bibleprophecyaswritten.com JESUS & Your BIBLE by Phillip Goodman Lord, Are The 66 Books In My Bible The Right Ones? Are there more? Less? Is the Bible true word for word? How does Jesus answer these questions? “...when you received from us the word of God's message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God.. .” (the Apostle Paul, Jesus’ “chosen vessel” Acts 9:15; 1 Thes 2:13) PA R T 2 Part 1 concluded with the FIRST paragraph below... Jesus Said That Your Bible Is Based On Inerrant Manuscripts Jesus summed up the character of your Bible when He said, “Thy word is truth.” (John 17:17) Since Jesus is the Truth (John 14:6), and since God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18), then every word, letter, jot and tittle (letter parts, Matthew 5:18) of your Bible is based upon original writings (manuscripts) that were without error — or inerrant. Though minor “typos” have crept into the copying and recopying of the Bible over the past 2000 years, none affect any major Biblical teaching, and so the inerrancy of those first 66 books still shows through. Jesus testified to the inerrancy of every word of the Bible when he said that man should “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) He also said of the judgment of man that “the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.” (John 12:48) The proof of the inerrancy of the original manuscripts, and that it secures your Bible as the infallible Word of God, is that it would be unjust to judge man on the basis of words that have been passed down in error. Since Jesus is perfectly just, and since we will be judged by the word He spoke, then that word must be inerrant. The importance of the inerrancy of the Scripture is shown by Jesus to not only apply to words, but to the tense of those words, for He linked the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead to the present tense of the verb “am.” "But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, 'I AM the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living." (Matthew 22:31 - 32) The inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture is why the Bible is indestructible. Jesus Said That Your Bible Is Indestructible Since Jesus affirmed that God inspired — literally breathed into the scripture authors — the very words to be written down, then those words were not only inerrant, but they are indestructible! That is why Jesus promised you that “the Scripture cannot be broken.” (John 10:35) He affirms this elsewhere also. About the Old Testament, Jesus said of its indestructibility, For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law [Old Testament], until all is accomplished. ( Matthew 5:18) Furthermore, Jesus declared about the New Testament which at the time was yet to come, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words [New Testament] shall not pass away. ( Matthew 24:35) You can trust your Bible (a good version) because Jesus said so! x x And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. / "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, / teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.“ Matthew 28:18 - 20 JESUS SAID TO THE APOSTLES — ”The Holy Spirit will...” “bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” / “He will guide you into all the truth” / ”He will disclose to you what is to come” (John 14:26; John 16:13) Advice For A Translation Today (Word for Word) by Phillip Goodman For, All flesh is as grass, And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass withereth , and the flower falleth: But the word of the Lord abideth forever. And this is the word of good tidings which was preached unto you. (1 Peter 1:24 - 25) “A literal translation provides a reliable tool for studying the text, because it is close to the original text. The more remote a translation is from the original, the less it reflects the precise meaning of the original and the more it reflects the interpretations of the translator(s). That remoteness entails a hindrance if one’s purpose is to discover the meaning of the Bible.” (Robert L. Thomas, How To Choose A Bible Version, The Master’s Seminary, p.97) There are basically 3 types of Bible translations. There is a literal, word for word translation (as much as is possible from Hebrew/Greek to English). Then there is what is called a “dynamic equivalence” or thought for thought translation. The first takes the Bible as it was inspired — seeking to translate the very words themselves. The second interjects man’s opinion of what the words mean — seeking to put down the thoughts rather than the very words themselves. The third “translation” is not really a translation, but rather a paraphrase — here’s what the Bible actually says , but “in other words” here is how we will phrase it on the printed page to make it an easier read. Reject the third absolutely. Approach the second with great caution, for it inevitably has human interpretations woven into the translation mix. Leland Ryken of Wheaton College writes: “Here is my concern: Most readers of dynamic equivalent translations do not have any understanding as to the liberties that have been taken with the words of the original text. What dynamic translators give us is a translation plus a commentary, but we have no way of knowing where the translation ends and the... commentary begins.” Ryken goes on to make this point: “Here are every day types of discourse where I think it matters a lot that we have the exact words of the source: 1. love letters 2. marriage vows 3. legal documents 4. contracts 5. accident reports 6. obituary 7. grandma’s memoirs [& Will] 8. recèpes 9. compliment or criticism 10. interview quote 11 instructions for assembling an appliance What did Jesus teach about the very words of the Leland Ryken of Wheaton College Bible — and thus about the preeminent value of a literal, word for word translation? How important is it that we have access to the actual words in God’s Word? Jesus was clear. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4) He said “the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life. (John 6:63) Jesus promised that “My words shall not pass away.” (Matthew 24:35) The apostles echoed the teaching of the Lord saying that they spoke “ words taught by the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 2:13) The chart below will help you select a translation. Follow the continuum from the more literal to the left to the less literal to the right. Literal Dynamic Equivalent Paraphrase New American Standard English Standard King James Revised Standard New International Contemporary English Good News Living Bible The Message May God richly bless you in your “BEREAN” Bible studies. (see Acts 17:11 Yours in Christ, Philli p