My heart hurts as I convey this information.
Below, please find very important information from many sources I feel
compelled to relay.
Read it slow...
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There is a lot of material on the Kittel Family
(and the influence of Kittel on Old Testament Studies), that have not been translated
into English.
Because of this, access to the information about
Kittel and his Nazi past (and hatred of Jews) have been very limited in the
English Language, a position which has delighted liberal Bible translators who are only too happy to have false versions of the Old Testament
masquerading as works of truth and scholarship.
It is with the intention of providing substantive
information on the background of Bible Translations that we have
begun to address and document the Nazi Career of Kittel, and his very
wide impact on Old Testament Translations.
Most of his work on the Old Testament has been
accepted by Protestant Evangelicals. It took Liberal German Protestant
Theologians to promote Kittel (Both during WWII and after).
His work was accepted and integrated into Most English Bible Translations of
the 20th Century through his Old Testament, the Biblia Hebraica (also known as the Biblia
Hebraica Stuttgartensia).
Here are a few examples of the use of
Kittel's Old Testament in the New King James Version, the New International
Version, NIV Preface : Original 1978 Edition
published by Zondervan, the Biblia
Hebraica (also known as the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia).
The Amplified Bible (published by the Lockman
Foundation) is based on the American Standard Version of 1901,
Rudolph Kittels Biblia Hebraica, the Greek text of Westcott and Hort,
and the 23rd edition of the Nestle Greek New Testament as well as the
best Hebrew and Greek lexicons available at the time.
Cognate languages, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and
other Greek works were also consulted.
Although Kittel's work is still highly praised
among Evangelicals and others (who have been misled), it should be noted that
most of the Jewish versions
of the Old Testament have strongly REJECTED
the work and "scholarship" of both Rudolph (father) and
Gerhard (son) Kittel.
It is possible to find Protestant Bibles without
an Old Testament mis-translated by the Kittel Family.
But there are very few versions to which
this applies. The Biblia Hebraica [1937] and the Biblia Hebraica
Stuttgartensia [1977] (published by the
German Bible Societies/UBS [United Bible Societies is the official name]) both of these UBS O.T.
Corrupt Versions are from "the work" of Rudolph & Gerhard Kittel.
Bible scholars today trip over themselves to
obtain a set of Gerhard Kittles Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, the most revered Greek lexicon.
He is the last word on the interpretation of
Greek words used in the New Testament. However, Herr Kittle, the mouthpiece of
Herr Adolph Hitler, was a dedicated Nazi who justified theologically the
extermination of the Jews. His method of Bible word interpretation is simple:
Rule One is to pick and choose the Greek manuscript that agrees with your
theology.
Rule Two is to define words based on citations by
ancient pagan Greeks like Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle. This twisted method
is bound to result in a corruption of the Word of God.
The Bible Method of defining Bible words is let
the Bible interpret the Bible. We are told to "compare spiritual things
with spiritual," I Corinthians 2:13.
Gerhards father Rudolf Kittle was the author of
Biblia Hebraica, used by all new versions to translate the Old Testament (along
with Origens Septuagint). NIV translators say Kittles text is an " . . . eclectic
[pick and choose] text."
Septuagint: Over time, the text was subject to
numerous changes, which can be attributed to several causes, including scribal
errors, efforts at exegesis, and attempts to support theological positions.
Accordingly, the Septuagint went through a number
of different revisions and recensions, the most famous of which include those
by Aquila (128 CE), a student of Rabbi Akiva; and Origen
(235),
a Christian theologian in Alexandria.
Pseudo-Aristeas
The so-called Letter of Aristeas is a forgery.
Josephus Ant. XII, ii passim) ascribes to 'Aristeas' a letter ascribing
the Greek translation of the Old Testament to seventy six interpreters sent
into Egypt from Jerusalem at the request of the librarian of Alexandria,
resulting in the Septuagint Bible.
Early philological analysis proved the letter was
a forgery. In 1684 Humphrey Hody published Contra historiam
Aristeae de LXX. interpretibus dissertatio, in which he showed that the so
called "letter of Aristeas", was the late forgery of a Hellenized
Jew, originally circulated to lend authority to that version.
