Bible story

CHAPTER I
THE BIBLE AND ITS GENERAL ASPECTS
HISTORICAL PROCESS

The name that is most used to designate the Word of God is the Bible. The
Bible would not become a single book, but rather a compendium of books.

The word "Bible" derives from the Greek

word B í - bli - a, which is plural of the word Bibli ó
n, which means "The books" or "The Little Books."
The origin of the Greek word Bible possibly derives
from Byblos, this was an important commercial port
in the Eastern Mediterranean where papyrus and
other materials necessary for writing were
purchased.

In the first century people wrote on papyri.

Papyrus was obtained from the plant of the same
name. Inside the stem of the plant there are long
filaments from which the papyri used for writing
were made. In ancient times, papyrus rolls were
the most important vehicle for the transmission and
preservation of human knowledge. The nation that
has preserved the largest number of papyri is Papyrus Plant
Egypt. This is because papyrus only lasts a long
time in very hot and dry climates.

Only centuries later (in the 4th century) did

parchment begin to be used, made up of animal
skin, which, properly treated, was reduced to thin,
smooth sheets.

At first, papyri were used in the so-called

“roll” format. It was only written on one side and
to read it you had to unroll it to the desired place.
The Jews had the Torah written on scrolls. A fax
roll looks a lot like an old roll

Already in the second half of the 1st

century, Christians began to use the codex
format, which is like current books. It is written on
both sides, binding the papyri like current books.
The practical advantages of the codex format
Papyrus in Roll format were evident: papyrus was saved, since it was
written on both sides of the sheets; It had a
compact format and often fit in a pocket; It was easy to handle and could be quickly

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flipped through for a reference; It was easy to store and also to hide in times of
persecution. Specifically, for the four Gospels and the Acts, a single codex was
needed, instead of five scrolls, making it easier to send Christian texts throughout the
empire.

GENERALITIES

Our Bible as a whole includes 66 books written in

three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, and on
three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe. It was written
by about 40 authors who lived in different times , over a
period of 1600 years , from 1513 BC. C. Until around 98
AD

The Bible contains 1,189 chapters, 929 chapters

in the OT and 260 in the NT. And distributed in 594
chapters before Psalm 118 and 594 after Psalm 118. Codex Format
The center of the Bible is Psalm 118:8. Chapter 29 of the
book of Job is the center of the OT and chapter 8 of Romans is the center of the NT.
There are 3,566,480 letters, 773,693 words, 31,102 verses and approximately 3,573
promises.

The shortest book in the entire Bible is the epistle of 2 John; It contains only
one chapter with thirteen verses. On the contrary, the longest is the book of Psalms
with 150 chapters, and the second is Isaiah with 66 chapters. The largest chapter is
Psalms 119 and Psalms 117 is the smallest chapter. The greatest verse in the entire
Bible is found in the book of Esther, in chapter 8, verse 9; and the smallest is Exodus
20:13 and John 11:35 (both verses have 9 letters if we consider that the letter “LL” is
a double letter “L”).

The OT ends with a Curse and the NT with a blessing. According to some
studies, they say that the book of Isaiah is the Bible in miniature. Let's see: Isaiah
has 66 chapters, the Bible has 66 books. The 1st chapter of Isaiah begins like
Genesis: man's disobedience and sin. Chapter 40 of Isaiah prophesies about John
the Baptist, and book No. 40 of the Bible is Matthew which speaks of John the
Baptist. The last chapter of Isaiah ends in verse 22. It says, "As the new heavens and
the new earth" as does Revelation, and the last verse of Isaiah ends with the
condemnation of the wicked man, as does Revelation.

The remarkable unity and coherence of the Bible confirms that it is authentic
and reveals a single author: The Holy Spirit ( 2 Tim. 3: 16).

The Bible is the oldest surviving book in the world. About sixty million Bibles or
portions thereof are distributed each year . The first edition printed with movable
characters came out of the press of the German inventor Johannes Gutenberg in the
year 1455. Until then, anyone who wanted a Bible, or part of it, had to copy it or pay
someone who copied it.

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Since that year Gutenberg took this great step, some four billion Bibles and
portions thereof have been printed, thus breaking the world record for the largest
circulation book printed in the world.

The Bible is therefore also the book of which the most translations are made
to this day. T he annual scripture languages report, published by the United Bible
Societies (UBS), records each new scripture translation that has been added in the
past year to the collections in the repositories of the Bible Society's two libraries.
These libraries are that of the American Bible Society in New York and that of the
British and Foreign Bible Society, which guards the Cambridge University Library.
This means that currently more than 90% of humanity has access to the Bible in its
entirety or a portion of it in its own language. So this book has crossed borders and
crossed racial and ethnic barriers.

Table of Translations of the SBU As of December 31, 2003

CONTINENT/REGION BIBLES N.T. PORTIONS TOTAL

Africa 153 293 219 665
Asia 129 232 224 585
Australia/Pacific 37 217 165 414
Europe 61 35 113 209
North America 8 28 40 75
Central/South America and
26 263 115 404
Caribbean
Constructed languages 1 0 2 3
TOTAL 414 1.068 873 2.355

A characteristic that we must take into account in the study of the Bible is that
at the beginning there were no divisions between chapters and verses , nor did
commas, periods and any other grammatical order exist, since that the first grammar
classes emerged in the Renaissance era during the 15th and 16th centuries AD In
the earliest Hebrew manuscripts the Bible was divided into verses, but the verses
were not numbered. Chapter divisions were added to Christian Bibles by the English
Archbishop Stephen Langton after the year 1200 and verse numbering is first found
in the Bombers' Bible (1547).

The terms Old and New Testament serve to refer to the "covenant" or
"covenant" sealed between God and the human race; These Old and New
Testament terms only came into use at the end of the 2nd century AD. to designate
the books of the Holy Scriptures. The OT was written in languages very different from
Spanish, mostly in the Hebrew language, this Hebrew language was originally written
without vowels; That is to say, only consonants were used, which is why there are
certain words that are difficult to find their true meaning; for example the tetragram
HWHY (in Hebrew), YHWH (in Spanish) which translated could be: Jehovah or

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Yahweh . On the other hand, the NT was written mostly in Greek, this language is
somewhat similar to Spanish, for example the word "baptisms" (in Greek) is written
baptism (in Spanish).

Another of the languages in which the Bible was written is Aramaic, which was
a writing language very similar to Hebrew. After the deportation from Babylon, this
language began to be used among the Jews , so much so that in the time of Jesus
Aramaic was the language in common use. The evangelist Mark translated several
words of the Lord Jesus that were spoken in Aramaic, such as:

 Talita Coiné = Girl get up (Mr. 5: 41)

 Corb á n = My offering to God (Mr. 7: 11)
 Efata = Be open (Mr. 7: 34)
 Eloi, Eloi, lama sabactani? = My God, my God Why have you forsaken me? (Mr.
15: 34)

YOUR SURVIVAL

The Bible, however, is not only unique for its survival during times without
printing, but also for its survival under many relentless onslaughts. For centuries
there were men who tried to destroy and burn it. Kings and Caesars, even religious
leaders, achieved it with fanatical zeal. Diocletian, in 303 AD, ordered the eradication
of all Christians and their holy book. It was the greatest attack against the Bible:
hundreds of thousands of Christians died and almost all the Bible manuscripts were
destroyed. However, the Bible quickly re-emerged, and the irony of history was that,
22 years later, Constantine, at the 1st Ecumenical Council, elevated the Bible to
infallible authority. He also commissioned Eusebius to make 50 copies of the Bible at
the government's expense. Something similar happened frequently. The French
rationalist, Voltaire, who died in 1778, dared to say that the Bible, after 100 years,
would only be an antique; But 50 years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society
opened its printing press and house to produce scores of Bibles.

The Roman Empire is followed by the Middle Ages. The Roman Church
deprived the people of the Bible so effectively that for centuries it was almost
unknown. Luther, he tells us, was already an adult when he saw a Bible. By conciliar
decisions and papal anathemas, Bibles were burned in public, and Bible readers
condemned, martyred, and burned alive by the Inquisition. After the Reformation, a
slow change came in this regard. In Germany a legion of rationalists emerged who
conceived the most savage and violent attacks. But since then the Bible is more
disseminated, read and loved than ever. The enemies are dead, their attacks
repulsed, and the Bible stands firm as a rock.

What book can be compared to it? It is the most popular, because it is the
most loved on earth. But the amazing thing is that, at the same time, it is the most
cited and criticized in the world. Not a chapter or a line was free from criticism; Is
there another book in literature to which this happens? Yes, there are many who
have also been highly criticized; but these fell into oblivion.

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CHAPTER II
AUTHENTICITY OF YOUR INSPIRATION
Today there are different hypotheses about the authenticity of the inspiration
of the Bible, of which we will only deal with two of them:

1. What we Christians believe

2. What "liberals" believe (this name is given to a group of people who distort the
sound doctrines of the Bible).

BELIEF OF CHRISTIANS

Christians add to the belief of what the tradition of pious Jews has believed ,
that the books of the AT. have been inspired by God (2 Tim. 3:16 , 1 Pet. 1:21 ) and
written by Moses and the prophets, we believe that these books were written by the
men whose names appear at the head of the books, and that they wrote on the dates
that have traditionally been accepted; Furthermore , we believe that the words that
the Lord Jesus declared are effective and true and the Lord declared that Moses
wrote the books of the Law ( Lk . 24:27; 20:28; Mr. 12:26; Jn . 7: 19).

Regarding the NT, Jesus said that his teachings were the words of his Father
(John . 14: 10; 17: 14). The apostle Peter refers to the epistles of the apostle Paul as
“Scriptures,” thus cataloging them as part of the Word of God (1 Pet . 3: 15 – 16).

Below I cite some evidence of why the Bible is divinely inspired, written by
Luisa Jeter in the book Which Way? P. 122.

 Its admirable unity of theme and lack of contradictions despite having been
written by some forty different men, in a period spanning sixteen hundred
years.
 Its superiority to everything else produced by the human race in terms of
morality, literature and laws.
 The fulfillment of his prophecies and his promises.
 Its indestructibility.
 Its universality. It can satisfy the human heart in all times, places and
conditions of life.
 Its reference to scientific truths unknown to writers.
 Confirmation of the veracity of its historical parts.
 His transformative power in those who believe his words.

LIBERAL BELIEF

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Representation of a Scribe
The other group called "liberals" seems to adhere to the teachings of the
apostate Wellhausen, Julius Wellhausen was born in Germany in 1844 and died in
the city of Gottingen in 1918. This man was a theology professor, but he did not
believe in supernatural or divine intervention in the history of humanity, he renounced
his faith in God and therefore in miracles. Already being an atheist by conviction , he
dedicated many years of his life to the study of the books of the OT. going so far as
to develop a theory in which he maintained that the majority of the books of the OT.
They received their current form after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian
captivity in 536 BC . According to Wellhausen, the Pentateuch was not written by
Moses , but rather constitutes a compilation of books that he himself invented and
which he calls:

- Jehovist Source

- Elohísta Source

- Priestly Source

In his opinion , Moses did not write any of the books that bear his name, nor
did Isaiah or Daniel write the books that bear his name.

It seems that Wellhausen adopted the theory of the French doctor Jean Astruc
who presented his theory on the origin of the Bible under the name of " Documentary
Hypothesis " . In it he sought to demonstrate through the analysis of the literary styles
of the Pentateuch, that this was only a compilation of fragments of myths, legends
and traditions, according to Astruc, several men wrote it centuries later . of Moses ,
and notes that his writings have been compiled, corrected, and attributed to Moses .
The most curious thing about all this is that the theory of this atheist has infiltrated the

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intellectual spheres of Christianity and has become a teacher and guide to many
evangelicals and Catholics , teaching this in seminars. and Biblical Institutes.

The Scriptures are very clear when it comes to stating that the first five books
of the Bible (the so-called Pentateuch) were the work of Moses. In the same
Pentateuch it is indicated that Moses wrote it ( Ex . 17:14; 24:4; 34:27; Num . 33:1-2;
Dt . 31:9 and 22) and this testimony is repeated elsewhere in the OT. ( Jos . 1:7-8;
Thu . 3:4; 1 R. 23; 2 R. 14:6; 21:8; 2 Cr . 25:4; Esd . 6:16). As if that were not
enough, the testimony of Jesus ( Mt. 8:4; Mr. 7:10; 10:5; Lk . 20:37; Jn . 5:47; 7:19,
etc.) and of the apostles ( Acts . 3:22; 15:5-21, etc.) is unanimous in this regard: the
author of the Pentateuch was the one indicated in the Bible, that is, Moses.

Liberal theology has insisted that the

book of Isaiah was only partially written by this
prophet. According to it, while the first chapters,
in whole or in part, could be attributed to him,
from chapter 40 we would find the work of
different authors from the 6th century BC, that
is, after Isaiah by at least two centuries. . The
NT flatly denies this possibility and thus
attributes to Isaiah texts whose authorship is
denied by liberal theology ( Mt. 3:3 quote from
Isa . 40:3: Lk . 4 of Is . 61:1ff; Mt. Isa 8:17.
53:4; Mt. Isa 12:17 42:14). Once again the
dilemma of choosing between the testimony of
the Bible and that of liberal theology is imposed.

