The Transmission, Translations, and Trustworthiness of the Bible

The transmission of the city is a very important thing. translations, and trustworthiness of the Bible. That is the topic we'll discuss today on the Christian Worldview Radio program, where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. I'm David Wheaton, the host. The Christian Worldview is a non-profit, listener-supported radio ministry.

Our website is thechristianworldview.org, and the rest of our contact information will be given throughout today's program. As always, thank you for your notes of encouragement. financial support in lifting us up. in prayer.

Now if you listen to the program regularly, you likely have been hearing the announcement during the breaks about the Overcomer Foundation Cup golf and dinner event, which takes place on Monday, September 15th, at White Bear Yacht Club, which is near St. Paul, Minnesota.

So before we get to the topic today, I wanted to give you a little more detail about the event and extend an invitation to you, whether you are a golfer or not. This will be the 10th year of the event, and this is the one fundraising event that we do annually for the Overcomer Foundation, which is the nonprofit organization that oversees the Christian Worldview Radio program with a mission to help people overcome the challenges of life through understanding and applying a Christian worldview.

So the Overcomer Foundation does three things. Number one, it does media, specifically the Christian Worldview Radio program that you are listening to right now, which began over 20 years ago back in 2004. The program airs on about three hundred stations across the country and the main podcast platforms and is funded entirely by private donors, not by taxpayers or government money. The second thing the foundation does is in-person events, such as the Overcomer course for young adults that we did back in June. Speaker series events, and there's likely one of those coming up on Saturday, October 11th, that we'll let you know about if we can confirm it.

The third thing the foundation does, from media to in-person events, is produce and distribute a wide range of resources consistent with our mission, such as the Christian Rule of You Journal, monthly print publication, and all the books, videos, and audio in our online store for adults and children. And both of my books, My Boy Ben and University of Destruction, are owned by the Overcomer Foundation as well. There are about eight staff and a dozen volunteers who work with or help the Foundation with these three endeavors, radio, events and resources. And so this event, the Overcomer Foundation Cup. began unexpectedly ten years ago when one of our board members asked if we'd consider hosting a golf and dinner event fundraiser.

We're very glad the Lord brought this before us because it has turned into a very special annual event from the relationships cultivated over the years to the impact of the biblical worldview and the gospel on believers and nonbelievers who attend the event. To the support that this event provides for the Overcomer Foundation.

Now just a couple misconceptions we hear about the Overcomer Foundation Cup. The first one is when non-golfers hear that is partly a golf event, we sometimes see the switch turn off in their mind, as in, well, this event isn't for me.

So we try to emphasize that the post-golf dinner and program is for anyone, both golfers and non-golfers. And this year there will be a wonderful dinner in the main clubhouse overlooking White Bear Lake. where I will give a message on the power of influence. and it's a great opportunity to meet others of like mind. The second misconception is that the golf part of the event is only for accomplished golfers, like tournament players.

The reality is most of the golfers who participate are just average golfers. The scramble format where each player hits but only the best shot of the foresome is used each time. makes it much easier. I would say this: if you like golf and typically score, let's say better than 100. you will really enjoy this event.

The club closes down for the entire day of the event. You can arrive at 10 a.m. in the morning to use the practice facility. There's a grilled lunch on the lawn at 11 a.m., a golfer meeting, and then the shotgun start of the golf at around 12 p.m. The dinner portion of the event starts around 5 p.m.

or 5.30 p.m. and concludes around 7 p.m.

So we have golfers travel from around the upper Midwest and even as far as California and Texas to participate in this event. And mid-September is typically a beautiful time of year in Minnesota, so you could drive or fly into Minneapolis on the Saturday or Sunday before the event. Play the event on Monday, September 15th, and then fly home late Monday or Tuesday.

So, I hope this provides a bit more context on the Overcomer Foundation Cup golf and dinner event. It lets you know that golfers are welcome to come from anywhere in the country, and non-golfers are invited to the dinner event as well, all in support of the Overcomer Foundation, which directs the Christian Worldview radio program. Again, the event is Monday, September 15th. That's just about three weeks away now. And you can find out more and register at thechristianworldview.org or just give us a call, toll-free, 188-646-2233.

All right, now to our topic of the day, the transmission. translations and trustworthiness of the Bible. The claims of scripture are far above and beyond any other book, that it's inspired by God without error. Unchanging, unfailing. In a word, supernatural.

The Bible says in Second Peter chapter one, Know this first of all. That no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. In other words, Scripture is God breathed into the authors. Hebrews chapter 4.

For the Word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow. And able to judge the thoughts. and intentions of the heart.

So putting those two passages together, God divinely directed to the authors of Scripture what he wanted to communicate. And God's Word powerfully accomplishes God's desires. In the human heart.

