have been promoting the Church Fathers for a long time. The LCA/ELCA began marking the saints days, and Paul McCain posted "his" bios of various early fathers, which matched The Catholic Encyclopedia verbatim (except the source). Cascione's LutherQuest happily linked those posts without checking the source.
The LCMS has a big contingent of Rome wannabees among the pastors and professors. One can see that in the ELS (Webber) and ELDONA (all their priests, deacons, and incense salesmen).
One reason the LCMS seminaries turn out Catholic and Eastern Orthodox priests is their gushing about everything high church, the fancy clothing, and the saints/patriarchs. The first and only court pastor at the Purple Palace was Missouri pastor obsessed with Mary.
The Vatican's treatment of the Bible has not been kind or honest. Rome has always promoted the Apocrypha, and Rome-pleasing Protestants try to make those uninspiring books crucial for study. ELDONA has its own professor of the Apocrypha.
Erasmus did his Church dirty by using the Majority or Byzantine text. Thus the Reformation was founded on the original Greek New Testament. The rabbis did not play games with the Hebrew Old Testament.
The Vatican had to have its own Bible and Apocrypha and finally countered with the Douai-Rheims version. The most basic division between Catholics and Protestants has been the papal Bible versus the genuine text.
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| Aleph |
Tischendorf began the Protestant adoption of the Catholic Bible with his phony discovery of Sinaiticus. The various versions of that story reek of deception and self-promotion. For instance, Tischendorf found this magic codex being 1) burnt to warm the monastery library, or 2) dumped in the trash. Leather does not burn well and monk librarians do not throw away unique books. Call this Codex Sinaiticus or Aleph or use the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet (which is Alelph).
Tischendorf also "found" Vaticanus, which is designated B. How clever - the "most important ones" are Aleph and B. I feel a vision coming on - a vision where all the "errors" of the Majority Text are fixed by Aleph and Vaticanus.
That is what happened, starting with failed the Revision of the KJV in 1881. Westcott and Hort secretly imposed their Greek New Testament text - based on Aleph and B - on the translators/editors. The Revision was a failure and the phony Greek text rejected by most scholars at the time. But the next generation of text scholars embraced the hubris of Westcott-Hort and made that Catholic version the Standard Text. Note that Hort favored a Mary religion over a Jesus religion and loathed the Majority Text. Westcott-Hort rejected the 5,000 Majority Text examples over five forgotten ones.
I can vouch for the theory that heresy is more often found when false teachers erase than when they add. The common plea is that Westcott-Hort, both unbelievers, had good reason to erase so many passages from the Greek text.
I have had that experience in the LCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-ELDONUT-CLC (sic). All of them reject my publications based on Biblical Lutheran doctrine.
- WELS-ELS sold Liberalism, Its Cause and Cure in three editions but hastened to remove it from their list. (Ask Valleskey, who never went to Fuller Seminary, about that.)
- WELS accepted and then rejected Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant for publication. Those who wanted it published distributed it via NPH, which probably made heads roll.
- As an independent, I published Thy Strong Word, which LutherQuest (sic) ridiculed and Logia refused to advertise (using my money).
- ELDONUTs sold copies of Thy Strong Word but later were so hateful at a conference that free copies of my books were ordered to be taken out of sight.
- The so-called free and open Emmaus Conferences banned my materials which were brought there for free.
- The Church of the Lutheran Confession (pause for laughter about the ironic title) went nuts over anything I did, even though I published a series of articles in their little magazine. Both Tiefels (James and Paul), David Menton, Steve Kurtzahn, and various other opponents of the Lutheran Reformation did their best to silence my writings and motivate me to do more.
- Herman Otten banned everything I wrote, after selling plenty of my books, and blocked anything good written about my works, no matter who wrote it.
- Cub editor of Christian News, Philip Hale gets free review copies of my books, but he does not even acknowledge they exist.
- I could go back to the LCA, when they published a cover story on Luther that I wrote. My mother provided a cover photo for another issue. Soon, nobody LCA wanted to hear from me. They were off to Lala land.
I wrote that personal history of erasing, shunning, and silencing so people can see the impact of that attitude in dealing with the Greek New Testament. Here is your exercise.
Look up Acts 8:36-7 in the KJV.
KJV Acts 8:36 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?
37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Clearly, verse 37 answers the question. But we know from Catholicism and false teachers that faith in Jesus Christ is not really important. Their dogma is, but faith in the Savior is not.
Using Biblegateway.com (owned by NIV), look at the versions that do not include verse 37 or dump it into a footnote, which means - we do not believe this belongs.
Results -
ESV - NO RESULTS FOUND - verse 8:37.
And Philip said, “If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
[Philip said to him, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he replied, “I do believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”]
And Philip said, If you believe with all your heart [if you have a conviction, full of joyful trust, that Jesus is the Messiah and accept Him as the Author of your salvation in the kingdom of God, giving Him your obedience, then] you may. And he replied, I do believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
As they were going along the road, they came to a place where there was some water. The official said, “Look! Here is some water. Why can’t I be baptized?”
And Philip said: If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest. And he answering, said: I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
| Philip answered, “If you believe with all your heart, you can.” The officer said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”|
And Philip said unto him, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. Then he answered, and said, I believe that that Jesus Christ is that Son of God.
[ And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”]
[Philip answered, “If you believe with all your heart, you can.” The officer said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”]
And Philip said, If thou dost believe with all thine heart, thou may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
“You can,” Philip answered, “if you believe with all your heart.” And the eunuch replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
As they continued down the road, they came to a stream of water. The eunuch said, “Here’s water. Why can’t I be baptized?” He ordered the chariot to stop. They both went down to the water, and Philip baptized him on the spot. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of God suddenly took Philip off, and that was the last the eunuch saw of him. But he didn’t mind. He had what he’d come for and went on down the road as happy as he could be.
Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” He answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
[And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”]
And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” The eunuch said in reply, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”]
[ Philip answered, “If you believe with all your heart, you can.” The officer said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”]
As they traveled along the road, they came to some water. The official said, “Look! Here is water! What can stop me from being baptized?”
Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
(*Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” The man said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”)
Philip said to him, If you believe with all your heart, you may be. He answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
[And Philippos said, “If you have emunah b’chol levavcha, it is mutar. And he answered, saying, Ani ma’amin ki Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua Ben HaElohim hu.]
Philip replied, “If you believe with all your heart, I’ll baptize you.” The man answered, “I believe that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Son of God.”
And Philip said to him, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” Then he answered, and said, “I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
Philip: [ If you believe in your heart that Jesus the Anointed is God’s Son, then nothing can stop you. The Ethiopian said that he believed.]
Philip answered, `If you believe with all your heart, you may be baptised.' The man said, `I do believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.'
And Philip said, If thou believest of all thine heart, it is leaveful. And he answered, and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
[And Philip said, `If thou dost believe out of all the heart, it is lawful;' and he answering said, `I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God;']