Among the texts whose authorship has

been especially denied by liberal authors is the
book of Daniel. Jesus himself attributes it to
Daniel, a prophet from the 6th century BC ( Mt.
24:15) On the contrary, liberal theology insists
that it was not written until the second century
BC, by an unknown author. Therefore, his
prophecies are not such because the work was
Printing of the first Bible
written later.

Liberal theology not only questioned the data that the Bible provides about the
OT but also almost immediately attributed the character of falsifications to the
writings of the NT, few of which, according to theological liberalism, had been written
by their authors. since, in reality, they were due to the hand of other anonymous
characters who had hidden under them.

The concepts taught by liberal theology would not be questioned if there were
not abundant historical material that demolishes all types of arguments contrary to
the orthodox doctrine of the Bible.

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CHAPTER III
THE ORIGINAL WRITINGS
A. FOR THE OLD TESTAMENT

We call "Old Testament" the set of Holy Books that Jews call tenakh. Torah,
Nebi'im, Ketubim, which means Law, Prophets and Writings, and which constitute, for
Jews and Christians, the oldest source of written divine revelation.

Unfortunately the original writings of the Bible do not survive today , they
probably disintegrated over time.

The Bible writers did not engrave their words on stones or metals; If not, they
used perishable materials, the oldest ones were written on papyrus and much later
on parchments, these two writing materials were threatened by humidity, mold and
various types of worms, tending to disappear more easily. the papyrus

When the original writings ceased to exist, these copies became the basis of
future manuscripts and so on, copies of other copies were made for centuries.

THE SOFERINES

The Hebrew term that translates the word "copyist" is So - Fér, which refers to
the action of counting and recording each word. In ancient Israel, being a copyist or
scribe became a profession ( Ezr . 7:6; Salt . 45: 1). The copyists or soferines were
professional people who lived dedicated to their work. They felt deep reverence for
the words they copied. Shortly after the originals were written, there was a need to
make copies, in fact at that time there was no photocopier, but copies were made by
hand.

The “soferim” can be considered the predecessors of the “masoretes”. In turn,

the soferines are the heirs of the “Scribes” who copied the biblical scrolls during the
time of exile and post-exile. For five hundred years the soferines were laying the
foundations for future vocalization and the establishment of a rabbinic “authorized
interpretation.”

Hillel (60 BC - 20 AD), was a sopherim, established in Jerusalem at the end of

the 1st century BC It was up to the Hillel school to begin the process to “officialize,”
within Judaism, a group of texts from the Hebrew Bible used in its native Babylon.
They selected a single textual tradition, which can be called “Proto-Masoretic” (prior
to the Masoretic texts); a text that had already existed homogeneously for some time

From that moment on, there was a strong tendency among rabbis and scribes
to not allow other lines of textual tradition (from the Hebrew Scriptures) to be
reproduced, except for the “Proto-Masoretic” ones, the others being erased at the
end of the 1st century AD. and at the beginning of the following century, only

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reflections of these texts remained, preserved in the “LXX” version, the “Samaritan
Pentateuch” and in quotes from apocryphal writings or the NT.

The representative figure of the period after the destruction of the Temple in
Jerusalem was Rabbi Akiba. His greatest effort was aimed at “fixing” the consonantal
text of the Hebrew Bible. Akiba was heir to the process begun in the time of Hillel.
Akiba, like his predecessors, maintained concern for textual purity, specifically the
conservation of the text inherited from the rabbinic schools (the “Proto-Masoretic”
text) and the “list” disseminated by Pharisee circles. To ensure the exclusive
predominance of the Proto Masoretics, very strict Laws were issued for their copying.

The movement toward “purity” of the text flourished in the second part of the
2nd century AD. under the leadership of Akiba.

The biblical scholar José Salguero maintains that in the “second period of the
history of the Hebrew text of the OT (1st century AD) to the 5th century AD) is
characterized by the definitive fixation of the text (consonantal). A recension is
chosen and variants are eliminated, thus establishing a uniform text that
prevails over the others and spreads rapidly . This was the work of the 'sópherim'
or scribes, and will be perfected by the Masoretes."

THE MASORETS

The term “ masorah ” derives from the Hebrew root “to bind.” Others consider
that it comes from the verb "transmit." The term “masorah” means “tradition.” The
“masorah” begins to develop around the year 500 AD and is valid until the year 1000
AD. of C.

Starting in the 6th century, the “Masoretes” took the place of the “Sóferim”, the
ancient Scribes, in charge of the care and transmission of the biblical text. In addition
to the work of copying, the Masoretes introduced a textual apparatus in the light of
which the Holy Scripture was interpreted. Hebrew scholars dedicated themselves to
incorporating and unifying the traditions of punctuation, vocalization, accentuation,
and division of Hebrew texts, which until then had a consonantal structure. Their
handwritten copies were called "masorethical texts . "

The masorah fulfills a double function:

 Preserve the integrity of the text.

 Interpret the text.

There were three “traditions” or “schools” of Masoretes: one in Babylon ,

another in Palestine and another in Tiberias (Galilee). As the centuries passed, the “
Tiberian tradition ” took over. In Tiberias, two “currents” coexisted, that of the Ben
Asher family, and that of the Ben Naphtalí . Each one represented certain traits of
its own. Between the two, that of Ben Asher prevailed. The most famous of the Ben
Ashers was the school's last expositor, Aaron Ben Moses Ben Asher . The Aleppo

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and Saint Petersburg Codices (the oldest Masoretic texts available) are attributed to
this family.

The Masoretes assumed responsibility for making copies of the OT Scriptures.

In order to check their work, the Masoretes used various systems. In order not to
omit a single letter of the biblical text, they went to the extreme of counting both the
words and the letters in each book, and after copying a book, they counted the words
in the copy, to be sure that no They had omitted or added no words to the copy.

To give us an idea of what the Masoretes did to preserve the scriptures, I list a
series of conditions that they followed when carrying out their work of copying one
manuscript of the OT Scriptures to another. These characteristics should give you
and me a high level of confidence in the faithful translations that we have of the Bible
today, which corroborates the supernatural origin of the Word since no other book in
history is or has been. been handed down as the Bible.

1. The animal skins used for a manuscript had to be from clean animals.
2. The skins had to be prepared by a Jew.
3. The pieces of skin had to be joined together with thread made from clean
animal hair.
4. Each scroll had to have the same number of columns and them of the
same size.
5. Columns had to be 30 letters wide and no less than 48 or more than 60
lines.
6. The column had to start with a complete letter and end with no less than 4
words.
7. The ink had to be black prepared in a special way.
8. The copyist was obliged to write everything by copying without doing
anything from memory.
9. The space between consonants had to be measured with the width of a
thread or a hair
10. The space between sections had to be equal to nine consonants.
11. Three lines of space had to be left between each book.
12. The fifth book of Moses was to end with a complete line .
13. The name of God should not be written with a freshly soaked pen and.
14. The scribe when copying the manuscript must have been dressed in
complete Jewish attire.

As you see, are the OT copies of the Masoretic text reliable or not?

It is said of the Masoretes that they calculated which letter was in the middle of
the Pentateuch, which phrase was found in the middle of each book, and how many
times each letter of the alphabet appeared in the Hebrew Scriptures; since it is stated
that they counted the 815,140 letters of the Hebrew Scriptures. Such thoroughness
guarantees a high degree of fidelity in the preservation and purity of the original text
of the OT. of the Word of God.

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B. FOR THE NEW TESTAMENT

In the origins of the Church, the rule of faith was found in the oral teaching of
the apostles . As time passed, the urgent need was felt to put in writing the teachings
of the Lord Jesus and the most outstanding features of his life. This was the origin of
the gospels.

On the other hand, the apostles fed the faithful spiritually through letters,
according to the problems that arose. This was the origin of the Epistles .

In the middle of the 1st century they began to copy and collect the divinely
inspired writings of the novo testamentary apostles and prophets. Where, first
perhaps Rome knew the Gospel of Mark (who, as a companion and expositor of
Peter, wrote there) and Syria had the Gospel of Matthew, while a group of believers
from various towns had that of Luke, and Ephesus that of John , there these 4
gospels seem to have been assembled, at the end of the 1st century, in a single
volume that was called “The Gospel”. By that time, the letters that Paul had written to
various churches and people were already collected, and a collection circulated
through the churches under the title of “The Apostle.” In this collection, the book The
Acts of the Apostles was very interesting as an illustration; It was a writing by Luke,
which with his Gospel must have formed a single book. Along with these volumes,
the letters of other apostles and "apostolic men" as well as the Apocalypse of John,
were recognized as of divine origin and admitted into the NT canon as early as the
2nd century AD. The Bible was not only completely written, but also began to
circulate in complete volumes. This Bible contained the OT in the Greek Septuagint
version, and the Greek NT in which it had been written. When the codex (Codex)
emerged in the 3rd century, for the first time it was possible to compile the Bible into
a single volume. Not a single complete Bible has been preserved, partly because the
material used was almost always perishable papyrus, and partly because some
Caesars (specifically Diocletian, late 3rd century) attacked the Bible and destroyed
large quantities. of them.

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CHAPTER IV
THE MANUSCRIPTS
The manuscripts are hand-made copies on parchments of lamb, goat or
donkey skin.

A. MANUSCRIPTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls beginning in 1947, we did not
possess OT manuscripts prior to the 9th and 10th centuries AD. The most complete
collection of these manuscripts existing today is that of the Leningrad Library,
organized by the Russian Jew Abraham Firkowitsh (1785-1874).

Let us mention some of the most important of them, which have served in the
past for the construction of the Hebrew text:

 The Cairo codex (6th - 7th centuries AD) contains the prophets. In 1896, some
200,000 fragments were discovered in a chamber of the Cairo synagogue
called the genizah, where biblical manuscripts that were no longer suitable for
liturgical use were stored.

 The Aleppo codex (year 930) is currently in Jerusalem; contains the entire AT.

 The Leningrad Codex (year 1008) was the basis of the Hebrew text of Kittel's
Bible, which has served as the basis of many translations.

 The Pentateuch codex of the British Museum (year 916).

 The Reuchlin Codex of the Prophets (year 1105).

 The small Nash papyrus (1st or 2nd century BC) contains a part of the
Decalogue and the beginning of the Shema pericope (Prayer that Jews had to
recite every day), discovered in 1902 in Egypt.

There are many other manuscripts, mostly fragmentary. These are the most
important ones that the Masoretic text transmits to us. But, with the discoveries of the
Dead Sea scrolls in the Judean Desert starting in 1947, ( See chapter VII The
Qumran Manuscripts ). Let's just say that they contain copies of practically all the
books of the OT and that some of their manuscripts date back to the 1st, 2nd and
possibly 3rd centuries BC.

B. NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS

More than 5,300 ancient Greek manuscripts are known to contain the text
(complete or incomplete) of the NT. In addition, some 10,000 ancient manuscripts
with copies of the NT in Latin and another 9,300 with versions in Syriac, Coptic,
Armenian, Gothic and Ethiopic have survived to this day. totaling more than 24,000
ancient NT manuscripts, a quantity much greater than that corresponding to any
other literary work of Antiquity, except the OT. The text variations found in these

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manuscripts are very small and do not substantially affect the main Christian
doctrines.

The papyri, due to their age, are very important in the history of the
transmission of the text. The most important are:

 The Ryland papyrus, discovered by Roberts in 1920 and published in 1935. It

is the oldest fragment of the NT. It was found in Egypt and contains some
verses from the Gospel of John ( Jn. 18:31-33; 37-38); The papyri were better
preserved in Egypt thanks to the very dry climate. For about 50 years , experts
have focused on the papyri that filled the mummies of that country . It is said
that when there was a dead person and they wanted to embalm him and turn
him into a mummy according to their custom, they took out his entrails and
then filled them with all kinds of papyrus that were at hand, so this Gospel of
John, which was written after the other three gospels, was already defined
between the 1st and 2nd centuries AD

 The fragments discovered by M. TO. Chester Beatty, it is about 30 pages with

passages from the gospels and facts.

As specialists point out, establishing the list of New Testament papyri has not
been a simple task. Only after many publications and articles has the definitive
relationship of these papyri been established.

It is in 1947 when E. Brady invited scientists to already compile a list of the

Greek papyri of the New Testament. His suggestion was accepted by Metzger, who
that same year published a first list of papyri in Greek corresponding to the NT, a list
that amounted to a total of 54 papyri. In 1951 another specialist, named Maldfeld,
raised the list to 62.

Currently the list of NT papyri amounts to 116. These papyri are numbered,
and are known by the letter P followed by a number: P1, P2, etc.

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CHAPTER V
CLASSIFICATION OF GREEK MANUSCRIPTS
There are four kinds of Greek manuscripts :

1. the papyri (fragmentary).

2. The uncials or capitals (codes)
3. the lowercase or cursive ones (codes)
4. the lectionaries

The Uncial or Capital Codices.- It comes from the Latin “Uncia” which means
“Inch”. They are made up of Greek capital letters with no space between the words
and no punctuation marks. These copies go from the 4th century to the 10th century,
and are close to 700 in number.

The main uncial manuscripts are:

The Vatican codex (B).