The dissertation was generally regarded as
conclusive, although Isaac Vossius (1618-1689) who had been librarian to Queen Christina
of Sweden, published an angry and scurrilous reply to it, in the
appendix to his edition of Pomponius Mela.
Several factors led Jews to eventually abandon
the Septuagint, including the fact that Greek scribes were not subject to the
same rigid rules imposed on Hebrew scribes; that Christians favoured the
Septuagint; the gradual decline of the Greek language among Jews. Instead,
Hebrew/Aramic manuscripts compiled by the Masoretes, or authorative Aramaic
translations such as that of Onkelos, of Rabbi Yonasan ben Uziel, and Targum
Yerushalmi, were preferred.
The Old Latin Vulgate (AD157)
The word 'vulgate' is Latin for vulgar
or common. The Old Latin Vulgate is a version. It was used by early
believers in Europe when Latin was in popular use. It was sometimes referred to
as the Itala version.
The Old Latin Vulgate must not be confused with
Jerome's Vulgate, which was produced over 220 years later in AD 380. Jerome's
Vulgate (also written in Latin for the Roman Church) was rejected by the early
Christians for almost a millennium.
The Waldenses, Gauls, Celts, Albegenses and other
groups throughout Europe used the Old Latin Vulgate and rejected Jerome's
Vulgate. 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.
This Latin version became so used and beloved by
orthodox Christians and was in such common use by the common people that it
assumed the term 'Vulgate' as a name.
Vulgate comes from 'vulgar' which is the Latin
word for 'common' It was so esteemed for its faithfulness to the deity of
Christ and its accurate reproductions of the originals, that these early Christians
let Jerome's Roman Catholic translation 'sit on the shelf.'
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." (Ref:B2)
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." (Ref:F9)
Jerome
Jerome (about 340 - September 30,
420),
(full name Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus) is best known as the translator
of the Bible
from Greek
and Hebrew
into Latin.
Jerome's edition, the Vulgate,
is still the official biblical text of the Roman
Catholic Church.
He is recognized by the Vatican as a Doctor
of the Church. He was born at Stridon, on the border between Pannonia
and Dalmatia,
in the second quarter of the fourth century, and died near Bethlehem
Sept. 30, 420.
Know the difference between the true and the
false "Vulgates."
Jerome is a name shared across the European
languages in remarkably unintuitive forms: Hieronymus (Latin) = Jerome
(English, and with diacritical marks, French) = Girolamo (Italian) = Geronimo
(Spanish)
The Vulgate Bible is an early 5th century
translation of the Bible into Latin by St. Jerome,
at the instigation of Pope Damasus I.
The version takes its name from the phrase vulgata
editio, "the edition for the people" (cf. Vulgar Latin),
and was written in an everyday Latin used in conscious distinction to the
elegant Ciceronian
Latin of which Jerome was a master.
The Vulgate was designed to be both easier to
understand and more accurate than its predecessors.
Jerome was responsible for at least three
slightly different versions of the Vulgate.
The Romana Vulgate was the first. It was soon
replaced by later versions except in Britain, where it continued to be used
until the Norman Conquest in 1066.
Next was the Gallicana Vulgate, which Jerome
produced a few years later.
It had some minor improvements, especially in the
Old
Testament. This became the standard Bible
of the Roman
Catholic Church a few decades after it was produced.
The Hispana Vulgate is largely identical to the
Romana except for the Book of Psalms, which Jerome retranslated
from the Hebrew
for this version.
(The other Vulgates were mostly translated from Greek,
but were checked against Hebrew and Aramaic
sources.)
-----
After the war, members of the Confessing Catholic
and Protestant Church admitted their guilt.
For example, Gerhard Kittle, a world-renowned
scholar of the New Testament confessed his political guilt as he insisted that
a "Christian anti-Judaism" which he found in the New Testament and in
the tradition of the Christian church determined his attitude toward the Jewish
question during the Third Reich.
[Wollenberg, p. 76] On March 1946, in a lecture
in Zurich, Martin Niemöller declared:
"Christianity in Germany bears a greater
responsibility before God than the National Socialists, the SS and the
Gestapo." [Goldhagen, p.114]
Considering that the Confessing Church with its
few members, represents the most active religious protest against Nazism in
Germany, it projects a poor commentary on the state of Christiandom as a whole,
even if the other churches had remained passive.
