The Old Latin Version and the King James Bible Readings
There are at least 17 entire verses omitted from the New Testament in such modern versions as the NIV, RSV, ESV, NASB and the more modern Catholic versions. The NIV omits all 17 of these verses, while the RSV, ESV omit even more, and the NASB varies from one edition to the next, omitting all these verses in some editions and replacing some of them in others.
These modern versions like the NIV, NASB, ESV are in fact the new “Vatican Versions” since their New Testament texts are the result of a formal agreement between the Vatican and modern day Evangelicals to give us an official “interconfessional” N.T. text. See the undeniable proof of this here -
http://brandplucked.webs.com/realcatholicbibles.htm
All these seventeen whole verses are found in the ancient Old Latin Version which dates from around 157 A.D., and was in use through the 1500's.
Here is a list of these verses which are found in the Authorized King James Holy Bible, and in the ancient Old Latin Version, but are omitted in the modern versions based on the very different Westcott-Hort, UBS, Nestle-Aland Greek critical text. The following verses are found in all, most or some of the few remaining Old Latin manuscripts that we have today. There undoubtedly were hundreds if not thousands of such Old Latin Bibles in existence throughout the centuries, but today we have only a few remaining, partial copies.
Matthew 17:21 "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."
Matthew 18:11 "For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost."
Matthew 23:14 "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation."
Mark 7:16 "If any man have ears to hear, let him hear."
Mark 9:44-46 "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched...into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."
Mark 11:26 "But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses."
Mark 15:28 "And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors."
Luke 9:55-56 "But he turned and rebuked them, AND SAID, YE KNOW NOT WHAT MANNER OF SPIRIT YE ARE OF. FOR THE SON OF MAN IS NOT COME TO DESTROY MEN'S LIVES, BUT TO SAVE THEM. And they went to another village." All the capital lettered words are missing from the NIV, NASB, RSV.
Luke 17:36 "Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left."
Luke 23:17 "For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast."
John 5: 3b - 4 "waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had."
Acts 8:37 "And Phillip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
Acts 9:5-6 "And he said, Who art thou Lord? And THE LORD SAID, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: IT IS HARD FOR THEE TO KICK AGAINST THE PRICKS. AND HE TREMBLING AND ASTONISHED SAID, LORD, WHAT WILT THOU HAVE ME TO DO? AND THE LORD SAID UNTO HIM, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." All the capital lettered words are missing in the NASB, NIV, RSV, but found in the Old Latin and the KJB.
Acts 15:34 "Notwithstanding it pleased Silas to abide there still."
Acts 24:6-8 "Who also hath gone about to profane the temple: whom we took, AND WOULD HAVE JUDGED ACCORDING TO OUR LAW. BUT THE CHIEF CAPTAIN LYSIAS CAME UPON US, AND WITH GREAT VIOLENCE TOOK HIM AWAY OUT OF OUR HANDS, COMMANDING HIS ACCUSERS TO COME UNTO THEE; by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge of all these things, whereof we accuse him." Again, all the capital lettered words are omitted in the modern versions.
Acts 28:29 "And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves."
Romans 16:24 "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."
1 John 5:7-8 "For there are three that bear record IN HEAVEN, THE FATHER, THE WORD, AND THE HOLY GHOST: AND THESE THREE ARE ONE. AND THERE ARE THREE THAT BEAR WITNESS IN EARTH, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one." Again, all the capital lettered words are missing in the NASB, NIV, RSV, ESV, and modern Catholic versions but are found in the Old Latin manuscripts and in the King James Bible.
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia of 1915 has this to say concerning the early Latin and Syriac translations of the Holy Bible.
"The claim of Christianity to be the one true religion has carried with it from the beginning the obligation to make its Holy Scriptures, containing the Divine message of salvation and life eternal, known to all mankind. Accordingly, wherever the first Christian evangelists carried the gospel beyond the limits of the Greek-speaking world, one of the first requirements of their work was to give the newly evangelized peoples the record of God's revelation of Himself in their mother tongue. It is generally agreed that, as Christianity spread, the Syriac and the Latin versions were the first to be produced; and translations of the Gospels, and of other books of the Old and New Testament in Greek, were in all probability to be found in these languages before the close of the 2nd century."