Some scholars maintain that this manuscript was one of fifty copies of the
Bible ordered by Emperor Constantine from Egypt. It was written in the 4th century
and is written on vellum ( marinated and highly polished cow or calf skin, which is
mainly used for painting or writing on it) . It was deposited in the Vatican library from
1475 - 1481, where it is still located. It is not known with certainty what its origin is;
Most place its origin in Egypt or Alexandria, although there are others who place it in
Caesarea. The text is written in three columns of continuous writing per page. The
accents were added possibly the 10th or 11th century.

Contains the entire Bible (Old and New Testament) with some gaps.
Specifically, Acts ends in chapter 9:13. The beginning and end of the codex are
defective. 591 pages of the OT and 142 of the NT are preserved. Two copyists
probably worked on this codex in the OT and one of them in the New.

The original text of the Vatican Codex has been subject to various corrections.
This can be seen in the following photos:

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The Sinaiticus codex ( ). (Called Aleph, first letter of the Hebrew alphabet)

It is written on vellum. Dated in the 4th century.

It was discovered in 1848 by a young German named
Tischendorf in the Saint Catherine Convent on Mount
Sinai. It is generally believed to have been written in
Egypt.

In 1844, when Tischendorf was not yet 30 years

old and was already a professor at the University of
Leipzig, he began a journey through the Near East in
search of biblical manuscripts. While visiting the
monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai, he had
the opportunity to observe a garbage basket containing
some sheets of parchment, which was going to be Tischendorf
used to feed the
fire in the stove. Upon examining them, he
found that it was a copy of the Septuagint
Version of the OT. Tischendorf managed to
remove no less than 43 leaves from the basket,
while the monks casually told him that… two
identical baskets had just been burned in the
fireplace! Moments later, when shown other
portions of the same codex (it contained all of
Isaiah and the fourth book of Maccabees), he
warned the monks that such things were too
valuable to feed the fire. With the 43 sheets he
was allowed to retain, which contained portions
of the First Book of Chronicles, Jeremiah,
Nehemiah and Esther, he made a publication in
1846, naming such documents as the Frederick
Augustanus codex.

Codex Sinaiticus In 1853, Tischendorf revisited the

monastery in the hope of finding other portions of the same manuscript. However, the
joy shown with the previous discovery had made the monks more cautious, and they
were unable to obtain anything additional to the manuscript. In the year 1859,
Tischendorf's travels again took him to Mount Sinai, this time under the auspices of
the Tsar of Russia, Alexander II. The day before his departure, Tischendorf
presented the abbot of the monastery with a copy of the edition of the Septuagint that
he had recently published in Leipzig. It was then that the abbot told him that he also
owned a similar copy; and immediately afterwards, he took out of his closet a
manuscript wrapped in a red cloth. There, before the astonished eyes of the scholar,
lay the treasure that he had long desired to find. Trying to control his emotions and
appearing normal, Tischendorf asked to briefly leaf through the codex, and after
retiring to his room, he spent the entire night in the indescribable joy of studying the
manuscript, as his Latin diary states "quippe dormere nefas videbatur." Truly It would
have been sacrilege to sleep. During that night, he was able to verify that the

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document contained more than he would have expected, since not only was most of
the OT present, but the NT was complete, intact and in an excellent state of
preservation, with the addition of two Christian works. from the 2nd century: The
Epistle of Barnabas and an extensive portion of the Shepherd of Hermas, known until
then only by its title.

The next morning, Tischendorf tried

unsuccessfully to buy the manuscript. He
then asked permission to take the
document to Cairo to study it, but this was
not granted either, and he had to leave
without it. Later, while he was in Cairo,
where the monks also had a small
monastery, Tischendorf asked the superior
of the monastery to send for the
manuscript. The superior accepted on the
condition that Bedouin messengers be
exchanged, who would bring and return the
manuscript notebook by notebook (eight to
ten sheets at a time), while Tischendorf
proceeded to copy it. Having as copyists
two Germans who were in Cairo, a
pharmacist and a librarian, who had
knowledge of Greek, and under the careful
supervision of Tischendorf, he began his
work of transcribing the 110,000 lines of the
text, which ended in a period of two St. Catherine's Mount
months. The next stage of negotiations
involved what we might euphemically call "ecclesiastical diplomacy." At that time, the
position of highest authority among the monks of Sinai was vacant. Tischendorf
suggested that it would be very advantageous for them to make an appropriate gift to
the Tsar of Russia, whose influence as protector of the Greek church they desired,
and... what could be a better gift than the old manuscript? After long negotiations, the
precious codex was given to Tischendorf for publication in Leipzig and to be
presented to the Tsar on behalf of the monks. The definitive publication of the codex
was made in the 20th century by the University of Oxford (NT 1911; AT .1922). After
the Russian Revolution, since the Soviet Union was not interested in the Bible, and
due to economic needs, they negotiated its sale with those in charge of the British
Museum for 100,000 Pounds Sterling, an amount that was paid in halves between
the English Government and a popular subscription. , from individuals and
congregations in England and the United States. At the end of 1933, the manuscript
was deposited in the Museum of London, where it remains to this day.

Although it is a very old uncial, unfortunately it has been corrupted by

ecclesiastical hands.
The Alexandrian codex (A).

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Cyril Lucar, patriarch of Constantinople, gave it as a present to Charles I of
England. This manuscript is believed to have been written in the first half of the 5th
century. contains a large part of the OT and includes the entire NT. It is the best
representative of the “Textus Receptus. Furthermore, this codex harmonizes with
the mass of Greek cursive codices.

During the first centuries of Christianity, a horrific persecution broke out

against Christians that lasted until the arrival of Constantine. In the year 303, the
Roman emperor Diocletian decreed the destruction of all Christian books. Anyone
who did not hand over all the sacred writings to the authorities was sentenced to
death. Due to the persecutions of the first centuries, only a few fragments of the NT
dating from before the 4th century are preserved today. Satan used the difficulty that
Christians in the first centuries had to face and the great diffusion of Greek
philosophy to disorient and confuse many.

The Bezae codex (D).

It dates back to the 6th century. Bilingual codex with the Greek and Latin texts
of the Synoptic Gospels and Acts. Theodore of Beza obtained it from the monastery
of Saint Irenaeus at Lyons, and presented it to the University of Cambridge in 1581.

Other codices are: Codex Ephraemi Rescriptu (C), from the 5th century; Codex E,
from the 8th century, etc.

The Cursives or Minuscules.- They are manuscripts written in small letters in a

running style (" cursives "), exceeding 2,500 in number, and dating from the 9th
century to the 15th century. Each of them is numbered. The most important are: 1,
which dates from the 10th century, and contains the entire NT except the
Apocalypse, 33, from the 11th century, contains the entire NT except the
Apocalypse, etc.

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CHAPTER VI
TYPES OF TEXTS
The numerous manuscripts have been cataloged and placed in what specialists
call "text families." These “families” were formed in relation to a major center of
ancient Christianity: Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, Carthage, and Rome. The
copies that were made from the first copy of any biblical writing that reached Rome
reflect characteristics peculiar to that important center. And so it happens with the
rest of the key places. Thus we have the following families of texts:

1. Alexandrian Text

Its characteristics are brevity and austerity. That is, the Alexandrian is generally
shorter than other types of text, and does not exhibit the degree of grammatical
polish that characterizes the Byzantine type of text and to a lesser extent the
Caesarian type of text. The two main witnesses of the Alexandrian type of text are:

 The Vatican Codex and

 The Sinaiticus codex
2. Western Text

This type of text was common in Italy, Gaul, North Africa, and elsewhere,
including Egypt. It can also go back to the second century. Used by several of the
fathers such as Cyprian, Tertullian, Irenaeus, and Tatian, its presence in Egypt is
demonstrated by two papyri: Papyrus 38, around 300 AD and Papyrus 48, around
the end of the 3rd century.

The most important Greek manuscripts that represent the Western type of text
are:

 The Bezae codex, from the 5th or 6th century, which contained the Gospels and
Acts.
 The Claromontanus codex, from the 6th century, which contained Pauline
Epistles and,
 The Washingtonianus codex, from the end of the 4th century, which contained
Mark chapter 1, verse 1 to chapter 5, verse 30.
Likewise, the old Latin versions are notable witnesses of the Western type of
text, and are found within major groups, such as the African, Italian and Hispanic
forms of the old Latin text. The main characteristic of the Western text type is its
intense paraphrase (comments).

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3. Caesarean Text

It appears to have originated in Egypt. It is supported by the Chester Beatty

papyrus 45. It was perhaps brought by Origen to Caesarea, where it was used by
Eusebius and others. From Caesarea it was taken to Jerusalem, where it was used
by Cyril and by Armenians who in early times had a colony in Jerusalem. Armenian
missionaries brought the Caesarian type of text to Georgia, where it influenced the
Georgian Version, as well as the 9th-century Greek manuscript, the Korideti codex. It
seems, then, that the Caesarian text type had a long and eventful career. According
to the views of most scholars, it is an Eastern text, and is characterized by a mixture
of Western and Alexandrian readings.

4. Byzantine Text

It characterizes him for appearing complete and very lucid. This type of text
was taken to Constantinople, where it was widely distributed throughout the
Byzantine Empire. Its best representative today is the Alexandrian codex and the
great mass of tiny manuscripts. Thus, during the period from the 6th century until the
invention of the printing press in the 15th century, the Byzantine type of text was
recognized as the authoritative text, it was the most widely circulated and the most
accepted.

This is the most authoritative NT text known to the history of Christianity, it has
been called throughout history by six different names:

 Byzantine Text
 Imperial Text
 Traditional Text
 Text of the Reformation
 Majority Text
 Textus Receptus or Textus Receptus, the most common name given to the
universal text of the NT beginning in the late 16th century.

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CHAPTER VII
GREEK TEXTS
The first printed Greek NT was prepared by Spanish scholars in 1514, under
the patronage of Cardinal Cisneros. Its preparation took almost ten years and it was
published together with the OT. It took the name “Complutense polyglot Bible”
because it was in several languages and was published in Alcalá (Complutum, in
Latin). The OT was printed in three columns associated with the Hebrew text, the
Latin Vulgate, and the Greek Septuagint version. The NT appeared in Greek and
Latin. However, this was not the first Greek edition of the NT to see the public. Its
publication was only authorized after 1520.

The Textus Receptus or Received Text

Meanwhile, the Dutchman Erasmus of Rotterdam

(1469-1536) published at least five editions of the Greek
text of the NT in 1516, which was a publishing success.
Erasmus's Greek text was very important. Luther and
translators of the 16th and 17th centuries, such as Reina
y Valera (Spanish), Almeida (Portuguese), and the
English translation of the King James Version, used
Erasmus' text.

Estefano published four other editions in the years

1546 to 1551. Teodoro Beza also published ten editions.
This family of Greek Texts is known by the name of
Textus Receptus or rather for us Received Text . This Erasmus of Rotterdam
is the name given to the edition of the Greek Text made
by the Elzevir brothers in the year 1633, who wrote in the presentation of their
publication the phrase: “So here you have the text now received by all (Textum ab
Ómnibus Receptum) on which we give you with nothing changed or corrupted” This
is where the term Textus Receptus comes from. This Greek version of the NT and its
subsequent editions were widely disseminated, recognized and accepted as the
normative text of the Protestant church.

Pablo Besson, a Swiss missionary well documented in this matter, affirms that
the TR served as the basis for translating the NT of the version called Peshitta. This
version was made around the year 170 AD. This data involves extraordinary
importance with regard to the age of the TR. The Peshitta version was followed by
the Itala, the Vulgate and others, all translated from the TR.

Dr. Wilkinson tells us that the first editor of the TR was Lucian of Antioch, in
the third century, who brought many out of the uncertainty they found themselves in
due to the editions and biblical commentaries of the philosopher Origen.

The Parisian editor Robert Etienne (Stephanus, in Latin; 1503-1559) used

Erasmus' text for his Greek edition of the NT to which he introduced for the first time

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the critical apparatus (list of "variants"), and the division into verses, which We
continue to use it today.

The Textus Críticus or Critical Text

The British b. F. Westcott (1825-1901) and F. J.

Hort (1828-1892) published a reconstructed edition of
the Greek text of the NT that achieved international
recognition. This work was carried out during the 19th
century. The Greek text of Westcott and Hort was
barely modified by Nestle and, starting from this, the
Greek NT was created, published by the SB. This one
in whose edition even Carlo Martini, a (Catholic
prelate), collaborated.

According to Westcott and Hort's own

confession, the basis of their Greek text of the NT is
fundamentally what is contained in the manuscripts
known as Sinaiticus and Vaticanus. Defenders of the Westcott
new biblical versions insist on the antiquity and
accuracy of these two manuscripts, which, supposedly, would justify alterations to the
biblical text.

