Why do Bibles deliberately alter quotations in the New Testament?
Posted: Saturday, May 10, 2008
by John Howard Reid
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Some years ago, while reading Maxwell Staniforth's excellent account of Early Christian Writings (Penguin Books, 1968), I was struck by his "word of warning" that Saint Clement's quotations from Old Testament Scriptures were based not on the Hebrew text but on on the Greek translation of those texts, namely the so-called "Septuagint Version". Staniforth remarks that the Septuagint text "differs widely at times from our English Bibles."
This is so. But it occurred to me that it is not only Saint Clement who quotes freely from the Septuagint, but all the writers of the New Testament. All of them without a single exception! The Septuagint was their Bible. They all regarded this Greek version as authoritative. And more importantly, all of them always quoted from the Septuagint, never ever from the Hebrew.
So why are there no similar "words of warning" in any of our English Bibles? In none at all in fact. Not in the King James version, the Revised Standard, the Catholic, the Amplified, the Living, the Unvarnished, etc. A real puzzle! Could it be that by sheer good fortune (or the grace of God), the New Testament writers always happened to chance upon Scripture quotations that were virtually identical in Hebrew and Greek?
I deluded myself with this belief for many years until finally I studied the Bible more attentively. I then realized that all the New Testament authors were particularly well versed in Old Testament Scriptures. In fact, there are well over three thousand direct quotations from the Old Testament in the four Gospels, Acts, Hebrews, the letters of Paul and "Peter", and Revelation alone! Three thousand! It seemed impossible that all had quoted passages from the Septuagint that just happened to be identical with their Hebrew counterparts.
So I began to check them out, one by one. I soon realized that over the centuries, copyists had simply taken it upon themselves to re-write just about all the New Testament's Old Testament quotations. They had simply re-written what the original New Testament authors had actually quoted so that all these quotations now conformed to the corresponding texts in the Hebrew Bible.
While churchmen of every denomination doubtless consider these endeavors praiseworthy, they have the undeniable effect of actually changing the original words written down by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul and company. I firmly believe that all these men were inspired by the Holy Spirit of Wisdom and Truth. What they wrote is sacred. These are the words of God! To deliberately alter these words (and even worse, to actually approve of these alterations, as every English-speaking bishop, priest and minister has and does) is to either completely deny the Holy Spirit as a source of inspiration, or at the very least to regard the Holy Spirit's contribution as somewhat defective.
In my new translation of John's Gospel, entitled "Essential Bible Wisdom: GOOD NEWS by John, the Beloved Disciple, and John, the Elder", I have attempted to reconstruct what the inspired authors originally wrote by referring back to the Septuagint version of the Old Testament that both Johns actually quoted from, rather than the Hebrew which they regarded as neither authoritative nor worth reading. In some instances, I have even expanded the quotation on the principle that it is better to have too much Scripture than too little, and far more preferable to make the inspired author's point plain than to leave his words slightly in the dark.
True, in many cases, there is in fact very little difference between the Hebrew Old Testament and its Greek counterpart. But in some instances, there's a lot. Included in my new book is a fresh translation of 1 Peter, which, as Peter explains himself at the end of the letter, was actually written by Silvanus. In 1 Peter 3:9, Silvanus is arguing that we should not return evil for evil or insult for insult but on the contrary we should give our enemies a blessing. He then appropriately quotes from his Greek proof text of Psalm 34.
But the quote from the Hebrew version of Psalm 34 in our English Bibles, doesn't even mention "blessing" which is the main burden of Silvanus' instruction.
Here is a fresh translation of the Hebrew. These are noble sentiments certainly, but they are nothing like what Silvanus actually quoted!
He who cares for life
and wants to see prosperous days,
must keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking guile.
Let him avoid evil and do good.
Let him seek peace and pursue it.
For the Lord's eyes are on the upright
and his ears are attentive to their prayers.
But the Lord sets His face against evil-doers.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)It comes as a considerable surprise to discover that the Bible, as originally written, has been deliberately tampered with and altered in all available English translations, but I would like to see some actual examples quoted.
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