The Syriac Peshitta - In his book Final Authority William P. Grady quotes John Burgon on pages 33-34 concerning the reliability of a version over any single manuscript. "I suppose it may be laid down that an ancient Version outweighs any single Codex, ancient or modern, which can be named: the reason being, that it is scarcely credible that a Version can have been executed from a single exemplar (copy). A second reason for the value of ancient versions is in their ability to exhibit a text which antedates the oldest Greek manuscripts. Readings which are challenged in the Authorized Version for their non-existence in the 'two most ancient authorities' (Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, fourth century) are frequently discovered in the Syrian and Latin translations of the second century."
In his book An Understandable History of the Bible Rev. Samuel Gipp Th.D confirms this fact. He writes: "The Old Latin Vulgate was used by the Christians in the churches of the Waldenses, Gauls, Celts, Albegenses and other fundamental groups throughout Europe. Jerome's translation was not used by the true Biblical Christians for almost a millennium after it was translated from corrupted manuscripts by Jerome in 380 A.D. Even then it only came into usage due to the death of Latin as a common language, and the violent, wicked persecutions waged against true believers by Pope Gregory IX during his reign from 1227 to 1242 A.D."
David Fuller confirms this fact: "It is clearly evident that the Latin Bible of early British Christianity was not the Latin Bible (Vulgate) of the Papacy."
The Italic Bible (AD157) "Italy, France and Great Britain were once provinces of the old Roman Empire. Latin was then the language of the common people. So the first translations of the Bible in these countries were made from the Greek Vulgate into Latin. One of the first of these Latin Bibles was for the Waldenses in northern Italy, translated not later than 157 AD and was known as the Italic Version. The renowned scholar Beza states that the Italic Church dates from 120 AD. Allix, an outstanding scholar, testifies that enemies had corrupted many manuscripts, while the Italic Church handed them down in their apostolic purity."
In spite of all this factual evidence for the genuine readings found in the King James Bible, there are those today who promote the multitude of conflicting bible versions like the NASB, NIV, ESV. These men do not believe that any text, be it Hebrew or Greek, or any Bible translation is the complete, inerrant, inspired words of God. Among these are men like James White, Gary Hudson, and Doug Kutilek.
Gary Hudson, who himself is a severe critic of the King James Bible, tries to downplay the importance of the Old Latin manuscripts, but at least he gives us this valuable information concerning the existing O.L. manuscripts. "An actual count reveals 61 Old Latin manuscripts that are extant. This information may be found by comparing pp. 712-716 of the Nestle-Aland 26th Edition Greek Text (Appendix 1:B, "Codices Latini"), with the UBS3 (pp. xxxii-xxxiv). The Old Latin mss. are listed by their corresponding content (Gospels, Acts, Pauline Corpus, Catholic Epistles, Apocalypse). Of the 61 extant mss. (very fragmented in their contents), 30 contain the gospels; 14 the Acts; 19 the Pauline epistles; 12 the catholic epistles; 8 the Apocalypse."
Doug Kutilek likewise tries to minimize the importance of the Old Latin version by listing 26 divergent readings "gleaned practically at random", in an effort to discount the testimony of this ancient version to the readings found in the Authorized King James Bible. Here is the site of his article - http://www.kjvonly.org/doug/waldensian.htm
Mr. Kutilek states: "First, by no stretch of the imagination could the Old Latin version or versions, in its various Italic, African, or European forms, be honestly identified as Byzantine in text." He then proceeds to list 26 examples in an attempt to overthrow the testimony of the ancient Old Latin version which agrees so much with the readings found in the King James Bible as opposed to the modern versions.
Here is Mr. Kutilek's list along with some of my additional comments. You will notice that most of Mr. Kutilek's examples are quite insignificant and in many of these the Old Latin readings are divided, some siding with the KJB and others not. You will also notice that he mentions only 11 or 12 of the Old Latin manuscripts; not the readings for the others among the 61 copies mentioned by Gary Hudson.
Mr. Kutilek starts by saying: "To illustrate the often wide departure of the Old Latin from the received text. I submit the following examples:
Matthew 1:7,8 --5 of 8 Old Latin manuscripts (OL mss.) read "Asaph" instead of the received text's "Asa."
Matthew 1:10 --5 of 8 OL mss. read "Amos" for "Amon."
Matthew 1:18 --all 10 OL mss. lack "Jesus."
Matthew 6:13 --7 of 11 OL mss. lack the doxology, and only 1 of the remaining 4 reads precisely as the received text.
