Reading Luke chapter 3 today, it struck me that much in that chapter is an answer to Zionism. John the Baptist begins by teaching the people who are and who are not the true children of Abraham. He warns them not to consider themselves as such, but to understand that God is of power to
The Matthew Bible teaches that the man who sows wickedness will be plagued; that is, he will reap sorrow and troubles and will be destroyed. Other Bibles bring a different message …
In the Matthew Bible, good and evil are done by people. In the Geneva Bible, labour and revenues are personified as agents of good or evil. The meaning continued to change, until in the NIV and the Message sin is earned by people, not done by them. A very different thing.
The historical details of the gospel stories matter. To fudge them, lose them, or distort them, changes the message of the Bible and takes away from God’s word. New Testament teaching about the payment of tribute is such a detail. It has symbolic significance. ‘Tribute’ is not tax, but some modern translators have changed it
Exodus 21:7-11 prescribes rules for the treatment of Hebrew girls or young women sold into indentured service by their fathers. Aside from financial considerations, it appears ancient fathers had good reason to do this: it was a way to find a husband for their daughters. In Exodus we learn that during a girl’s term of
Jesus offended many with some of his questions, and earned enemies. This he did for the sake of truth and judgment. But pointed questions in the mouths of fallible humans can often be needlessly offensive.
This is a foretaste of the Proverbs in the New Matthew Bible. The Book of Proverbs is incredibly clear and easy to understand in the original 1537 Matthew Bible. Here we have updated only obsolete grammar and a few obvious obsolete words. This is not the final version, but it is obvious that the final
Everywhere I turn I see big semantic and doctrinal changes introduced in the Geneva Bible, when the Puritans took the Scriptures in hand and revised them. Take Malachi 2:13-16. Both the Matthew and Geneva Bibles mention altars covered with tears. Both say there is a problem in Israel: the men despise their wives, and the
Here is the original translation of Psalm 2 as we received it in the 1537 Matthew Bible, before it went on to be revised in the Great Bible, and then more so in the Geneva and King James versions. Hardly anyone knows about the Matthew Bible. It was the joint work of 3 men: William
When English Scriptures came to the churches in the Reformation, reactions were mixed. Some resisted. Some liked to dispute too much. In his 1540 preface to the Great Bible, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer addressed both sorts of persons.
