HEBREWS NEW TESTAMENTS
There are a large number of missionaries running across the country claiming to minister to the Jews of America. Some of these missionaries may be legitimate, but the average are scam artists at worst, and incompetents at best. I have found the best way to make these missionaries to the Jews of America scatter; ask them if they use a KJV or NIV style New Testament. I have found that they will avoid you like a plague for two reasons. (1) They have no idea what is in their Hebrew New Testaments, since they cannot read Hebrew at all. (2) They really could care less. If it is written in Hebrew, and has New Testament written on the cover, that’s enough for them. They don’t care whether it honors God’s word or not. Besides, it doesn’t matter to their supporters, and money is the bottom line for most of them.
I met a missionary to the Jews at a missionary conference a couple years ago and asked him what Hebrew New Testament he used. In a blink of an eye he was talking to someone else on the other end of the table. He was wearing an idolatrous cap with the name of a baseball team written in Hebrew — sports being the real god of America — and he knew what that said, but he had no idea whether his Hebrew Testament perverted Luke 4:4 or not, or whether or not it included Acts 8:37, 1 John 5:7, or if it called Joseph the father of Jesus. It turned out that he did have a good Hebrew NT, but the fact is that he wasn’t the least bit interested in knowing that it was. No doubt, if someone were to give him a case full of perverted ones, he would have had no scruples against distributing them. This is Christianity that is as deep as a two day old puddle.
A year or so earlier, I encountered another missionary to the Jews of America at a conference in what was a strictly KJV-only church at that time (before a new pastor began selling Scofield Bibles in their store). I asked the missionary about his Hebrew New Testaments and he gave me a copy of a bilingual Hebrew-Yiddish United Bible Society edition. He also had copies of the older Delitzch Hebrew translation, which I already knew well. I quickly examined the UBS text and noticed that Luke 4:4 was corrupted and left out the mention of God’s word. Acts 8:37 was left out. 1 John 5:7 was omitted and deceitfully covered up through clever numbering. Joseph was called the father of Jesus in Luke 2:33 and 43. I checked at least ten other verses and every single one of them lined up with the NIV, which I believe to have been its source. The Delitzch translation has a few problems, but it does not corrupt any of above-mentioned verses and almost always lines up with the KJV. What is particularly silly about the UBS version is the fact that the Yiddish lined up with the KJV in every verse that I examined. In other words, the text on one side contradicted the text on the other side. No doubt the UBS would love to have corrupted the Yiddish too, but Yiddish is no longer a significant language and it would be difficult to find someone to tamper with a text in a language known only by a handful as a second or third language. Nevertheless, there are still plenty of Jews who can read both languages, so they would see two very contradictory texts. This would make good ammunition for Jews and pseudo-Jewish atheists who want to discredit the New Testament, and a good way to shake the faith of converts. Of course, this is exactly what the average modern Christian does when he uses multiple version Bible volumes or jumps from one version to another.
I asked the gentleman handing out the perverted Bibles if he realized that he was handing out two very different New Testaments. He began talking to another man at the table. I was persistent and waited for the rude missionary to finish the conversation and tried the question again. He made it clear that he did not know any Hebrew at all! I offered to show his where the text was corrupt in the UBS version. He suddenly needed to go to the restroom. I came back after the conference and asked him if he understood the KJV issue. He snapped angrily at me “What King James Version?” It turned out that he was a Westcott-Hort-only apostate, which was further confirmed when a brother noticed that his English tracts used the NIV. I made one more offer to show him how his two translations differed and he retorted that he had no time. Conning churches out of money was all that he had time for, and learning something that would help him in his alleged efforts to spread the “Gospel” was not of any interest to him.
These are sad examples of the shallowness of many modern church missions. As so many modern churches have become businesses under the authority of the IRS, many missions have come to be business opportunities. Too many churches do not want to be confused by facts, and choose ignorance. They will gladly throw their money at a con artist who knows that the Jews to America missionary scam is very successful in modern churches, but don’t try to put any depth into efforts to convert American Jews or you will find yourself unwelcome. They do want to be able to brag about the missionaries that they support, but do not want anyone to rock the boat by demonstrating that the Bibles being used by those missionaries dishonor God. Unfortunately, I have found this to be true in many churches that claim to be KJV-Only churches. Many will distribute perverted Bibles worldwide without knowing it, but continue to do so once they are made aware of the nature of those Bibles. Many even react by getting angry much the way the above-mentioned gentleman did.
For most languages, no sound Bibles exist at all, so missionaries may be forced into distributing translations with serious problems, but most churches that profess to be KJV-Only do little or nothing to do something about that problem. It is a truly sad period in the history of American Christianity. Other foreign Bible examples will follow in future articles.
John Hinton, Ph.D.
Bible Restoration Ministry
A ministry seeking the translating and reprinting of KJV equivalent
Bibles in all the languages of the world.