What Mr. Kutilek fails to mention is that the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: "FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, AND THE POWER, AND THE GLORY, FOR EVER. AMEN." though omitted by the NASB, RSV, NIV, ESV and modern Catholic versions are found in over 1000 Greek copies compared to just 10 that omit these precious words. They are found in some of the Old Latin copies as well as the Syriac Peshitta, Harclean, Curetonian, Palestinian, Gothic, Coptic, Armenian, Ethiopic, and Gothic ancient versions as well as quoted by several Church Fathers. The reading is undeniably genuine, yet the NASB, NIV, ESV, RSV and the modern Catholic bible versions omit these words.
See the article - Matthew 6:13 & Luke 11:2-4 Is your Bible a “Catholic” bible?
http://brandplucked.webs.com/matthew613.htm
Matthew 6:15--8 of 11 OL mss. lack "their trespasses."
Actually “their trespasses” is the Majority reading and that of Vaticanus as well as the Syriac, Coptic, Gothic, Armenian, Ethiopic and Geogian ancient versions, but are omitted by Sinaiticus.
Matthew 23:19--9 of 11 OL mss. lack "fools and."
Here “fools and” are in the Majority of all texts as well as Vaticanus, but they are omitted by Sinaiticus.
Mark 1:2--all 9 OL mss. read "Isaiah the prophet," instead of "the prophets."
Actually, Nestle-Aland lists one of the Old Latin texts "r" as reading "in Isaiah and in the prophets"
Luke 2:14--all 12 OL mss. read "of good pleasure," with the Vulgate and the Vaticanus Greek manuscript against the received text.
Note: The KJB reading of “good will toward men” is not just the Received Text, but is the Majority reading found even in Sinaiticus correction, Vaticanus correction, numerous uncial copies (capital letters), the Syriac Peshitta, Siniatic, and Harclean versions, the Coptic Boharic, Armenian, Georgian, Slavonic, and Ethiopian versions. It is the modern versions like the ESV, NIV, NASB that agree with the Catholic versions and say something like “to those on whom his favor rests.” To see a much more in depth study on this verse see my article here -
http://brandplucked.webs.com/luke214goodwill.htm
Luke 24:3--7 of 11 OL mss. lack "of the Lord Jesus."
This is the reading found in most Bibles and texts except D and the RSV, NRSV. The words are in the Reformation bibles and even in the Catholic versions and the NIV, ESV, NASB.
Luke 24:6--7 of 11 OL mss. lack "he is not here but was raised."
Again, this is the reading in virtually all texts and Bible versions except the RSV.
Luke 24:9--8 of 11 OL mss. lack "from the tomb."
Luke 24:36--all 10 OL mss. either add "it is I; do not be afraid" to the phrase "and he said to them, peace be unto you," (3 of 10), or else they lack the entire clause (the other 7).
What Mr. Kutilek fails to mention here is that the reading: "Jesus himself stood in the midst of them AND SAITH UNTO THEM, PEACE BE UNTO YOU", is found in the Majority of all texts, including Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, but the NASB omitted all the capital letter words in all editions from 1960 through 1977. It was only in the NASB 1995 update version that some NASB’s decided to put these words back into the text. The 1995 Update version I have does NOT contain these words, but others have told me that their copies do. Mr. Kutilek also did not mention that two of the Old Latin texts were later changed to omit the words. At least 3 of them do include the words “and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.”
Luke 24:52--6 of 9 OL mss. lack "him."
Note - It should be obvious that Mr. Bible Agnostic Kutilek is “cherry picking” his examples and it is far from “practically at random”. That he would choose such a minor and petty example shows how desperate he is.
John 5:32--5 of 8 OL mss. read "you" instead of "I."
Here “I know” is the Majority reading as well as Vaticanus. Sinaiticus original had “you know” and some other mss. read “we know”. It is very common to find these variant clusters among the thousands of remaining manuscripts. Mr. Kutilek is again scraping the bottom of the barrel to try to find some fault with the King James Bible.
Romans 6:11--9 of 10 OL mss. lack "our Lord."
Here the reading: "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ OUR LORD" is found not only in the Majority of all texts, and in Sinaiticus, and C, but also in the Syriac Peshitta, Coptic Boharic, Armenian, Ethiopian, Georgian, and Slavonic. It is the NASB, NIV, RSV, ESV and Catholic versions that omit the words "our Lord" based on a minority reading found in Vaticanus, A and D.
Romans 8:1--all 10 OL mss. lack "but after the spirit;" in addition, 2 of these mss. also lack the clause "who walk not after the flesh."
