KJB Textual Technology

  • To Readers: The website is subject to ongoing revision to optimize the language
  • Home page: Summarizing the primary content of the present website
  • About Dr Bednar
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  • Unscholarly & uncivil internet criticism of the KJV-Only position
  • The nature of modern English versions: An introduction to the topic
  • Introducing the case for inerrancy preservation: The role of scholarship
  • Inerrancy preservation in the KJV illustrating the Divine Hand on text history
  • Refuting claims by scholars of error in the KJV, based on items from the essays
  • Essay 1 -Our guide to eternity: God's Word or text-tinkering of scholars?
  • Essay 2 - Inerrancy & Greek-manuscript variance: An Introduction to the topic
  • Essay 3 -Is there evidence of tampering by Gnostics in Alexandrian Greek texts?
  • Essay 4 -Outstanding accuracy of the Greek Received Text
  • a- 1 John 5:7,8 -Establishing the authenticity of the Johannine Comma
  • b. -Acts 20:28 - The Blood of God, or the blood of his own: Our unique Savior
  • c -Col.1:14 -Redemption through the blood of the Savior
  • d- 1 Pet. 4:1 Jesus did not have any sin of his own to suffer for
  • e- Order of Resurrection Morning events in the gospels
  • f -John 8 -The adulterous woman & the missing man: Proving passage authenticity
  • g- The Received Text -No support given to works or universal salvation
  • h- The Received Text -No renderings based upon conjecture
  • i -R.T. Inerrancy: Exact equivalence preserves it; textual evidence reveals it
  • j -Evidence that the Received-Text ancestor is older than Alexandrian texts
  • k. The Biblical Christmas story: Identifying the star & the wise men
  • l -Jude 25 "God our Savior" is a correct indirect reference to the Trinity
  • m -The authenticity of the concluding doxology of the Lord's Prayer
  • n. -Which is correct, the Sermon on the Mount, or the sermon on the plain?
  • Essay 5 -The KJV preserves the accuracy of the Received Text: Various examples
  • a- Acts 12:4 -"Easter" is correct: One case where "passover" does not apply
  • b -The KJV: Distinguished by never teaching salvation by works to its readers
  • c- The Holy Spirit and the use of the pronouns "it" and "itself"
  • d -Is Jesus or Joshua referenced in Hebrews 4:8 and Acts 7:45?
  • e -The KJV never teaches abuse of the body to its readers
  • f -Mt.2:1-12 The KJV wise men vs. modern-version magi
  • g -The love of money really is the root of all evil, not just some evil
  • h -Which rendering is correct, devils or demons? The nature of evil
  • i -Hebrews 10:23 "Faith" or "hope?" Which one is the correct rendering?
  • j -Matthew 23:24 Is the right reading "Strain at a gnat" or "strain out a gnat?"
  • k -Saved or always being saved? Is there a sense in which salvation is ongoing?
  • l. Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit: Is there just one correct name or two?
  • m. -1 Pet.3:20-21 "Saved by water" is not salvation by water
  • n -Exact equivalence in traditional KJV editions preserves inerrancy
  • Essay 6 -Uniqueness & total accuracy of the Masoretic Hebrew/Aramaic Text
  • a- Ps.12 -God preserves His Word for His godly people; Also the ben Chayyim text
  • b. The Bible Rightly Designates animal species: Exposing the evolutionist agenda
  • c -No contradiction of numbers, names, etc. - Chronicles Amplification
  • -- 1. The years that king Asa reigned: Adding a figurative sense to the literal
  • -- 2. Age of king Jehoiachin: Did this king begin to reign at age 8 or 18?
  • -- 3. Was Ahaziah 42 years old or 22 years old when he began to reign in Judah?
  • -- 4. The great price of a sin of David: Does 2 Samuel contradict 1 Chronicles?
  • -- 5. Syrian horsemen & footmen slain by David: Do the numbers properly add-up?
  • -- 6. Horsemen, horses, stalls & chariots for king Solomon
  • -- 7. Amplification variance: How king Saul died: 2 Samuel amplifies 1 Samuel
  • d -Pattern Amplification: Clarifying patterns of Hebrew-text expression
  • --1. The number of years king Saul reigned in Israel - 1 Samuel 13:1
  • --2. 2 Sam.15:7 Did Absalom need 40 years or 4 years to overthrow King David?
  • e -Suggested other types of contradiction in scripture are refuted
  • --1. The number of Hebrews returning from the exile in Babylon
  • --2. Why king Saul fails to recognize David during the incident with Goliath
  • --3. The role of Hebrew-text qere marginal notes: Isa.9:3 - Joy or no joy?
  • -4. Was Nineveh in Jonah's day much larger than major modern-day cities?
  • f -Key Hebrew-text history: The Dead- Sea scrolls & the Samaritan Pentateuch
  • g - Exodus 25:31 - Is the Menorah a "she" or "he" or an "it"
  • Essay 7 -The KJV preserves the total accuracy of the Masoretic Text
  • a- Dan 3 Aramaic -Christ in theophany: The Son of God, not a son of the gods
  • b- Who killed Goliath -David or Elhanen? The unique nature of the name Goliath
  • c -YHVH -Gods sacred name that is never to be spoken by sinners
  • d -True science in the KJV: Identifying the "firmament" in the Creation account
  • e. -Why mythical creatures are presented in the KJV: Following correct Hebrew
  • f. -Is The correct rendering "Lucifer" or "Morning Star"? A danger of confusion
  • g. -Exodus 20:13 "Thou shalt not kill" or "You shall not murder?"
  • h. -Proverbs 18:24 Showing ourselves friendly, or coming to ruin?
  • Essay 8 -God's spoken Word in written form: The case for Dictation Inspiration
  • Essay 9 -The KJV as a true agent of text inerrancy preservation
  • Essay 10 -Problems with application of textual criticism of the Bible
  • Essay 11 - The uniqueness of God's Word: Perspectives of Bible-believers
  • a -One unchanging bible speaks inerrantly to ancient and modern people
  • b -Mk.16:16-18 -Significance of early miraculous signs & Christian baptism
  • c -The Resurrection of Christ and His people: A reality that extends to eternity
  • d -Christians are not called to be slaves: "Servants" fits all contexts
  • e -The Crucifixion hour -Did the Crucifixion occur at the 3rd hour or the 6th?
  • f -The authenticity of the big-fish experience of Jonah & the supportive science
  • g -Giant dinosaurs and their sea-going relatives are in the biblical book of Job
  • h. -Ps 22:16,8 Pierced my hands & my feet, or like a lion my hands and my feet?
  • Essay 12 -100 erroneous criticisms of the KJV & its textual basis
  • Essay 13 -KJV classical language of emphasis: Acts 5:30, Titus 2:13, 1 Chr. 5:26
  • Essay 14 -KJV older English glorifies God & favors study: Dayspring from on high
  • Essay 15 A Translation that God approves: Replenish the earth, John Baptist, etc
  • Essay 16 -Should faith in text accuracy be vested in scholar opinion?
  • Essay 17 -Refuting claims of dynamic equivalence in the KJV
  • Essay 18 -Biblical doctrine: a. Did Moses persuade God to change His mind?
  • b. -Why God questioned Adam & Eve about eating forbidden fruit
  • c. -Sermon on the Mount: Is it for churches? Did Christ teach works salvation?
  • d. -Mark 10:17,18 -Why callest thou me good? Christ did not deny His own deity
  • e. -Was God unfair in judging Egypt & Pharaoh after hardening Pharaoh's heart?
  • f -Does the Old Testament teach soul sleep in Sheol? Saul & the woman of Endor
  • g. -Can Old Testament institutions be restored in the Millennium?
  • Essay 19 -Topics on creation vs evolution: Which one is technically correct?
  • Associated organizations with goals related to those of this website


