This article is concentrating on Bible translation accuracy, every passage should be studied, and I recommend the International Standard Version Bible Encyclopedia Online as one of the best resources I have found in decades of study: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE) Online . There are others but some favor denominational and dogmatic teachings over accuracy and truth so the above is my recommendation. You need to be aware that some pastors virulently defend their denominations dogma and will quite possibly attack you if you raise any questions that seem to question their faith. Similarly, some faithful seem to be so insecure in their faith that they will attack anyone who has questions. If you encounter these people please move on and don’t argue with them. You don’t want to be responsible for causing someone who desperately needs their faith to lose it, the best we can do is to pray for them and hope that their error doesn’t separate them from the Living God. In the end it is not so much what we believe but that we walk with God and serve the Lord in all that we do and say that determines whether we go to heaven. But it is not our deeds but our faith that saves us and grants us the key to eternal life. Every thought and every action however will either bring us closer to God or moves us one step farther away from communion with the Eternal One.
Every denomination has Bible’s that their own experts prefer. These Bibles have been translated in a way that supports the denomination’s belief structure and their church dogma. If you have a Bible that you have been raised with and that brings you great comfort you should stick with that. If your faith is weak, or new, and you feel threatened by new ideas I encourage you to stay with your denominational sources and steer clear of my page. I do not seek to cause anyone whose belief is fragile to stumble.
As a servant of the Living God I come in the footsteps of God to do the work of the Divine One. As one religious scholar said, the duty of the Christian is to do what Jesus did which was to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.
If you have been comfortable in your religion but have become unsettled because you fear you may be comfortable in error or simply have question with what you have been taught, then I welcome you. I encourage you to not jump to the idea “I have been lied to” and to consider they may have done the best that they could with what their own understanding of the faith.
I have come to believe that there are many very good “starter religions” that are fine for those who are just starting out or that are new in the faith but their narrow belief system and antipathy to questions or serious inquiry stifles growth and causes many to fall away. Conversely, there are faiths which have so many questions sometimes they don’t seem to actually believe in anything and are afraid to actually call upon a potential believer to make a decision for God. The modern United Methodist Church falls in this category since, although they have a set of beliefs that form their base, the majority of pastors and bishops seem to completely ignore them.
In my ministry I have brought many who had turned away from God specifically because they were raised in these inflexible and dogmatic churches and felt like they were in an intellectual straight jacket and, if they remained, they would be disloyal to themselves and their own inquiring mind (a mind, which as I have said, God gave them). [ See also: DON’T BE DECEIVED! BEWARE OF ONLINE CHRISTIANITY AND YOUTUBE! – ofNaturesGod.com ]
God gave you your body and mind when he knit you together in your mother’s womb and he gave that curiousity to you to be fulfilled. It is that very curiousity that God will use to bring you into a closer relationship to the living God and many who have it find they outgrow the denomination they were raised in. Unfortunately, most mistakenly view all religions as basically the same so they never seek out another and simply assume that Christianity has no answers for them. This is wrong. The history and traditions of Christianity span more than 2000 years and have reached every corner of the world. You will never, in a human lifetime, be able to learn all the ramifications of the Christian faith. By clinging stubbornly to their own dogma churches, pastors, and parents often fail the children of the Living God. Hopefully those they drive away will find their way back. These people, while they want to be faithful, are like those in the Bible that God rebuked and said, “Behold, I do a new thing.” While the “pharisees” that we find in every denomination and religion attack this “new thing” precisely because it IS new.
Psalm 139:19 – For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. NRSV
Psalm 139:19 -For thou hast made my heart; thou hast accepted me from my mother’s womb. – Lamsa Bible Translations form the Aramaic.
Other Bibles in Psalm 139 say things like “You possessed my reins” by which they imply that God set out our very parameters of being in our mother’s womb. Again, if God made you curious it was so you could satisfy that curiosity and use it to bring you closer to God. It was specifically so that you would, at some point in your life break away from the constraints and answer to “the reins” of God instead of the church or denomination that you were born into. God wants to be the head of your life and not some human guided church, and all churches, the longer they exist fall prey to human error and control.
But it is through other humans that we often first come to know God. They are often the mediators through whom we do grow into a closer relationship with God and learn more about our faith.