Mr. Kutilek has given us some false information here regarding the readings of the Old Latin versions. According to the UBS most recent critical text, the phrase "but after the Spirit" is found in two of the Old Latin copies (ar and o, plus the previous UBS 1 also lists Old Latin e) and obviously most of them contain the phrase "who walk not after the flesh." Therefore the Old Latin texts do witness to the complete KJB reading.
Romans 8:1 in the King James Bible reads: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH, BUT AFTER THE SPIRIT." The words in capital letters are found in the Majority of all Greek texts, the Syriac Harclean, Georgian, and Slavonic ancient versions. The NASB, NIV, RSV, ESV all omit these words, again, based on a minority reading.
Among the Catholic versions we see the usual confusion. The previous Douay - Rheims and Douay versions contain the words “who walk not after the flesh”, but the more recent Catholic versions like the St. Joseph NAB 1970 and the New Jerusalem bible 1985 are in agreement with the UBS text (They are ALL based on the same N.T. text!) and omit the words “who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.”
I Corinthians 6:20--none of the 11 OL mss. have the Byzantine addition, "and in your spirit, which are God's."
Again Mr. Kutilek shows his bias by referring to the words as "the Byzantine addition". The facts are that the reading: "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, AND IN YOUR SPIRIT, WHICH ARE GOD'S." is found in the vast Majority of all Greek texts including C3, D c, K,L, P, the Syriac Peshitta, Harclean, Armenian, and Latin Vulgate ancient versions. The NASB, NIV, RSV, ESV and the Catholic versions continue to omit these words based on a minority reading.
I Corinthians 7:5--all 10 OL mss. lack "fasting and."
The reading found in the KJB "except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves TO FASTING and prayer" is found in the Majority of all Greek texts, as well as Sinaiticus correction, the Syriac Peshitta, Harclean, Gothic, Slavonic, and Latin Vulgate ancient versions. The NASB, NIV, RSV, ESV and other Catholic versions omit the words because not found in the minority texts.
I Timothy 3:16--all 10 OL mss. have a relative pronoun, "that which," instead of the Byzantine reading "God."
The correct reading of "GOD was manifest in the flesh" is found in the Majority of all Greek texts, including Sinaiticus correction, Alexandrinus, C correction, the ancient Georgian, and Syriac Harclean versions, as well as some Latin Vulgate copies. The Vaticanus text, upon which the NASB, NIV, RSV, ESV and Catholic versions base their reading, doesn't even make grammatical sense in Greek.
The NASB, NIV, ESV and Catholic versions say "HE appeared in a body". Well, so what? We all have appeared in a body, but the KJB reading teaches that Jesus Christ was GOD manifest in the flesh. Even a Bible critic like James White thinks the KJB reading is to be preferred. James White does not believe in any inspired, complete, inerrant Bible version or text on this earth, but in his book The KJV Controversy, even he admits on page 207 "In fact, I prefer this reading, and feel that it has more than sufficient support from the Greek manuscripts."
Hebrews 10:38--7 of 8 OL mss. add "my."
James 2:20--8 of 9 OL mss. read "idle" instead of "dead."
James 4:4--all 9 OL mss. lack "adulterers and."
James 5:20--all 8 OL mss. add "his" to "soul."
I Peter 3:15--all 7 OL mss. read "Christ" instead of "God."
Throughout this list Mr. Kutilek presents, he is most definitely cherry-picking certain words in select verses in an attempt to prove the Old Latin more closely matches the readings found in the NASB, NIV, RSV, ESV. The reading of GOD as found in the KJB in this verse is that of the Majority of all texts. Mr. Kutilek presents his case based on only 7 mixed Old Latin portions that still remain out of the hundreds if not thousands of copies that once existed, many of which in all likelihood read exactly like the King James Bible does today. Yet Mr. Kutilek conveniently fails to mention all the readings found in the remaining Old Latin copies that support the KJB in contrast to the NASB, NIV, ESV and modern Catholic versions.
For instance, here in the very next verse of 1 Peter 3:16 "whereas they speak evil OF YOU, AS OF EVILDOERS" is omitted by the NASB, NIV, ESV and Catholic versions, yet found in the Majority as well as the Old Latin copies.
In 1 Peter 4:14 "ON THEIR PART HE IS EVIL SPOKEN OF, BUT ON YOUR PART HE IS GLORIFIED" is missing from the NASB, NIV, ESV and Catholic versions yet is found in the Old Latin and Majority.
