Like the more noble Bereans—search the Scriptures whether these things be so.
(Acts 17:11 KJV)
Due to the dishonesty and false scholarship of some men, there are several verses and references from the Greek texts that are called into question as to their accuracy as rendered in the Word of God in the Authorized King James Version of the Bible. The Word of God says that in the mouth of two or three witnesses let a matter be established. Therefore, here are two witnesses AGAINST several professed translations which have been made in the last 50 to 100 years. Both of theses witnesses deal with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and His true identity. The first witness is considered one of the greatest verses in the New Testament which reveals that the Lord Jesus Christ is in fact the LORD, Yahweh/Jehovah of the Old Testament. This verse is found in 1 Timothy 3:16.
“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” (The Authorized King James Version, no copyright, and printed in the United Kingdom 1769)
The way it’s rendered in one so-called translation, New World Translation (NWT) of the Holy Scriptures is thus –
The main alleged problem that is referenced has to do with the personal pronoun – “God” versus “He.” What follows is how this verse appears in the two texts which underlie the two references above.
1.και Òμολγουμενως μεγα εστι το της ευσεβειας μυστηριονq θεος ¦φανερωθη εν σαρκι, ¦δικαιωφη εν πνευματι, ωφθη γγελοις, ¦κηρυχθη εν §θνεσιν, ¦πιστευθη εν κοσμå, νεληφθη εν δοξ®. (The Greek New Testament which follows Theodore Beza’s 1598 edition {the Greek Text underlying the English Authorised Version of 1611, printed by the Trinitarian Bible Society at The Bath Press, Avon; page 386; no copyright)
2.και Òμολγουμενως μεγα εστι το της ευσεβειας μυστηριονq Ος ¦φανερωθη εν σαρκι, ¦δικαιωφη εν πνευματι, ωφθη γγελοις, ¦κηρυχθη εν §θνεσιν, ¦πιστευθη εν κοσμå, νεληφθη εν δοξ®. (The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures, Rendered from the Original Greek Language by the New World Bible Translation Committee, 1985 Edition; ©1985 by the Watch Tower Bible And Tract Society of Pennsylvania and International Bible Students Association; page 917)
There are three views as to the difference between the two Greek manuscript renderings. One is that the “cross-bar”(–) in the omicron (Ο) which = Θ, was added by some scribes but wasn’t there to begin with; the next is that the “cross-bar” is a “bleed-through” from one layer of a scroll to another, therefore it was not there to begin with; the third view is that which I will describe at some length here. The first two views are ludicrous and have been discounted by many scholars.
ONE POINT TO NOTE AT THIS TIME:
1 Tim.3:16, as it is rendered in the KJV, is found in the MAJORITY of ALL Greek and Latin texts and manuscripts. For this information, please reference the critical apparatus in the 26th or 27th edition of Nestle’s Greek New Testament, page 545. The notion that this verse is rendered as found in the N.W.T., et al. is not supported by the preponderance of the evidence. In the footnotes (also called the critical apparatus) of the Nestle’s Greek New Testament, there is a funny looking mark that looks like an M and an R merged together; that’s exactly what that mark is. It designates (page 55 in the Nestle’s Greek New Testament) the Majority text, including the Byzantine Koine text. [It] “...indicates readings supported by the majority of all manuscripts, i.e., always including manuscripts of the Koine [common] text in the narrow sense.” Therefore, the reading found in the N.W.T. and others is NOT SUPPORTED by the majority of ALL texts extant (i.e., available).
In I Tim 3:16, “God” Is Found In The MAJORITY Of All Greek And Latin Texts. Even the WT acknowledged this with their footnote. Check it out for yourself.
BYZ - Bzantine Majority Greek Text
1 Timothy 3:16 kai omologoumenwv mega estin to thv eusebeiav musthrion yeov (God) efanerwyh en sarki edikaiwyh en pneumati wfyh aggeloiv ekhrucyh en eynesin episteuyh en kosmw anelhfyh en doxh
LUT - 1912 Luther Überzeugung
16 Und kündlich groß ist das gottselige Geheimnis: Gott (God) ist offenbart im Fleisch, gerechtfertigt im Geist, erschienen den Engeln, gepredigt den Heiden, geglaubt von der Welt, aufgenommen in die Herrlichkeit.
SRV - Spanish Reina Valera
16 Y sin cotradicción, grande es el misterio de la piedad: Dios(God) ha sido manifestado en carne; ha sido justificado con el Espíritu; ha sido visto de los ángeles; ha sido predicado á los Gentiles; ha sido creído en el mundo; ha sido recibido en gloria.
DBY - 1889 Darby Translation - Did the whole chapter so you could check it out. All the rest will just be the verse sixteen of that translation.
1 The word is faithful: if any one aspires to exercise oversight, he desires a good work.
2 The overseer then must be irreproachable, husband of one wife, sober, discreet, decorous, hospitable, apt to teach;
3 not given to excesses from wine, not a striker, but mild, not addicted to contention, not fond of money,
4 conducting his own house well, having his children in subjection with all gravity;
5 (but if one does not know how to conduct his own house, how shall he take care of the assembly of God?)
6 not a novice, that he may not, being inflated, fall into the fault of the devil.
7 But it is necessary that he should have also a good testimony from those without, that he may fall not into reproach and the snare of the devil.
