The Transmission, Translations, and Trustworthiness of the Bible

GUEST: JOSH BARZON, author, graphic designer, and content creator
On X: @JoshuaBarzon

The claims of Scripture are far above and beyond any other book—inspired by God, without error, unchanging, unfailing. In a word, supernatural.

The Bible says in 2 Peter 1:20-21: “know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

Or how about Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

Put together, God directed the authors what He wanted to communicate and God’s Word powerfully accomplishes God’s desires in the human heart.

Now consider that the 66 books of the Bible were authored by 40 men over a span of 1500 years in three languages (Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic) on three continents (Africa, Asia, and Europe). The original manuscripts written by these 40 authors no longer exist but thousands of full or partial copies of the original books do exist. Nearly 25,000 copies of the New Testament alone exist. Compare that to Homer’s Iliad with only 2000 copies. The existence of so many copies of Scripture allows them to be compared to each other to authenticate accuracy. In other words, more copies results in more certainty.

The Bible has also been translated from its original languages into hundreds of languages, with dozens of translations and paraphrases in the English language alone—King James Version, Geneva Bible, New American Standard, English Standard Version, New International Version, and on and on.

Taking all this into consideration, is the Bible we have in our English language today an accurate representation of what the authors of Scripture wrote or has there been significant loss of the text during its transmission from original manuscripts? And what about the many English versions—are they fully trustworthy to be considered the Word of God?

Josh Barzon has done much research on the transmission and translations of the Bible. He was born in the Middle East and now lives in America, working as a content creator, graphic designer, and author of The Forgotten Preface: Surprising Insights on the Translation Philosophy of the King James Translators.

He joins us to discuss the supernatural Scriptures and how God has preserved His Word precisely over the centuries so that can know when you read the Word of God, you can know you are hearing from the God of the Word.

Transcript

The Transmission, Translations, and Trustworthiness of the Bible

SATURDAY, August 23, 2025 at 8:00am CT

HOST: DAVID WHEATON:
The Transmission, Translations, and Trustworthiness of the Bible, that is the topic we'll discuss today on The Christian Worldview Radio Program where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians, and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. I'm David Wheaton, the host. The Christian Worldview is a non-profit listener-supported radio ministry. Our website is TheChristianWorldview.org, and the rest of our contact information will be given throughout today's program. As always, thank you for your notes of encouragement, financial support in lifting us up in prayer. 

Now, if you listen to the program regularly, you likely have been hearing the announcement during the breaks about The Overcomer Foundation Cup golf and dinner event, which takes place on Monday, September 15th, at White Bear Yacht Club, which is near St. Paul, Minnesota. Before we get to the topic today, I wanted to give you a little more detail about the event, and extend an invitation to you whether you are a golfer or not. 

This will be the 10th year of the event, and this is the one fundraising event that we do annually for The Overcomer Foundation, which is the non-profit organization that oversees The Christian Worldview Radio program with a mission to help people overcome the challenges of life through understanding and applying a Christian worldview. The Overcomer Foundation does three things:

1) It does media, specifically The Christian Worldview Radio Program that you are listening to right now, which began over 20 years ago back in 2004. The program airs on about 300 stations across the country and the main podcast platforms and is funded entirely by private donors, not by taxpayers or government money.

2) The second thing the foundation does is in-person events such as The Overcomer Course for Young Adults that we did back in June. Also Speaker Series events, and there's likely one of those coming up on Saturday, October 11th that we'll let you know about if we can confirm it. 

3) The third thing the foundation does, from media to in-person events, is produce and distribute a wide range of resources consistent with our mission, such as The Christian Worldview Journal, a monthly print publication, and all the books, videos, and audio in our online store for adults and children. Both of my books, My Boy, Ben and University Destruction are owned by The Overcomer Foundation as well. 

There are about eight staff and a dozen volunteers who work with or help the Foundation with these three endeavors, radio events, and resources.

This event, The Overcomer Foundation Cup, began unexpectedly 10 years ago when one of our board members asked if we’d consider hosting a golf and dinner event fundraiser. We're very glad the Lord brought this before us, because it has turned into a very special annual event, from the relationships cultivated over the years, to the impact of the biblical worldview and the gospel on believers and non-believers who attend the event to the support that this event that provides for The Overcomer Foundation. 

Just a couple misconceptions we hear about The Overcomer Foundation Cup. The first one is when non-golfers hear that its a golf event, we sometimes see the switch turn off in their mind as in, "Well, this event isn't for me." So, we try to emphasize that the post-golf dinner and program is for anyone, both golfers and non-golfers.