AND. Nestle (1851-1913) elaborated the modern

TR in his Greek NT published in 1898, which is actually
more like the TC. Indeed, Nestle used the Greek text
produced by Westcott and Hort, comparing them with a
large number of variants from other New Testament
manuscripts. This work was complemented by his son E.
Nestle (1883-1972) and by K. Aland, who later joined. The
edition of the Greek NT, which bears his name (Nestle-
Aland), revised and updated with the study of recently
discovered papyri and manuscripts, has become the base
text of numerous modern translations of the NT.
Hoth
Naturally, even briefly examining this data raises a
series of compelling questions. Why did Westcott and Hort prefer Sinaiticus and
Vaticanus as the basis of their Greek NT text rather than the TR? What led them to
make such a decision that contradicted the logic, knowledge and history of
Christianity over almost two millennia? Was it a simple mistake? Of mere ignorance
combined with good faith? The choice of Westcott and Hort was conscious but was
not based on ignorance, but on much murkier and more dangerous motivations. (
See Conspiracy against the Holy Scriptures written by Dr. César Vidal Manzanares)

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CHAPTER VIII
TEXTUAL CRITICISM vs. THE RECEPTUS
TEXT
The Textus Receptus is a majority, older and more reliable text:

Faced with the painful characteristics suffered by the Sinaitic and Vatican
manuscripts, the TR of the NT presents some notes of enormous interest.

1. The TR is a TM. Just over ninety-five percent of the NT manuscripts that have
come down to us coincide with the TR.
2. The TR is an older text. The TR not only predates the 4th century (the century in
which the Sinaiticus and the Vatican were written) but it served as the basis for
the first translations of the NT into vulgar languages and was the one cited by the
first Christian authors, the so-called Fathers of the Church.

The examples that can be mentioned in this regard are innumerable and we
have to limit ourselves to just a few. Suffice it to say that the Peshitta carried out
around 170 AD; That is, about two centuries before the Sinaiticus and the Vatican he
used the TR; that the Gallic church of southern France (177 AD) used the TR. and
that the Italic Version (250 AD) used the TR.

Later, in the 4th century, the TR continued to be preferred to texts such as the
Sinaiticus or the Vatican that already existed. Thus the Gothic version (4th century)
used the TR; Matthew's Codex W (4th-5th century) reproduced the TR and the
Alexandrian Codex (5th century) follows the TR.

No less significant is the case of the NT quotations contained in the writings of

the Church Fathers. These, despite quoting from memory not infrequently,
overwhelmingly follow the TR. For example, the text of 1 Timothy 3:16 where it is
stated that "God was manifested in the flesh" is cited in the same way by Ignatius,
Barnabas and Hippolytus (2nd century), Diodorus of Tarsus (d. 370), Gregory of
Nyssa (d. 394), John Chrysostom (d. 407), Athanasius and Euthalius (5th century),
and a long etcetera, not a single one of the Fathers of the Church opposes the text
as it appears in the TR.

Of 254 Greek manuscripts, 252 present the term "God" as in the TR; two read
"hos" (which) and neither one contains "Christ" like the Popular Version.

3. The TR is a more reliable text. From all of the above it follows, logically, that the
TR is a much more reliable text than the one prepared by Westcott and Hort from
the Sinaiticus and the Vatican. The quotations from the NT contained in the
Fathers of the Church and in the lectionaries coincided with the TR, but it also
served as a basis since the second century for translations of the NT into vulgar
languages. Not only that. The TR was also the basis for the immense work in
favor of the dissemination and reading of the Bible that began at the beginning of

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the 16th century. It was the text used by the Complutense Polyglot Bible
published in Alcalá de Henares, Spain in 1522 and, later, by the biblical
translations of Luther into German (1522), William Tyndale into English (1525),
and Oliveton into French (1535). , from Coverdale into English (1535), from
Matthews into English (1537), from Taverners (1539), from Geneva (1557-60),
from Reina into Spanish (1569), into Czech (1602), from Diodati into Italian
( 1607) and from King James to English (1611).

The TR also formed the basis for the editions of the Greek NT by Erasmus
(1516), Stephanus (1546-51), Beza (1598) and Elzevir (1624). That this was the
case has an indisputable logic. The scholars, the reformers, the theologians who
often had to risk their lives and property always opted for the TM, the TR, as a basis
for their study, their teaching and their translations of the NT. After all, that was the
text that had the practically unanimous support of Christianity, at least since the
second century.

The abandonment of the Majority Text

The first of them is the abandonment of the MT, also known as the Received
Text or TR of the NT, and its replacement by a TC, which currently constitutes the
basis for translating the NT into almost any language, regardless of who performs the
translation. Thus, in addition to serving for the VP and the NIV, it has been used by
Catholic versions such as the Pilgrim's Bible (1993) or the Bible House Bible (1993).

The two most popular manual editions of the Greek text today, the Nestle-
Aland and the SBU, actually vary little from the Westcott and Hort text.

The Sinaiticus and the Vatican are corrupt texts

To begin with, it must be noted at the outset that both the Sinaiticus and the
Vatican manuscripts constitute texts of the type that is often called corrupt. This
means that not only are they incomplete works, but they have also been subject to
alterations that substantially invalidate their value.

To mention just some data in this regard, it should be noted that the Vatican
omits the entire First Letter to Timothy, the entire Second Letter to Timothy, the entire
Letter to Titus, almost all of Genesis (Genesis 1 to 46:29), extensive portions of
Samuel , Kings, Nehemiah, the last twelve verses of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus'
prayer on the cross asking for forgiveness from his enemies, the agony of Jesus in
Gethsemane, the last four and a half chapters of the letter to the Hebrews, thirty-one
three of the Psalms and a long etcetera. However, it adds apocryphal books such as
Tobias, Judith or the story of Bel and the dragon, all of them, by the way, contained
in the VP God Speaks Today. Likewise, Job presents additions in about 400 verses
according to the teachings of a disciple of the heretic Marcion.

In relation to the TR, it omits at least 2,877 words, adds 536, replaces 935,
moves 2,098 and modifies 1,132. In total it contains 7,578 divergences. Its

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importance, however, is enormous since some nine-tenths of the alterations of the
Greek NT in relation to the TR derive from this manuscript.

In the case of Sinaiticus, the character of corrupt text is not minor. In fact, we
find a document in which no less than ten different scribes made modifications over a
period of no less than seven hundred years. As noted by Tischendor, its discoverer,
the Sinaiticus contains no less than 14,800 alterations. It is not strange, therefore,
that in the Gospels alone he omits about four thousand words, adds about a
thousand, and changes places and alters another three thousand. In addition to this,
it contains about fifteen hundred readings that do not appear in other manuscripts. In
relation to the TR, the differences reach almost nine thousand, practically one per
verse. As in the case of the Vatican, omissions are also frequent. It lacks the endings
of Mark and John; of thirty-nine words in John 19:20-1, of twenty words in John 20:5-
6; of nineteen words from Mark 1:32-4; of fourteen words in Mark 15:47; from
passages like John 5:4; Matthew 16:2-3; Romans 16:24; Mark 16:9-20; I John 5:7;
Acts 8:37; Genesis 23:19-24, 46; Numbers 5:27-7:20; I Chronicles 9:27-19:27, etc.;
from books such as Exodus, Joshua, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings, Hosea, Amos,
Micah, Ezekiel, Daniel and Judges. However, it adds apocrypha such as Bel and the
Dragon. Tobías and Judit, all of them present at the VP God speaks today.

Let us finally point out that the Sinaiticus and the Vatican are not even
coincident with each other. The Vaticanus contains about eight thousand alterations
and the Sinaiticus about nine thousand in relation to the TR but these variations are
not even the same in the two manuscripts. In fact, Sinaiticus and the Vatican
disagree with each other no less than a dozen times per page.

Certainly, analyzed from a purely scientific and rational point of view, it is

obvious that attempting to base an adequate version of the correct Greek NT on
manuscripts so loaded with deficiencies is less than acceptable. In fact, it constitutes
unmitigated nonsense.

The Sinaiticus and the Vatican are late texts

In addition to being corrupt, both the Sinaiticus and the Vatican are manuscripts
that, compared to the TR, are not only not ancient but modern. Both belonging to the
4th century, they are already later than various previous translations of the Bible,
sometimes even in two centuries that logically started not from the Sinaiticus and the
Vatican but from older Greek NT texts

The Sinaiticus and the Vatican are minority texts

In addition to being corrupt and late texts, the Sinaiticus and the Vatican add
another no less important negative circumstance. We are referring to the fact that the
Sinaiticus and the Vatican find minimal support within the set of Greek NT
manuscripts that have come down to us. In fact, only less than five percent of the
5,309 manuscripts that contain, in whole or in part, the Greek text of the NT coincide,
even partially, with the Sinaiticus or Vatican text. To make matters worse, as we have
already indicated, not even these two manuscripts are completely coincident with

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each other, since the number of discrepancies between the Sinaiticus and the
Vatican is spectacular.

Differences between the Majority Text and the Minority Text

The 1985 edition of the New Biblical Dictionary by Samuel Vila and Santiago
Escuaín states that the most accepted group today is the Egyptian (The Alexandrian
Text) (Page. 1144). Which is equivalent to saying that the text most accepted by
schoolchildren for new versions and revisions of the Bible today is the Tm, not the
Majority. Let's look at a summary of the differences between these two groups.

 The Vatican codex omits a large part of the biblical passages that it has been
convenient for the church of Rome to suppress.
 In numerous passages the manuscript repeats consecutive words and phrases.
A sample of the carelessness and apathy with which it was copied. It is easier to
find two consecutive verses in which these manuscripts (Vatican and Sinaiticus)
differ than two in which they agree.
 Dr. C. V. Manzanares says that "not a single Church father opposes the NT text
as it appears in the TR." David Otis Fuller claims that the more than 86,000
quotes made by the church fathers agree with the TR. Despite this, the Tm is
the most accepted today.
 These two manuscripts (Vatican and Sinaiticus) are believed to have been
revisions by Egyptian scribes based on the TM. Thus they adapted the Bible to
the demands of the philosophical beliefs widespread in Alexandria at that time.
 Why, if these two manuscripts that only coincide in 5% with the vast majority of
the more than 5,000 existing manuscripts, and the TR that coincides in more
than 90% of the cases with all known manuscripts, have they been of discarding
the TR and adopting the Tm as the "most accepted today?" The answer,
according to C. V. Manzanares, is in the great influence exerted by two
exegetes and members of the revising committee of 1870, who were also the
authors of the Greek text that has served as the basis for the one we have today
by Eberhard Nestlé and Kurt Aland. These exegetes were Brook Foss Westcott
and Fenton John Anthony Hort. These men were occultists, accepted Darwin's
theories of evolution, and denied the inerrancy and infallibility of the Scriptures.
They went from modernist liberalism to occultism; They became open enemies
of the Word of God. They made their own version of the Greek text, which
Nestlé and Aland then used to revise it and make the Greek edition that the Clie
publishing house has used to publish the Greek-Spanish Interlinear NT.
 It should be noted here that Dr. Henry Morris, founder of the Creation Research
Institute, has asserted that Eberhard Nestlé and Kurt Aland, like Westcott and
Hort, were supporters of theories of evolution, and that Nestlé and Aland were
among the skeptical theologians of Germany.
 In his book An Understandable History of the Bible, Samuel Gipp mentions at
least eight members of the review committee, not counting Westcott and Hort,

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who denied the inerrancy and inerrancy of the Bible. Differences between the
versions that are based on the TR and those that are based on the Minority.
CHAPTER IX
THE QUMRAN MANUSCRIPTS
We have solid and proven grounds for believing that
the Scriptures have been faithfully transmitted to the
present day. There are nearly 6,000 Hebrew
Scriptures, both complete and fragments, and more
than 5,000 Christian Scriptures in Greek. Among
them we can mention the manuscripts discovered in
1947 which represent a treasure of incalculable
value. It has been called "the greatest discovery of
modern times."

In the spring of 1947, twelve kilometers south of Jericho on the West Coast of
the Dead Sea, a goat herder found several jars in a cave called Qumrám , containing
scrolls of the Bible. , covered in bitumen and carefully wrapped in cloth. Written in
several languages: Aramaic, Greek and Hebrew. Most of them were written on
parchment, and the others on papyrus.

The first seven manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls have a story stranger
than fiction, although all the details of the following years will probably never be
known, the following is what is known: After hanging from a Bedouin tent pole For a
certain period of time, the seven original scrolls were sold separately to two Arab
experts in Bethlehem. From there four were sold (for a small amount) to Archbishop
Athanasius Jesche Samuel, of the Syrian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem from the
monastery of San Marco.

Scholars from the American

School of Oriental Research were the
ones who examined them, they were
the first to realize their antiquity. John
Trever photographed them in detail
and the great archaeologist William F.
Albright would soon announce that the
scrolls belonged to the period between
200 BC and 200 years AD Then the
first announcements were made that
the oldest manuscripts ever
discovered had been found in the
desert of Judah.
Interior of the Qumran cave
Three of the manuscripts found in the cave were sold to E. L. Sukenik,
archaeologist at the Hebrew University and father of Yigal Yadin (Israeli army general
who later became a famous archaeologist and excavator of Masada and Hazor). The
Egyptian-Israeli war of 1947-1949 caused the scrolls to fall into oblivion.

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Eventually all the manuscripts arrived at the Hebrew University under another
set of strange circumstances. After having toured the United States with his four
scrolls and having found no interested buyer, Metropolitan Samuel publishes an
advertisement in the Wall Street Journal. By coincidence (or divine providence?)
Yigal Yadin was in New York and read the message in the newspaper. Through
intermediaries he was able to purchase these invaluable manuscripts for an amount
close to $250,000. In February 1955 the Prime Minister of Israel announced that the
State of Israel had purchased the scrolls and all seven (including those previously
purchased by Professor Sukenik) would be preserved in a special museum at the
Hebrew University called the Shrine of the Book, where they can be found. see
today.