Unfortunately most Christian churches in Germany
took an active role, not only by accepting Nazism, but to support and
strengthen it.
Today the Catholic Church has undertaken a
campaign of suppression and propaganda to belittle
anyone that dares to uncover the reality of the atrocities committed by
Roman Catholic Christians.
Protestant leaders rarely mention the influence
by Martin Luther and his anti-Jewish sentiments taught throughout Germany.
Indeed, most Protestants live completely unaware of the hatred and intolerances
spread by their congressional ancestors.
Instead of releasing documents and admitting to
the crimes of their fellow Christians, they have opted to protect their
religious power structures by silence, concealment, suppression, and projecting
the story of persecutions committed against their own religion by other
ideological systems, a ploy that disguises their own complicity of persecutions
heaped upon others.
The New Testament Greek Lexicon based on Thayer's
and Smith's Bible Dictionary plus others; this is keyed to the large Kittel and
the "Theological Dictionary of the New Testament."
These files are public domain.
Cross walk Lexicons
The New Testament Greek lexicon based on Thayer's and Smith's Bible
Dictionary plus others; this is keyed to the large Kittel and the
"Theological Dictionary of the New Testament."
Also included are RealAudio pronunciations of
each word with alternates pronunciations if available.
The Old Testament Hebrew lexicon is Brown, Driver, Briggs, Gesenius Lexicon;
this is keyed to the "Theological Word Book of the Old Testament."
Also
included are RealAudio pronunciations of each word with alternate
pronunciations if available.
Kittel, R. ed. Biblia Hebraica. Stuttgart,
Germany: Privileg. Bibelanstalt, 1937. This Bible was the predecessor to BHS
and third in the Biblia Hebraica series begun in 1912.
It is most commonly designated as BHK in
recognition of Kittels editorship or BH3.
The text is Leningradensis (B19a) and the Masorah
is the unedited Masorah of Leningradensis.
Below are a few more books to beware of.
Can you believe the praise for these men in the
christian world?
Kittel & Friedrich - An exhaustive work for
linguistic use
Gerhard Kittel's work has been a massive undertaken and has made good use of
external evidence to assist in a well-rounded understanding of the times in
which various biblical texts were believed to have been written.
Unfortunately - as in any religion, many attempt
to use this work in order to "prove" a particular point, thereby
missing much of the beauty of etymology in the study of hermeneutics.
TDNT is a wonderful work for any student of
linguistics, regardless of religious orientation.
The Best Work in its Category, Bar None!
If you are looking for an exhaustive reference work for NT Greek usage, then
Kittel & Friedrich provide it in their Theological Dictionary of the
New Testament.
Nothing even comes close to the scope of
scholarship in this work. However, one note of caution is in order. Many of the
theological points made in the work are from a liberal, Neo-orthodox point of
view.
Therefore, this type of reference is for the
advanced Bible or seminary student that possesses a strong foundation in the
Christian faith and at least a working knowledge of New Testament Greek.
----------------
Analytical Key to the Old Testament (4 vols.)
by John Joseph Owens
Keyed to the Brown,
Driver, and Briggs lexicon and Gesenius' Grammar
this classic reference work translates and identifies the words and phrases of
the Hebrew Bible for students of Hebrew.
(Both BDB and the Gesenius Grammar are
available in the Libronix DLS format. If you have them installed, the links in
the Analytical Key to the Old Testament will be live hyperlinks.)
This volume provides for each word the page
number of the standard Hebrew-English dictionary (Francis Brown, S. R.
Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old
Testament [Oxford: Clarendon, 1975]) on which that words explanation
begins.
This volume follows the Hebrew text chapter/verse
by chapter/verse. Upon finding the desired chapter/verse, the reader can locate
the term desired by following the Hebrew text at the left of the column.
The Hebrew text is the best complete Ben Asher
text available (K. Ellinger and W. Rudolph, eds., Biblia Hebraica
Stuttgartensia [Stuttgart: Württembergische Bibelanstalt, 1977]).
When there has been an insoluble difficulty in
the text, a variant reading may be provided from better translations or
grammars.