Now consider that the 66 books of the Bible were authored by forty men, over a span of about fifteen hundred years, in three languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, on three continents, Africa, Asia, and Europe. The original MS. written by these forty authors no longer exist, but thousands of full or partial copies of the original books do exist. In fact, nearly twenty five thousand copies of the New Testament alone exist. Compare that to another well-known book of antiquity, Homer's Iliad, which has only 2,000 copies.

The existence of so many copies of Scripture allows these copies to be compared to each other to authenticate accuracy. In other words, more copies results in more certainty. The Bible has also been translated from its original languages into hundreds of languages with dozens of translations and paraphrases in the English language alone the King James Version, the Geneva Bible, the New American Standard, the English Standard Version, the New International Version, and on and on.

So taking this all into consideration, Is the Bible we have in our English language to day an accurate representation of what the authors of Scripture wrote? Or has there been significant loss of the text during its transmission over the centuries from the original manuscripts? And what about the many English versions of the Bible? Are they fully trustworthy to be considered the Word of God? Josh Barzan has done much research on the transmission and translations of the Bible.

He was born in the Middle East and now lives in America working as a content creator, graphic designer, and author of The Forgotten Preface: Surprising Insights on the Translation Philosophy of the King James Translators. He joins us today to discuss the supernatural scriptures and how God has preserved His Word precisely over the centuries so that when you read the Word of God, You can know you are hearing. from the God of the Word. Let's get straight to the interview with Josh Barzan. Josh, thank you for coming on the Christian Worldview Radio program for the first time.

Let's start out by just having you tell us about your background, how God brought you to saving faith, and what you do now. Thanks for having me on, David. I'm so glad we connected digitally online. And that's where I meet a lot of my friends these days as people who come across my content. Yeah, I'm delighted to be here and tell your audience about who I am.

And most importantly, how it is that I know Jesus Christ is my king, my Lord, and my savior. I guess before I jump into my backstory, for those who don't know who I am, I interact a lot online on Twitter or X as it's called now, Facebook. I do graphic design, content creation, and I've authored a book with a second in the makings right now. But before I got to all that, I actually have kind of an interesting background. I was not born in the United States.

I actually was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, right on the edge of the Red Sea. And I'm not from that area of the world ethnically. My father is a defense contractor at the military.

So that's what caused me providentially to be born in that part of the world. And then later on in my younger to teenage years, I grew up the majority of my life in Cairo, Egypt.

So I had the privilege of growing up around. Where all these great biblical events happened, you know, born right next to the Red Sea, where the Israelites crossed over and came out of bondage, and then living in Egypt where they were slaves, where Jesus as a young child sojourned there before coming back to Israel. And the Lord used all of that to ultimately bring me to saving faith. My mother and father were nominal Catholics. And had gotten married, were living overseas as expats, working with the military.

And when they had my brother and I, and we were young, they just knew that they did not have a true faith that they could bank on, that they could trust in. They didn't know what they believed. My mom and dad had a Bible and just knew: hey, let's pray and see if God can help us understand this thing. In a short period of time, a man on the compound in Saudi Arabia, while I was very, very young, invited my parents to a Bible study on the compound. And that man was a gospel-believing Christian who, at that Bible study, talked about the only way to the Father is through the Son, and it's not through confessions to a priest, it's not through keeping the sacraments, it's not through the merits you can do on your own, it's through trusting the finished work of Christ.

In the early 90s, right on the edge of the Red Sea, where as a foreshadowing of future redemption, the Israelites crossed over and were freed. My parents were freed from their sin and believed on Christ, and subsequently raised my two brothers and I in a home around the Bible, around faith. And I. graciously by the Lord's love and mercy as a teenager. Hit that point that I had to realize as well, I can't just bank on my parents' testimony.

I have to trust this Jesus Christ as my savior and to put my faith in him as well.

So I have that privilege of having roots of faith and then the Lord bringing me to justification in my teenage years and sanctifying me day by day up until this very day that I still need his grace daily. Wow, that is just such an amazing Backstory there, Josh. I had no idea. And before we get into our topic for the day, just what did growing up in a Muslim part of the world after you became a believer, what sort of impact or what are some of your memories of that? I have now been in the US for many, many years.

So it's very far behind me in my past of living over there. But I remember it vividly. It's very much so formative of how I think, how I live. There's a couple aspects here. One is that.

Living outside of the U.S. around Muslims, Arabs, and a lot of other just different cultures, I think it helped break down this bubble of everything I know is how the world operates. I realize people think differently, people live differently, and Especially around the time of 9-11. I was over in the Middle East when the Twin Towers were attacked, and there was a lot of fear, there was a lot of just apprehension. Even for us living there at the time, I still realize these are still people.

Who have a soul, who have a life, who Jesus loves. I think it helped me not to create stereotypes and to put people into categories as far as who I can love and who I can't love.