My curiousity is boundless and I like to seek out the source. Therefore, I early developed a relationship with the Divine under the guidance of my sister and Sunday School teacher through reading, study, meditation, and prayer. God also speaks to me in dreams (as he has to many of his children,) and in a myriad of other ways that I have learned to hear. I think he would speak to anyone who was openly seeking Him, and this is confirmed in scripture. I am not special, except in the way that every one of us is unique, and I often marvel that – given my past – God would even talk with me let alone choose to use me in his work. But, despite my faults (like David), I have a whole heart for God and fervently seek out the Living God and try to get a closer relationship to the Divine Trinity and not just to a book or to a denomination. Still, I study the Bible daily, I pray, and I listen for that still small voice of God in my daily life prompting me to act when it would be easier for me not to do so.
In my efforts to get to The Source, I have never been as interested in knowing what an individual pastor or church has to say, (although I have considerable interest in the writings of some of the church fathers, many of the Saints of the Catholic Church and, as you all probably know by now I favor the writings and interpretations and understanding of John Wesley and many Benedictine authors.) What interests me most, however, is not knowing what a specific church or denomination believes but what those closest to God and the Messiah (the avatar/personification of God in Human form which Christian’s call “the Son of God,”) Jesus the Christ had to say. As a retired investigator and interrogator, I have never been as interested in “hearsay” as I am in hearing from an actual witness of the events I am studying. And because of that I want to get as close as I can to an unsullied witness of events, I have specific ideas.
There are three easy places to check if your Bible is true to the original text or if it is true to denominational dogma. The first is the last chapter of the Book of Romans in Romans 16 verses one and seven, and in the Book of Exodus Chapter 20 verse Thirteen.
In verse one of Romans Phoebe is identified as a deacon in the church of Cenchreae (a form of ordained minister -or pre-ordained minister – in the oldest denominations and faiths in the early Methodist churches you can be ordained for service as a deacon or ordained for “word and table” as an ordained minister. Both were ministers. Today, some Protestant churches call the elders of their church a “deacon” it is a place of honor for those who have proven themselves to be “pillars of the faith” and leaders in their church. But the earliest deacons were ministers ordained by prayer, hands, and oil, for ministry).
Some churches have developed the dogma that women cannot be leaders in the church. They base this on some of Paul’s letters and on the tradition of some churches that only men could be leaders. It would be good to remember that the letters of Paul in the New Testament are answers to questions and problems in various churches and we only have Paul’s answers. We don’t know what the problems or questions that he was addressing. We are literally reading someone else’s mail and only one side of it. What we do know is that the two churches in which Saint Paul rebuked the women were the churches of Corinth and Ephesus where there were powerful pagan churches of Goddesses in which women were powerful leaders. Many scholars assume that they were disrupting the churches in those cities and Saint Paul finally told them to sit down and shut up. But we don’t know.
If Paul really believed that women should not be leaders than it is confusing that he would entrust his most important letter The Book of Romans, to a woman to deliver. Further it is odd that he would greet Junia and Andronicus as Apostles when apostles were the most important leaders and witnesses of the gospel in the early church. As always, you must learn to hold apparent contradictions in the Bible in contrast and not discard one in favor of the other just because it doesn’t fit your churches dogma. When I hold these in balance, I have women should not be disruptors in the church but, when their heart is right they can be important leaders.
A real life example of how beliefs shape faith and practice is here:
as some of you know God has blessed me with the gift of discernment. I can tell when the Holy Spirit is present and when the Spirit is not of God. There was one denomination that I began attending because I was attracted to their dynamic worship and I had friends in that church. In that church the Spirit of God was NOT with the pastor. There were many in the church that the Spirit was with but that denomination gave a great deal of power to the pastor. The worship leader, a woman, DID have the Spirit of God with her and she had been called by God to serve. Yet the pastor was bothered by this because the denomination didn’t believe in women leaders, and her esteem was growing. Many wanted her to continue to be worship leader while the pastor insisted that they hire a man. After this church turned its back on the Spirit led worship team and installed another who had human credentials but not God’s blessing. I stopped attending. The pastor also had demonstrated clearly to me by that time that he did not lead from the Spirit of God but in my opinion was on his own personal campaign of power and placement.
