In Chapter 1, we covered Astronomy using five different versions of the Bible: Charles Thomson’s The Greek Septuagint Bible of the Old Testament (CTS), Charles Thomson’s New Testament Translated from the Greek (CTNT), The Holy Bible from the Ancient Eastern Text – George Lamsa’s Translation from the Aramaic of the Peshitta (ARAMAIC), The Cepher, which is a Hebrew Bible (CEPHER), The King James Version (KJV), and The New American Standard Version (NASB).
Here is a complete list of the Bibles by date that I personally have in my library:
1808:
The Old Covenant, Commonly Called The Old Testament: Translated From The Septuagint, Volumes I-III. Philadelphia, PA: Jane Aitken, 1808.
1808:
The New Covenant, Commonly Called The New Testament: Translated From The Greek, Volume IV. Philadelphia, PA: Jane Aitken, 1808.
1841:
The English Hexapla Exhibiting the Six Important English Translations of the New Testament Scriptures: Wycliffe (1380); Tyndale (1535); Cranmer (1539); Genevan (1557); Angl-Rhemish (1582); Authorised (1611). London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1841.
1851:
The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English. London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1851.
1862:
Young’s Literal Translation of the Holy Bible. Oxford, MA: Benediction Classics, 2012.
1902:
Weymouth New Testament. London, England: James Clarke and Co., 1902.
1903:
The Holy Bible In Modern English Containing the Complete Sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments Translated into English Direct From the Original Hebrew, Chaldee and Greek by Ferrar Fenton. Merrimac, MA: Destiny Publishers, 1903.
1905:
The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Translated Into Modern English From the Greek Text of Westcott & Hort by Ferrar Fenton. Merrimac, MA: Destiny Publishers, 1905.
1922:
The Bible: James Moffatt Translation. San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins, 1922.
1933:
Holy Bible From The Ancient Eastern Text: George M. Lamsa’s Translations From the Aramaic of the Peshitta. New York, NY: A. J. Holman Co., 1933.
1935:
The Bible: An American Translation. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1935.
1959:
The Emphasized Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1959.
1986:
The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew, Greek, English. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1986.
1996:
The New American Standard Bible. Anaheim, CA: Foundation Publications, Inc., 1996.
1999:
The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible: The Oldest Known Bible Translated for the First Time into English. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 1999.
2005:
The Hendrickson Parallel Bible: King James Version; New King James Version; New International Version; New Living Translation. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2005.
2006:
The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
2009:
Christogenea New Testament Translated by William Finck. Self-Published, 2009.
2011:
The New Testament From The Greek Text As Established By Bible Numerics Originally Translated by Ivan Panin. Houston, TX: Unleavened Bread Publishing, Inc., 2011.
2012:
Aramaic English New Testament. Sedro-Woolley, WA: Netzari Press, LLC., 2012.
2013:
The Apostolic Bible Polyglot. Newport, OR: The Apostolic Press, 2013.
The Holy Bible: International Standard Version 2.0. Toluca Lake, CA: Davidson Press, 2013.
2014:
The Cepher. Eureka, MT: Cepher Publishing Group, LLC, 2014. Updated in 2020.
2016:
The 1599 Geneva Bible. Dallas, GA: Tolle Lege Press, 2016.
The Berean Study Bible. Pittsburgh, PA: Bible Hub, 2016.
The Complete Jewish Study Bible. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLC, 2016.
2018:
The Pure Word. Roseville, CA: One Path Publishing, LLC, 2018.
But which of these English translations is God Breathed and Inspired? Is Charles Thomson’s Greek Septuagint Old Testament and Greek New Testament more accurate than all the Bibles that have the Masoretic Text which was corrupted by Rabbi Akiba? The answer is yes, and S. Douglas Woodward proves that in his Rebooting the Bible Series.
