BIBLE HISTORY
Christians Took
Scrolls Into
The Province today publishes the second in a series of three articles by Rev. Mark Buch, pastor of the People’s Fellowship Tabernacle, on his opinions as to the true origin of the Bible.
By Mark Buch
Have we today a perfect copy of God’s Word and where is it to be found? This question is constantly being asked. The loud differences in our Bibles are ample proof that they cannot all have been written by one perfect God, for God does not contradict Himself.
To grant the original manuscripts were the perfect, inspired Word of God two or three thousand years ago, is small comfort to man today, for it is common knowledge that they are lost. The big question to us then is not, “Did God inspire the original manuscripts?” We know He did but has God preserved that perfect revelation through time in copying and translation? Again and again the Word itself emphatically stated He has. (1 Peter 1:25) “The Word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”
The miracle of the preservation of the Old Testament and its copies through times’ vicissitudes is made simple by the miracle of the Hebrew people. Their devotion and reverence of the Word of God surpasses all comparison. In making copies of the Hebrew manuscripts, not only words but even the letters were counted and the number of times each particular letter occurred was recorded. No corrections were allowed. If a mistake of even one letter was found the whole sheet was destroyed. When a manuscript was worn out and a perfect copy made, the old one was reverently buried in a Jewish cemetery. The very passing away of these originals proves they were not essential to the preservation of God’s Word, or God would not have allowed them to perish!
The New Testament
We now pass to the preservation of the Greek text that is the New Testament. Said the apostle through the inspiration of the Spirit of God (1Thess. 2:13) “When ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the Word of God.”
We immediately as the pertinent question: “What text did the true church embrace through the Dark Ages?” Surely anyone sincerely searching for the true Word of God would not go to the persecutors of Christianity or to the apostate and sworn enemies of the pure Bible.
Common sense, let alone spiritual guidance, would seek and expect to find the precious Scriptures enshrined and guarded among God’s people who were loyal and obedient to the Book and its message the Gospel of Grace, even unto death.
In The
These groups of Christians, faithful to the apostolic teachings, were driven by persecution to hide for safety in valleys and mountain recesses in
The manuscripts are further aglow with the romance of divine preservation in copying. Desiderious Erasmus, know as Europe’s leading Greek scholar, journeyed to
Second Publisher
The second publisher is known as Stephanus. He based his work upon that of Erasmus.
The work of Stephanus became know as Textus Receptus, the received text. This text was the basis of the Authorized Version.
I have now brought you along the path of pure Scriptures to the era of the translation commonly known as the Authorized Version is the oldest and purest in the world. It springs from a line and history altogether different from the spurious line, such as the Revised Standard Version.
Article from
“In Defence of the Authorized Version”
~~ One Pastor’s
Mark Buch
This is two of four; each one first appeared in the
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