Old Testament Bibliography - Texts Aharon Dotan,
ed. Biblia Hebraica Leningradensia, Prepared according to the Vocalization,
Accents, and Masora of Aaron ben Moses ben Asher in the Leningrad Codex.Peabody,
Mass: Hendrickson Publishers, 2001.
Usually referred to as BHL. An inexpensive
edition designed for Jewish liturgical use, with careful attention to accents.
Does not include a critical apparatus.
Norman H. Snaith, Sefer Torah, Nevi'im
u-Khetuvim [title transliterated from Hebrew script]. London: British and
Foreign Bible Society, 1958. Reprinted under the title The Hebrew Scriptures.
ISBN: 0564000299.
An inexpensive edition intended for translators,
based on Sephardic manuscripts of the ben Asher family, especially
British Library Manuscript Or.2626-8.
Does not include a text-critical apparatus.
Christ the heir of all things For the Lords Day: the 29th of September 2002, Hebrews: 1: 2b
In these last days, he has spoken to us by his
son, whom he appointed the heir of all things.
Introduction: Let us begin
today by qualifying the English word heir, since we might often
understand it to mean only the coming into an inheritance on the death of one
whose estate we are to receive a portion thereof.
Gerhard Kittles exhaustive Theological
Dictionary of the New Testament begins with the
classical definition: the heir in the sense of the natural heir and the
one named by a will or by legal provisions.
Then Kittles linguistic analysis allows for
further development in the Bible primarily on the basis of the meaning of the Hebrew
equivalents but more particularly by reason of the fact that the word group
came to be used for a specific train of religious thought.
That train of thought specifically identifies
those recipients of Gods promises and of those who wait for what is promised
and further on we read that the term is an eschatological concept, whose
inheritance is identified as the kingdom of God.
-----------------------
Again, my heart hurts as I convey the truth.
Below, there might be some duplicate material, stay with me...
The Greek text that is used in most Bible
seminaries and colleges is produced by the United Bible Societies, an
organization composed of more than 100 national Bible societies.
We used the third edition when I was in school.
Since then a fourth edition has appeared. In Bible school I was not told that
the editors of that volume are apostates, but they are. We will consider four
of the editors:
Carlo Martini, Eugene Nida, Kurt Aland, and Bruce
Metzger.
CARLO MARTINI
Jesuit cardinal Carlo Maria Martini (1927- ) is
the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Milan.
Since 1967, he has been one of the editors of the
United Bible Societies Greek New Testament.
His diocese in Europe is the largest in the
world, with two thousand priests and five million "laity." He is
Professor of New Testament Textual Criticism at the Pontifical Biblical
Institute in Rome.
He is also President of the Council of European
Bishop's Conferences. Time magazine, December 26, 1994, listed him as a
possible candidate in line for the papacy.
Another Time magazine article reported
that Martini brought together a syncretistic convocation of over 100 religious
leaders from around the world to promote a new age, one-world religion.
In addressing this meeting, Mikhail Gorbachev
said, "We need to synthesize a new religion for thinking men that will
universalize that religion for the world and lead us into a new age."
EUGENE NIDA
Eugene Nida (1914- ) is the father of the
blasphemous dynamic equivalency theory of Bible translation.
Nida was the Executive Secretary of the
Translations Department of the United Bible Societies from 1943 to 1980. Though
retired, he continues to act as Special Consultant for Translators.
As to his view of biblical inspiration, Nida
says, "... Gods revelation involved limitations. ... Biblical revelation
is not absolute and all divine revelation is essentially incarnational. ...
Even if a truth is given only in words, it has no real validity until it has
been translated into life. ... The words are in a sense nothing in and of
themselves. ... the word is void unless related to experience" (Nida, Message
and Mission, p. 222-228).
The Psalmist did not hold to Nidas theories about
the words of Scripture. He said, "The words of the Lord are pure
words..." (Psalm 12:6). Throughout Scripture it is the very words of the
Bible which are said to be important, not just the basic meaning.
The words ARE something in and of themselves,
regardless of whether they are related to anything else. Nida is wrong. The
words of the Bible are intrinsically the eternal words of God.
As to the atonement of Jesus Christ, Nida says,
"Most scholars, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, interpret the
references to the redemption of the believer by Jesus Christ, not as evidence
of any commercial transaction by any quid pro quo between Christ and God
or between the two natures of God (his love and his justice), but as a figure
of the cost, in terms of suffering" (Eugene Nida and Charles Taber, Theory
and Practice, 1969, p. 53).