According to S. Douglas Woodward’s Rebooting the Bible,[1]
The King James Version was created using the Masoretic Text (MT), and therefore, was corrupted long before today. It happened nineteen centuries ago. This corruption was intentional. It was carried out by those rabbis who survived the destruction of Herod’s Temple. Roman authorities granted them permission to create an academy in the town of Jamnia (Javneh), on the coast near Tel Aviv. There, changes were made to the original Old Testament, that focused on two areas: First, the Messianic passages of the Old Testament; and secondly, two chronologies in Genesis, Chapter 5 and 11 . . . The rabbis, headed by Rabbi Akiba ben Yosef, sought to recreate Judaism while at the same time quashing the rival cult known as Christianity. Rabbinic authorities decided to obscure specific passages that supported Christian evangelists who preached Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah.[2]
Woodward continues:
At Jamnia, these rabbis created an alternate Vorlage, or original scripture, from which a new Greek translation would be created that contradicted the Greek Septuagint, hoping to replace this Greek Bible used by Christian apostles and teachers, especially for the Jewish communities globally. After three centuries had elapsed, and with some help from the Christian patrons Origen and later Jerome, the rabbis ultimately succeeded, at least to a meaningful extent. This would lead to one Latin and three new Greek versions based upon this Vorlage. The “revised” Vorlage differed from the original Bible, compiled (so tradition tells us) by Ezra and then safeguarded by Nehemiah and the other courageous Jews (Judahites) that returned from the Babylonian Empire in the Fifth Century B.C. (circa 445 B.C.) This new rabbinic (corrupted) Hebrew Vorlage was created about 100 A.D., while the later Greek versions were originated before the end of the Second Century A.D., and the Latin Vulgate, approximately 400 A.D. The Septuagint’s Pentateuch was finished 380 years before the rabbinic Vorlage and 680 years before the Vulgate.[3]
You see, the Septuagint had been translated in Alexandria, Egypt, from the authentic Hebrew Vorlage brought from Jerusalem for the translation. Why did the Hebrew Vorlage differ? For the rabbis, the prophecies concerning the Messiah as translated in the Septuagint easily applied to Jesus. They rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Nevertheless, Christians believed it was obvious that Jesus had fulfilled the prophecies of Moses, David, Isaiah, and the other ancient prophets. Additionally, because the tradition of the Jews held that the Messiah would arrive near the time Jesus appeared on the scene, the timing of the Messiah’s arrival had to be altered so that Jesus would not be identified as the Christ. Thus, over one thousand five hundred years (1,500) were cut from the original Genesis genealogies/chronologies. And another 130 years or so were deleted by the rabbis in the timing laid out in Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 Weeks of Years. Their efforts amount to a conspiracy to disqualify Jesus as the Christ. To accomplish this, Rabbi Akiba and his disciples at Jamnia obscured the Messianic prophecies and the chronology of Genesis from Adam to Abraham. Given the New Testament authors used the Septuagint 90% of the time when quoting the Old Testament, perhaps ironically, Christianity preserved the meaning of the original Hebrew in these specific passages.[4]
I personally use the Charles Thomson’s Greek Septuagint Old Testament and his Greek New Testament for all of my studies. I think that you’ll find it to be more accurate, as well as easy to read. Here are the links so that you can download the Bible for free:
Here is the link for the Old Testament (Volume I: Genesis – I Kings):
https://ia600203.us.archive.org/24/items/holybiblecontain01thom/holybiblecontain01thom.pdf
Here is the link for the Old Testament (Volume II: II Kings – Psalms):
https://ia800201.us.archive.org/4/items/holybiblecontain02thom/holybiblecontain02thom.pdf
Here is the link for the Old Testament (Volume III: Proverbs – Malachi):
https://ia800200.us.archive.org/31/items/holybiblecontain03thom/holybiblecontain03thom.pdf
Here is the link for the New Testament (Volume IV: Matthew – Revelation):
https://ia800205.us.archive.org/0/items/holybiblecontain04thom/holybiblecontain04thom.pdf
By the way, for those of you who are King James Only people, English is not the inspired language that YAHWEH used; the original languages of Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic were. However, with that being said, YAHWEH did use the English language to spread the Gospel using the Anglo-American Empire, just as He did use the Roman Empire. Statistics show that 95% of missionaries came from the Anglo-American Empire during the Church Age of Philadelphia. Praise YAHWEH for that!
Wherever we were, there you would find Christianity! That is why we were known as the Christian West and/or Western Christendom! My how things have changed…
For an in-depth study on the various Bible Versions, I highly recommend Gail A. Riplinger’s New Age Bible Versions: An Exhaustive Documentation Exposing the Message, Men, and Manuscripts Moving Mankind To The Antichrist’s One World Religion.[5] Yes, I know that she is a King James Only person; however, with that being said, she has done a great deal of research with regard to what has been deliberately taken out of and/or is missing from the modern Bible versions. As I discussed in my previous two books, there is really only one religion on Earth that denies the existence of YAHSHUAH in the flesh and that religion is Antichrist!
[1] S. Douglas Woodward, Rebooting the Bible (Oklahoma City, OK: Faith Happens Book, LLC, 2018).
[2] Ibid., xii.
[3] Ibid., xiii.
[4] Ibid., xiii–xiv.
[5]. Gail A. Riplinger, New Age Bible Versions (Ararat, VA: A.V. Publications, Corp., 2019).