So, being around so many of those cultures, I think just reminded me that at the end of the day, we are all God's special creation. And my Arab and Muslim friends needed the gospel as much as my American, or white, or black, or any other friends that I had at the time. Josh Barzon is our guest today here on the Christian Worldview talking about the history of the Bible and its translations. He's an author, content creator and graphic designer. Before we get into the history of the Bible and its translations, though, you wrote a recent article On John MacArthur and his heaven going.

And it's actually, we published it in the. August issue of the Christian Worldview Journal. And so readers who get that will be very interested in reading about John MacArthur. But you had a long timeline of his life and different important events that took place in his life, the ministries he led and so forth. And John MacArthur's memorial service is the day that this program is airing, Saturday, August twenty third.

So what made him different? Than other well-known pastors of the last 50 or 100 years, just in your estimation, Josh. To put it succinctly, I think it was his resoluteness and his commitment and faithfulness. being at grace as long as he was. But also, what people knew him for in the 80s as being this expositor who was gonna go verse by verse and look at what thus saith the Lord is in the text.

That's what he was in the 80s, the 90s, the 2000s, and that's what he was when he passed away. And the day and age where things change so quickly, technology, our American culture is changing and shifting. I think he was just a unique person that remained steadfast and faithful. Yeah, I think that's a good way of putting it. And again, you can read this excellent article by Josh in the August issue of the Christian Realview Journal.

All Christian Realview partners receive that every month, and you can get in contact with us to order that individual copy or become a Christian Realview partner.

Okay, let's get into some of your. Articles on the history and translations of the Bible, much of your content that you create has to do with that. Themes of the Bible, translations, text sources like the Dead Sea Scrolls. You had a great post on that. Why do you think these kinds of things are important for Christians to understand in the 21st century?

I think the most important reason is because there is such an attack on the infallibility of the Bible, the truthfulness of it, whether it's relevant to modern life. With, you know, look at how big and bad us modern Americans are with our technology. Do we really need this antiquated book? And I believe more than ever, there is a need for people to not just have a vanilla surface understanding of, oh, well, the Bible, you know, is from God and somehow it got from Moses to us today, but for believers to know, how did the scriptures get transmitted to us? Can we know that they're faithful and true?

And can I know that what I read in my hands is God's living word for me to live my life in the light of who he is? There is much more to come with our guest, Josh Barzan, on the transmission, translations, and trustworthiness of the Bible after this short break. Speaking of John MacArthur, you can watch his memorial service online on Saturday, August 23rd at 10.30 a.m. Pacific Time at graceschurch.org. You may have heard also that doctor James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, went to heaven this past week as well.

So let's remember to pray for both the MacArthur and Dobson families. Stay tuned, we have much more coming up. I'm David Wheaton and you are listening to the Christian Worldview Radio Program. The 10th Overcomer Foundation Cup golf event is set for Monday, September 15th at White Bear Yacht Club near St. Paul, Minnesota.

David Wheaton here, host of The Christian Wheelview, encouraging you to invite some friends or clients to experience a rare day on one of the best courses in Minnesota, hear the good news of the gospel, and discover how the Overcomer Foundation, the non-profit organization that directs the Christian Wheelview radio program, is impacting hearts and minds. Golfer registration includes 18 holes with CART, all meals and beverages, and Golfer Gift. Out-of-town golfers and guests are more than welcome to come. Non-golfers can take part in the post-golf meal and message. There are lots of sponsorship opportunities as well.

We hope to see you Monday, September 15th at White Bear Yacht Club near St. Paul, Minnesota.

To find out more and register, go to thechristianworldview.org or call 188-646-2233. The August issue of the Christian Realview Journal is commemorative on the life and ministry of one of the great preachers, John MacArthur, who recently went home to be with the Lord. Josh Barzon writes about key events of MacArthur's life and the scope of his ministry. Pastor Travis Allen provides insight into his character and mission. Also, you'll find Part Two of Soren Kern's series on anti-Semitism and how it is infecting conservative and Christian circles.

The Christian Worldview Journal is a monthly, twelve-page, full-color, print publication designed to sharpen your biblical worldview on current events and issues of the faith. The journal is mailed to all Christian Worldview partners who support this radio ministry at $10 or more per month. To become a Christian Worldview partner or order an individual issue of the journal, go to thechristianworldview.org or call 188-646-2233 or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Welcome back to the Christian Worldview. I'm David Wheaton.

Be sure to visit thechristianworldview.org, where you can sign up for our weekly email, the Christian Worldview Journal, monthly print publication, order resources for adults and children, and support the ministry. Our topic today is the transmission, translations, and trustworthiness of the Bible. And our guest is Josh Barzan, author, graphic designer, and content creator. Josh, let's get into one of your articles on the history of scripture. And you wrote a really interesting one on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

And by the way, we have some of these linked at our website, thechristianworldview.org. I'm just going to be reading snippets from a few articles. You say in 1947, a young Bedouin boy named Muhammad Eid Deeb, hope I'm pronouncing that right, was chasing a lost goat near the cliffs of Qumran. This is in Israel, modern-day Israel. Out of boredom, he tossed a rock into a cave and heard pottery shatter.