In 1 Peter 5:2 "Feed the church of God which is among you, TAKING THE OVERSIGHT THEREOF" is missing in the NASB, NIV, ESV and Catholic versions yet found in the Old Latin, Majority and KJB.
Again in both 1 Peter 5:10 and 14 the word JESUS is missing in the NASB, NIV, ESV and Catholic versions but is found in the Old Latin copies.
When we compare the 17 to 45 entire verses (counting the 12 verses from Mark 16 and the 9 verses from John 8) that are either omitted or called into question by the modern versions in the New Testament, we see that they all are found in both the King James Bible and in the Old Latin copies.
The ending of Mark 16. In the gospel of Mark, the last 12 entire verses are omitted in the so called “oldest and best” manuscripts of Sinaiticus and Vaticanus. The versions based on the UBS critical text attempt to discredit these 12 verses as being “added” later on by someone other than Mark.
The NIV 1984 edition puts this note right in the text and not even in the margin, saying: “The most reliable early manuscripts and other ancient witnesses do not have Mark 16:9-20.” The 2011 NIV goes as far as to put these 12 verses in italics and in smaller print, while the RSV just eliminates them altogether from their text. Likewise the Catholic versions include the verses but include footnotes designed to cast doubt on their authenticity.
The facts are that all these verses are found in the vast Majority of all remaining Greek manuscripts plus the Old Latin copies aur, c, d, ff2, g1, l, n, o,q and r2. They are in the Coptic Sahidic, Boharic, the Syriac Peshitta, Curetonian, Harcelian and Palestinian, the Gothic, Armenian, Ethiopian and Georgian ancient versions and are quoted by Irenaeus, Tertullian, Didymus and the Apostolic Constitutions.
I John 3:1--all 7 OL mss. add "and we are," as do the Vulgate, Vaticanus, and many other authorities.
The reading found in the KJB is: "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." This is the reading of the Majority of all Greek texts, but the NASB, RSV, NIV, ESV and Catholic versions add the words "and so we are".
But for some mysterious reason, when we get to the most important verse omitted in 1 John by the NASB, NIV, RSV, ESV and Catholic versions like the St. Joseph and New Jerusalem bible, Mr. Kutilek fails to mention this. That verse is the Trinitarian formula found in 1 John 5:7-8. The KJB reads: "For there are three that bear record IN HEAVEN, THE FATHER, THE WORD, AND THE HOLY GHOST: AND THESE THREE ARE ONE. AND THERE ARE THREE THAT BEAR WITNESS IN EARTH, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one." Here the NASB, RSV, NIV, ESV, Holman and the Catholic versions like St. Joseph NAB 1970 and New Jerusalem 1985 omit all the capital letter words, yet they are found in the Old Latin copies.
I John 3:5--all 7 OL mss. lack "our."
The reading of “He was manifested to take away OUR sins” is that of the Majority of all texts, including Sinaiticus and is in the Syriac Peshitta, but is omitted by the NIV, NASB, ESV and the Catholic versions.
Mr. Kutilek concludes with these words: "These 26 examples gleaned practically at random from the apparatus of The Greek New Testament, 3rd edition, 1975, published by the United Bible Societies, represent only a small fraction of the Old Latin departures from the received text as well as from the Byzantine text. Very many more could be listed, but surely these are enough to refute the false claim that the Old Latin in any of its forms is Byzantine in text type."
I seriously doubt that Doug Kutilek "gleaned practically at random" his minor selections in an effort to prove to us that the Old Latin version is not "in any of its forms a Byzantine text." Do you really think Mr. Kutilek is an impartial judge in these matters, or does he have an agenda to promote himself as the Final Authority of what God did or did not say? Other equally qualified scholars have examined the same evidence and arrived at a very different conclusion than that of men like James White, Gary Hudson, and Doug Kutilek.
In conclusion, the general text of the few remaining Old Latin copies that we have today give overwhelming evidence for the authenticity of the major disputed readings found in the Authorized King James Bible and in other Reformation Bible versions. This is why Doug Kutilek and Gary Hudson have tried to convince us that the Old Latin texts are very different from the King James Bible, when in reality, they give convincing support for these readings as being older than the corrupt Greek copies upon which the new “Vatican Versions” are based.
For me and thousands of other King James Bible believers, we will trust God to have fulfilled His promises to preserve His inerrant words. We believe what our Lord Jesus Christ said in Matthew 24:35 "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."
Will Kinney
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