This year, there will be a wonderful dinner in the main clubhouse overlooking White Bear Lake, where I will give a message on the power of influence, and it's a great opportunity to meet others of like mind. The second misconception is that the golf part of the event is only for accomplished golfers like tournament players. The reality is most of the golfers who participate are just average golfers. The scramble format where each player hits but only the best shot of the foursome is used each time makes it much easier. I would say this, if you like golf and typically score, let's say, better than 100, you will really enjoy this event. 

The club closes down for the entire day of the event. You can arrive at 10 A.M. in the morning to use the practice facility. There's a grilled lunch on the lawn at 11:00 A.M., a golfer meeting, and then the shotgun start of the golf at around 12:30 P.M. The dinner portion of the event starts around 5:00 P.M. or 5:30 P.M., and concludes around 7:00 P.M. So, we have golfers travel from around the upper Midwest and even as far as California and Texas to participate in this event. Mid-September is typically a beautiful time of year in Minnesota, so you could drive or fly into Minneapolis on the Saturday or Sunday before the event, play the event on Monday, September 15th, and then fly home late Monday or Tuesday. 

So, I hope this provides a bit more context on The Overcomer Foundation Cup golf and dinner event, and you know that golfers are welcome to come from anywhere in the country, and non-golfers are invited to the dinner event, as well, all in support of The Overcomer Foundation, which directs The Christian Worldview Radio Program. You can find out more and register at TheChristianWorldview.org, or just give us a call toll-free 1-888-646-2233.
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Now to our topic of the day, The Transmission, Translations, and Trustworthiness of the Bible. The claims of scripture are far above and beyond any other book that it's inspired by God without error, unchanging, unfailing, in a word, supernatural. The Bible says in 2 Peter 1, "Know this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." In other words, scripture is God-breathed into the authors. Hebrews 4, "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
So, putting those two passages together, God divinely directed to the authors of scripture what He wanted to communicate, and God's word powerfully accomplishes God's desires in the human heart. Now, consider that the 66 books of the Bible were authored by 40 men over a span of about 1,500 years in three languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic on three continents, Africa, Asia, and Europe. The original manuscripts written by these 40 authors no longer exist, but thousands of full or partial copies of the original books do exist. In fact, nearly 25,000 copies of the New Testament alone exist. Compare that to another well-known book of antiquity, Homer's Iliad, which has only 2,000 copies. The existence of so many copies of Scripture allows these copies to be compared to each other to authenticate accuracy.

In other words, more copies results in more certainty. The Bible also has been translated from its original languages into hundreds of languages with dozens of translations and paraphrases in the English language alone, the King James version, the Geneva Bible, the New American Standard, the English Standard version, the New International Version, and on and on. So, taking this all into consideration, is the Bible we have in our English language today an accurate representation of what the authors of Scripture wrote, or has there been significant loss of the text during its transmission over the centuries from the original manuscripts, and what about the many English versions of the Bible? Are they fully trustworthy to be considered the word of God?

Josh Barzon has done much research on the transmission and translations of the Bible. He was born in the Middle East, and now lives in America working as a content creator, graphic designer, and author of The Forgotten Preface: Surprising Insights on the Translation Philosophy of the King James Translators. He joins us today to discuss the supernatural scriptures and how God has preserved His word precisely over the centuries so that when you read the word of God, you can know you are hearing from the God of the word. Let's get straight to the interview with Josh Barzon.

Josh, thank you for coming on The Christian Worldview Radio program for the first time. Let's start out by just having you tell us about your background, how God brought you to saving faith and what you do now.

GUEST: JOSH BARZON:
Thanks for having me on, David. So glad we connected digitally online, and that's where I meet a lot of my friends, these days is people who come across my content. I'm delighted to be here and tell your audience about who I am and most importantly how it is that I know Jesus Christ is my king, my Lord, and my Savior. I guess before I jump into my backstory, for those who don't know who I am, I interact a lot online on Twitter or X as it's called now, Facebook. I do graphic design, content creation, and I've authored a book with a second in the makings right now. But before I got to all that, I actually have an interesting background. I was not born in the United States. I actually was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, right on the edge of the Red Sea. I'm not from that area of the world ethnically.

