Now, when the 1881 came out, many people liked it because it said
Jehovah instead of LORD in many places. Well, that's minor; you can
say that with the Authorized Version. But it was scarcely ten years before
it proved to be a failure. That is, it didn't get anywhere.
The 1901 American Standard Version
Within ten years they started communicating with spiritual leaders on
this side of the water to work with them on another printing called the
1901 edition, feeling, I suppose, that if the Americans cooperated that
they would have a wider sales range. Well, just think. When the 1901
came out, it had gone ten years when it was practically a failure because
in 1911, in the third centenary of the Authorized Version, the publishers
had 34 outstanding scholars to go over the Authorized Version and see
what legitimate changes could be made here and there. You know, they
took the 1901 edition and they could only take two out of every 100 corrections
in that. Only two percent. And immediately they discovered
that the 1901 was not trustworthy. And it didn't go very long until it died
out. In all of my pastorates I can only remember one person who ever
owned one of those 1901 American Standard Version bibles.
The New American Standard Version
Back in 1956-57 Mr. F. Dewey Lockman of the Lockman Foundation
[contacted me. He was] one of the dearest friends we've ever had for 25
years; a big man, some 300 pounds, snow-white hair, one of the most terrific
businessmen I have ever met. I always said he was like Nehemiah;
he was building a wall. You couldn't get in his way when he had his
mind on something; he went right to it. He couldn't be daunted. I never
saw anything like it. Most unusual man. I spent weeks and weeks and
weeks in their home; real close friends of the family.
Well, he discovered that the copyright [on the American Standard
Version of 1901] was just as loose as a fumbled ball on a football field.
Nobody wanted it. It didn't get anywhere. Mr. Lockman got in touch
with me and said: “Would you and Ann come out and spend some weeks
with us, and we'll work on a feasibility report. I can pick up the
copyright to the 1901 if it seems advisable.”
Well, up to that time I thought the Westcott and Hort was the text.
You were intelligent if you believed the Westcott and Hort. Some of the
finest people in the world believe in that Greek text; the finest leaders
that we have today. You'd be surprised. If I told you, you wouldn't
believe it. They haven't gone into it just as I hadn't gone into it.
[They're] just taking it for granted.
At any rate, we went out and started on a feasibility report, and I encouraged
him to go ahead with it. I'm afraid I'm in trouble with the Lord
because I encouraged him to go ahead with it. We laid the groundwork.
I wrote the format. I helped to interview some of the translators. I wrote
the preface. When you see the preface to the New American Standard,
those are my words. I got one of the fifty deluxe copies which were
printed. Mine was number seven, with a light blue cover. But it was
rather big and I couldn't carry it with me, and I never really looked at it.
I just took it for granted that it was done as we started it, you know, until
some of my friends across the country began to learn that I had some part
in it and they started saying: “What about this; what about that?”
Dr. David Otis Fuller in Grand Rapids: I've known him for 35 years
and he would say (he would call me Frank, and I'd call him Duke):
“Frank, what about this? You had part in it, what about this; what about
that?” And at first I thought: “Now, wait a minute, let's don't go overboard,
let's don't be too critical.” You know how you justify yourself the
last minute.
But I finally got to the place where I said: “Ann, I'm in trouble; I
can't refute these arguments; it's wrong; it's terribly wrong. It's frightfully
wrong, and what am I going to do about it?” Well, I went through
some real soul searching for about four months, and I sat down and wrote
one of the most difficult letter of my life, I think.
I wrote to my friend Dewey, and I said: “Dewey, I don't want to add
to your problems,” (he had lost his wife some three years before: I was
there for the funeral; also a doctor had made a mistake in operating on a
cataract and he had lost the sight of one eye and [now he] had to have an
operation on the other one; he had a slight heart attack; had sugar
diabetes; a man 74 years of age) “but I can no longer ignore these
criticisms I am hearing and I can't refute them. The only thing I can do
(and, dear Brother, I haven't a thing against you and I can witness at the
judgment of Christ and before men wherever I go that you were 100%
sincere,” (he wasn't schooled in language or anything, he was just a business
man; he did it for money; he did it conscientiously; he wanted it absolutely
right and he thought it was right; I guess nobody pointed out
some of these things to him) “I must under God renounce every attachment
to the New American Standard.”
I have a copy of the letter. I have this letter. I've shown it to some
people. The Roberts saw it. Mike saw it. He [Dewey] stated that he was
bowled over; he was shocked beyond words. He said that was putting it
mildly, but he said, “I will write you in three weeks, and I still love you.
To me you're going to be Franklin, my friend, throughout the course.”
And he said: “I'll write you in three weeks,” but he won't write me now.
He was to be married. He sent and invitation to come to the reception.
Standing in the courtroom, in the county court by the desk, the clerk said:
“What is your full name, sir?” And he said: “Franklin Dewey…” and that
is the last word he spoke on earth. So he was buried two days before he
was supposed to be married, and he's with the Lord. And he loves the
Lord. He knows different now.
I tell you, dear people, somebody is going to have to stand. If you
must stand against everyone else, stand. Don't get obnoxious, don't
argue. There's no sense in arguing. But nevertheless, that's where the
New American Standard stands in connection with the Authorized Version
.