By mid-1956, after the sixth campaign had ended, eleven grottoes had been
explored and most of the ruins near Khirbet Feshkra and Khirbet Qumran had been
excavated. The original seven scrolls were just the beginning. More than eight
hundred scrolls were discovered in total and thousands of fragments of all the Biblical
books except Esther have been found, as well as many other non-biblical texts.

It is estimated that these manuscripts were placed in the vases between the
2nd and 1st centuries BC. Therefore they have an age of more than 2,000 years .

The Roman scholar Pliny (24-69 AD) described the Qumran monastery as the
seat of a large colony of Essenes, this was a Jewish sect from the 1st century BC.
which called itself the New Alliance.

The Essenes lived in caves, huts or cells, like the ancient Hebrews. They only
met in the monastery to perform their common sacred acts, to pray and for meals.
They practiced humility, according to the prescriptions of their sect. Some groups
believe that the Scenians are the predecessors of Christianity.

The seven original manuscripts, from what has been called "cave 1" comprise
the following:

1) A well-preserved copy of Isaiah's prophecy completes the oldest copy of

an OT book ever discovered.
2) another fragment of Isaiah.

3) A commentary on the first two chapters of Habakkuk the commentator

explains the book allegorically in terms of the Qumran brotherhood.

4) The "Manual of Discipline" or "Community Standard" the most important

source of information about the religious sect at Qumran describes the
requirements for those who wish to enter the brotherhood.

5) The "Hymns of Thanksgiving" a collection of devotional "psalms" of

thanksgiving and praise to God.

6) the book of Genesis paraphrased in Aramaic.

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7) the "Rule of War" which deals with the fight of the "sons of light" and "the
sons of darkness" to occur in the "last days."

One of the copies of the book of Isaiah (the one that was complete) was
subjected to Carbon 14 ( a radioactive mole of carbon, which is formed in the
atmosphere , the content of carbon 14 allows dating the archaeological remains ),
giving an age of between 202 and 107 BC The Palaeographic method (Science that
studies the writing and signs of ancient texts), improved in recent years , has become
a fairly reliable method , allowing absolute dating and verification of the date returned
by Carbon 14, based on the comparison of the shape and position of the letters with
external sources, such as coins and dated inscriptions.

In a study, several specialists compared chapter 53 of Isaiah found among the

Dead Sea scrolls with the Masoretic text prepared many years later . The result of
the comparison was the following:

- Of the 166 words of Isaiah 53, only 17 letters were questioned.

- 10 of them are simply a matter of spelling that do not affect the meaning of
the message.

- 4 letters represent small changes in style, such as conjunctions.

- And the remaining 3 letters make up the word "Light", which had been
added in verse 11 and which does not affect the meaning of the message
too much.

In a thousand years it can be said that hardly a comma has been changed.
Habakkuk and Psalms were also complete. Fragments of almost all the books of the
OT have been found. This discovery was twofold, not only because the oldest
manuscripts of the OT were found, but also because when comparing them with the
modern versions of the Bible it was possible to see that all the exegetical, linguistic
and manuscript comparison work had been worth it; The modern texts of the Bible
were the same as those found at Qumran. This is one of the good reasons to trust in
the care and zeal of the Masoretes in preserving the original texts and doctrine.

Thus , the evidence confirms that the copyists were very faithful in their work
and profession , of course they made small errors; It must be understood that the
original writers were inspired by the Holy Spirit ; but the copyists and translators were
not, they were motivated by their love for God to do their jobs.

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CHAPTER X
THE CANON OF THE BIBLE
The word "CANON" comes from the Greek "KANON", which means rod, reed
and by extension a measuring instrument, a rule or standard. The term is applied to
the list of normative books: the biblical canon is the set of books that the church has
recognized as inspired by God. Currently there are two channels ; but in fact only one
of them is the true one.

The Vatican has created the terms " Protocanonical " and " Deuterocanonical "
to differentiate or separate the books from the canon accepted by the Hebrews.

The term protocanonical refers to the books in which both have in common .
The prefix "Proto" is used to denote superiority. On the other hand, the term
deuterocanonical refers to the seven (07) books that are not part of the Hebrew
canon. The prefix "Deuto" means second or inferior, it is also given the name "
Apocryphal books", the first to give this apocryphal qualification was the Catholic
writer Jerome (author of the Bible Latin Vulgate).

The apocryphal name is applied among Catholics to writings of a religious

nature or those that were not inspired; but they claim to have some divine origin or
were considered sacred.

According to the Lexus Dictionary, 1996 edition, the word "Ap or crifo" comes
from a synonym for false; because it means supposed, falsified or feigned.

The Old Testament Canon

We do not know when the Jewish canon of the Holy Books was definitively
closed. For some it would be in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah (5th century BC); for
others, in the time of the Maccabees (2nd century BC). The truth is that in the 1st
century AD the Jews had a collection of sacred books, which they considered
inspired by God.

The literary documents that had authority among the people of Israel multiplied
little by little. The book of the law of Moses was kept next to the ark of the covenant (
Deut. 31: 24 - 26), then Joshua, Moses' successor, attached what he had written (
Josh. 24: 26). The prophet Samuel, for his part, recorded the right of kings in a book
that he placed before the Lord ( 1 Sam. 10: 25). Hezekiah, king, ordered to collect
the sentences of Solomon ( Prov. 25:1).

But it is above all in the time of Josiah, king (640-608 BC), when recourse
began to be made to the authority of a written text, whose character as a sacred
code seems to have been officially recognized. Before the reign of Josiah there is no
evidence that the Mosaic Law enjoyed a universally recognized “canonical” authority.

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However, after the high priest Helkiah found “the book of the Law” in the
temple of the Lord ( 2 Kings. 22; 23; 2 Chron 34; 35), things changed radically. It is
not known whether the book found is to be identified with the entire Pentateuch, or
rather with only Deuteronomy. But the fact is that, from this moment on, “the book of
the Law” was considered something very sacred and the collection of the laws given
by God to Israel. In the books of Kings we already find the first explicit quotes from
“the Law of Moses” ( 1 Kings. 23; 2 R. 14: 6).

The prophets Isaiah ( Is 30:8 ; 34:16) and Jeremiah ( Jer 36:2-4 ; 27-32)
wrote their prophecies. And the work of the prophet Jeremiah is undoubtedly inspired
by the spirit of Josiah's reform. This same prophet has citations of previous prophets
( Jer 26:18 ; 49:14-16 = Mik 3:12 ; Abd 1:4), which seems to indicate that collections
of prophecies already existed.

After the Babylonian exile we have important scriptural testimonies, from

which we can deduce that almost all the protocanonical books were already gathered
in collections and were considered canonical. The biblical texts of this time make us
aware of three types of Sacred Books: the Law (Torah), the Prophets (Nebi'im) and
the Writings or Hagiographa (Ketubim).

The first testimony in this sense is that of the book of Nehemiah (8 - 9). In it it
is narrated that Ezra , priest and scribe, read and explained the Law of Moses before
the people. And, after listening to its reading, the people promised with an oath to
observe it, which seems to indicate that they recognized the canonical authority of
the Pentateuch.

The prophet Daniel states that “he was studying in the books the number of
the seventy years... which Jehovah spoke to Jeremiah the prophet” ( Dan. 9:2 ; Jer.
25: 11; 29: 10). This demonstrates quite clearly that a collection of Holy Books
already existed at that time.

By the year 132 BC It was stated that there already existed a triple division of
the Scriptures: The Law, The Prophets and other analogous writings.

The Hebrews have always believed that it was in the times of Ezra and Nehemiah
that the Canon of the Bible from the inspired books of the OT was established.

In the first century of our era we are already clearly given the number of the
sacred Books and their triple division: Law, Prophets and Hagiographers . However,
in some Jewish circles there were certain doubts about the canonicity of the Song of
Solomon, Proverbs, Hezekiah and Esther. For some they had to be excluded from
the collection of Holy Books and from the public lesson of the synagogue; for others
they had the same authority as the other Holy Books. This means that by then they
had already been received into the OT canon.

The NT contains countless quotations from the OT, although it does not
explicitly name the books. It seems that the books of Ruth, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther,
Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and Obadiah are not alluded to. But there is no

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doubt that the authors of the NT accepted and used the canonical books received by
the Jews.

Josephus Flavius (38-100 AD), in his book Against Apion (1: 7-8), composed
around the year 97-98 AD, writes that the Jews did not have thousands of books that
disagreed and contradicted each other, as happened between the Greeks, but only
twenty-two , which were justly considered divine and contained the history of the
past. The 22 books are distributed as follows: five of Moses, thirteen of the
prophetshttp://apologetica.org/ - _ftn6 and four other books that contained hymns of
praise to God and precepts of life for men. This text by Josephus Flavius is of great
importance, although it does not give us the names of the books. Which tells us that
at that time the canon of the Jews was already closed. This event seems to have
taken place, according to rabbinic tradition, at the Yamnia assembly (around 100
AD).

After the destruction of Jerusalem, the learned Jews devoted themselves with
great zeal to preserving what still remained from the past, especially the Holy
Scriptures. From the assembly of Yamnia, the canon already accepted a few
centuries before was definitively established.

There are quite a few ancient authors who attribute the 24-book canon of the
OT to Ezra. That is why it is usually called esdrino canon . This opinion was revived
again in the 16th century by the Jew Elijah the Levite (1549), who claimed that Ezra
had been helped in his work by the “members of the Great Synagogue.” Many
Protestants and Catholics followed Elijah the Levite, so much so that it became the
common opinion to this day.

For Protestants, Ezra would have definitively closed the canon, in such a way
that no more books were allowed to be added in the future; For Catholics, however,
the canonical compilation of Ezra had not been definitive. Therefore, the Alexandrian
Jews were able to add the deuterocanonical books later.

Josephus Flavius attributes the formation of the canon to the time of

Artaxerxes I Longímano (465-425 BC), that is, to the period in which the religious
activity of Ezra and Nehemiah took place.

The Palestinian Jews accepted, in the time of Christ, all proto-canonical books
as sacred. This seems to be beyond doubt. In the time of Christ, there certainly
existed among the Jews a collection of Holy Books of the OT, to which the maximum
normative authority was attributed. Jesus Christ and the apostles also received this
collection of books with utmost reverence and approved it, considering it sacred and
normative. This is deduced from the way of proceeding of Christ and his disciples.
They frequently resort to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures, considering them as
the word of God.

The collection of Holy Books accepted by Christ undoubtedly contained all the
protocanonical books then accepted by the Jews. Among these we must also include
seven protocanonical books (Rut, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesiastes, Song of
Solomon, Obadiah, Nahum) that are not cited anywhere in the NT.

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No one doubts that the early Church received all the protocanonical books of
the OT as canonical and inspired books, following the example of Jesus Christ and
the apostles.

The New Testament Canon

First-century Christians circulated documents either written or approved by the

apostles that contained an authoritative explanation of the accounts concerning the
life and teachings of Jesus. These documents often cited each other and presented
the same gospel message from different perspectives and in different styles. The
literary activity of the authors of the NT extends over a period of about sixty years:
between the years 40 to 100, AD

Hundreds of other documents were written and circulated, but the Church
quickly rejected the illegitimate documents and established the authority of those that
were genuine. Some letters were lost such as the letter to Laodicea mentioned in Col
4:16.

To gain canonical recognition, the book had to pass two basic tests. First, it
had to have a record of "continued and wide approval among Christians." Second, it
was expected to demonstrate that it had either been written by an apostle or
specifically approved by the apostles.

In the NT we already find certain indications that seem to demonstrate that

divine authority was attributed to the writings of the apostles. In 1 Tim 5:18 we have
the first example of quoting the words of Jesus as It is sacred creature The Epistle of
2 Pe 3:15- 16 attributes the same authority to Paul's epistles as to his prophetic
writings.

In the first centuries of the Church it had not yet been determined which books
would form the canon of the Bible. There was a lot of variety in what was believed to
be inspired. In some cities in the Middle East they rejected the letter to the Hebrews.
Furthermore, at that time, there were many false writings.

In Antioch, in the year 200, the so-called "Gospel of Peter" was used (currently
considered one of the apocryphal gospels). Enemies of the Church tried to sow
confusion and promote heresies through false gospels and epistles such as the
"Gospel of Thomas" (promoted by the Gnostics), the "Gospel of Mary Magdalene",
letters of Saint Paul not truly written by he.

There were three main causes that accelerated the formation of the New
Testament canon:

1) The spread of many apocrypha, which were rejected by the Church because
of the dangerous doctrines they contained;

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2) the heresy of Marcion, which followed its own canon. He rejected the entire
Old Testament, and of the New he only admitted the gospel of Saint Luke and
ten epistles of Saint Paul;

3) the monta heresy nists, who added new books to the canon of the Church and
affirms ba that he had received new revelations from the Holy Spirit.

A man named Tatius tried to unite the different gospels into one, removing
what was repeated in them, but it was not an idea accepted by many. All of these
things prompted the determination of the NT Canon. By the end of the second
century, the collection of the NT was almost the same in the churches of the East
and the West.