My father is a defense contractor at the military, so that's what caused me providentially to be born in that part of the world. Then later on in my younger to teenage years, I grew up the majority of my life in Cairo, Egypt. So, I had the privilege of growing up around where all these great biblical events happened, born right next to the Red Sea where the Israelites crossed over and came out of bondage, and then living in Egypt where they were slaves, where Jesus as a young child, so joined there before coming back to Israel. The Lord used all of that to ultimately bring me to saving faith. My mother and father were nominal Catholics and had gotten married, were living overseas as expats, working with the military. When they had my brother and I, and we were young, they just knew that they did not have a true faith that they could bank on, that they could trust in.

They didn't know what they believed. My mom and dad had a Bible and just knew, "Hey, let's pray, and see if God can help us understand this thing." In a short period of time, a man on the compound in Saudi Arabia, while I was very, very young, invited my parents to a Bible study on the compound, and that man was a gospel-believing Christian who at that Bible study talked about the only way to the father is through the son, and it's not through confessions to a priest. It's not through keeping the sacraments. It's not through the merits you can do on your own. It's through trusting the finished work of Christ.

In the early '90s, right on the edge of the Red Sea, where as a foreshadowing of future redemption, the Israelites crossed over and were freed, my parents were freed from their sin, and believed on Christ, and subsequently raised my two brothers and I. I'm in a home around the Bible, around faith. I graciously, by the Lord's love and mercy as a teenager, hit that point that I had to realize as well, "I can't just bank on my parents' testimony. I have to trust this Jesus Christ is my Savior, and to put my faith in Him as well." So, I have that privilege of having roots of faith, and then the Lord bringing me to justification in my teenage years, and sanctifying me day by day up until this very day that I still need His grace daily.

HOST: DAVID WHEATON:
Wow, that is just such an amazing back story there, Josh. I had no idea. Before we get into our topic for the day, just what did growing up in a Muslim part of the world after you became a believer, what impact or what are some of your memories of that?

GUEST: JOSH BARZON:
I have now been in the U.S. for many, many years, so it's very far behind me my past of living over there, but I remember it vividly. It's very much so formative of how I think, how I live. There's a couple aspects here. One is that living outside of the U.S. around Muslims, Arabs, and a lot of other different cultures, I think it helped break down this bubble of everything I know is how the world operates. I realize people think differently, people live differently. Especially around the time of 9/11, I was over in the Middle East when the Twin Towers were attacked, and there was a lot of fear. There was a lot of apprehension. Even for us living there at the time, I still realized these are still people who have a soul, who have a life, who Jesus loves.

I think it helped me not to create stereotypes and to put people into categories as far as who I can love and who I can't love. So, being around so many of those cultures, I think, just reminded me that at the end of the day, we are all God's special creation. My Arab and Muslim friends needed the gospel as much as my American or white or black or any other friends that I had at the time.

HOST: DAVID WHEATON:
You wrote a recent article on John MacArthur on his heaven going. It's actually... We published it in the August issue of The Christian Worldview Journal, and so readers who get that will be very interested in reading about John MacArthur. But, you had a long timeline of his life and different important events that took place in his life, the ministries he led and so forth. John MacArthur's memorial service is the day that this program is airing Saturday, August 23rd. So, what made him different than other well-known pastors of the last 50 or 100 years, just in your estimation, Josh?

GUEST: JOSH BARZON:
To put it succinctly, I think it was his resoluteness and his commitment and faithfulness being at grace as long as he was, but also what people knew him for in the '80s as being this expositor who was going to go verse by verse and look at what thus saith the Lord is in the text. That's what he was in the '80s, the '90s, the 2000's, and that's what he was when he passed away. The day and age where things changed so quickly, technology, our American culture is changing and shifting. I think he was just a unique person that remains steadfast and faithful.

HOST: DAVID WHEATON:
I think that's a good way of putting it. Again, you can read this excellent article by Josh in the August issue of The Christian Worldview Journal. All Christian Worldview Partners receive that every month, and you can get in contact with us to order that individual copy, or become a Christian Worldview Partner. Okay, let's get into some of your articles on the history and translations of the Bible. Much of your content that you create has to do with that, themes of the Bible, translations, text sources like the Dead Sea Scrolls. You had a great post on that. Why do you think these things are important for Christians to understand in the 21st century?

GUEST: JOSH BARZON:
I think the most important reason is because there is such an attack on the infallibility of the Bible, the truthfulness of it, whether it's relevant to modern life with, "Look at how big and bad us modern Americans are with our technology. Do we really need this antiquated book?" I believe more than ever, there is a need for people to not just have a vanilla surface understanding of, "Oh, well, the Bible is from God, and somehow it got from Moses to us today." But for believers to know, "How did the scriptures get transmitted to us?" Can we know that they're faithful and true, and can I know that what I read in my hands is God's living word for me to live my life and the light of who He is?