In every case when I quote a verse here, I will seek out what I believe to be the best translation for the text as confirmed through my own study and prayer.
The Bibles that identify Phoebe as a deacon or minister are the: Amplified Bible, Anderson New Testament, Bishop’s Bible of 1568, Coverdale Bible of 1535, Darby Bible Translation, Godbey New Testament, GOD’S WORD Translation, Hawels New Testament, International Standard Version, Lamsa Bible (a Translation from Aramaic), Literal Emphasis Translation, Mace New Testament, New American Bible, New International Version, New Living Translation, New Revised Standard Version, Tyndale Bible of 1526 – [The Douay-Rheims Bible says: “And I commend to you Phebe, our sister, who is in the ministry of the church, that is in Cenchreae.” the Catholic Domain Public Version says: “who is in the ministry of the church, which is at Cenchreae.” The Contemporary English Version simply calls her a “leader”.]
Those Bibles that call Phoebe a “servant of the church” are: A Faithful Version, American King James Version, American Standard Version, Aramaic Bible in Plain English, Berean Standard Bible, Berean Literal Bible, Christian Standard Bible, Contemporary English Version, English Revised Version, English Standard Version, Good News Translation, Holman Christian Standard Bible, King James Bible, King James 2000 Bible, Legacy Standard Bible, Literal Standard Version, Majority Standard Bible, New American Standard Bible, NASB 1977, NASB 1995, New King James Bible, NET Bible, New Heart English Bible, Smith’s Literal Translation, Webster’s Bible Translation, Weymouth New Testament, World English Bible, Worrell New Testament, and the Worsley New Testament.
The Amplified Bible calls her a deaconess and takes it upon itself to put in parentheses after it “(servant)” ( lest you be confused and think women can be leaders.) While Young’s Literal translation uses the archaic term “Ministrant” the Geneva Bible of 1587 calls her a “seruaunt”).
Now, it is popular today to cry out falsely (like the “boy who cried wolf,”) that these other denominational translations are LIARS. No. Leaders in the church are “servant leaders” so, technically they are not lying. Because the minister was also the servant. I am afraid; however, they chose servant in this case for human reasons. I would hope that all the people who translated the Bible were men of faith. Unfortunately, many people can gain high position in the church without knowing God or being led by the Holy Spirit. So some who translated were possibly what I call “company men” who served the church but not God.
In fact, let us take a moment to reflect on this whole servant leader idea. It is important to note that the whole idea of the leaders of America being our servants is because we were founded as a Christian country where the majority of our founding fathers were Christian and even Jefferson viewed Christs teaching as sublime. The highest form of leadership in the Christian paradigm is considered to be service to the people. You won’t find this in most other cultures.
I did know one pastor who was not led by the spirit and used “servant leadership” as a method for him to have control of every aspect of the church. Using this excuse he put himself in the middle of and took over every activity of the church. So, as Christ said:
Another place to look is verse seven where Saint Paul greets Andronicus and Junia as apostles. An Apostle is the highest honor of the church and some monk in the first thousand years of Christianity decided that a woman could not be an apostle and changed the name to Junias making it male. However, there is no name “Junias” in ancient Greek, others have said it was short for “Junianus” but there was no Roman name of Junianus in the first century AD either. So neither of these hold water. The name was changed for human prejudice not because it reflects God’s will.
Those Bible that translate Junia properly are: A Faithful Version, American King James Version, American New King James Version, Anderson New Testament, Aramaic Bible in Plain English, Berean Study Bible, Bishop’s Bible of 1568, Christian Standard Bible, Contemporary English Version, English Standard Version, Genva Bible of 1587, GOD’S WORD Translation, Good News Translation, Haweis New Testament, International Standard Version, King James Bible, Lamsa Bible, NET Bible, New American Standard Bible, New Heart English Bible, New International Version, New King James Bible, New Living Translation, Smith’s Literal Translation, Tyndale Bible of 1526, Websters Bible Tranlation, Weymouth New Testament, World English Bible,
Those who say Junias are: American Standard Version, Berean Literal Bible, Catholic Public Domain Version, Douay-Rheims Bible, Godbey New Testament, King James 2000 Bible, Literal Emphasis Translation, Living Standard Version, Mace New Testament, New American Standard Bible, NASB 1977, NASB 1995, Worrell New Testament, Worsley New Testament, and Young’s Literal Translation.
