Page 80 - Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity. Based on the King James Bible

BIBLE VERSIONS

Bible (Jack Moorman, Missing in Modern Bibles: Is the of Isis and Mercury. The “Cathedra Petri” or “Chair of
full Story Being Told, Bible for Today, 1981). Modern Peter” contains woodcarvings that represent the labors
textual criticism removes or questions dozens of entire of Hercules. The massive obelisk in the center of St.
verses: Peter’s Piazza is a pagan object from Egypt. Near the
Matthew 17:21; 18:11; 23:14 main altar of St. Peter’s is a bronze statue of Peter sitting
Mark 7:16; 9:44, 46; 11:26; 15:28; 16:9-20 in a chair. It is reported that this statue was originally
Luke 17:36; 23:17 the pagan god Jupiter that was taken from the Pantheon
John 5:4; 7:53-8:11 in Rome (when it was a pagan temple) and moved into
St. Peter’s Basilica and renamed Peter! Jupiter was one
Acts 8:37; 15:34; 24:7; 28:29 of the chief gods of ancient Rome and was called the
Romans 16:24 “pater” (father) in Latin. One foot of the statue is made
1 John 5:7 of silver and Catholic pilgrims superstitiously touch or
It further removes a significant portion of 147 other kiss it. In fact, the Vatican is one gigantic idol. The great
verses. altar over the supposed tomb of St. Peter is
Modern textual criticism was not popular until the overwhelmed by massive, golden, spiraling columns that
publication of the Westcott and Hort Greek N.T. in 1881. look like coiling serpents. One can almost hear the
The first two English versions of any influence based sinister hiss. The Vatican is also a graveyard. Beneath
on this text were the English Revised Version of 1881 “St. Peter’s” Basilica are rows of marble caskets
and the American Standard Version of 1901. containing dead Popes! A life-size statue of each Pope is
Modern textual criticism favors A FEW GREEK UNCIAL carved in marble and reclines on the lid of his casket.
MANUSCRIPTS (e.g. Sinaiticus and Vaticanus) and a Candles and incense are burning profusely. In the
small number of other manuscripts of similar character supposed tomb of Peter, 99 oil lamps are kept burning
over the vast majority of the 5,471 Greek manuscripts and day and night. For those familiar with pagan religions,
lectionaries extant. such as Hinduism and Buddhism, the origin of such
Writing in 1883, John Burgon observed, “...especially things is obvious. The place is as eerie and pagan as any
temple in darkest India. Pitifully deluded Catholics light
B [Vaticanus] and Aleph [Sinaiticus], have within the their pagan candles in a vain attempt to merit God’s
last twenty years established a tyrannical ascendancy blessing after the fashion of benighted Hindus. There is
over the imagination of the Critics, which can only be no biblical authority for any of it. The Lord Jesus
fitly spoken of as a blind superstition” (The Revision warned the Pharisees, “Full well ye reject the
Revised, p. 11). Since the discovery of the Egyptian commandment of God, that ye may keep your own
papyri in the 20th century, the number of Alexandrian tradition” (Mark 7:9). The Vatican is one of the last
manuscripts has increased; but compared to the vast places on earth one would expect to find the preserved
number that support the Traditional text, they still Word of God.
represent a very tiny and “eccentric” minority.
Westcott and Hort preferred the Vaticanus
The Vaticanus (B) Greek manuscript gets its name manuscript as their chief authority above all other Greek
from its location, which is the Vatican Library. Its history manuscripts. It was “their touchstone” (Aland, The Text
is unknown prior to 1475, when it first appeared in that of the New Testament, p. 14).
library’s catalog. It is thought to date from the mid-4th
century and to have originated in Egypt (Frederic The Vaticanus is very strange and corrupt. It was
Kenyon, The Text of the Greek Bible). The home of Codex corrected by revisers in the 8th, 10th, and 15th
Vaticanus is unholy and is certainly not the place one centuries (W. Eugene Scott, Codex Vaticanus, 1996). The
would expect to find the preserved Word of God. I entire manuscript has been mutilated.
toured the Vatican in 1992 and again in 2003 and 2005 “...every letter has been run over with a pen, making
and was astounded at how pagan the place is. It exact identification of many of the characters
reminds me of the many idolatrous temples we have impossible” ( Va t i c a n u s a n d S i n a i t i c u s -
visited during our years of missionary work in Asia. ww.waynejackson. freeserve.co.uk/kjv /v2.htm). This
was probably done in the 10th or 11th century. All of
Fitting to the home of the man who claims the titles and the revision and overwriting “makes precise
position of Jesus Christ and who accepts adulation, the paleographic analysis impossible” (Scott, Codex
Vatican is a monument to idolatry and blasphemy and Vaticanus). Dr. David Brown observes: “I question the
man’s shameless rebellion to God’s revelation. There are ‘great witness’ value of any manuscript that has been
statues and paintings of all sorts of pagan gods and overwritten, doctored, changed and added to for more
goddesses; there are statues of Mary and the Popes and than 10 centuries” (The Great Uncials).
the “saints” and angels and the infant Jesus and Missing portions were supplied in the 15th century
crucifixes. The Vatican Library contains large paintings by copying other Greek manuscripts. This segment

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