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
  • Books available
  • Contact us
  • 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 5-k


                                Saved or Always Being Saved?

    1 Corinthians 1:18

KJV: For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

NIV: For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Due to English/Greek grammar discord, scholars cannot assume a Greek present passive participle meaning are being saved in these verses tells us salvation is ongoing; indeed are saved is a non-ongoing contextual equi- valent. In the 2 Cor.3:7 Greek, the glory in Moses’ face is being done away, but context denies present tense, and the equivalent KJV was to be done away& NASV/NIV fading…it was have only a past ongoing sense. In 1 Cor.5:4 a church is being assembled in the Greek, and the aorist-present KJV are gathered together & NASV/NIV are assembled are equivalents that have only a sporadic ongoing sense. In the 1 Cor.11:24 Greek, Christ speaks of His body (represented by communion bread) in regard to the future, saying this is my body which for you (is) being broken, which can seem to refer to the bread rather than the later Cross, but refers to His body, as the KJV & NKJV equivalent is broken tells us in speaking of one breaking, not an ongoing breaking, though His body broken once (broken in the sense of pierced flesh) has ongoing benefit for many; the bread is often broken, but it signifies one breaking of His body (the NASV/NIV NU Greek text omits broken, omitting the sense in which His body is for you & omitting participle use). In Col.3:10 the NASV/NIV literally render a Greek present passive participle describing the new man, saying is being renewed, but the new man is God’s work not requiring ongoing renewal, as in the KJV & NKJV “the new man which is renewed (from the old man to the image of God by the Creator);” this is what the Greek present passive participle means, but is masked by grammar discord of two different languages.

Similar grammar occurs in the Hebrew where a participle like “the ones being invited” in 1 Kings 1:41 doesn’t refer to people being continuously invited, but those that are invited.

We conclude that the Greek participle in Corinthians presents salvation, not as ongoing, but as the power for ongoing soul sanctification. Thus 1 John 1:7 speaks of Christ’s blood as continually cleansing the redeemed in the sense of the one-time breaking of his body in a sacrifice that imparts the power of ongoing sanctification, as well as the power of salvation to generations throughout the centuries.

Clearly salvation continues to apply, and it has a future aspect in that all joy accompanying it will be realized, but that’s very different from the notion that the participle reveals a sense in which people are being saved in an ongoing process,* which is private interpretation that can't be assumed. Indeed an ongoing-salvation concept favors Arminian doctrine of ongoing loss & renewal of salvation, and it even supports the notion of salvation by ongoing ever-incomplete works. It may even encourage the freely-sinning antinomians to think the possibility of salvation never ends. If the Greek grammar is retained, corrective English is needed to speak of ongoing salvation only in the sense that new souls are being saved.**

 

*Defense of this modern rendering by J. R. White (The King James Only Controversy p133) illustrates the illogical ways modern scholars justify their preferences. He says this verse has living earthly unsaved people perishing in an ongoing sense, which supposedly calls for a parallel clause denoting living people being saved in an ongoing process. That has no basis in fact, for while the living unsaved are on the path to destruction, they can still be saved, as White admits, and as long as this offer exists, they aren’t perishing. Only those in hell now are perishing now. Literal Greek isn’t always good English, and translators must know when to change the Greek to proper English, as those of the KJV obviously did.                                                              

**Guthrie, D. & Motyer, J.A. 1970. The New Bible Commentary Revised.  Eerdemans.  Gr. Rapids.  p976.


Greek present passive participles can’t be assumed to have an ongoing sense, grammar mismatch being a common problem in translation. Today scholars seem at times to view grammar in accord with their private interpretations, inventing notions that may be their way of adding to the significance of scripture teaching, and that can be very misleading.