Back in September I posted a warning to an anonymous individual. Now I am officially issuing a warning to all anonymous shape note singers.
I put on notice that shape note singers will not get a pass to hide behind anonymity to take potshots on shape note and Sacred Harp subjects. If your post is suspect, your post will be deleted. If you are willing to use your name and own your comments, your posts will not be deleted.
Notes or comments in commentaries and study Bibles can be really bad. Readers think they are being given competent instruction, but you just never know! Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. At times commentators apparently just write whatever is on their minds without doing the necessary research. Here is an example from the Believer’s Bible Commentary by William MacDonald (Arthur L. Farstad, editor, Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1995, p. 387), regarding the translation of 1 Kings 10:28.
“8 (10:26-29) Keveh (also transliterated Kue) was translated ‘linen yarn’ in KJV because they did not know in the seventeenth century that is was a place name.”
The barest of research would have refuted this statement. The King James translators were well aware that this had been considered the name of a place. They just did not agree that it was. Notice, for example, how verse 28 had been translated in the 1537 Matthew Bible:
And Salomons horses came out of Egipte from Keva: The marchauntes fett them from Keva at a pryce.
The 14th rule given to the translators even said they should check these prior Bibles. “These translations to be used when they agree better with the Text than the Bishop’s Bible: Tindoll’s, Matthew’s, Coverdale’s, Whitchurch’s, Geneva.” Keva is found in the Coverdale, Matthew, and Taverner Bibles. The LXX gives it as a place name (Θεκουέ), as does the Vulgate (Coa). The translators were aware of these resources; the fact was not something “they did not know.”
No, the King James translators were not unaware of translating מִקְוֵה (miqvê) as a place. They did not agree that in this verse it was a place. They translated it accordingly. If you don’t agree with the King James translators in 1 Kings 10:28, just say so. Don’t act like they were ignorant.
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Matthew 7:15
Beware of false prophets who come to you in the name of the King James Bible, bearing new revelations never before seen or heard. One such “revelator” is Gary Rovarino. He is one of the founders of the King James Bible Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, which idea may initially put him in a position of general respect among defenders of the King James Bible. He advertises himself as “knowing and elaborating of the hidden-inner most workings of the revelations of God in the King James Bible.” Such hubris should be warning enough, though perhaps it is not for some weak believers struggling to support their continued use of the King James Bible. A “prophet” who can reveal “Never Before Seen REVELATION of John 3:16” is not a Bible prophet. Gary Rovarino is a “false friend” of the King James Bible. Beware. (Additionally, be aware that Gary Rovarino is also known as G. John Rov. He writes under that pen name.)
The biblical faith is a grounded and settled faith, truth established on a rock, openly taught and passed down from generation to generation. It does not require a false foundation from mysterious math that can only be rendered visible by a secret scholar seeking sickly sheep. Be a Berean!
Jude exhorts us to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (verse 3). Note that the biblical faith is a “once delivered” faith. “Never before seen” revelations of John 3:16 – or any other text – should be an immediate wake-up call for the Bible believer. Certainly, there are new things you and I will learn from the Bible, but that is not because they were never before seen or heard until some modern-day false prophet came along. It is things that we just have not noticed before but that have been there all along – in the open, and believed by others before us!
The biblical faith is a passed-down faith. The apostles taught all things that Jesus commanded them (Matthew 28:19), and these truths have been taught in and by churches of the Lord Jesus Christ from that time to this day. A new thing not known before now is a false thing not taught to the apostles by Jesus and not passed down from the apostles through the churches. What Paul received, he also delivered (1 Corinthians 11:23; 15:1). The teachings were committed to faithful men who passed them on (2 Timothy 2). John declared what he had seen and heard (1 John 1:3, 5). Peter taught what he received, and put his hearers in remembrance of it (2 Peter 1:15-16). This nature of truth is consistently established in the New Testament, that the disciples passed on the faith once delivered to the saints. A deliverer of new things we should not bear with (2 Corinthians 11:4).
For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. Acts 20:20-31
Baptist missionary Christopher Yetzer has been doing some review and critique of the KJV Parallel Bible website. This project was “conceived,
designed, and organized by Mark Ward,” who is the author of Authorized: The Use
and Misuse of the King James Bible, Blogger, YouTuber, and ubiquitous “Apostle”
to King James Onlyists. Brother Yetzer has found that the number of errors on
the website makes it an unreliable witness for its so-called purpose – for
those who do not read Greek to “know for [themselves] what these differences
are” and so that they do not “have to take someone else’s word for it.”
To my way of thinking there is an underlying and unspoken
purpose that aligns with Mark Ward’s ongoing effort of praising the King James
Bible while trying to get people to convert to newer translations.
The creator hopes his readers will conclude that they should
change from using the KJV and instead use a modern translation. To lead to this
conclusion, the site attempts to show (1) that there is not much difference
between the texts behind the KJV and modern translations so that there will not
be much actual change, and (2) that there is enough difference between the
texts behind the KJV and modern translations that folks should change to a
modern translation.