In A Translators Handbook on Pauls Letter to
the Romans, Nida (with co-author Barclay Newman) says, "... blood is
used in this passage [Romans 3:25] in the same way that it is used in a number
of other places in the New Testament, that is, to indicate a violent death.
...
Although this noun [propitiation] (and its related forms) is sometimes used by
pagan writers in the sense of propitiation (that is, an act to appease or
placate a god), it is never used this way in the Old Testament."
Nida is wrong.
The sacrifice of Christ was not just a figure; it
WAS a placation of God, of His holiness and of the righteous demands in His
law.
Christs sacrifice WAS a commercial transaction
between Christ and God, and was NOT merely a figure of the cost in terms of
suffering.
The sacrifice of Calvary was a true sacrifice,
and that sacrifice required the offering of bloodnot just a violent death as
Nida says.
Blood is blood and death is death, and we believe
that God is wise enough to know which of these words should be used. Had Christ
died, for example, by beating, though it would have been a violent death, it
would not have atoned for sin because blood is required.
Those, like Nida, who tamper with the blood
atonement often claim to believe in justification by grace, but they are
rendering the Cross ineffective by reinterpreting its meaning. There is no
grace without a true propitiation.
This word means "satisfaction" and
refers to the fact that the sin debt was satisfied by the blood atonement of
Christ.
The great difference between the heathen concept
of propitiating God and that of the Bible is thisthe God of the Bible paid the
propitiation Himself through His own Sacrifice, whereas the heathen thinks that
he can propitiate God through his own human labors and offerings.
The fact remains, though, that God did have to be
propitiated through the bloody death of His own Son.
Nida is a clever man. He does not openly assault
the blood atonement and the doctrine of inspiration as his translator friend
Robert Bratcher does.
(Bratcher, translator of the Todays English
Version, has co-authored books with Nida.) Nida uses the same words as the
Bible believer, but he reinterprets key words and passages such as those above.
This is called Neo-orthodoxy. Beware.
BRUCE METZGER
Another of the editors of the United Bible
Societies Greek New Testament is Bruce Manning Metzger (1914- ). Metzger
is George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature,
Princeton Theological Seminary, and he serves on the board of the American
Bible Society.
Metzger is the head of the continuing RSV
translation committee of the apostate National Council of Churches in the
U.S.A. The Revised Standard Version was soundly condemned for its modernism
when it first appeared in 1952.
Today its chief editor sometimes is invited to
speak at Evangelical forums. The RSV hasnt changed, but Evangelicalism
certainly has!
Metzger was the chairman for the Readers
Digest Condensed Bible and wrote the introductions to each book in this
butchered version of the Scriptures.
The Preface claims that "Dr. Metzger was
actively involved at every stage of the work, from the initial studies on each
of the sixty-six books through all the subsequent editorial reviews. The
finished condensation has received his full approval."
The Condensed Bible removed 40% of the
Bible text, including the warning of Revelation 22:18-19!
In the introductions to the books of the Readers
Digest Bible, Metzger questions the authorship, traditional date, and
supernatural inspiration of books penned by Moses, Daniel, and Peter, and in
many other ways reveals his liberal, unbelieving heart.
Consider some examples:
Genesis: "Nearly all
modern scholars agree that, like the other books of the Pentateuch, [Genesis]
is a composite of several sources, embodying traditions that go back in some
cases to Moses."
Exodus: "As with
Genesis, several strands of literary tradition, some very ancient, some as late
as the sixth century B.C., were combined in the makeup of the books"
(Introduction to Exodus).
Deuteronomy: "Its
compilation is generally assigned to the seventh century B.C., though it rests
upon much older tradition, some of it from Moses time."
Daniel: "Most
scholars hold that the book was compiled during the persecutions (168-165 B.C.)
of the Jewish people by Antiochus Epiphanes."
John: "Whether the
book was written directly by John, or indirectly (his teachings may have been
edited by another), the church has accepted it as an authoritative supplement
to the story of Jesus ministry given by the other evangelists."
1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus: "Judging by differences in style and vocabulary from Pauls
other letters, many modern scholars think that the Pastorals were not
written by Paul."