Climbing inside, he found ancient jars, some containing tightly wrapped leather scrolls. Word spread first through the black market and then through scholars. Between 1947 and 1956, so nine years, 11 caves yielded nearly 1,000 manuscripts hidden for nearly 2,000 years. What a discovery. The scrolls are a collection of nearly one thousand ancient Jewish manuscripts written between two hundred and fifty B C before Christ and seventy AD after Christ.

They were found in these caves, as you mentioned, along the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. Nearly every book of the Old Testament was found, except for the book of Esther. Often in multiple copies. Deuteronomy showed up more than 30 times. Psalms, Isaiah, and Genesis were also heavily represented.

These texts weren't identical. to the modern Hebrew Bible or Old Testament word for word. But the differences are surprisingly minor, you write. Mostly spelling or grammar, not meaning. The big takeaway, the Bible we hold today has been transmitted with remarkable accuracy.

The scrolls didn't weaken the Bible's reliability. They actually strengthened it. That from your article on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

So elaborate more, Josh, on why this discovery back in the late 1940s. Why are the Dead Sea Scrolls so important? And so faith building, confidence building in the Word of God that we have today. It's fascinating. And again, having grown up in this area of the world, I connect with it very deeply.

If I can pull out one thing that is so interesting about this, is that. Before 1948, Christians, and if I was back then too, we had faith that God's word is true, even if there wasn't archaeological evidence to back up every single thing stated in the Bible.

Now, even at that time, there was archaeological evidence, manuscript evidence showing that. These events, these things, these statements in the Bible were true.

So, these events that happen with uncovering a lost ruin, finding a coin with an inscription, finding these manuscripts, they don't prove the Bible is true. They show that the Bible already was true in what it stated and what it said.

So, I always like to say that: I don't just believe the Bible because of this new archaeological discovery. These discoveries prove that God's word. Was true already as it stated. What makes this so intrinsically interesting is that. 1948.

We're still in that realm of textual criticism in a negative connotation, not figuring out what verses and what phrasings should be in the Bible, but. Those that would say the Bible isn't true, those that would say Jesus was a myth, he wasn't really a real person. This attack on true fundamentals of the faith was ramping up during this time of American history. And I find it interesting that at this time is when one of the biggest archaeological finds in the biblical world was uncovered, showing these prophecies of Jesus Christ being the one afflicted and smitten, and the shepherd that gives his life for the sheep, all these prophecies from the Old Testament. And they're being dated before the time of Christ, especially the Isaiah scroll and others.

I think it was just a token of goodness of the Lord showing at a time of controversy, at a time of Fundamentals being debated within Western Christianity that God's word is true, and that even archaeological finds continue to back that up. You mentioned the Isaiah scroll. And you wrote in your article dated to around 125 BC, it's more than 1,000 years older, the one found at the Dead Sea Scrolls. Than any complete Hebrew Isaiah known before. Yet, when compared to our modern Bibles, It's nearly.

identical. But what the skeptic would say is, well, yeah, well, it maybe matches with the modern book of Isaiah. But the Dead Sea Squirrel was actually not the original. This wasn't the original document that Isaiah wrote down. This was a copy.

And so, how would you answer that question that, well, yeah, these copies go way back, but they're still copies of copies?

So, I love this question. I think some people are scared of that question, but what I would say to that is. Everything of antiquity that we trust. Is a copy of a copy. Everything we believe about Julius Caesar that is taught in college-level, graduate-level history courses, everything we know about Genghis Khan, everything we know about Plato and Aristotle.

Those are all from copies of copies of information that we have, and yet we understand and assume and trust those facts about those historical characters to be true. How much more should we trust and believe that this scroll, this Isaiah, that is verbatim hundreds of years later when we discover this copy to compare it against, how much more should we trust that? With the many more extant manuscripts we have to compare the Bible to, than we even do to other historical characters that we trust as absolute fact. The fact that there are many copies is actually more proof because you have so many more copies to compare each copy to. That's actually a better situation than having fewer copies.

Josh Barzon is our guest today. He's an author, content creator, and graphic designer. We have links to him and what he does at our website, thechristianworldview.org, or you can go directly to barzondesign.com. Barzon is spelled B-A-R-Z-O-N-Design.com.

Okay, let's get into some of the translations of the Bible. This is also a sticking point for a lot of people. You know, these aren't reading in Hebrew and Greek and so forth. Non-Christians and even new Christians are often confused, Josh, about all the various translations and versions of the Bible, as if they teach different things. You pick up one and the other one may be totally different or something.

