“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be FALSE TEACHERS among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them….” (2 Peter 2:1)
I think of a “prophet” as one to whom God originally spoke the Words (the Scripture) found in the Bible and were told by God to tell others what God said. As best I can tell, these ORIGINAL Words of God given to the prophets were codified into what we now call the Bible around 325 AD.
I think a “teacher” is anyone who explains those Words to others. The Apostle Paul seems to be the last Prophet to receive any ORIGINAL Words of God because he says that his ministry was to reveal the mystery previously hidden and therefore COMPLETE the Word of God...
“...I became a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given me towards you to COMPLETE the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but has NOW been made manifest to his saints...” (Colossians 1:24-28 Darby)
In figuring out false teaching I start with the assumption that anyone, including myself, could teach what is false, even without knowing it. So I test what I hear and what I am taught and my own views by referring to the best English translation of the Bible I can find. And even when I find a good translation…I REMEMBER that it is a translation done by men and the translation itself is NOT INSPIRED even though the ORIGINAL Words were. So the translation could sometimes be in error. As an example let me quote another translation of part of the above verses in Colossians...
“...I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to FULFILL the word of God...” (King James Bible)
So was Paul to “fulfill” the word of God or “complete” it? A teacher who does NOT want to teach falsely needs to know if there is a difference and if so, figure out which is correct. How?
The only way I know to check is by going to the oldest original language manuscripts and check the meaning of the translated Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic word for themselves. Good Concordances and Interlinear Bibles are available online for free these days so I just Google it. In the above verses I came to the conclusion that COMPLETE was the most accurate English word. And the mystery that Paul was given to teach had up until then “been hidden” from past generations.
Another example of mistranslation is found in Titus 2:1...
“For the grace of God has appeared that OFFERS salvation to all people.” (NIV)
“For the grace of God has appeared, BRINGING salvation to all men”. (NASB)
So is salvation “offered” to mankind as the NIV has it, or “brought” to mankind as the NASB (and most others) have it?
Back to the above mentioned online resources to check it out for myself. I found that the idea of “offers” is not found in the original Greek text but the idea of “bringing ” was there and therefore the best English translation. So at least in that verse, the translators of the NIV are in error and “false teachers”, so in my opinion they “secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them”...at least deny the magnitude of what our Lord (Master) accomplished for mankind.
Tomorrow I will look at – 1 Timothy 4:10 which again may provoke some of you to wrath… so you may want to read it in as many translations as you can before you read my post.
I think of a “prophet” as one to whom God originally spoke the Words (the Scripture) found in the Bible and were told by God to tell others what God said. As best I can tell, these ORIGINAL Words of God given to the prophets were codified into what we now call the Bible around 325 AD.
I think a “teacher” is anyone who explains those Words to others. The Apostle Paul seems to be the last Prophet to receive any ORIGINAL Words of God because he says that his ministry was to reveal the mystery previously hidden and therefore COMPLETE the Word of God...
“...I became a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given me towards you to COMPLETE the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but has NOW been made manifest to his saints...” (Colossians 1:24-28 Darby)
In figuring out false teaching I start with the assumption that anyone, including myself, could teach what is false, even without knowing it. So I test what I hear and what I am taught and my own views by referring to the best English translation of the Bible I can find. And even when I find a good translation…I REMEMBER that it is a translation done by men and the translation itself is NOT INSPIRED even though the ORIGINAL Words were. So the translation could sometimes be in error. As an example let me quote another translation of part of the above verses in Colossians...
“...I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to FULFILL the word of God...” (King James Bible)
So was Paul to “fulfill” the word of God or “complete” it? A teacher who does NOT want to teach falsely needs to know if there is a difference and if so, figure out which is correct. How?
The only way I know to check is by going to the oldest original language manuscripts and check the meaning of the translated Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic word for themselves. Good Concordances and Interlinear Bibles are available online for free these days so I just Google it. In the above verses I came to the conclusion that COMPLETE was the most accurate English word. And the mystery that Paul was given to teach had up until then “been hidden” from past generations.
Another example of mistranslation is found in Titus 2:1...
“For the grace of God has appeared that OFFERS salvation to all people.” (NIV)
“For the grace of God has appeared, BRINGING salvation to all men”. (NASB)
So is salvation “offered” to mankind as the NIV has it, or “brought” to mankind as the NASB (and most others) have it?
Back to the above mentioned online resources to check it out for myself. I found that the idea of “offers” is not found in the original Greek text but the idea of “bringing ” was there and therefore the best English translation. So at least in that verse, the translators of the NIV are in error and “false teachers”, so in my opinion they “secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them”...at least deny the magnitude of what our Lord (Master) accomplished for mankind.
Tomorrow I will look at – 1 Timothy 4:10 which again may provoke some of you to wrath… so you may want to read it in as many translations as you can before you read my post.