The first list of compiled books (a first attempt to decide the canon), is known
as "the Muratorian List" (AD 170-180). C.) contained the four Gospels, the
Apocalypse of John and thirteen letters of Paul, but omitted the Epistle to the
Hebrews and the Epistles of Peter, etc.

During the period from 140 to 220 AD. C., there were doubts about Hebrews,
James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John and the Book of Revelation. Many believed in the
inspiration of the "Didajé" and "The Shepherd" of Hermas. Clement of Alexandria at
Stromata accepted Hermas's "Letter to Barnabas" and "The Shepherd" as inspired
writing. He even quoted "The Apocalypse of Peter" as if it were Scripture.

According to Origen, Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude were

discussed in the period from 220 to 400. Serapion (bishop of Antioch, 190 AD)
Forbade his jurisdiction to read the Gospel of Peter, however people continued to
appreciate this book.

Towards the end of the third century, other different lists came out, for
example from Miletus, Bishop of Sardis. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon in Adv. Haeres II
did not recognize the letter to Philemon; Neither did Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea.
In the East, John Chrysostom did not doubt Second Peter, Third John, Jude and
Revelation.

At the Roman Council, under the authority of Pope Damasus (366 - 384 AD),
the first list of the Catholic Church appears. The Council of Hippo (393 AD),
convened by Pope Damasus during the assembly of Rome in 382 AD, represents the
first official confirmation of the Catholic canon. From now on, in the minutes of the
councils, both of the Eastern and Western ones, and in the decrees of the Popes (for
example, Innocent I) the books of the NT appear.

At the Council of Carthage (397) the decisions of previous councils were

ratified. It still took another council (Carthage II in 419) to reaffirm the canon because
there were still doubts about the letters of James, Jude and Hebrews. We find the list
of the 46 books of the OT (Catholic Bible) in Decree Number 36 of this council.

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Evangelical Christians do not accept the decisions of Catholics regarding the
NT canon, since as we saw, the NT canon was formed during the second century,
only that the Catholic Church normalized the books of the NT (Although the NT
canon NT was officially confirmed in its present and final form by the third council of
Carthage in 397).

CANONS OF THE BIBLE

The Greek Canon or Canon of Alexandria

In the Greek version called Septuagint or version of the LXX, books that were
read in synagogues of Alexandria were included, the so-called “deuterocanonical”
books. Some books were not translated, but written directly in Greek (Wisdom and
the second book of Maccabees). This canon has fifteen (15) more books than the
Hebrew Canon and is classified as:
1. Legislation and history

2. Poets and prophets

The Hebrew Canon or Canon of Palestine

A group of rabbis who had managed to escape the siege of Jerusalem in the
year 70 founded a school in Yamnia around the year 90. They decided to collect and
organize the books they considered inspired, a task they completed in the second
century AD. They only accepted those that had been written in Hebrew; that is, only
thirty-nine (39) books, excluding the deuterocanonical ones. These books are called “
protocanonical” . The Hebrew Bible contains 24 books and they are divided
according to the following scheme:

1. Torah (The Law); contains the five books of Moses

2. Nebi'im (The Prophets); They are divided into:

o Previous Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Kings and Samuel)

o Later Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve)

3. Ketubin (The writings); contains: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, songs, Ruth,

Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra – Nehemiah and Chronicles

The 24 books of the Hebrew Bible are the same 39 books of the Christian OT,
the numbering originated when each of the minor prophets began to be counted
separately and when the books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles and Ezra – Nehemiah.

As we see, the Hebrew Bible only accepts thirty-nine books of the OT as

inspired by God and excludes the remaining seven and several fragments of the
book of Daniel and Esther that Catholics accept.

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Gutenberg's printing press

The Catholic Canon

Catholics maintain the deuterocanonical books (belonging to the Bible of the

Seventy) as part of the AT, but not all fifteen books but only seven books (07). The
Catholic canon was definitively established at the Council of Trent in 1546 and
ratified by Vatican I in 1870.

In the Roman Catholic and Anglican Bibles there are a number of books that
are considered valuable, but not inspired. These books are called Apocrypha. But
the Apocrypha were never recognized as fully inspired by either the Jews or the early
church.

The Protestant Canon

During the Lutheran Reformation of the 16th century, they rejected the canon
recently accepted at the Council of Trent. Initially these apocryphal books were
added to the back of Bibles, but were later removed in the 19th century.

Christians only accept the thirty-nine books of the Hebrew canon for the OT
and the twenty-seven books of the Catholic Canon for the NT. These are the only
writings that Christians consider fully inspired

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CHAPTER XI
THE AP Ó CRIFOS BOOKS
The inspired books that make up the OT canon. Hebrew were written in
Hebrew, by Hebrew prophets and addressed to the Hebrew people. The so-called
apocryphal books were not written in Hebrew, nor by Hebrew prophets inspired by
God, they were never part of the Hebrew canon.

Around 90 - 100 AD The Israelites called a Council which met at Jamnia, for
the purpose of considering the nature of the books added to the Greek version .
There was much disagreement between different Jewish groups and sects. The
Sadducees only trusted the Torah, the Pharisees could not decide on Esther, Song
of Solomon and Ecclesiastes.

To determine whether a book is inspired or not, that Council established the

following bases:

a) The book must be in accordance with the Law of Moses

b) It must have originated in Palestine

c) It must have been written in Hebrew

d) It must have been written before the death of the scribe Ezra.

Since the apocryphal books did not meet the requirements established by the
Council, it determined that they did not have the right to be part of the set of books
inspired by God.

When the first translation of the Hebrew Writings of the OT was made. These
apical or cryphal books were added to the Greek language (the Septuagint).

Philo of Alexandria was a Jew born approximately 20 BC He had a

contemporary list of the OT writings, gave quotes from almost all the OT books, but
did not mention a single one of the Apocrypha.

Protestant Christians do not include them in the Bible for several reasons such
as these:

a) Some of its writers deny being inspired

b) None of the books are listed by Christ or the apostles

c) They had no place in the OT canon. Hebrew

d) They contain doctrines that contradict the Holy Scriptures

e) It is full of errors and falsehoods

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f) The Catholic Church itself did not accept them as inspired until before the
Council of Trent (1545 - 1546)

Martin Luther and the other reformers decided to follow the Jewish decision to
base the OT canon on the Hebrew language and removed the seven books of their
Bible. They called them "apocryphal" following Jerome's idea. This is how the
Protestant Bible began. At the time of the Reformation, Luther (1534) introduced the
idea of qualifying the various books of the NT according to what he considered their
authority. He gave a secondary status to the seven “Apocryphal” books of the OT,
but did not remove them from the Bible. He said that they are not the same as the
Holy Scriptures, but they are useful and good to read.

All this led to the English Bible Society making the determination (May 3,
1826) not to print the Apocrypha books along with the rest of the Holy Scripture from
now on.

TRIVIALITIES OF THE AP Ó CRIFOS BOOKS

Let us see below some points of the nature of the apocryphal books.

TOBIAS .- An angel named Raphael (5: 4) appears before Tobias , but lies his name
saying his name is Asarias (5: 13), then the angel teaches him that if he burns the
heart or not the liver of a fish when faced with a man or a woman tormented by a
demon, he flees forever and if the gall of the fish is smeared on the eyes with
cataracts, they remain healthy (6: 8 - 9), but Later Tobias must marry a woman who
was married 7 times, but on the wedding night a demon killed her husbands, so on
the day of Tobias 's wedding, while already in the bedroom, Tobias remembered the
angel 's words and put it into practice and it actually happened just as the angel
taught him (8: 2 - 3).

Elsewhere he says: "Since alms delivers from death and purifies from all sin.
"Those who give alms will have long life" (12:9).

All this that we have been considering is nothing more than erroneous and
pagan doctrine that contradicts the Holy Scriptures.

JUDIT .- The Catholic version of the Jerusalem Bible has a note that refers to the
verse said by Judith that says: "Nebuchadnezzar was never called king of the
Assyrians nor did he reign in Nineveh ."

In the book of Judith it begins with a lie that says: "About 12 years ago
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Assyria, reigned in the great city of Nineveh.... “(1: 1). In
short, not even Catholics believe in the inspiration of the book of Judith.

Catholics believe that text 13:18-20 refers to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

WISDOM.- In the Greek version it has the title "The Wisdom of Solomon ", but this
book was written around the year 40 AD, that is, a thousand years after Solomon

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was born, a Catholic author points out that this book was written to prevent the Jews
from falling into skepticism, materialism and idolatry .

From chapter 3: 5-6 , Catholics deduce the existence of a purgatory

ECCLESIASTICAL.- This book contains an introduction given by the one who

translated this book from Hebrew to Greek, he says: "My grandfather Jesus , after
dedicating himself with perseverance to the reading of the law, the prophets and the
other books of our ancestors, in which he acquired great competence, he also began
to write something about materials of doctrine and wisdom .

This statement from the translator tells us that his grandfather "set out on his
own to write something and he wrote it ." What he wrote is good, it represents a lot of
wisdom , but it is not the Word of God.

BARUC. -This book begins by saying that it was written by Baruch, son of Nerías (1:
1), this Baruch would become the one who wrote to the books of Jeremiah in the
year 582 BC. C., but in reality this book was written in the year 100 AD. c.
Approximately, the Catholic version called the Latin American Bible says in its
introduction to the book: "The book of Baruch was written among the last books of
the Bible; perhaps, in the last century BC. C." So not even Catholic theologians
believe that Baruch, son of Neriah and Jeremiah 's scribe, wrote this book because it
is practically impossible; Therefore the book begins with a false statement .

THE MACCABEES.- In the introduction that appears in the Nácar Colunga version to
the second of the Maccabees, it says:.."A certain Jason of Cyrene composed his five
books on Judas Maccabeus, our author compiled them "This is just the book."

This book is rejected by Jews and Christians for the following:

a) Teaches that sacrifices can be offered for the dead (12:43-45)

b) It is a summary of five books written by other authors.

c) The author declares not to have written under divine inspiration , since he
ends by saying: "If the narrative has been good and well arranged, this is
what I have desired; but if it has been mediocre or imperfect, it is because I
could not to do better..." (15: 38).

d) Catholics use the text of 2 Mac. 15:13-14, to teach the doctrine of the
intercession of the Saints for us.

ESTHER.- In our Bible the book of Esther consists of only 10 chapters , but in
Catholic Bibles it is difficult to know this, for example in the Latin American Bible it
begins with Chapter 11, then continues the cap. 12 then 1,2,3 and then 13, then 4,
then across at 11.

We are not joking, but believe yourself, check out a Catholic Bible, and in the
introduction to the book it says: "The book of Esther contains in the Greek Bible

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many pieces that are not in the Hebrew Bible. Some believe that these pieces were
added in the Greek Bible. Others think the other way around..."

DANIEL .- Our Bible has 12 chapters and Catholic Bibles have 14 chapters . The
Catholic authors recognize that the last 2 chapters were not written in Hebrew, and
that they are not of the same nature as what Daniel wrote in Hebrew. This proves
that Daniel did not write the other 2 chapters .

The fathers of the Church also did not accept the Apocrypha books, among
them we have Athanasius (373), Cyril of Jerusalem (386), Epiphanius and Gregory of
Nazianzus (389) and years later also Carlostadius (1520). ), denied the apocryphal
books, followed by Martin Luther (1534) and then Calvin (1540). Even Pope Gregory
the Great did not accept the authenticity of the apocryphal books.

-----------------------****------------------------

The apocryphal books are not inspired by God; But they are useful as history
books, as Martin Luther said, “ they are not equal to the Holy Scriptures, but they
are useful and good to read .” But they cannot be considered books inspired by
God. Catholics try to demonstrate that they are inspired books since many of the
false doctrines they preach are found in them.

The Catholic author M. Chasles says: "Seven books of the OT. (Catholic) were
not admitted into the number of the Scriptures by the doctors of the law in Jerusalem.
In the time of Jesus Christ, and the Apostles, Jerusalem had its Hebrew Bible, thirty-
nine books. The translators of the Greek version "translated from Hebrew the 39
books that make up the Jerusalem Hebrew Bible, and then added seven other books
of which they only had the Greek original." This sincere, frank and truthful statement
by a Catholic to the apocryphal books places them outside the catalog of inspired
books and determines that they were "added" by those who had no authority to add
them.

The Vatican tacitly recognizes that the apocryphal books were not written
under divine inspiration. The Roman Catholic Church describes the 39 books that
make up the Hebrew canon or catalog as protocanonical, and the seven books called
apocrypha are called deuterocanonical.

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CHAPTER X
THE WORK OF TRANSLATORS
Translating the Bible with its more than 1,100 chapters was not an easy task, in
the past it took a month of work to translate just one page, however many men of
God have willingly dedicated themselves to translating the Bible into other languages
despite that this put them in danger and they would suffer hardships and even lose
their lives.

One of the main problems that biblical translators had to face is that they
encountered languages that did not have writing or any type of graphic
representation , they had to learn the language, then invent a way to represent them
graphically . Let's see below some main characters in this fabulous story:

 Ulfilas, at the beginning of the 4th century AD He undertook the translation of

the Bible into a contemporary language but without writing. He solved the
problem by inventing the Gothic alphabet, with 27 characters, whose basis was
the Greek and Latin alphabets, this translation was completed around the year
381 AD.