I just jotted down what these versions, translations, and paraphrases
are doing. Consider:
1.They cause widespread confusion because everywhere we go,
people say: “What do you think of this, what do you think of that?”
What do young people think when they hear all of that?
2.They discourage memorization. Who's going to memorize
when each one has a different bible, a different translation?
3.They obviate the use of a concordance. Where are you going to
find a concordance for the Good News for Modern Man and all these
others? You aren't going to find one. We're going to have a concordance
for every one: you're going to have a lot of concordances.
4.They provide opportunity for perverting the truth. There are
all these translations and versions, each one trying to get a little different
slant from the others. They must make it different, because if it
isn't different why have a new version? It makes a marvelous opportunity
for the devil to slip in his perverting influence.
5.These many translations make teaching of the Bible difficult,
and I'm finding that more and more as I go around the country. I
mentioned this thing the other night. How could a mathematics
professor or instructor teach a certain problem in a class if the class
had six or eight different textbooks? How about that? How could
you do it?
6.They elicit profitless argumentation because everywhere we go
they say: “This one is more accurate.” Which one is more accurate?
How do they know? and this is not a reflection against those saying
this, because I would have done this a few years ago. In Christian
Life magazine I got this. My dear friend, Dr. George Sweeting, president
of Moody Bible Institute (one of the sweetest, dearest men
you've ever met; he's wonderfully named) he's starting today right
down near my home at southern Keswick, and if I'm back by the end
of the week, I expect to see him, and I'm going to talk to him about
these things. When he was asked for his recommendation of the New
American Standard, he said: “I like it because it reads freely.” You
can read it yourself. It's in the ad in various magazines. And he said:
“I particularly like it because it's so near to the original.” I'm going
to say: “Now, George, what is the original? Have you ever seen it?
There isn't any original.”
Lest I forget it in one of these questions somebody said: “How can we
know that we have the whole truth?” Well, just simply by believing God.
And what do I mean by that? John 16:13—“Howbeit when he, the Spirit
of truth, is come, he will guide you into” how much? Tell me. Tell me,
now. “All truth.” And if we don't have all truth, the holy Spirit isn't
doing his work. We have to have all truth for him to lead us into all truth.
And there are many, many other passages which teach this.
If we could hear his voice, we would have no trouble learning his
Word from the Authorized Version. Let me tell you this: you might not
be able to answer the arguments, and you won't be [able to]. I can't
answer some of them, either. Some of these university professors come
along and say: “What about this; what about that?” They go into areas
that I haven't even had time to get into.
As I said to you a couple of minutes ago, you don't need to defend
yourself, and you don't need to defend God's word. Don't defend it.
You don't need to defend it. You don't need to apologize for it. Just say:
“Well, did this version or this translation come down through the Roman
stream? If so, count me out. Whatever you say about Erasmus and Tyndale,
that's what I want.”
And besides this, we've had the AV for 362 years. It's been tested as
no other piece of literature has ever been tested. Word by word, syllable
by syllable. And I think even until this moment, no one has ever found
any wrong doctrine in it, and that's the main thing. He that wills to do
the will of God shall KNOW the doctrine.
Well, time is up. Let's be people of the Book. It took my mother to
heaven, and my dad; my grandfather, my grandmother. It was Moody's
Book, it was Livingstone's Book. J. C. Studd gave up his fortune to take
this Book to Africa, and I don't feel ashamed to carry it the rest of my
journey. It's God's Book.
Our Father, we thank thee and praise thee for thy word. Help us to
love it, and preach it, and teach it, and tell everyone we can the Good
News through thy Word. In Jesus' name, amen.
******************************
Those who imagine that the Scripture passages, approximately sixty in
number, in which the earth is said to stand still, and the sun and all stars
are said to move, may be “interpreted” in such a way as if really the
reverse were the case, we may leave to pursue their fruitless endeavors
alone. The Christian way is simply to accept the Holy Scripture as it
reads.
— Wallace H. McLaughlin6
Much of the history of the Western world over the past three decades has
involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. In area after
area—crime, education, housing, race relations—the situation has gotten
worse after the bright new theories were put into operation. The amazing
thing is that this history of failure and disaster has neither discouraged the
social engineers nor discredited them.
— Thomas Sowell7
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1
And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a
rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
2
II Timothy 2:7.
3
The American Heritage Dictionary says: “Stupefied from or as if
from drink.” For example, as in “drunken sot.” Ed.
4
The A.V. reads: “And without controversy great is the mystery of
godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world,
received up into glory.”
5
Scrivener's description of this deception can be found in his book,
The Authorized Edition of the English Bible, available from Bible for
Today, 900 Park Avenue, Collingswood, New Jersey 08108. Order
item number 1757. Also see David Otis Fuller's Which Bible?.
6
1963. We All Believe In One True God: A Summary of Biblical
Doctrine, page 14. Cross of Christ Press, Cross of Christ Lutheran
Church, Midland, Michigan
7
Is Reality Optional? (Hoover Institution Press).