When Mark Ward first told me about this site, I thought it sounded like a very good idea that could be widely useful in the Bible versions debates. Now, even if I were not aware of the problems Christopher Yetzer has found (some of which I have inspected and seen myself), the site’s endorsement by Daniel Wallace and Peter Gurry, eager advocates of the Critical Text and ardent opponents of the Traditional Text, is enough to give me pause. “Take my word for it,” if you use this site, you will still be taking someone else’s word for it.
On Wednesday I posted “Was A. T. Robertson a conservative Baptist.” The intent was not to speak ill of the dead, but to make a point – which I want to tease out a bit further today.
I believe that A. T. Robertson was generally well thought-of (as a teacher) in the circles I grew up in. If memory serves, it was usually his Harmony of the Gospels that was recommended to young preachers and Bible students studying the Gospels. His Greek Grammar was also recommended. However, as I pointed out, I have come to think (knowing what I now know) that Robertson was not all that conservative, neither was he holding the line against liberalism encroaching into Southern Baptist ranks.[i]
From time to time, through Bible study, introspection, and conviction of the Holy Spirit, I find that I have imbibed of teachings (often “small” things, but wrong nevertheless) that have crept in unawares through respected Bible teachers with a less than stellar regard for the inspiration and authority of word of God. It may be something I picked up forty years ago; sometimes it is something I picked up four years ago (or read last week). We must be ever alert and on guard.
When at our church we began our study of the book of Acts over three years ago, I read commentators who pointed out that only Luke records the ascension of Christ (in Luke 24:51-53 and Acts 1:9-11). That sounds good on the surface, and it can get stuck as a “fact” in our pea brains. However, as I studied and the Spirit led into truth, I remembered – wait a minute, it is only those guys that reject the last twelve verses of Mark chapter 16 who can say that! Mark mentioned it as well. (See Mark 16:19.)
Let us be diligent. Let us be careful. Let us be watchful. Be aware and beware. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
[i] In case a reader wonders, I am not Southern Baptist. However, the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest and most influential body of Baptists here in the United States.
“And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek?”
The Acts 21:37 Test. Do you know Greek?
We often, in Christian circles, banter around the words “know Greek” or “read Greek.” Most often that only means we have had some Greek courses and can “read” Greek in a minor sense – that we know the letters (alphabet), how they make words, know some of the words (vocabulary), some things about mood, tense, voice (conjugation), and so on. With the help of good tools, we can figure out what sentences in the Greek New Testament say. This is not really reading Greek. It is a good skill and a good tool, but honesty calls us to admit that we are doing a lot of studying with helps (in itself, not a bad thing) and not much reading. I have had a little study in five different languages, and I can only read and speak one – English (and not always well, at that).
Without looking at or using any helps, write the Greek words or phrases that correspond with the following common English words or phrases:
(With acknowledgement to Daniel Streett for the idea)
Without looking at or using any helps, read, understand, and translate the following sentence:
Πᾶς δὲ ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου δεχθήτω· ἔπειτα δὲ δοκιμάσαντες αὐτὸν γνώσεσθε, σύνεσιν γὰρ ἕξετε δεξιὰν καὶ ἀριστεράν.
Don’t post your results. There is no way we can know whether you worked from what was in your head, or used tools to cheat (from lexicons to online translators), or some combination of both. Just be honest with yourself and maybe benefit from the exercise. This is for personal growth; only in a live setting would we know for sure of the results.
The results for most of us should make us aware of at least two things.
Academics Expose ‘Grievance Studies’ Field by Submitting Hoax Papers to Journals -- “In one particularly telling example, the academics submitted a paper to the feminist geography journal Gender, Place & Culture detailing the canine rape culture supposedly prevalent within dog parks.”
Peer review: a flawed process at the heart of science and journals -- “A systematic review of all the available evidence on peer review concluded that ‘the practice of peer review is based on faith in its effects, rather than on facts’.”
Is the Peer Review Process for Scientific Papers Broken? -- “...many of the most influential texts in the history of science were never put through the peer review process, including Isaac Newton’s 1687 Principia Mathematica, Albert Einstein’s 1905 paper on relativity, and James Watson and Francis Crick’s 1953 Nature paper on the structure of DNA.”
In 1936, Albert Einstein—who was used to people like Planck making decisions about his papers without outside opinions—was incensed when the American journal Physical Review sent his submission to another physicist for evaluation. In a terse note to the editor, Einstein wrote:
“I see no reason to address the—in any case erroneous—comments of your anonymous expert. On the basis of this incident I prefer to publish the paper elsewhere.”
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. Revelation 22:18-19
“This clause applies to the case of all the books of Holy Scripture: comp. Deuteronomy iv.2; Proverbs xxx.6; but it especially applies to the Apocalypse, the crowning point of prophecy, which was exposed to peculiar danger, and the minute and admirable connection of which might be disturbed or obscured by the change of even a single word.” (Gnomon of the New Testament, Volume V, by Johann Albrecht Bengel, p. 385)
Johann Bengel says that Revelation 22:18-19 applies to all of Holy Scripture. I think he is correct. Some modern King James Bible detractors act like King James Onlyists alone are saying that Revelation 22:18-19 applies beyond the book of Revelation. Bengel was clearly no King James Onlyist. In fact, his Gnomon was written in German and only later translated into English.
