Roman Catholic Influence Upon Modern Translation of the Bible

Statement of belief: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” (John 17:17 KJV)

Updated 5927± 02 11 2023 [2007-04-29]

Roman Catholic Influence

upon Modern Translations of the Holy Scriptures.

What’s its Current Mode of Attack against God’s People?

Is it the Flawed Greek Manuscripts

Supporting Most Moderns Translations?

Abstract:

In their book, Modern Bible Translations Unmasked, Russell R. Standish and Colin D. Standish have made an outstanding analysis of how the Roman Catholic Church is flooding our modern society with flawed translations based upon corrupt Greek Manuscripts, mainly Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, while very successfully hiding from public view the fact that Textus Recuptus, the much more accurate text based upon the Eastern manuscripts is being ever more suppressed. See in particular their Chapters 1, 5, 10, 40, and the Appendices!

What is the true intention and the mode of attack of the Roman Catholic Church against the men and women doing their best to realize the eternal promises of the Creator? Has the Church ever changed her stand on these issues? Or, is she merely trying her best to adapt to the current situation in order to keep deceiving as many of the Sons and Daughters of God as is at all possible?

May I suggest that each among us enlighten ourselves upon these most important issues? Once we are awakened to these facts we owe it to ourselves to do our best to get as close as we can to the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek manuscripts while also consistently using only the best available translations, i.e. KJV, NKJV, and very few if any others! Why give our powers and our support to those whose intent and purpose is to produce flawed translations designed to destroy confidence in the One and only God, the Creator of all?

To what extent can even the very best of Bible translations be further purified from Roman Catholic influences? Can the present study into N.T. Chronology contribute towards a more correct translation of the best available manuscripts?

Quotes from The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White:

Efforts to suppress and destroy the bible.--The Council of Toulouse, which met about the time of the crusade against the Albigenses, ruled: "We prohibit laymen possessing copies of the Old and New Testament. . . . We forbid them most severely to have the above books in the popular vernacular." "The lords of the districts shall carefully seek out the heretics in dwellings, hovels, and forests, and even their underground retreats shall be entirely wiped out."--Council. Tolosanum, Pope Gregory IX, Anno. Chr. 1229. Canons 14 and 2. This council sat at the time of the crusade against the Albigenses. {GC 687.6}

"This pest [the bible] had taken such an extension that some people had appointed priests of their own, and even some evangelists who distorted and destroyed the truth of the gospel and made new gospels for their own purpose . . . (They know that) the preaching and explanation of the bible is absolutely forbidden to the lay members."--Acts of Inquisition, Philip van Limborch, History of the Inquisition, Chapter 8. {GC 687.7}

The Council of Tarragona, 1234, ruled that: "No one may possess the books of the Old and New Testaments in the Romance language, and if anyone possesses them he must turn them over to the local bishop within eight days after promulgation of this decree, so that they may be burned lest, be he a cleric or a layman, he be suspected until he is cleared of all suspicion."--D. Lortsch, Histoire de la Bible en France, 1910, p. 14. {GC 688.1}

At the Council of Constance, in 1415, Wycliffe was posthumously condemned by Arundel, the archbishop of Canterbury, as "that pestilent wretch of damnable heresy who invented a new translation of the scriptures in his mother tongue." {GC 688.2}

The opposition to the bible by the Roman Catholic Church has continued through the centuries and was increased particularly at the time of the founding of bible societies. On December 8, 1866, Pope Pius IX, in his encyclical Quanta Cura, issued a syllabus of eighty errors under ten different headings. Under heading IV we find listed: "Socialism, communism, clandestine societies, bible societies. . . . Pests of this sort must be destroyed by all possible means." {GC 688.3}

“Satan well knew that the Holy Scriptures would enable men to discern his deceptions and withstand his power. It was by the Word that even the Saviour of the world had resisted his attacks. At every assault, Christ presented the shield of eternal truth, saying, "It is written." To every suggestion of the adversary, he opposed the wisdom and power of the Word. In order for Satan to maintain his sway over men, and establish the authority of the papal usurper, he must keep them in ignorance of the Scriptures. The Bible would exalt God, and place finite men in their true position; therefore its sacred truths must be concealed and suppressed. This logic was adopted by the Roman Church. For hundreds of years the circulation of the Bible was prohibited. The people were forbidden to read it or to have it in their houses, and unprincipled priests and prelates interpreted its teachings to sustain their pretensions. Thus the pope came to be almost universally acknowledged as the vicegerent of God on earth, endowed with authority over Church and State.” {GC88 51.3}

To the Romanist the Bible is a forbidden book, because it plainly reveals the errors of the Roman system; and whoever searches the Bible with an enlightened understanding, cannot long be in harmony with Romanism. He who searches the Bible to understand the truth, will find no authority in the word of God for the assumption of power on the part of popes and cardinals. There is no word of God that sanctions their assumed superiority or supremacy over their people, as there is no word to sanction the claim that Lucifer made in heaven of superiority over Christ. The claim of the Papacy to superiority is made under the influence of the first great usurper, who so persistently urged his right to supremacy over the host of God. Through the Dark Ages,--that long night of ignorance and superstition,--the claim of the Papacy to superiority and supremacy was conceded by emperors and kings, although God had sanctioned no such concession, and raised up men to dispute the claim, and to break the Romish yoke from the church of God. Through his appointed agencies God summoned the church to reassert her independence, and in the strength of God she stood forth in the liberty wherewith Christ had made her free. She broke away from the papal yoke, and with the word of God in her hand, met the giant evil of Romanism, even as David met Goliath in the name of heaven, using his sling and a few pebblestones. The defier of Israel was slain before the man of faith; and while men cling to the word of the Lord, they cannot affiliate with the great system of error. {ST, February 19, 1894 par. 3}

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