How to explain to someone who asked this question why there are so many different versions and translations of the Bible? The simplest answer that I can give is that we are so spoiled and blessed today. To have so many different translations of the Bible. Christians and believers should not look at them as being in competition with each other, but they should look at them as tools that help them to understand what it is the original manuscripts said. If I can give an analogy and just help you to understand it, I've got three children.

If I tell one of my kids, hey, I want you to go outside. I want you to pick up your shoes and I want you to clean the backyard up and do it before dinner time. And make sure to tell your other siblings as well.

So then my daughter goes out and tells her siblings. Dad said to clean the yard and to pick up your shoes before dinner.

Well, she didn't verbatim identically communicate. Word for word, what I said, but she gave the message of what I said to the other children that didn't hear me. And I think translations are very similar to that. There is a difficulty in translating from language to language. There are things that are not carried through, they don't come through correctly, there's idioms.

Think simply in English of somebody learning English and they hear the phrase, that knocked my socks off, or it's raining cats and dogs. I mean, to take those things literally would cause such confusion if you don't understand the English language. And so it is the same with Hebrew and Greek and Aramaic. And there are many different ways to translate different parts of the text. And that's where we get multiple translations that take oftentimes a more literal approach, such as the NASB, the LSB, the KJV, the NKJV.

Or a more dynamic approach that is giving more of a thought-for-thought comparison, such as the NIV, the NLT, and the CSV.

So, again, These modern translations are not in competition with each other. They help together to understand the fullness of what the original authors meant. Yeah, you had, I think, an infographic in one of your posts about this, that some translations are word for word, more literal, like you mentioned, the New American Standard Bible, the Legacy Standard Bible. And then another way of doing it is more thought for thought.

So you capture kind of what the person's thinking here and how do we translate that. Or more generally, meaning for meaning. Take a passage and let's get the meaning of this and translate it. And then there's like the paraphrase. Yeah.

Like the New Living Translation, I think, is a paraphrase. But now, that being said, All versions, translations of the Bible are not created equal.

Some are definitely more faithful. To the oldest texts that we have than others. How would you group the top five or six English translations of the Bible that Christians who are interested in getting a real sense of what the oldest texts we have and what is the criteria for judging or discerning or deciding on a translation? I think above all things, this topic needs to be approached with charity because if we're just going to be honest and Much smarter people than me have debated this for hundreds of years and still do debate it. God never told us in the Bible.

No matter what version you use, exactly where to find the right manuscripts to compare against other manuscripts and how to do textual criticism. God gives us everything we need for life and godliness, as we're told in the New Testament, but that doesn't mean God teaches me to. chemistry and hydraulic engineering or textual criticism.

So, I approach this by saying there has to be charity not to demonize somebody who holds a different textual view than you would, because ultimately, The majority of everything that we believe as Christians is found within the wholeness of the manuscripts that we have, even if there are some textual differences of like, Well, is this verse actually original? Does this verse belong in the Bible or not? To give you some practical examples. There really are two main streams. Of modern translations.

There are those that come from the Textus Receptus family of manuscript translations. And then those that come from what is often called the critical text or the non-TR family tradition manuscripts of the Bible. I'm talking very, very kind of jargon here, and I don't wanna do that to your audience. The differences between these kinds of conflicting manuscript lines are very, very minor. Most of the differences are like.

Joshua being spelt with a UA, or Joshua being spelt with just an A, and name differences, a couple different grammatical differences. And the actual places where there's legitimate disagreement, such as the longer ending of Mark, are those verses original? Were they added in later? The verse in 1 John. About there's three that bear record: the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and these three are one.

Was that an addition, or was that original? There are some of these places that are some gray area that scholars debate. Was this originally what the authors wrote, or was this added in later? But even those portions Or a fraction less than 1% of the whole text of the Bible.

So I would say to people struggling with. How do I trust the Bible? How do I know the right manuscripts where they come from? Even the disputed parts are such a minority. And anything disputed in those parts, those verses that I'm mentioning.

Those truths can be found in other passages and verses throughout the rest of the Bible. There is no major doctrinal difference or issue that is affected by any debated passage in the Bible.

So, with that, practically, You have on one side. Modern translations that come from the Texas Receptus tradition of manuscripts, such as the New King James, the Modern English Version, and newly the Berean Standard Version. And then you have other modern translations that rely upon critical text readings that are different than the TR readings, such as the ESV, the NIV, the NASB, the CSB, and many other modern translations.

So it's a big topic. You can watch hours of this on YouTube and still kind of come away scratching your head.

So I want to make it simple for whoever's listening and just tell you the differences are minor, and what is agreed upon between textual differences, there's more in common there than there actually is that is disagreed about. Yeah, exactly. And I know you're not referring to some translations who may change the gender of God to a female or that. We're not talking about those kinds of things. Clearly, they are off track.