Essay 4-b

            The Blood of God, or the Blood of His Own: Our Unique Savior

Acts 20:28


KJV
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.


A few modern translators present alternatives to the blood of God. One alternative is use of Lord in lieu of God, allowing association of blood with the humanity of Jesus. There's substantial manuscript support for this rendering, but even so-called "best" Alexandrian manuscripts favor God, and most modern translators render it that way, but there is much disagreement about which is correct.

Another alternative is to render the phrase with his own blood to read with the blood of his own, as if own were a substantive (noun-like term) rather than an adjective, and it's possible to read the Greek in this latter fashion. However, the KJV rendering is the preferred one since the other resembles an incomplete thought, and it can be taken to read like the KJV (the blood of his own can have the sense of the blood that is his own). In an effort to ensure this alternative rendering Son has been inserted after own to complete the thought, offering the blood of His own Son, but Son isn't in the text, and can't be taken as implied; this rendering makes own an adjective, rather than a substantive, so this would even abandon grammar preferred by scholars to avoid the concept of the blood of God, that refers to Jesus Christ as having divine blood.*


*Our Savior didn't have human blood, both a human father & mother being needed to form it, and He had no human father. Blood forms in the fetus out of direct contact with blood of either parent (Borkert, D.T. - M.D. & Pulliam, K.R. - PhD, "The Blood of Christ  www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/cbtj/03-2 _001.pdf )

Indeed, as has been pointed out, Lev.17:11 says that life is in the blood, and the life in Jesus was divine, not merely human,* so His blood would be part of His divine nature, along with His divine Spirit and Soul. His body would be generated by the Holy Ghost from Mary's genetics, and, along with His human spirit and soul, would constitute His human nature. The latter nature would be perfected by the divine nature of His  blood as the only material part of His deity.  Now earthly father/son relationships are those of blood, and the heavenly Father/Son relationship is that of Divine Blood. The Savior  is the Son of God and Son of man, perfect God and perfect man without a sin nature, so He represents both, with a view to ultimately providing the perfection of mankind.


* Bromfield, E.L. smoodock45.wordpress.com/.../were-we-purchased-with-god’s-blood/

Now divided manuscript evidence supporting the different readings cannot of itself be decisive due to the humanity of copyists, and in such cases the textual evidence of context and grammar are decisive. Further, the early church provides reliable evid- ence in this case, understanding the true reading as speaking of the blood of God, as seen by use of this terminology by the martyr Ignatius in the early 2nd century.* He spoke of knowing he would soon die by facing lions at Rome, and considered it a great honor to die on behalf of His Savior who shed "the blood of God" for him. Now can yelping of modern scholars, who think they can correct scripture at a whim if it dis- pleases their sense of accuracy, have the slightest weight in comparison with Ignatius' magnificent testimony on the rendering? Which modern scholar believes his opinion with such devotion that he would be concerned enough to espouse and teach it while knowing that hungry lions await him because of his Christian testimony?

        *
"Ignatius to the Ephesians". www.earlychristianwritings.com › Church Fathers

We see strong evidence that Divine Blood was shed to atone for the sin of all mankind, and we can understand that the shedding of this blood would atone for sin. Indeed, we can see that the highest price in the universe was paid by God to guarantee forgiveness of sin to all who are sick of sin that otherwise would place an insurmountable barrier between Holy God and sinful mankind.

Note: Readers can follow-up on textual history of variant readings on this subject at  the very informative website of Brother Will Kinney noted below.   


                   brandplucked.webs.com/acts2028godsblood.htm