HOST: DAVID WHEATON:
Josh, let's get into one of your articles on the history of scripture, and you wrote a really interesting one on the Dead Sea Scrolls. By the way, we have some of these linked at our website, TheChristianWorldview.org. I'm just going to be reading snippets from a few articles.

You say, "In 1947, a young Bedouin boy named Mohammed ed-Dhib, if I'm pronouncing that right, was chasing a lost goat near the cliffs of Qumran." This is in Israel, modern day Israel. Out of boredom, he tossed a rock into a cave, and heard pottery shatter. Climbing inside, he found ancient jars, some containing tightly-wrapped leather scrolls. Word spread first through the black market and then through scholars between 1947 and 1956, so nine years. 11 caves yielded nearly 1,000 manuscripts hidden for nearly 2,000 years. What a discovery. The scrolls are a collection of nearly 1,000 ancient Jewish manuscripts written between 250 B.C., before Christ, and 70 AD, after Christ. They were found in these caves as you mentioned, along the north shore of the Dead Sea.

Nearly every book of the Old Testament was found except for the Book of Esther, often in multiple copies. Deuteronomy showed up more than 30 times. Psalms, Isaiah, and Genesis were also heavily represented. These texts weren't identical to the modern Hebrew Bible or Old Testament word for word, but the differences are surprisingly minor, you write, mostly spelling or grammar, not meaning. The big takeaway, the Bible we hold today has been transmitted with remarkable accuracy. The scrolls didn't weaken the Bible's reliability. They actually strengthened it. That's from your article on the Dead Sea Scrolls. So, elaborate more, Josh, on why this discovery back in the late 1940s, why the Dead Sea Scrolls are so important, and so faith building, confidence building in the word of God that we have today.

GUEST: JOSH BARZON:
It's fascinating. Again, having grown up in this area of the world, I connect with it very deeply. If I can pull out one thing that is so interesting about this is that before 1948, Christians, and if I was back then too, we had faith that God's word is true even if there wasn't archaeological evidence to back up every single thing stated in the Bible. Now, even at that time, there was archaeological evidence, manuscript evidence showing that these events, these things, these statements in the Bible were true. So, these events that happen with uncovering a lost ruin, finding a coin with an inscription, finding these manuscripts, they don't prove the Bible is true. They show that the Bible already was true in what it stated and what it said.

So, I always like to say that of I don't just believe the Bible because of this new archaeological discovery. These discoveries prove that God's word was true already as it stated. What makes this so intrinsically interesting is that 1948, we're still in that realm of textual criticism in a negative connotation, not figuring out what verses and what phrasings should be in the Bible, but those that would say the Bible isn't true, those that would say Jesus was a myth. He wasn't really a real person. This attack on true fundamentals of the faith was ramping up during this time of American history, and I find it interesting that at this time is when one of the biggest archaeological finds in the biblical world was uncovered, showing these prophecies of Jesus Christ being the one afflicted and smitten and the shepherd that gives his life for the sheep.

All these prophecies from the Old Testament, and they're being dated before the time of Christ, especially the Isaiah scroll and others. I think it was just a token of goodness of the Lord showing at a time of controversy, at a time of fundamentals being debated within Western Christianity, that God's word is true, and that even archaeological finds continue to back that up.

HOST: DAVID WHEATON:
You mentioned the Isaiah scroll. You wrote in your article dated to around 125 BC. It's more than 1,000 years older, the one found at the Dead Sea Scrolls, than any complete Hebrew Isaiah known before. Yet when compared to our modern Bibles, it's nearly identical, but what the skeptic would say is, "Well, yeah, well, it maybe matches with the modern book of Isaiah, but the Dead Sea Scroll was actually not the original." This wasn't the original document that Isaiah wrote down. This was a copy. So, how would you answer that question that, "Well, these copies go way back, but they're still copies of copies?"

GUEST: JOSH BARZON:
I love this question. I think some people are scared of that question, but what I would say to that is everything of antiquity that we trust is a copy of a copy. Everything we believe about Julius Caesar that is taught in college level, graduate level history courses, everything we know about Genghis Khan, everything we know about Plato and Aristotle, those are all from copies of copies of information that we have, and yet we understand and assume and trust those facts about those historical characters to be true. How much more should we trust and believe that this scroll, this Isaiah that is verbatim hundreds of years later, when we discover this copy to compare it against, how much more should we trust that with the many more extant manuscripts we have to compare the Bible to than we even do to other historical characters that we trust is absolute fact.