 In the 9th century, two brothers who spoke Greek, named Cyril (Known as
Constantine) and Methodius, decided to translate the Bible for the Slavic-
speaking peoples and this language also did not have writing, so the two
brothers invented an alphabet. on which they made the Bible and then had to
teach their writing to all Slavic-speaking peoples.

 In England in 1382, John Wiclyffe translated the NT from the Latin Vulgate into
English, his writings influenced John Hus, rector of the University of Prague,
who was mercilessly persecuted by Catholicism and ultimately died, burned at
the stake.

 In 1517, Martin Luther began the Great Reformation and when Catholicism tried
to persecute him, some German princes supported him and protected them
against papal efforts to end his life. While hidden in the castles of the German
princes , he managed to translate the Bible from Greek to German.

 William Tyndale was born in England and became a very studious young man.
Already in the 16th century he set out to translate the Bible from the original
languages into English , as he encountered opposition from the clergy of the
Catholic Church and the State, he had to flee to Germany, where he printed in
1526 the New Testament in English , then began to smuggle them in sandbags
to England, which infuriated the authorities so much that they decided to burn
the copies in public . The speakers of Tyndale's NT were put in prison or burned
at the stake. Later Tyndale was betrayed by one of his collaborators and before
being burned at the stake he died strangled, before dying he exclaimed : "
Lord , open the eyes of the king of England!"

 In 1537 Piers Robert, Calvin's cousin, translated the Bible into French .

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Nothing stopped the work of Bible translators. By 1800 the Bible had been
translated in whole or in part into 68 languages. The Great Reformation that Martin
Luther had initiated encouraged hundreds of young people to go on missions with the
aim of preaching and translating the Scriptures.

 One of these missionaries was the Scotsman Robert Moffat. In 1821, when he
was 25 years old, he founded a mission among the Tsuanes, in southern
Africa . He decided to learn their language, which did not have writing, to do so
he had to live among them, it was not easy for him ; but he persevered and over
time mastered the language, which allowed him to develop a writing system.

In 1829, after having lived 8 years with the Tsuanes, Moffat finished translating
the gospel of Luke into the language of the Tsuanes and to print that portion of the
Bible he had to travel about 1,000 kilometers in an ox cart, the gospel was finally
published in 1830. Already in 1857 he directed the translation of the entire Bible into
the language of the Tsuanes.

Thanks to men like Moffat, Africans today have the Bible in more than 600
languages.

 Adoniram Judson, born and raised in the US, traveled to Burma, where he
began translating the Bible into Burmese in 1817. It took Judson 18 years of
meticulous work, and in 1835 he was only able to print the Bible in the Burmese
language. However, while Judson was in Burma working on his translation , he
was accused of espionage and locked up for almost 2 years in a mosquito-
infested prison . Shortly after being released, his wife and little daughter died of
fever.

 In 1807, when Robert Morrison was 25 years old, he traveled to China, where
he undertook the most difficult task of translating the Bible into the Chinese
language. Morrison encountered serious problems since the Chinese language
is the most complex and difficult to learn, and Chinese law prohibited , under
penalty of death, anyone from teaching their language to foreign.

Morrison, intrepid but cautious, continued studying the language secretly and in
a matter of a short time he managed to learn it. By day he worked for a company and
at night he dedicated himself to translating the Bible in secret, with the constant risk
of being discovered. In 1814, seven years after his arrival, he had the NT ready for
printing; five years later , with the help of William Milme, he finished the AT.

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CHAPTER XI
VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE
The word " Versió n" comes from the verb "Verter", which means to translate
from one language to another.

A few centuries before Christ, the Jews already had the compilation of the
biblical texts of the AT. which they called: The Writings ( See chapter or n of the OT.
It came to be called the "Septuagint."

PRIMITIVE VERSIONS (from 250 BC until 400 AD )

1. The Septuagint

As the first semblance of the Hebrew canon begins to form, the Hebrew
language begins to die and disappeared completely by 135 BC. For this reason
Jesus and his contemporaries in Palestine spoke Aramaic, a dialect of Hebrew.

By the year 605 BC , the People of Israel suffered a dispersion or, as it is

known Biblically, a "diaspora." King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and took
the Israelites captive to Babylon, beginning the "Babylonian Captivity" ( 2 Kings 24:12
and 2 Kings 25:1 ).

But not all the Israelites were taken captive, a "remnant" remained in Israel: 2
Kings 25:12; 2 Kings 25,22; Jeremiah 40:11; Ezekiel 33:27 . Also a number of
Israelites were not captives to Babylon but went to Egypt: 2 Kings 25,26; Jeremiah
42,14; Jeremiah 43,7.

King Cyrus of Persia conquered Babylon ( 2 Chronicles 36:20; 2 Chronicles

36:23) and gave the Israelites freedom to return to Israel, thus ending their slavery.
Some returned to Palestine ( Ezra 1,5; 7,28 and Nehemiah 2,11 ) but others went to
Egypt, settling, for the most part, in the city of Alexandria (founded by Alexander the
Great in 322 BC, it had the most important library in the world at that time). Greeks,
Jews and Egyptians lived together in this great city. It is believed that these Jews
who lived in this city (Alexandria - Egypt) were the ones who translated the Hebrew
Scriptures into Greek.

A legendary narrative known as the Letter of Aristeas (written around 125 BC )

) tells that the king of Egypt, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, a great lover of letters, sent
ambassadors to Jerusalem to request a translation of the Scriptures for his famous
private library in Alexandria . Six experts from each tribe of Israel were sent to this
delegation , a total of 72 (12 * 6 = 72), rounding up to 70, hence the name Septuagint
or version of the 70 (abbreviated LXX = 70). in Roman numerals ).

This translation is the beginning of the error or the spoonful of Satan , because
in it not only were the 39 books that make up the Hebrew canon translated, but

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fifteen (15) more books were added. that had not been written under divine
inspiration . This addition was made gradually.

2. Later Greek Versions

a. The translation of Aquila, this Jewish proselyte, wanted to combat Christian
doctrines with his own translation.
b. Revision of the Septuagint by Theodotion

c. Symmachus' version.
3. The Targumens

When the Israelites returned from the Babylonian exile they spoke the Aramaic
language. Ezra and his assistants read the Law to the people in Hebrew and had to
translate it ( Neh. 8: 8). At first this interpretation was only oral. Finally this translation
was fixed in writing, this is the origin of the Targumens.

4. Peshita version

It means “Simple” Syriac version, it is a translation of the OT directly from the

Hebrew original

5. Italian Version (In Latin)

It is a translation of the Latins of Italy in approximately the year 250 AD It was

translated directly from the original texts of the Septuagint, where the
apocryphal books were added.

6. The Latin Vulgate

Damascus, bishop of Rome, entrusted Jerome (the most prominent Catholic of

his time) to prepare the official version of the Bible, and he went to Bethlehem ,
where he dedicated it. or about 20 years of his life dedicated to the translation of the
official Bible, which would come to be called the "Latin Vulgate" that saw the light
around the year 400 AD

Jerome also did not participate in the inclusion of the apocryphal books; but
the pressure exerted by those who were familiar with the Italian version ended up
forcing him. On April 8, 1546, at the Council of Trent, the problem of the apocryphal
books was discussed and it was agreed to exclude from the Vulgate 3 of the 10
books that had been added to it, which are:

1. The Third of Ezra.

2. Ezra's room

3. The Prayer of Manas is

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As we see throughout history, of the fifteen (15) apocryphal books that were
initially added in the Greek version , five (05) were excluded in the Italian version and
then three (03) but from the Latin Vulgate version , this shows us that those who
added these books proceeded in an irresponsible manner which leads us to think
that the same thing happened with the remaining seven (07) apocryphal books.
There is no single element of value or weight in favor of the apocryphal books.

Starting with the Latin Vulgate, the Catholics (which was the Christian religion
fallen into paganism) made the translation of the Bible prohibited, for centuries they
hid the Bible from the common language of the peoples, at the Council of Tolusa
(1229) it was approved that the Laity not read the Bible in the common language,
anyone who protested or rebelled against this was a dead man.

CONTEMPORARY VERSIONS (from 400 AD forward)

I will mention some important Bibles and then we will discuss some of them in
depth.

1. Alphonsine Bible

It was the first Bible translated into Spanish in 1280, it was translated from the
Latin Vulgate. Under the auspices of Alfonso X, the Wise, King of Castile and Aragon

2. Bible of the Duke of Alba

Translated into Spanish in 1430, the Old Testament was translated directly
from Hebrew and Aramaic by a Jewish rabbi named Moisés Arragel

3. Gutenberg Latin Bible

It is called the 42-line Bible, it was printed in 1456 and is the first printed Bible.

4. The Greek Text of Erasmus of Rotterdam (See chapter? Greek Texts)

5. Complutense Polyglot Version (See chapter? Greek Texts)

6. First Translation into Spanish By Francisco De Enzinas (See chapter?

Greek Texts)

7. Ferrara Bible

The OT was translated from Hebrew into Spanish in 1553 by the Jews
Abraham Usqui and Yom Tob Abias

8. Bible of Juan Pérez de Pineda

The NT by Juan Pérez Pineda appeared in 1556. This is a revision of the NT

of Encinas.

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9. Bear Bible

In 1569 Casiodoro de Reina translated from the original languages the version
that still circulates after many revisions. It is the first complete Bible in Spanish

10. Review of the Work of Casiodoro De Reina (See Commentary)

The Bear Bible was revised by Cipriano Valera in 1602. Others 1850, 1862,
1865, 1874, 1890, 1909 and the last revision carried out by the Bible Societies in
1960. Valera dedicated twenty years of his life to the task of comparing the work of
Cassiodorus with the Hebrew and Greek texts, he also eliminated the marginal notes
of Cassiodorus' work and grouped all the apocryphal books.

11. King Jonah Bible (King James)

Translated into English in 1611, 47 scholars participated in this work, all of

them belonging to the Church of England and the Puritan party. It was revised in
1613, 1629, 1638, 1683 and 1769, and continues to be printed in large quantities.

12. Bible of Felipe Scio

Translated into Spanish in 1793

13. Torres Amat Bible

Translated into Spanish in 1825

14. Modern version by hb Pratt

Translated into Spanish in 1893

15. Nacre Colunga Bible

Catholic Bible, translated into Spanish in 1944

16. Straubinger Bible

Catholic Bible, translated into Spanish in 1944

17. Bover Bible – Cantera

Catholic Bible, translated into Spanish in 1947

18. Herder's Bible

Catholic Bible, translated into Spanish in 1964

19. Jerusalem Bible

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Translated in 1956, it initially appeared in fascicles. This translation includes
modernist notes.

20. Latin American Bible (See Commentary)

21. Bible of the Americas

It was translated in 1973 from the English New American Standard version;
but carefully checked with the Greek original.

22. New Spanish Bible

Catholic Bible, translated into Spanish in 1975 by Juan Mateos and Alonso
Schökel

23. God Speaks Today (Popular Version) (See Comment)

24. Updated Reina – Valera (See Comment)

25. New International Version

The New International Version (NIV), published by Vida Publishing in 1999, is

identical to the "God Speaks Today" version .

COMMENTS ON CERTAIN BIBLES

THE LATIN AMERICAN BIBLE

In 1972 , the so-called Bible for Latin America was published. Translated by
South American Catholic priests who sympathized with Karl Marx and tried to make
the Bible help Marxist movements.

The translators of this Bible deny that the Pentateuch is inspired by God.
Between chapter 2 of Genesis there is a commentary that is titled "THE BIBLE AND
EVOLUTION " and says like this :

"........But now we ask: Who wrote this page of the Bible? It was written by one
of the wise men who surrounded Solomon ......the Israelite wise men did not start
[writing] from scratch, but rather took advantage of [ancient pagan literature].... ...
there it was told how the gods had become jealous of the happiness of humans, how
they had brought a flood upon them......the wise men of Solomon took an example of
they to speak about man and God, but they did it in their own way. Thus , for
example, the legends stated that the gods, jealous of man, had taken the plant of
immortality from him with the help of a cunning snake. The authors of the biblical
page transformed this legend and along with stating that man dies because of
himself, they made the snake the figure of the devil."

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A little later he declares that man descends from animals and approves the
atheist Darwin's theory of evolution and says :

“..... How was the human race formed and how is it related to animal races?
Furthermore , we affirm that the human race inherited [its body] from its animal
ancestors. Animal race. "God is the one who has driven and guided the entire
evolution of living beings so that more and more perfected species appear with a
better prepared brain."

GOD SPEAKS TODAY (POPULAR VERSION)

This is a "Bible" published by Catholics and Evangelicals ( Ecumenical Bible ).

In short, the Vatican and the American Bible Societies came together to give birth to
this new version of the Bible that contains the apocryphal books.

The behavior of the Bible Societies is truly strange since in 1826 they agreed
that they would not use any of their funds to publish the apocryphal books because
they were not found in the Hebrew Canon.

For 153 years, SB remained faithful to the agreement made in 1826. But in
1979, ignoring that agreement, they published and are promoting this new version
with apocryphal books.

For several years we evangelicals have been saying that the Catholic versions
of the Bible include books that are not inspired by God and in response to this
statement Catholics will tell us that such books in our Bibles are too .