Of the two I consider getting the name wrong to be the more grievous scholarly error. But you will have to decide for yourself. As for me I have several Bible versions. The ones I grew up with I use for personal comfort when I am struggling including the New King James and the King James version and the more accurate ones I use for study as well as daily reading.
One grievous error that shows whether you Bible craves accuracy over tradition is the translation of Exodus 20:13 of the Ten Commandments. The Hebrew word for “kill” and “murder” are as distinct as the English words for “kill” and “murder” they cannot be confused. To translate “murder” as “kill” reveals to me that the Bible translator inserted their own agenda and prejudice rather than being true to the original text.
The Bibles that translate the Hebrew word “murder” incorrectly as “kill” are the: American Standard Version, Bishop’s Bible of 1568, Brenton Septuagint Translation, Coverdale Bible of 1535, Douay-Rheims Bible, Geneva Bible of 1587, King James Bible, New American Bible, Smith’s Literal Translation, Tyndale Bible of 1526, Webster’s Bible Translation, (The Aramaic translations have the Lamsa Bible as “kill” and the Peshitta Holy Bible Translated as “Murder.”)
It appears from the list that the Bible’s that translate from the Greek Septuagint (which was for a long time the oldest vesion of the Bible that we had discovered,) used kill. Most modern versions have corrected this to “murder” based on older texts, but some have stuck with tradition and kept it at “kill.” Again, I go for accuracy. There are a lot of implications and differences if God meant “thou shalt not kill” instead of “thou shalt not murder” and I think those differences are important and because actions snow-ball outward from the text and get larger it is best to have as few errors in your study text as possible.
The Amplified Bible further clarifies: “You shall not commit murder (unjustified, deliberate homicide).” The New Heart English Bible has verse 13 as “Do not commit Adultery” and “Do not murder” as vs. 14. It is important to remember that the original texts had no verse numbers whatsoever and they were added later to make studying and reference easier.
I removed the ones from this list who got the leadership position of Phoebe right but the translation of Junias wrong, and who also got the translation of the ten commandments wrong or don’t have the Old Testament at all: Amplified Bible, Darby Bible Translation, GOD’S WORD Translation, International Standard Version, New International Version, New Living Translation, New Revised Standard Version, – The Contemporary English Version.
The Bible Hub can be a good source but you have to be wary of their subject articles a very many of those articles seem to be from very conservative denominations which are actively defending their denominations position rather than the accuracy of the text. At least in my opinion. But, as I said, I wish to serve God and His Purpose and not some denomination.
Again, do not throw away a Bible that gives you comfort. But get yourself one of the Bibles that has a greater tendency toward accuracy for your study of scripture. No language is translatable one for one, as anyone who speaks multiple langauges knows. There are always words in a language that do not have a one of one corollary in another language and then the translator must make decisions. [See my article on Is the Bible Literally true? Here: Is the Bible the Inspired Word of God? Is it literally true? How so? – ofNaturesGod.com ]
I want you to not be deceived brothers and sisters. While these may seem like little things humans have a tendency to cling to specific verses and build their personal understanding around them. I want you to have the truest form of scripture available to you. However, when guided by prayer and the Holy Spirit it can guide you to truth with any text. In fact, the Holy Spirit can guide you to truth through sources where you may least expect it, as it did the prophets and many of the authors of the Bible.
For those who are interested here is an article on Bible Hub that explains “Junia.” Bible Hub is open to all denominations and has contradictory articles. They also have an article on Junias (which is how Junia is written in denominations that reject women leaders. They “fixed” it for you so you wouldn’t be confused.) But there is no such Greek name as Junias, in the article it even makes up a Roman name that likewise was not a name used in the first century AD by Romans. Bible Hub is well done but caution should be used in its articles as both Junias and Junia are defended in these articles. I come down firmly with Junia. Some Bibles list Junias but in the notes say (older versions have Junia.)
