Lies About Bible History

 

            One of the oft-repeated lies of the Roman Catholic Church is that they are the ones who gave the world the Bible. The real truth is that all the Scripture that makes up the Old and New Testament canon was complete and in use even before the church at Rome finished slipping into apostasy. Rome’s history is one of suppressing the Word of God not of broadcasting it.

            When Rome wanted to establish its power and control over other churches they had to contend with a problem. It was a fairly literate world that had a multitude of Greek texts carefully copied from the originals, preserved and read within local churches. For the Roman church to grow in power it had to make claims the Scripture did not endorse.

            It would not be inappropriate to say there was a commonly accepted form of Greek text in existence. Though Rome would seek to suppress this text it would be preserved and endure. This was the Bible of early Eastern Christianity, the very heartland of where the Gospel message was first preached. It was the Bible of the Syrian Church, the Waldensian Church of northern Italy, the Gallic Church in southern France, the Celtic Church in Scotland and Ireland, and the Greek Catholic Church. The Greek text they used and preserved we now refer to as the Textus Receptus or the Received Text. People who say the Textus Receptus did not exist before Erasmus are either ignorant or willfully lying about Bible history.

            Neither did the world lack for a Latin Bible. Such a Bible we will call Old Latin existed from the second century. It was popular in North Africa and spread from there throughout Europe as missionary activity into those places preceded the activities of Rome. This is important because Rome claims credit for Christianizing Europe when in fact it only deserves credit for causing the terrible period of human history known as the Dark Ages. Though the Roman Catholic Church sought to suppress this text it was stubbornly held on to for nine hundred years after their Latin Vulgate appeared. In fact the Old Latin Bibles did not fall into disuse until Latin ceased to be a living language.

             Augustine, whose critical thought and desire to promote the Roman church over others, developed the doctrine of amillenialism and the idea of salvation being vested in a church instead of totally in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was against the true text of Scripture as was Jerome. It was Jerome who would produce the Latin Vulgate, but even he was not as depraved as his Roman masters would have had him to be. He would not have included the Apocrypha had it been his choice. .

            For hundreds of years the common people refused to call Jerome’s Latin Bible the Vulgate. He had applied the title to it falsely. Vulgate means common or accepted. For a multitude of people who loved the true Gospel of Jesus Christ it could never be either. When you discover the truth, a lot of things about history suddenly seem clearer.

Questions about the Septuagint

 

            Much has been said about the time the Septuagint came into being but the truth is really unclear. There is a letter, which is supposed to have been written by a man named Aristeas to his brother Philocrates during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-246 BC). He tells how Philadelphus was persuaded by his librarian to get a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures for his royal library. He then appealed to the High Priest at Jerusalem, who sent 72 elders (6 from each tribe) to Alexandria with an official copy of the Law. In 72 days they made a translation which was publicly read before the local Jews then presented to the king. From the number of translators and some say the corresponding number of days in translation it became known as the Septuagint (meaning seventy). Josephus wrote of it, and other writers embellished the story with miraculous details.

            The letter of Aristeas was actually written nearly 200 years after the events it is supposed to describe (100-80 BC). Many of the details in the letter are clearly not to be believed, but it is likely that a translation of the first five books of the Bible into Greek was done at or about the time claimed. It was generally well done, but not of such quality that it could be accepted as the very Word of God.

            Other books of the Old Testament were produced at various times by several translators. The style varies from fairly good Koine Greek to indifferent Greek and is full of problems. The canonical books were believed to be completed before 117 BC. Of the Septuagint, Dr. D. A. Waite says: It can be clearly seen…that the Septuagint is inadequate and deficient as a translation. To try to reconstruct the Hebrew Text (as many connected with modern versions are attempting to do) from such a loose and unacceptable translation would be like trying to reconstruct the Greek New Testament from the Living Bible of Ken Taylor.

            Paul Kahle (noted LXX scholar) doubts there ever was one original old Greek version. His theory is that the LXX (Septuagint) had its origin in numerous oral and written translations used in services after the reading of the Hebrew original. Peter Ruckman agrees and adds that he thinks that the supposed Septuagint quotes in the New Testament are actually New Testament quote in the Septuagint. There is good evidence for this position that cannot be gone into in the limited space available here.

            Scholars state that the 5th column of Origen’s Hexapla is the Septuagint revised by Origen. Ruckman says that it originates in Origen’s 5th column. The Hexapla was completed in 245 AD and no one has produced a LXX written before 300 AD. Origen’s 5th column has been a leading source of Old Testament corruption, and was a huge influence on Jerome’s Latin Vulgate and its inclusion of the Apocrypha.

            Dr. D. A. Waite is also prepared to question whether there was a pre-Christian Septuagint. He believes our Lord referred to the Old Testament rather than a Greek Septuagint or other versions.

 

            Jonsquill Ministries

P. O. Box 752

Buchanan, Georgia 30113

171001-1