In this version of the Bible they took the liberty of substituting and changing
several texts such as:

- They attribute regenerating virtue to the water of baptism ( Tit. 3: 5)

- They eliminated the word Satan , which appears 18 times in the original text.

- The divinity of Christ comes out very poorly in this version ; Because instead
of presenting him as the son of a Virgin, they present him as the son of a "Young
Woman"; but if you realize there is a big difference between whether we say "virgin"
or if we say "young", because the virgin may or may not be young (in which there is
no problem); But if we say young, she may or may not be a virgin (which is a
problem) ( Isaiah 7:14 ).

- Declares that Christ comes from an ancient family; but Micah speaks of the
eternity of Christ. ( My Q. 5: 2)

- Philippians 2:6 says that Christ, although divine, did not insist on being
equal to God, when Paul presents Christ as equal to God.

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The Spanish-speaking evangelical people have much to thank the SB But,
what is worrying is that they ignore chapter 22 and verse 18 of the book of Revelation
where it says: "...If anyone adds to these things God will bring upon him the plagues
written in this book".

QUEEN – VALERA UPDATED

The Reverend Domingo Fernández , a Baptist pastor with more than 60 years
in the ministry, points out that this version is not "Neither Reina nor Valera" because
it is impregnated with distortions and mutilations.

The same Rev. He presents us with a small reflection and says: " What would
we think of an amateur painter who dared to put his brushes in the paintings of Goya
and Velásquez , transforming them or framing them in the mold? of your own
judgment or imagination ?

He who wants to paint a picture should paint it as he pleases; but it should not
attempt to modify or transform the paintings of other painters. If the SB they want to
make other versions that do it; but they must respect what others have done.
Introducing a radical change in Reina - Valera would be unfair, immoral and
infamous. It already has a popular, liberal and ecumenical version . Is n't that enough
for you? The vast majority of Spanish-speaking Christians want the Reina - Valera
version as it is now...............

This new revision of Reina - Valera is nothing like the version we are familiar
with, on the contrary it resembles the popular version God Speaks Today.

According to the Royal Academy, the vocabulary or meaning of words has not
experienced any change in the last 20 years . Furthermore , why update the
language of Reina - Valera if the update of the Textus Receptus from which
Casiodoro de Reina translated is ignored?

QUEEN - VALERA (1960)

Among the books that were born after the Reformation, it is important to
highlight the first complete Bible in Spanish, the work of Casiodoro de Reina and
published in 1569. Years later , Cipriano de Valera reviewed Casiodoro's work. of
Reina (in 1602) and since then this version of the Bible has been called "Reina -
Valera".

The work of Casiodoro de Reina is a true jewel of

the Golden Age of Castilian literature, it is considered
the queen of Castilian translations.

In the translation of the AT. Cassiodorus first

used the "Masoretic Text" which is considered the most
reliable text of the AT., in addition he had in his hands

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Casiodoro de Reina
 Bible story
the Ferrara Bible (1533) and the Hebrew to Latin version of the Dominican Santes
Pagnini.

Regarding the NT, Cassiodorus used the “Textus Receptus” which is

considered the best Text of the NT.

Reina's version had included the 7 apocryphal books approved at the Council
of Trent and Cyprian's revision had regrouped and placed them before the NT but
thanks to the work of the Bible Societies United Nations that in 1861 stopped printing
this section of the apocryphal books because it was not found in the Hebrew canon,
then other revisions were made in 1909, 1960 and 1995. These later revisions were
made to bring the language of the Bible up to date as it
evolves.

The Spanish spoken by Casiodoro de Reina

and Cipriano de Valera has undergone a very big
change. In the 1909 revision, 60,000 words
were changed to more common synonyms . In the
1960 revision, around 10,000 changes were
introduced, since then Spanish has experienced
few changes, until the 1995 revision appeared , which I
object to later, since it does not maintain the original
language. of Reina-Valera.

They Want to Undermine Cipriano de Valera the Credibility of VR

(By Rev. Domingo Fernández )

It seems that the "liberals" are hindered by the Reina-Valera version and want
a different version, a "liberal" version like them. After having enjoyed the respect and
admiration of locals and strangers for 400 years, they now tell us that the Reina-
Valera is not trustworthy, that they have added passages that are not found in the
original texts. We are going to prove that the accusation is false, unjust and
infamous.

Reason 1

They find the first reason for the accusation in John 5:34 and say that the last
part of verse 3, and all of verse 4, is not found in some manuscripts. Here is the
paragraph they challenge: "that they waited for the movement of the water; for an
angel of the Lord descended from time to time into the pool, and stirred up the water;
and whoever first descended into the pool after the movement of the water was
healed of any illness he had." These words appear in some manuscripts, and do not
appear in others. This indicates that someone deleted this passage, or that someone
added it to the original text. Why do "liberals" claim that the passage was interpolated
and not admit the possibility that it was omitted? Because the first suits his plan to
discredit the Reina-Valera version: But we are going to demonstrate that the
evidence is in favor of the authenticity of the passage in question.

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The narrative accepted by "liberals" says that Jesus approached the pool of
Bethesda, and found there a "multitude of sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed."
Everyone admits that these words are authentic. Why did that crowd of sick people
gather at the pool of Bethesda? The narrative that appears in the Gospel of John
says that they gathered because an angel descended from time to time and stirred
up the water; and whoever first descended into the pool... was healed of any
disease. If it is not true that the angel descended, and that a healing manifestation
took place, why did the sick congregate there? Let the challengers answer us.

What is more logical and sensible, that they have removed or that they have
added? Taking into account that this story is not repeated anywhere else in the
Bible, we believe that no one would have thought to invent that an angel descended
from time to time into the pond. However, it seems reasonable to us that someone,
who did not believe in the veracity of the exposed phenomenon, has eliminated it by
copying a manuscript for personal use.

"Liberal" critics accept that the words of verse 7 are part of the original text,
well, the words of this verse confirm the veracity of verse 4. Jesus asked a paralyzed
man if he wanted to be healed, and he answered (verse 7), "Lord...I have no one to
put me into the pool when the water is troubled; and while I am going, another gets
down before me." These words assume that verse four is true. So if they want to
eliminate verse 4, they will have to eliminate verse 7 as well, and this verse appears
in all the manuscripts.

Another evidence in favor of the authenticity of the passage in question is that

in the Peshitta version, translated in the second century of the present era, in the
Italian version and in the Vulgate, the words that critics now dispute appear. And in
the manuscripts in which they do not appear, they are those dated after the three
versions mentioned. Irenaeus, who was born in the year 130 AD, cited the passage
from John 5:1-11 as it now appears in the King James Version, and Tertullian, who
was born in the year 170 AD, also cited that passage. and John Chrysostom, who
was born in 345 AD and Cyril of Alexandria who was born in 412 AD Those who
had the Gospel of John in their hands in the second, third and fourth centuries
confirmed the authenticity of the passage we have been considering, and this shows
that the words of verses 3 and 4 of John were not interpolated, but eliminated by one
or more copyists in later centuries.

Reason 2

"Liberal" critics now contest the following passage: John 7:53 to 8:11 . The
passage that deals with the adulterous woman. The Catholic version of Nácar-
Colunga has a note that says: "This passage is omitted in many codices" and then
adds: "This does not mean that it is not authentic and inspired, but that it was
omitted for fear that it would give occasion to abuse of the Savior's indulgence in
favor of adulterers." We can be very sure that the cited passage is part of the original
text. The narrative has to be authentic because it reveals supernatural wisdom. No
human being would have invented a way out like the one Jesus gave to the trap set
for him by the scribes and Pharisees.

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Let us keep in mind that anyone who made a copy for their personal use was
free to omit from the original text whatever they wanted.

A few years ago we found a Bible in a second-hand bookstore that seemed to

be in good condition. When we looked through it we discovered that the book of
Revelation was missing. Someone, with great curiosity, had cut the leaves one by
one. He certainly did not want the aforementioned book in his Bible. I know a pastor
who said, "If I could remove the story of Rahab the harlot from the Bible, I would. It
bothers me to find that narrative in the Bible." If that pastor had lived in the days
when Bibles were copied by hand, it would have been easy for him to leave out the
narrative about Rahab. And there is quite a similarity between the narrative of the
adulterous woman and the story of Rahab.

Reason 3

Let us now consider the last passage of the many that critics of the King
James Version challenge, which is 1 John 5:7-8 . The following words are missing
from this passage in some manuscripts: "...in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the
Holy Spirit, and these three are one. And there are three who bear witness on
earth..." We believe that only a person or group of people moved by a doctrinal issue
could leave out half of verse 7 and half of verse 8.

In the Latin Vulgate a note appears related to the words that are missing in
some manuscripts, and it says that in the writings of the so-called Fathers of the
Church verses 7 and 8 appear as they are in the Vulgate and in the Reina-Valera.
The aforementioned note attributes the omission found in some manuscripts to the
Arians, who prevailed for a hundred years, from the end of the 3rd century and most
of the 4th century. The Arians did not believe in the Trinity, and since 1 John 5:7
mentions the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit (forming a unity: Unity of nature,
the Divinity), this passage hindered the Arians (disciples and followers of Arius) and
it is logical that they have left it out of the manuscript.

The words related to the Trinity ( 1 John 5:7 ) that critics now dispute were in
the NT in AD 170 When they translated the Syriac Peshitta. Those words were in the
NT manuscript that Saint Jerome had in his hands when he translated the Vulgate
version, back in the year 390 C. The manuscripts in which they do not appear are
those after this time, and this shows that the Apostle John wrote the words in
question, and that someone left them out because it suited those who taught the
opposite.

"Liberal" or "modernist" critics constantly hammer home that the manuscripts

in which the passages they contest appear are superior to the manuscripts that
agree with the Reina-Valera version. This classification of manuscripts into "good"
and "bad," or superior and inferior, seems intentional and unfounded to us.

One material may be superior (parchment) and another material inferior

(papyrus), but if the manuscript contains the complete NT, why shouldn't it be good?

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For the "liberals" the good ones are those that suit their purposes. Those who agree
with the Reina-Valera version are bad, they are inferior.

As far as its content is concerned, the RECEPTUS TEXT, which Casiodoro

de Reina translated, served as the basis for the Peshitta translation, (170 AD ) and
in light of this historical reality it can be stated that the RECEPTUS TEXT is the
oldest known. The fact that all the passages that challenge the Reina-Valera have
been part of the Vulgate since the year 400, constitutes another piece of evidence
worth taking into account.

What do those who insist that the Reina-Valera is not trustworthy because it
contains, according to them, spurious or added passages? Yes, gentlemen, what do
you want? They seek to undermine confidence in our version. Who serve those who
insist on destroying the credibility and trust in the version that has circulated in
Spanish-speaking towns in the last 200 years? We are sure that they do not serve
God. Suppose a newly converted Christian listens to one of these critics; What will
you think of the Bible? What does the insistence that the Reina-Valera version has
interpolations and errors solve?

------------------------*******----------------------

We have the firm conviction that the hand of God has been very providential in
keeping his Word throughout the ages and that his power has been manifested by
preserving his pure Word in various languages. As far as Spanish is concerned, we
can fully trust in the Reina - Valera revision of the language used by Casiodoro de
Reina and Cipriano de Valera, where the message of God remains pure without
omissions or additions . This version of the Bible is the most beloved in the Spanish
language, during its course the evangelical people grew abundantly, it saw the birth
of many evangelical peoples and groups.

I am not trying to say with this that only the Reina-Valera is the word of God,
there are many other Protestant and Catholic editions that are very good, it is good to
have different translations for our personal study, when the passage is not so clear in
Reina-Valera We can turn to another edition and clear up doubts.

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Historical Review of Bible Translations

YEAR OLD TESTAMENT NEW TESTAMENT THE BIBLE

From The books were written

1513 to
413 BC

250 BC the first version in Greek (L to

approx. Septuagint)

From 50 The books were written

to 90 AD

170 AD Peshitta version

250 AD Italian Version (in Latin)

400 AD Latin Vulgate

1280 AD Alphonsine Bible

1430 AD Bible of the Duke of Alba

1455 AD Gutenberg Latin Bible

1516 AD First printed version of the Greek

text by Erasmus of Rotterdam

1520 AD Complutense Polyglot Version of

Cardinal Cisneros

1543 AD First translation into Spanish

by Francisco de Enzinas

1553 AD Ferrara Bible (Translated by

Jews)

1556 AD Bible of Juan Pérez de Pineda

1569 AD Bear Bible, first complete version

in Spanish, work of Casiodoro de
Reina

1602 AD Review of the work of Casiodoro

de Reina by Cipriano de Valera

1604 AD King Jonah Bible (King James,

made by 40 experts from England)

D'CHRIST Ministry 57
 Bible story

1793 AD Felipe Scio's Bible

1825 AD Torres Amat Bible

1893 AD Modern version by HB Pratt

1944 AD Nacre Colunga Bible

1944 AD Straubinger Bible

1947 AD Bover Bible – Cantera

1964 AD Herder's Bible

1966 AD God Speaks Today (Popular

Version)

1967 AD Jerusalem Bible

1971 AD Latin American Bible

1976 AD New Spanish Bible

1978 AD God Speaks Today (Popular

Version)

1995 AD Updated Reina – Valera

1999 AD New International Version, by

Editorial Vida

D'CHRIST Ministry 58