8 Ministers, in like manner, grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not seeking gain by base means,
9 holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
10 And let these be first proved, then let them minister, being without charge against them.
11 The women in like manner grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.
12 Let the ministers be husbands of one wife, conducting their children and their own houses well:
13 for those who shall have ministered well obtain for themselves a good degree, and much boldness in faith which is in Christ Jesus.
14 These things I write to thee, hoping to come to thee more quickly;
15 but if I delay, in order that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God's house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth.
16 And confessedly the mystery of piety is great.
God has been manifested in flesh, has been justified in the Spirit, has appeared to angels, has been preached among the nations, has been believed on in the world, has been received up in glory.
WEBSTER - 1833 Webster Bible
16 And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
YLT - 1898 Young’s Literal Translation
16 and, confessedly, great is the secret of piety—God was manifested in flesh, declared righteous in spirit, seen by messengers, preached among nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory!
These are just a few examples to show folks that they are being lied to. All modern translations come form only one family of manuscripts, the Alexandrian texts, and they do not represent the majority of evidence.
As to the third view as to the reason for the reading of 1 Tim.3:16 in the N.W.T. et al. versus the reading in the KJV:
In the corrupt uncial manuscripts of the fourth and fifth centuries (!, A, B, C, & D), one will find a system of abbreviations used for certain words. For instance: the abbreviation for Christ was ΧΣ (chi/sigma); the abbreviation for Lord was ΚΣ (kappa/sigma); the one for Son was ΥG (upsilon/sigma); the one for Father was ΠΕΡ (pi/eta/rho), and so forth and so-on. The abbreviation for God in the corrupt uncials was ΘG (theta/sigma). A block capital “theta” is simply a large oval with a cross bar placed horizontally in the center of the oval = Θ. If the cross bar was missing one would have the two letters ΟΣ (omicron/sigma) which, if one knows basic Greek grammar and vocabulary, is a relative pronoun meaning “who” or “which.” It is the masculine singular, NOT the NEUTER. One other thing, there is a rough breathing mark before the omicron which would render the word as ΟΣ (or, Häse). This point is very important because those who would like to deny the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ would like to make the relative pronoun refer to the mystery, which is NEUTER (το μυστηριον, to musterion). So here you have a case where the AV translators, when dealing with the uncials and their abbreviation system, decided that the word should match the majority texts, and rendered it ΘΕΟΣ (Theos would be abbreviated ΘΣ). While EVERY single 20th century Bible corrector and so-called translator recommended as a reading ΟΣ, “He Who,” instead of the correct reading of ΘΕΟΣ or θεος (as found in the Majority text).
The next witness is found in what’s called the Johannine comma, or 1John 5:7,8.
According to all destructive Bible translators and the like, 1 John 5:7&8 have no business being in any Bible, let alone the KJV. Why? Because, according to them, a man named Erasmus only added it after finding it in a 16th century Greek manuscript (#61), which was probably “written in Oxford in 1520 by a Franciscan friar.” On the basis of this “historical” falsity the NIV, ASV, NASV, N.W.T. and the NRSV (and similar Roman Catholic Alexandrian productions) omit the “Johannine Comma.”
In addition to the above mentioned Greek manuscript numbered 61, there are the following authorities for the reading as found in the King James Bible – the word of God:
1. A 9th century manuscript that was used to insert the verse for the Vulgate.
2. An Old Latin manuscript of the 5th century.
3. A 12th century manuscript – #88 – with the words found in the margin.
4. A 4th century Latin treatise by Priscillian cited it as scripture.
5. A Polyglot printed in 1502 by Cardinal Ximenes included it as scripture.
6. A 6th century citation by Fullgentius, according to a man named John Gill.
7. A 350 AD citation by Athanasius of 1 John 5:7&8.
8. A 250 AD citation by Cyprian – nearly 100 years before Siniaticus or Vaticanus.
9. A 200 AD citation by Tertullian – also more than 100 yrs. before Sinia. & Vatic.
10. And several other Latin manuscripts from 250 AD to 1600 AD .
When the King James’ translators began their translation work (they didn’t have the additional scores of manuscripts that we have today that support their translation) they didnt just have Erasmus’ #61; they had Diodati in Italian, Luther in German (the Heilige Schrift), Olivetan in French, and Geneva in English, Tyndall in English, plus 6 (six) Waldensian Bibles whose sources came from the 4th and 5th centuries. Question: Suppose you
couldn’t find1 a Greek manuscript reading for 1 John 5:7 & 8, but saw it show up in 200 AD, again in 250 AD, again in 325 AD, again in 350 AD, and then you found it in four anti-Catholic texts which were based on Old Latin that disagreed with the Vulgate??? I know what I would do, just as the KJV translators did – ADD IT TO THE TEXT.
Two of the most anti-Catholic translations ever printed – the KJV and the Heilige Schrift – both of them have the Johannine Comma.
Finally, the contested verse readings are quoted at the Council of Carthage (415 AD) by Eugenius, who drew up the confession of faith for the “orthodox.” It reads with the King James Bible. Question: How did 350 prelates in 415 AD take a verse to be orthodox that wasn’t in the Bible? It had to exis—t there from the beginning. It came out in Latin just as you have it in the King James Bible in 1999 or 1611; or any time in between.
There is a lot more concerning this “Johannine Comma” found in several works by many very able scholars. (But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. – 1 Cor. 14:38)