James: "Tradition
ascribes the letter to James, the Lords brother, writing about A.D. 45, but modern
opinion is uncertain, and differs widely on both origin and date."
2 Peter: "Because the
author refers to the letters of Paul as scripture, a term apparently not
applied to them until long after Pauls death, most modern scholars think
that this letter was drawn up in Peters name sometime between A.D. 100 and
150."
Metzgers modernism was also made plain in the
notes to the New Oxford Annotated Bible RSV (1973).
Metzger co-edited this volume with Herbert May.
It first appeared in 1962 as the Oxford
Annotated Bible and was the first Protestant annotated edition of the Bible
to be approved by a Roman authority.
It was given an imprimatur in 1966 by Cardinal
Cushing, Archbishop of Boston, Massachusetts.
Metzger wrote many of the rationalistic
notes in this volume and put his editorial stamp of approval on the rest.
Consider some excerpts from the notes:
INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT: "The Old Testament may be described as the literary expression
of the religious life of ancient Israel. ...
The Israelites were more history-conscious than
any other people in the ancient world.
Probably as early as the time of David and
Solomon, out of a matrix of myth, legend, and history, there had
appeared the earliest written form of the story of the saving acts of God from
Creation to the conquest of the Promised Land, an account which later in
modified form became a part of Scripture.
But it was to be a long time before the idea of
Scripture arose and the Old Testament took its present form. ...
The process by which the Jews became the people
of the Book was gradual, and the development is shrouded in the mists of
history and tradition. ...
The date of the final compilation of the
Pentateuch or Law, which was the first corpus or larger body of literature that
came to be regarded by the Jews as authoritative Scripture, is uncertain,
although some have conservatively dated it at the time of the Exile in the
sixth century. ...
Before the adoption of the Pentateuch as the Law
of Moses, there had been compiled and edited in the spirit and diction of the
Deuteronomic school the group of books consisting of Deuteronomy, Joshua,
Judges, Samuel, and Kings, in much their present form. ...
Thus the Pentateuch took shape over a long period
of time."
NOTES ON GENESIS: "[Genesis] 2.4b-3.24 ... is a different tradition from that in
1.1-2,4a, as evidenced by the flowing style and the different order of events,
e.g. man is created before vegetation, animals, and woman. ... 7:16b: The Lord
shut him in, a note from the early tradition, which delights in anthropomorphic
touches. 7:18-20: The waters covered all the high mountains, thus threatening a
confluence of the upper and lower waters (1.6).
Archaeological evidence suggests that traditions
of a prehistoric flood covering the whole earth are heightened versions of
local inundations, e.g. in the Tigris-Euphrates basin."
NOTES ON JOB: "The ancient
folktale of a patient Job (1.1-2.13; 42.7-17; Jas. 5.11) circulated orally
among oriental sages in the second millennium B.C. and was probably written
down in Hebrew at the time of David and Solomon or a century later (about
1000-800 B.C.)."
NOTES ON PSALM 22: "22:12-13: ... the meaning of the third line [they have
pierced my hands and feet] is obscure." [Editor: No, it is not obscure;
it is a prophecy of Christs crucifixion!]
NOTES ON ISAIAH: "Only
chs. 1-39 can be assigned to Isaiahs time; it is generally accepted that
chs. 40-66 come from the time of Cyrus of Persia (539 B.C.) and later,
as shown by the differences in historical background, literary style, and
theological emphases. ... The contents of this section [chs. 56-66] (sometimes
called Third Isaiah) suggest a date between 530 and 510 B.C., perhaps
contemporary with Haggai and Zechariah (520-518); chapters 60-62 may be later."
NOTES ON JONAH: "The
book is didactic narrative which has taken older material from the realm of popular
legend and put it to a new, more consequential use."
INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT: "Jesus himself left no literary remains; information regarding
his words and works comes from his immediate followers (the apostles) and their
disciples.
At first this information was circulated orally.
As far as we know today, the first attempt to
produce a written Gospel was made by John Mark, who according to tradition was
a disciple of the Apostle Peter.
