Corruption in Modern Bible Versions (Part 2) - Vaticanus and Sinaiticus; Changes in the NIV
Submitted by Pastor Chad Wagner on Wednesday, July 31, 2013. For a master copy of the outline and for more resources on the modern Bible perversions, click here: Bible Versions
VII. Some facts about the manuscripts, Vaticanus (B) and Sinaiticus (Aleph).
1. Vaticanus (B)
A. Vaticanus was discovered in the Vatican in 1448.
B. “B agrees with the Textus Receptus only about 50% of the time. It differs from the Majority Greek in nearly 8000 places, amounting to about one change per verse. It omits several thousand key words from the Gospels, nearly 1000 complete sentences, and 500 clauses. It adds approximately 500 words, substitutes or modifies nearly 2000 and transposes word order in about 2000 places. It has nearly 600 readings that do not occur in any other manuscript. These affect almost 1000 words” - G.A. Riplinger, New Age Bible Versions, (p. 551).
C. “B does not consider the following as part of the bible: Revelation, Phil., Titus, I and II Timothy, large parts of Samuel, Kings, Nehemiah, the Psalms, and Genesis. B omits crucial parts of Mark and Luke. In their place it adds apocryphal books such as Bel and the Dragon, Tobit, Judith, and the Epistle of Barnabas.” - Ibid, (p. 551).
2. Sinaiticus (Aleph)
A. Sinaiticus was discovered in the mid-1800s.
B. “Because of its blatant omissions and alterations, it lapsed into a wastebasket in a monastery, where it was ‘discovered’ by Constantine von Tischendorf in the mid-eighteen hundreds.” - G.A. Riplinger, New Age Bible Versions, (p. 553).
C. “There are about 9000 changes in this text from that of the Majority and Traditional Text, amounting to one difference in every verse. It omits some 4000 words from the Gospels, adds 1000, repositions 2000 and alters another 1000. It has approximately 1500 readings that appear in no other manuscript; this affects nearly 3000 words. The following omissions are just a few examples.
• The end of Mark and John.
• Thirty-nine words from Joh 19:20, 21; twenty words from Joh 20:5-6; nineteen words from Mark 1:32-34; fourteen words from Mark 15:47.
• John 5:4, Mat 16:2-3, Rom 16:24, Mar 16:9-20, 1Jo 5:7, Act 8:37, Gen 23:19-24, 46, Num 5:27-7:20, 1Ch 9:27-19:27.
• Exodus, Joshua, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings, Hosea, Amos, Micah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Judges.
• In Luke 8, for example, 19 out of 34 words are changed. In Matthew chapter one, 60 words are changed.
• It adds apocryphal books such as Bel and The Dragon, Tobit Judith, The Epistle of Barnabas, and The Shepherd of Hermas, among others” - Ibid (p. 552-553).
3. Vaticanus (B) vs. Sinaiticus (Aleph)
A. It would be one thing if these two manuscripts closely agreed with each other, but such is not the case.
B. “Not only do they disagree with the Majority of manuscripts, but they do not agree with each other. The 8000 changes in B and the 9000 changes in Aleph are not the same changes. When their changes are added together, they alter the Majority text in about 13000 places. This is two changes for every verse. Together they omit 4000 words, add 2000, transpose 3500, and modify 2000. They disagree with each other a dozen times on every page. Colwell says they disagree 70% of the time and in almost every verse of the gospels. Burgon says, “It is easier to find two consecutive verses in which these manuscripts differ than two in which they agree” - G.A. Riplinger, New Age Bible Versions, (p. 554).
C. "Hoskier's very technical comparison of B with Aleph showed these two corrupt manuscripts to be in contradiction one with the other in over 3,000 places in the Gospels alone!" - D.A. Waite, Defending the King James Bible (p. 59).
4. What do the "scholars" have to say about these two manuscripts?
A. “Westcott and Hort’s Introduction to the New Testament in the Original Greek affirms: [R]eadings of Aleph and B should be accepted as the true readings…[They] stand far above all documents…[are] very pure…excellent…and enjoyed a singular immunity from corruption” - G.A. Riplinger, New Age Bible Versions, (p. 546).
B. “Edwin Palmer, Executive Secretary of the NIV committee, writes that Aleph and B are more reliable and accurate.” - Ibid (p. 548)
C. “Ronald Youngblood, NIV translation committee member agrees, “[T]he readings found in…Vaticanus [B] and Sinaiticus [Aleph] of the forth century A.D. are to be preferred.” Other committee members, such as Kenneth L. Barker, have expressed agreement” - Ibid (p. 548).
VIII. Changes and omissions in the modern versions. This section will mainly focus on the NIV, but many of the changes apply to many of the new versions.
1. The KJV vs. the NIV (New International Version). The following is a list of changes in the NIV compared with the KJV.
• 5219 words, 16 complete verses omitted from the NIV
• “Christ” removed 25 times from NIV
• “Lord” omitted 352 times from NIV
• “Jesus” is omitted many times, and added many times without Greek support
• “God” omitted 468 times from NIV
• “Godhead” totally removed from all new versions
• “Lucifer” is totally omitted from all new versions
• “devils” replaced by demons (divinities) in NIV 80 times
• “Hell” is omitted 40 times in the NIV
• “Heaven” is deleted 160 times from the NIV
• “damned, damnable, damnation” is totally gone from new versions
• The “Blood” of Christ is deleted 41 times from the NIV
• “Salvation” is deleted 42 times from NIV
• The “Word of God” is deleted 8 times from NIV
• The “Word of the Lord” is deleted 25 times from the NIV
• The “Lord Jesus Christ” is deleted 24 times from the NIV
• “Jehovah” is totally gone in the NIV (ex, Psa 83:18)
• “Scribes” is totally deleted from NIV, (I wonder why?)
• “Fornication” is totally deleted from NIV
• “Lord” is down-graded to “Master”, and “Master” is down-graded to “Teacher” tons of times in the NIV
2. It has been said that the new versions are simply revisions of the KJV written in “modern English” without all the “archaic” words. Are words like Christ, Lord, Jesus, God, Godhead, Lucifer, devils, hell, heaven, damn, blood, salvation, and Jehovah “archaic”?