HOST: DAVID WHEATON:
The fact that there are many copies is actually more proof, because you have so many more copies to compare each copy to.That's actually a better situation than having fewer copies.

Okay, let's get into some of the translations of the Bible. This is also a sticking point for a lot of people. We're not reading it in Hebrew and Greek and so forth. Non-Christians and even new Christians are often confused, Josh, about all the various translations and versions of the Bible as if they teach different things. You pick up one and another one may be totally different or something. How to explain to someone who asked this question why there are so many different versions and translations of the Bible.

GUEST: JOSH BARZON:
The simplest answer that I can give is that we are so spoiled and blessed today to have so many different translations of the Bible. Christians and believers should not look at them as being in competition with each other, but they should look at them as tools that help them to understand what is the original manuscripts said. If I can give an analogy and just help you to understand it, I've got three children. If I tell one of my kids, "Hey, I want you to go outside. I want you to pick up your shoes, and I want you to clean the backyard up, and do it before dinner time. Make sure to tell your other siblings as well." So then my daughter goes out and tells her siblings, "Dad said to clean the yard and to pick up your shoes before dinner."

Well, she didn't verbatim identically communicate word for word what I said, but she gave the message of what I said to the other children that didn't hear me. I think, translations are very similar to that. There is a difficulty in translating from language to language. There are things that are not carried through. They don't come through correctly. There's idioms. Think of simply in English of somebody learning English, and they hear the phrase, "That knocked my socks off, or it's raining cats and dogs." I mean, to take those things literally would cause such confusion if you don't understand the English language. So, it is the same with Hebrew and Greek and Aramaic, and there are many different ways to translate different parts of the text.
That's where we get multiple translations that take oftentimes a more literal approach such as the NASB, the LSB, the KJV, the NKJV or more dynamic approach that is giving more of a thought for thought comparison such as the NIV, the NLT, and the CSB. So again, these modern translations are not in competition with each other. They help together to understand the fullness of what the original authors meant.

HOST: DAVID WHEATON:
You had, I think, an infographic in one of your posts about this that some translations are word for word more literal, like you mentioned, the New American Standard Bible, the Legacy Standard Bible. Then another way of doing it is more thought for thought. So, you capture what the person's thinking here and how do we translate that or more generally meaning for meaning, "Take a passage, and let's get the meaning of this, and translate it." Then there's the paraphrase.

The New Living Translation, I think, is a paraphrase. But now that being said, all versions translations of the Bible are not created equal. Some are definitely more faithful to the oldest text that we have than others. How would you group the top five or six English translations of the Bible that Christians who are interested in getting a real sense of what the oldest text we have, and what is the criteria for judging or discerning or deciding on a translation?

GUEST: JOSH BARZON:
I think, above all things, this topic needs to be approached with charity, because if we're just going to be honest, and much smarter people than me have debated this for hundreds of years, and still do debate it. God never told us in the Bible, no matter what version used, exactly where to find the right manuscripts to compare against other manuscripts, and how to do textual criticism. God gives us everything we need for life and godliness as we're told in the New Testament, but that doesn't mean God teaches me chemistry and hydraulic engineering or textual criticism. So, I approach this by saying there has to be charity not to demonize somebody who holds a different textual view than you would, because ultimately, the majority of everything that we believe as Christians is found within the wholeness of the manuscripts that we have.

Even if there are some textual differences of like, "Well, is this verse actually original? Does this verse belong in the Bible or not?" To give you some practical examples, there really are two main streams of modern translations. There are those that come from the Textus Receptus family of manuscript translations, and then those that come from what is often called the critical text or the non-TR family tradition manuscripts of the Bible. I'm talking very, very jargon here, and I don't want to do that to your audience. The differences between these conflicting manuscript lines are very, very minor. Most of the differences are like Joshua being spelled with a U-A or Joshua being spelled with just an A, and name differences, a couple different grammatical differences, and the actual places where there's legitimate disagreement such as the longer ending of Mark.

Are those verses original, or were they added in later? The verse in 1 John about, "There's three that bear record, the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and these three are one," was that in addition or was that original? There are some of these places that are some gray area that scholars debate. Was this originally what the authors wrote, or was this added in later? But even those portions are a fraction less than 1% of the whole text of the Bible. So, I would say to people struggling with, "How do I trust the Bible? How do I know the right manuscripts, where they come from?" Even the disputed parts are such a minority, and anything disputed in those parts, those verses that I'm mentioning, those truths can be found in other passages and verses throughout the rest of the Bible.