But of the main respected longtime translations, ESV, NASB, New King James, King James, there's differences in the way they read, but they're very not significant doctrinally. I definitely agree with that. Again, Josh Barzan with us today here on the Christian Worldview. He is a graphic designer, but he's also an author and content creator. We have links to him on our website, thechristianworldview.org.

Now, I want to get into two particular versions of the Bible: the Geneva Bible. In the King James Version of the Bible. These are the two oldest or nearly oldest English translations of the Bible. The Geneva Bible, in an article you wrote on that, you say it was first published in 1560. This is just after the beginning of the Reformation period, started in 1517.

But its story started years earlier With blood, fire, and persecution. After Queen Mary, known as aka Bloody Mary, took the throne in 1553, hundreds of Protestant scholars fled England. Again, this is the time of the Protestant Reformation. Where did they go? They went to Geneva, Switzerland.

There it was the heart of Reformed theology, home to John Calvin and Theodore Beza. There, English exiles found both safety and scholarship. They formed a team to translate the Bible afresh. Grounded in Hebrew and Greek texts, Reformed theology, popular accessibility. You said the Geneva Bible was the Bible of the pilgrims.

The Puritans, the Scottish Presbyterians, even Oliver Cromwell's army. It was quoted by Shakespeare and Milton and carried to America on the Mayflower. It wasn't the King James version.

So tell us more about the Geneva Bible. And why its influence has actually waned, whereas the King James Version, which came along not too long afterward, is still quite popular today. This is my wheelhouse. I love antique English Bibles and translation history. The Geneva is interesting, and I wouldn't say a correction necessarily, I'd say just maybe some context around the Geneva.

The Geneva, I think, was one of the most. Popular English Bible translations before the King James, but there were other English translations before the Geneva. If we want to go back to really the beginning of what was the first English translation of the Bible, you actually have to go back to the 1300s. As crazy as that is, I mean, pre-Columbus, pre-New World Discovery, you have John Wycliffe and the Wycliffe Bible translation. And Wycliffe was actually translating from the Latin Vulgate, not from the Hebrew and Greek.

So it's funny when you think of it. He took a translation of a translation and made a translation from that translation. Not the best way to do it. But he was very much so persecuted, and the church was against his efforts at the time.

So it was a very noble effort. After Wycliffe, you have in the 1500s William Tyndale. In Tyndale's New Testament, Which really is the bedrock and foundation of any future Bible translations, even modern ones. Going to the Geneva and the King James, the majority of how the Geneva and King James read is exactly how Tyndale's New Testament was transcribed, translated, and how it was written. You have after Tyndale in the 1500s.

Other Bibles like the Coverdale. Matthew's the great Bible. But Geneva changed things because The Geneva Bible, as the name implies, was translated in Geneva, Switzerland. And it was very much so influenced by. Calvin, Theodore Beza, other reformers.

It was kind of this neutral zone, as Switzerland is often known for, where there is freedom to not just translate the Bible. but also to include a commentary about what the Bible meant. A lot of people don't realize it, but the Geneva Bible was really the first study Bible. I have original pages of the Geneva in my office here, and in the margins, It has notes next to almost every passage explaining it, giving context, referencing other verses. There were maps, there were concordances, there were weights and measurement tables.

The Geneva truly was the first study Bible. And that actually, interestingly enough, is one of the reasons that King James of England did not like the Geneva Bible. Because some of the notes in the Geneva Bible conflicted with his view of the supreme right of the king in the land of England. For example, in the Geneva Bible. There's notes in Exodus chapters one and two praising the Hebrew midwives for disobeying Pharaoh and keeping the children of Israel alive rather than slaughtering them.

King James did not like those notes that were praising the common people for rebelling against the king when they didn't agree with him. One of the interesting things about the King James Bible is that one of the rules that King James actually gave to the translators was that there were to be no notes in the margins of the Bibles, unless if it was explaining the Greek or the Hebrew meaning of the text. He was so afraid that there would be dissent of his rule of king, just like those that use the Geneva Bible held against tyrants. And he wanted to make sure that his translation he was sponsoring did not contain any of those marginal notes. The Word of God is our basis for all of life and faith.

And so it's strengthening to know how God has preserved His Word through the centuries. We have links to our guest, Josh Barzan at thechristianworldview.org. And for this break, we'll discuss the King James Version and whether it is, as some assert, the only trustworthy English translation. I'm David Wheaton and you are listening to the Christian Boyleview Radio Program. The August issue of the Christian Realview Journal is commemorative on the life and ministry of one of the great preachers, John MacArthur, who recently went home to be with the Lord.

Josh Barzon writes about key events of MacArthur's life and the scope of his ministry. Pastor Travis Allen provides insight into his character and mission. Also, you'll find part two of Soren Kern's series on anti-Semitism and how it is infecting conservative and Christian circles. The Christian Worldview Journal is a monthly, 12-page, full-color, print publication designed to sharpen your biblical worldview on current events and issues of the faith. The journal is mailed to all Christian Worldview partners who support this radio ministry at $10 or more per month.