This Gospel, along with a collection of sayings
of Jesus and several other special sources, formed the basis of the Gospels
attributed to Matthew and Luke." [Editor: The Gospels, like every part of
the New Testament, were written by direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
This nonsense of trying to find the original
source for the Gospels is unbelieving heresy.]
NOTES ON 2 PETER: "The tradition that this letter is the work of the apostle
Peter was questioned in early times, and internal indications are almost
decisive against it. ...
Most scholars therefore regard the letter as the
work of one who was deeply indebted to Peter and who published it under his master’s
name early in the second century."
[Editor: Those who believe this nonsense must
think the early Christians were fools and the Holy Spirit was on a vacation.]
NOTES FROM "HOW TO READ THE BIBLE WITH
UNDERSTANDING":
The opening chapters of the Old Testament deal with human origins.
They
are not to be read as history ... These chapters are followed by the
stories of the patriarchs, which preserve ancient traditions now known to
reflect the conditions of the times of which they tell, though they cannot
be treated as strictly historical. ...
it is not for history but for religion that they
are preserved ... When we come to the books of Samuel and Kings ... Not all in
these books is of the same historical value, and especially in the stories of
Elijah and Elisha there are legendary elements. ...
We should always remember the variety of literary
forms found in the Bible, and should read a passage in the light of its own
particular literary character.
Legend should be read as legend and poetry as poetry, and not with a dull prosaic and literalistic
mind."
This is the same type of rationalistic wickedness
that appears in Metzgers notes in the Readers Digest Condensed Bible.
This modernistic foolishness, of course, is a
lie.
The Pentateuch was written by the hand of God and
Moses and completed during the 40 years of wilderness wandering hundreds of
years before Samuel and the kings.
The Old Testament did not arise gradually from a
matrix of myth and history, but is inspired revelation delivered to holy men of
old by Almighty God. The Jews were a "people of the book" from the
beginning. The Jewish nation did not form the Bible; the Bible formed the
Jewish nation!
In Metzgers "Introduction to the New
Testament" in the New Oxford Annotated Bible, he completely ignores
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and claims that the Gospels are composed of
material gathered from oral tradition.
The Bible says nothing about this, but Jesus
Christ plainly tells us that the Holy Spirit would guide the Apostles into all
truth (John 16:7-15). The Gospels are the product of divine revelation, not
some happenstance editing of oral tradition.
Bruce Metzger is a Liberal. He piously claims on
one hand that the Bible is the inspired Word of God; but out of the other side
of the mouth he claims the Bible is filled with myth and lies.
He denies the Bibles history, its miracles, and
its authorship, while, in true liberal style, declaring that this denial does
not do injustice to the Word of God, for the Bible is not "written for
history but for religion" and is not to be read "with a dull prosaic
and literalistic mind"!
Metzger has been called an Evangelical by some
who should know better, but upon the authority of the man’s own writings, I
declare that Bruce Metzger is an unbeliever. He is a false teacher. He is
apostate.
He is a heretic.
Those are all Bible terms. Having studied many of
the man’s works, I am convinced those are the terms which must be applied to
him.
One Baptist writer partially defended Metzger to
me with these words he did write a superb pamphlet in 1953 refuting the Jehovah’s
Witnesses and defending the full and absolute deity of Christ."
Even the Pope of Rome defends the full and
absolute deity of Christ. A man can defend the deity of Christ and still be a
false teacher. A man who denies the written Word also denies the Living Word.
They stand or fall together. If the Bible
contains error, Christ was a liar. If Christ is perfect Truth, so is the Bible.
In The New Testament, Its Background, Growth,
and Content, which appeared in 1965, Metzger claims that "the
discipline of form criticism has enlarged our understanding of the conditions
which prevailed during the years when the gospel materials circulated by word
of mouth" (p. 86). Not so.
Form criticism is that unbelieving discipline
which claims that the Gospels were gradually formed out a matrix of tradition
and myth.
Form critics hold a wide variety of views
(reflecting the unsettled and relativistic nature of the rationalism upon which
they stand), but all of them deny that the Gospels are the perfect, verbally
inspired, divinely-given, absolutely infallible Word of God.
Metzger says, "What each evangelist has
preserved, therefore, is not a photographic reproduction of the words and deeds
of Jesus, but an interpretative portrait delineated in accord with the special
needs of the early church" (Ibid.).