There is no major doctrinal difference or issue that is affected by any debated passage in the Bible. So, with that practically, you have on one side modern translations that come from the Texas Receptus tradition of manuscripts such as the New King James, the Modern English version and newly the Berean standard version. Then you have other modern translations that rely upon critical text readings that are different than the TR readings such as the ESV, the NIV, the NASB, the CSB, and many other modern translations. So, it's a big topic. You can watch hours of this on YouTube, and still come away scratching your head. So, I want to make it simple for whoever's listening, and just tell you the differences are minor and what is agreed upon between textual differences. There's more in common there than there actually is that is disagreed about.

HOST: DAVID WHEATON:
Exactly. I know you're not referring to some translations who may change the gender of God to a female. We're not talking about those kinds of things clearly are off track. But of the main respected long translations, ESV, NASB, New King James, King James, there's differences in the way they read, but they're very not significant doctrinally. I definitely agree with that.

GUEST: JOSH BARZON:
Exactly.

HOST: DAVID WHEATON:
Now, I want to get into two particular versions of the Bible, the Geneva Bible and the King James version of the Bible. These are the two oldest or nearly oldest English translations of the Bible. The Geneva Bible, in an article you wrote on that, you say it was first published in 1560. This was just after the beginning of the reformation period started in 1517, but its story started years earlier with blood fire and persecution after Queen Mary known as, AK, Bloody Mary took the throne in 1553. Hundreds of protestant scholars fled England.

Again, this is the time of the Protestant Reformation. Where did they go? They went to Geneva, Switzerland. There, it was the heart of Reformed theology home to John Calvin and Theodore Beza. There, English exiles found both safety and scholarship. They formed a team to translate the Bible afresh, grounded in Hebrew and Greek text, reformed theology, popular accessibility. You said the Geneva Bible was the Bible of the Pilgrims, the Puritans, the Scottish Presbyterians, even Oliver Cromwell's army. It was quoted by Shakespeare and Milton, and carried to America on the Mayflower. It wasn't the King James version. So, tell us more about the Geneva Bible and why its influence has actually waned, whereas the King James version, which came along not too long afterward, is still quite popular today.

GUEST: JOSH BARZON:
This is my wheelhouse. I love antique English Bibles and translation history. The Geneva is interesting, and I wouldn't say a correction necessarily. I'd say just maybe some context around the Geneva. The Geneva, I think, was one of the most popular English Bible translations before the King James, but there were other English translations before the Geneva. If we want to go back to really the beginning of what was the first English translation of the Bible, you actually have to go back to the 1300s as crazy as that is, I mean, pre Columbus, pre new world discovery. You have John Wycliffe and the Wycliffe Bible translation, and Wycliffe was actually translating from the Latin Vulgate, not from the Hebrew and Greek. So, it's funny when you think of it, he took a translation of a translation, and made a translation from that translation, not the best way to do it, but he was very much so persecuted, and the church was against his efforts at the time. So, it was a very noble effort.

After Wycliffe, you have in the 1500s, William Tyndale in Tyndale's New Testament, which really is the bedrock and foundation of any future Bible translations, even modern ones. Going to the Geneva and the King James, the majority of how the Geneva and King James read is exactly how Tyndale's New Testament was transcribed, translated, and how it was written. You have after Tyndale and the 1500s other Bibles like the Coverdale, Matthews, the Great Bible, but Geneva changed things because the Geneva Bible, as the name implies, was translated in Geneva, Switzerland, and it was very much so influenced by Calvin, Theodore Beza, other reformers. It was this neutral zone as Switzerland is often known for where there was freedom to not just translate the Bible, but also to include a commentary about what the Bible meant.

A lot of people don't realize it, but the Geneva Bible was really the first study Bible. I have original pages of the Geneva in my office here, and in the margins, it has notes next to almost every passage explaining it, giving context, referencing other verses. There were maps. There were concordances. There were weights and measurement tables. The Geneva truly was the first study Bible, and that actually interestingly enough is one of the reasons that King James of England did not like the Geneva Bible because some of the notes in the Geneva Bible conflicted with his view of the supreme right of the king in the land of England. For example, in the Geneva Bible, there's notes in Exodus chapters one and two praising the Hebrew midwives for disobeying pharaoh, and keeping the children of Israel alive rather than slaughtering them.