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Now there's a high priority issue for current or aspiring husbands and fathers. Pastor Joel Bekey, Chancellor of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, has written a short yet helpful book titled How to Lead Your Family, A Guide for Men Wanting to Be More. The framework that Dr. Beeke sets forth is that Christian husbands and fathers share in a limited way Christ's three offices of prophet, priest, and king. He explains how these should be manifest in the home as the husband and father loves and leads his wife and children.

How to Lead Your Family is 80 pages, softcover, and retails for $12. You can order a copy for a donation of any amount to the Christian Worldview. Order at thelchristianworldview.org or call 188-646-2233 or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Welcome back to the Christian Worldview. I'm David Wheaton.

Be sure to visit thechristianworldview.org, where you can sign up for our weekly email, the Christian Worldview Journal, monthly print publication, order resources for adults and children, and support the ministry. Our topic today is the transmission, translations, and trustworthiness of the Bible. And our guest is Josh Barzan, author, graphic designer, and content creator. You write in your article, Josh, on the King James Version, now going from Geneva to King James, forgotten fact number five. Contrary to popular belief, they, those ones that put together the King James Version, didn't claim perfection for the King James Version.

They admitted, quote, there is no reason why the word, when translated, should be denied to be the word, even though some imperfections and blemishes may be found in the expression of it from the translations to the reader. I grew up reading the King James Version, and I very much like the King James Version of the Bible. I don't read it anymore today, not because I don't like it or don't think it's good. I read the New American Standard or the Legacy Standard Bible now. But there are some out there and they're called King James Version only.

They can be really, really adamant. The King James Version is the only inspired. English version. What is behind the zealousness? with which King James Version only folks believe that and on what is that based?

This is a great topic and one that I'm very passionate about. And that article we were talking about on my ex or Twitter account about forgotten facts of the King James Bible, that actually was just an article I put up that is a condensement of my book that I published called The Forgotten Preface: Surprising Insights on the Translation Philosophy of the King James Translators. For the majority of my life, I actually was a King James onlyist, believed it. Hook, line, and sinker, black and white. It was one of my most held beliefs in my life that the King James Bible was not just a better translation, it was the only translation that English-speaking people should use.

I was taught that way. The Bible college I went to educated me in that way. I knew the defense points of how to try to defend that position. And ultimately, I had to leave that position because it is not a biblical position. There are many things that Christians can feel strongly about.

That are not actually contained within the Bible and are preferences or secondary issues that are not actually thus saith the Lord as to why they believe them. And for me, The biggest I would say block that fell that helped me move away from the King James-only position was number one. When I began to have my own children and disciple them and realize the stumbling block that the old language was for them hearing God clearly in their own vernacular tongue, number two, Discipling and helping those that are English second language speakers who I would do some ministry with, and realizing the difficulty they had reading the King James Bible. And then, number three was when I realized that. The King James translators themselves did not hold a King James-only position.

And their very preface that my book is aptly called The Forgotten Preface, their very preface of the King James Bible at the very front page that used to be included in the Bible was giving these very clear statements of this is not the only translation. There may be errors or things that we possibly got wrong. They're not going to change doctrine issues, but we're doing our best with what we had, continue to build upon our work, continue to translate. And those were the things that helped me to untangle the unbiblical view that I held of being a King James onlyist. Very interesting.

Josh Barzan is our guest today here on the Christian Worldview. Again, we love the King James Version, but the idea that it's the only inspired English translation is there's just no basis for that. And as you mentioned, even those who translated it didn't hold that view either.

Now, just one more question for you on the transmission and translations of the Bible before we conclude with a couple of questions about approaching the Bible and how to read it. You paraphrases of the Bible. These don't even purport to be literal translations, literal word for word, just gives you a sense of what the content or the author is trying to communicate, like the New Living Translation or the Living Bible. Can paraphrases be helpful? Do you recommend those?

You talked about reading to your children and so forth, or even for adults, let's say some more difficult, complicated Old Testament passages that seem sort of out of touch with our time today. What are your thoughts on paraphrases? I think it's important, like you're saying. To understand the difference between a translation and a paraphrase. My children, I have very young children.

I have a kids' storybook that I read to them. It's called like the Kingdom of God storybook by Lithos, and they put out great kids' materials, and it's got pictures, it's giving a summary of the story. There's no way I look at that as the translation of the Bible that is paraphrasing heavily for my kids to understand it. My goal eventually is for my kids to be at the level that they can read a translation of the full text of the Bible. And I think as long as you differentiate between which is which, they can be helpful and they can help.

But ultimately, they are just that. They're an auxiliary thing. They're a help, but they are not equal or the same as an actual translation of the Bible.

