PURPOSE
The purpose of this document, a follow up of an earlier one
(1),
is to further disarm the enemies of the Divine Word who may even
manifests themselves
as friends of the Word. As with the AntiChrist and the False Christ -
the enemies of the Word are easy to spot and disarm
when they present
themselves as such; the problem arises when they present
themselves as
Scholars,
Authors,
Researchers,
Archeologists and, worse of all,
Shepherds.
The best way to defend anything and/or anyone from slander is to lay
the truth "on the table" - the naked truth, for no one can fight the
truth and win. That is precisely what we plan to do in this Phase II
regarding the origins of the New Testament.
INTRODUCTION
We have had the opportunity as of late to review several allegedly
educational
documentaries prepared by BBC, Discovery Channel, History Channel, etc.
Two that made a mark - negative, that is - were: (a) The Family of
Jesus and (b) Witnesses of the Resurrection.
In those educational
documentaries poetic license soared to unknown heights. Considering
how little the Faithful know the New Testament, after being "educated"
by
those documentaries they would be left worse than before. Before they
knew little about the Word of God; after viewing those documentaries,
whatever little
they knew about the New Testament would now be hopelessly confused.
By rewinding Time all the way back to the
origins of the New Testament we shall put on the table how the New
Testament got from "There", in the First Century, to "Here" in
the Twenty-first Century.
One may hear that
the best New Testament is, for example, the
Douay-Rheims version
(2)
which was translated from the Latin Vulgate by St. Jerome
and
diligently compared
with the original Greek Text; or the version published by Mons.
Juan
Straubinger
(3)
also directly translated from the original Greek Text.
In reality, those two versions are the best renditions of the Word of
God that we have ever
encountered in five languages but, under no circumstances, they are the
Last Word.
The only Last Word is the true Word of God, spoken softly to
the hearts of those
(4)
who truly believe that he/she will do
"...greater
works than these..."
because
"...I go to My Father. And
whatever you ask in My Name, that I will do, that the Father may be
glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My Name, I will do it."
[John 14:12-14]
The only possible problem with those two excellent renditions of the
New
Testament is
their
source: The original Greek text.
But before you continue reading.... we assure you, that, in spite
of the initial appearances, when you go through this entire document
your confidence in the Holy
Scriptures, will have been increased many fold because you will be in
the Light and not enwrapped in the darkness of ignorance. In this case,
as always is, ignorance
is
not
bliss; actually, ignorance in this area and, at this particular time in
the history of humanity,
spells great suffering.
Assuming that we have lost fifty percent of the readers by now - since
the shaky foundation
(5)
of their Faith caused them to panic and flee - we shall proceed and
discuss those "original Greek texts" with the readers left.
DETAILS
Logically, if everyone is going to praise the reliability of
said
original Greek texts we wanted to review those texts too; thus we
acquired
them. In the introduction of the New Testament in the "original Greek
texts" we read (highlighting and underscoring by
The M+G+R Foundation):
The
text of the Greek New Testament has
come down to us in various
manuscripts, since
printing was not invented until the
fifteenth century and Erasmus did not publish his Greek New Testament
until 1516.
Some of these manuscripts are more
important than others (age not
necessarily being
indicative of importance). The
study of the various manuscript
copies, and the assessment
of their individual value in attempting to
reconstruct
the original as nearly as
possible, constitutes the
science of textual criticism.
For those who wish to study this
seriously there are many books
available; it is
sufficient
to say here that, after
Erasmus, a great number of scholars
have, over a long period, applied themselves the task of
constructing a
reliable text out of a mass of various
readings that
have arisen from copying
and
making copies from copies of the old manuscripts.
There you have it! Some of those Greek "originals" may be as reliable
as the
intelligence the US based its occupation of Iraq on... yet, we cannot
spend enough time reading and rereading the Holy Word of God as
presented in the Holy Scriptures - it is refreshing; it is renewing, is
the Truth!
But why? It would seem that with the above transcribed introduction to
our New Testament in Greek, the New Testament has been reduced to the
category of "a collection of stories told in accordance to the whim of
those who were paying the copyists to justify whatever they wanted to
justify with 'Holy' texts."
Yes; that is true
if you
believe in man and not in God and if you
believe that evil is stronger than God. But when you know, not believe
but know, that God is truly above all, that He IS Omnipotent, that He
can take a lump of coal and turn it into a magnificent diamond, and
that you are one of His precious children, aha! we now have the key to
His Word - regardless of the twists and turns it made before reaching
your hands.
CONCLUSION
Now, as you review the Part I
(1)
of this Biblical Literalism Sequence, all
will become clearer and clearer and your Faith and trust in His Word
will increase further. The
"key" to draw the Truth from the
man handled texts Is the Holy Spirit of God. No man, nor
spirit
can ever manipulate God.
We have also published a brief known history
(6)
of each
of the four Gospels. With that as an overall background, these already
published two
documents on Biblical Literalism (Part I and Part II) and the
information from the appropriate links appearing in them, you will be
ready to hear and
understand
His voice as He whispers in your heart the keys that open the gates of
the immense treasures stored in the Holy Word of God, known to
Christians as the Bible.