King James did not like those notes that were praising the common people for rebelling against the king when they didn't agree with him. One of the interesting things about the King James Bible is that one of the rules that King James actually gave to the translators was that there were to be no notes in the margins of the Bibles unless if it was explaining the Greek or the Hebrew meaning of the text. He was so afraid that there would be dissent of his rule of king just like those that use the Geneva Bible held against tyrants, and he wanted to make sure that his translation he was sponsoring did not contain any of those marginal notes.

HOST: DAVID WHEATON:
The word of God is our basis for all of life and faith, and so it's strengthening to know how God has preserved His word through the centuries. You write in your article Josh on the King James version, now going from Geneva to King James, forgotten fact number five. Contrary to popular belief, they, those ones that put together the King James version, didn't claim perfection for the King James version. They admitted, "There's no reason why the word when translated should be denied to be the word, even though some imperfections and blemishes may be found in the expression of it from the translations to the reader."

I grew up reading the King James version, and I very much like the King James version of the Bible. I don't read it anymore today, not because I don't like it or don't think it's good. I read the New American Standard or the Legacy Standard Bible now, but there are some out there and they're called King James version only. They can be really, really adamant. The King James version is the only inspired English version. What is behind the zealousness with which King James version only folks believe that, and on what is that based?

GUEST: JOSH BARZON:
This is a great topic and one that I'm very passionate about. that article we were talking about on my X or Twitter account about forgotten facts of the King James Bible, that actually was just a article I put up that is a condensement of my book that I published called The Forgotten Preface: Surprising Insights on the Translation Philosophy of the King James Translators. For the majority of my life, I actually was a King James-onlyist, believed it, hook, line, and sinker, black and white. It was one of my most held beliefs in my life that the King James Bible was not just a better translation. It was the only translation that English-speaking people should use. I was taught that way. The Bible college I went to educated me in that way. I knew the defense points of how to try to defend that position. Ultimately, I had to leave that position because it is not a biblical position.

There are many things that Christians can feel strongly about that are not actually contained within the Bible, and our preferences or secondary issues that are not actually thus saith the Lord as to why they believe them. For me, the biggest, I would say, block that fell that helped me move away from the King James only position was, number one, when I began to have my own children, and disciple them, and realize the stumbling block that the old language was for them hearing God clearly in their own vernacular tongue, number two, discipling and helping those that are English second language speakers who I would do some ministry with, and realizing the difficulty they had reading the King James Bible.

Then number three was when I realized that the King James translators themselves did not hold a King James only position, and their very preface that my book is actually called the Forgotten Preface, their very preface of the King James Bible at the very front page that used to be included in the Bible was giving these very clear statements of, "This is not the only translation. There may be errors or things that we possibly got wrong." They're not going to change doctrine issues, but we were doing our best with what we had, continue to build upon our work, continue to translate, and those were the things that helped me to untangle the unbiblical view that I held of being a King James-onlyist.

HOST: DAVID WHEATON:
Very interesting. Josh Barzon is our guest today here on The Christian Worldview. Again, we love the King James version, but the idea that it's the only inspired English translation is there's just no basis for that and as you mentioned, even those who translated it didn't hold that view either. Now, just one more question for you on the transmission and translations of the Bible before we conclude with a couple of questions about approaching the Bible and how to read it. You paraphrases of the Bible, these don't even purport to be literal translations, literal word for word just gives you a sense of what the content or the author is trying to communicate like the New Living Translation or the Living Bible.

Can paraphrases be helpful? Do you recommend those? You talked about reading to your children and so forth, or even for adults, let's say, some more difficult, complicated Old Testament passages that seem sort of out of touch with our time today. What are your thoughts on paraphrases?

GUEST: JOSH BARZON:
I think it's important, like you're saying, to understand the difference between a translation and a paraphrase. My children, I have very young children. I have a kid's storybook that I read to them. It's called the Kingdom of God storybook by Lithos. They put out great kids materials, and it's got pictures. It's giving a summary of the story. There's no way I look at that as the translation of the Bible. That is paraphrasing heavily for my kids to understand it. My goal eventually is for my kids to be at the level that they can read a translation of the full text of the Bible. I think as long as you differentiate between which is which, they can be helpful, and they can help, but ultimately, they are just that. They're an auxiliary thing. They're a help, but they are not equal or the same as an actual translation of the Bible.