Okay, Josh, let's get into going from... the transmission and the translations to now what the bible is the word of god and and there's a great quote you put on from charles spurgeon the great english preacher you said from every text in scripture there is a road to the metropolis the center point of the scriptures that is jesus christ Your business is when you get to a text of scripture to say, Now, what is the road to Christ from here? Yes. And you had an infographic talking about how each Old Testament book actually points to Christ.

Now, I'll just give you a couple examples. In Genesis, Jesus is the word of God, in Exodus, He is the Passover Lamb. In Leviticus, he is our high priest. In Joshua, he is the commander of the Lord's army as they took over the promised land. In Psalms, he is our shepherd.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. In Proverbs, Christ is our wisdom. Give some examples of this in the Old Testament for how readers of Scripture should look for Christ and keep him in mind, keep him as a central point of Scripture as we read it. I love this. The Old Testament is unfortunately a portion of the Bible that, when not understood correctly, people lose so much of the fullness and the beauty of it.

To put it simply, like you said, the way to read the Old Testament is realizing that it is forecasting, it's prophesying, it's foreshadowing Jesus Christ who would come. To put it very simply, Jesus is the fulfillment of every failed type. That came before him. Jesus is the true and better Adam, who was able to resist temptation in the wilderness when Adam couldn't even do it in a beautiful garden. Jesus is the true and better Abraham, who actually is the one who goes and offers himself as the sacrifice and doesn't just by faith offer his son to then be substituted by a goat or a ram.

Jesus is the greater and better David. Who did not fall to fornication and temptations of the flesh, but is the true king that was prophesied who would come, and on and on and on. When you read the Old Testament, Every time you hit a point that you go, man, this is depressing. Man, people messed it up again. They sinned.

Realize that is a foreshadowing of Jesus who was coming to be the true and better version of everyone who failed in the Old Testament. And for me, that's a guiding principle as I read the Old Testament is look for Christ and look for him, even in the failures of who he is in being successful and being victorious. And how much better he is, as it says in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament.

So that's just so helpful and so important to keep that in mind as we read throughout the entire scriptures. Of course, we see him in the New Testament, but the Old Testament is just pointing toward him. Final question for you, Josh. People listening today, hearing about the history, the translations of the Bible and so forth, the trustworthiness of it. Why is the Bible today still immensely relevant.

And what does it mean? to approach the Bible. Not just to know the word of God, like to read it for information. but to really we approach it, to read it, to know and love. The God of the Word.

Christians of all generations have always relied upon the word of God and have trusted in it. But as we talked at the beginning, in a day and age where people want to think that the Bible is antiquated, it's irrelevant, it's not necessary, I think it is more necessary than ever because. It is a call for Christians to live by faith and not by sight. Rather than to go along with what the culture of the world says and to disregard the Lord and his teachings, it is to realize that this book that we have that has been. Providentially preserved for us still has, as Peter says, everything that we need for life and godliness.

When you look at the world and things confuse you about morality or ethics or just evil and depravity, You have to look in the Bible and realize, again, Not just that Jesus came the first time to be the fulfillment of what everyone in the Old Testament messed up, but Jesus is coming again in the future to make his kingdom on earth, to live with his saints forever, and to ultimately finish the grand scheme of events that the whole Bible has been building towards. The Bible is more. If not most relevant at this point of history, because we're this much closer to Jesus coming back, and it gives us that much more hope that he will keep all the promises. that he's made us within his word. Absolutely, Josh.

And as well, for even a non-believer to read the Bible, it's the place where you can find out specifically how God has provided one way for you to be forgiven, reconciled to God through faith in Christ, and for you to inherit eternal life with God in heaven.

So, just so highly encourage listeners to get into the word and the supernatural, inspired, inerrant, inexhaustible, and infallible word of God. And so, Josh, we thank you for bringing these things out in your posts. They're very helpful, very informative. And we thank you for coming on the Christian Realview Radio program today. And we just wish all of God's best and grace to you.

Amen. Thank you, David. Again, we have links to Josh and his articles at thechristianroyalview.org. Let's remember that when we read the word, we are hearing directly from God, the divine author of it. And the point of reading it is to know, believe, love, obey, worship, and proclaim him.

Thank you for joining us today on the Christian Worldview and for your support of this non-profit radio ministry. Until next time, think biblically, live accordingly, and stand firm. The mission of the Christian worldview is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. We hope today's broadcast encouraged you toward that end. To hear a replay of today's program, order a transcript, or find out what must I do to be saved, go to thechristianworldview.org or call toll-free 188-646-2233.

The Christian Worldview is a listener-supported, non-profit radio ministry furnished by the Overcomer Foundation. To make a donation, order resources, become a Christian Worldview partner, sign up for our weekly email or the Christian Worldview Journal monthly print publication, or to contact us, go to thechristianworldview.org, call 188-646-2233, or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Thanks for listening to The Christian Worldview. Uh