HOST: DAVID WHEATON:
Okay, Josh, let's get into going from the transmission, the translations to now what the Bible is, the word of God, and there's a great quote you put on from Charles Spurgeon, the great English preacher. You said, "From every text in scripture, there is a road to the metropolis, the center point of the scriptures." That is Jesus Christ. Your business is when you get to a text of scripture to say, "Now, what is the road to Christ from here?"

You had an infographic talking about how each Old Testament book actually points to Christ. Now, I'll just give you a couple examples. In Genesis, Jesus is the Word of God. In Exodus, He is the Passover Lamb. In Leviticus, He is our High Priest. In Joshua, He's the Commander of the Lord's army as they took over the promised land. In Psalms, He is our Shepherd. The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want. In Proverbs, Christ is our Wisdom. So, give some examples of this in the Old Testament for how readers of scripture should look for Christ, and keep Him in mind, keep Him as the central point of scripture as we read it.

GUEST: JOSH BARZON:
I love this. The Old Testament is unfortunately a portion of the Bible that when not understood correctly, people lose so much of the fullness and the beauty of it. To put it simply, like you said, the way to read the Old Testament is realizing that it is forecasting. It's prophesying. It's foreshadowing Jesus Christ who would come. To put it very simply, Jesus is the fulfillment of every failed type that came before Him. Jesus is the true and better Adam who was able to resist temptation in the wilderness when Adam couldn't even do it in a beautiful garden. Jesus is the true and better Abraham who actually is the one who goes and offers Himself as the sacrifice, and doesn't just, by faith, offer His Son to then be substituted by a goat or a ram.
Jesus is the greater and better David who did not fall to fornication and temptations of the flesh, but is the true king that was prophesied who had come and on and on and on. When you read the Old Testament, every time you hit a point that you go, "Man, this is depressing. Man, people messed it up again. They sinned." Realize that is a foreshadowing of Jesus who was coming to be the true and better version of everyone who failed in the Old Testament. For me, that's a guiding principle as I read the Old Testament, is look for Christ and look for Him even in the failures of who He is and being successful and being victorious.

HOST: DAVID WHEATON:
How much better He is as it says in the book of Hebrews and the New Testament. So, that's just so helpful and so important to keep that in mind as we read throughout the entire scriptures. Of course, we see Him in the New Testament, but the Old Testament is just pointing toward Him. Final question for you, Josh. People listening today, hearing about the history, the translations of the Bible and so forth, the trustworthiness of it, why is the Bible today still immensely relevant, and what does it mean to approach the Bible not just to know the word of God, to read it for information, but to really we approach it to read it, to know and love the God of the Word?

GUEST: JOSH BARZON:
Christians of all generations have always relied upon the word of God, and have trusted in it, but as we talked at the beginning, in a day and age where people want to think that the Bible is antiquated, it's irrelevant. It's not necessary. I think it is more necessary than ever, because it is a call for Christians to live by faith and not by sight, rather than to go along with what the culture of the world says, and to disregard the Lord and His teachings is to realize that this book that we have that has been providentially preserved for us, still has, as Peter says, everything that we need for life and godliness.

When you look at the world, and things confuse you about morality or ethics or just evil and depravity, you have to look in the Bible and realize, again, not just that Jesus came the first time to be the fulfillment of what everyone in the Old Testament messed up, but Jesus is coming again in the future to make, again, His kingdom on earth, to live with His saints forever, and to ultimately finish the grand scheme of events that the whole Bible has been building towards. The Bible is more, if not most, relevant at this point of history because we're this much closer to Jesus coming back, and it gives us that much more hope that He will keep all the promises that He's made us within His word.

HOST: DAVID WHEATON:
Absolutely, Josh. As well for even a non-believer to read the Bible, it's the place where you can find out specifically how God has provided one way for you to be forgiven, reconciled to God through faith in Christ, and for you to inherit eternal life with God in heaven. I highly encourage listeners to get into the word and the supernatural-inspired, inerrant, inexhaustible and infallible word of God. So, Josh, we thank you for bringing these things out in your posts. They're very helpful, very informative, and we thank you for coming on the Christian Worldview Radio program today. We just wish all of God's best and grace to you.

GUEST: JOSH BARZON:
Amen. Thank you, David.

HOST: DAVID WHEATON:
Again, we have links to Josh and his articles at TheChristianWorldview.org. Let's remember that when we read the word, we are hearing directly from God, the divine author of it. The point of reading it is to know, believe, love, obey, worship, and proclaim Him. Thank you for joining us today on The Christian Worldview, and for your support of this non-profit radio ministry. Until next time, think biblically. Live accordingly, and stand firm.

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