27 August 2009
Another Great Moment in Pulpit PaleoBabble
Posted by MSH under: Manuscripts and Textual criticism; Textual Criticism; Uncategorized; Wacky Bible Interpretation .
Just when you think preaching can’t get any more insipid, you find yet another logic-defying sermon out there on the web. “Thanks” to the person who sent this to me.
Some surface observations on the problems with this “Bible lesson”:
1. Since the NIV *printed* the longer ending of Mark, isn’t it true that there are in fact 678 verses in Mark? Didn’t he just count them for us?
2. As educated students of the textual history of the Bible (any Bible) know (guess that excludes this pastor), verses were not original to the text of either testament. That means that versification is artificial from the get-go, so any numerical “truth” derived from counting them is, well, paleobabble. Chapter divisions were added in the 13th century. During that century, Stephen Langton (ca. 1227), a professor at the University of Paris, and Cardinal Hugo de Sancta Cara (ca. 1244-1248) pioneered the chapter divisions. (One wonders how this preacher might react to catholics being the source of the chapter divisions). Much earlier than this, the NT was divided into sections ca. the Council of Nicea, and before that the Hebrew Masoretes divided their canonical texts into section, paragraph, and phrasal divisions using accenting traditions. These divisions (oh, horror!) do not coincide with the KJV divisions or those used by other modern English translations. It is not known exactly when versification was added, but the oldest such scheme seems to be Italian Dominican biblical scholar Santi Pagnini (1470–1541; another catholic!), though his system was not popularly adopted. As Christopher Smith notes in an article produced for a magazine I edit, “Robert Estienne created an alternate numbering in his 1551 edition of the Greek New Testament.” The first English New Testament to use the verse divisions was a 1557 translation by William Whittingham (c. 1524-1579).
None of this probably matters to the speaker, though, since he appears to be a King James only adherent. That brings me to the next problem.
3. The King James Only view that is apparent from this sermon is foreign to the reality of history of the biblical text. Readers are encouraged to read two volumes on this nonsense that are quite informative and helpful. First, there is Carson’s King James Version Debate, The: A Plea for Realism (1979); then there is White’s King James Only Controversy, The: Can You Trust Modern Translations?. Even fundamentalists like Roy Beacham would denounce the KJV only position: One Bible Only?: Examining Exclusive Claims for the King James Bible.
My point here is that this view is completely on the fringe — and there are real reasons why it is. Frankly, the KJV debate is really a debate about the NT. None of its arguments work with respect to the Hebrew Bible (they don’t work on the NT, either, but applying them to the Hebrew text is where it really gets laughable).
4. My King James Bible says that 666 is “the number of a man” (Rev. 13:18) not the number of a manuscript tradition or publisher or versification scheme.
5. Jesus (I assume that’s who he means by the video title – the greatest preacher) didn’t assign verses to the Bible, nor does he ever reference them. Nor did he write Mark (or any other NT book). If the preacher is talking about himself, then substitute his name for Jesus accordingly.
I’ll fly my flag at half mast again tonight, not for Ted Kennedy, but for the state of the American pulpit.
16 Comments so far...
speliopoulos Says:
27 August 2009 at 4:16 PM.
Pastor Anderson has been keeping us entertained for months now. And not in a good way. Can’t you hear the groans in Pennsylvania and Virginia and other places all the way out in Seattle? For the full experience go to http://www.youtube.com/user/sanderson1611. One of my personal favorites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta9LSx8-9Vc.
ishcairn Says:
27 August 2009 at 5:28 PM.
Wow. Just…wow. I grew up in a KJV-only household and church, and I’ve still never heard anything quite this nuts. Of course, I went and checked this guy’s youtube channel for more gems. He delivers. “Why I hate Barack Obama” is one of his more popular serm..er…performances. Not that I’m an Obama fan, mind you, but…really? From the pulpit? It seems like a full-time job to be that stupid.
goodacre Says:
28 August 2009 at 11:44 AM.
Thanks, Mike, for this remarkable video, and the debunking. It’s quite breathtaking!
Jonnathan Says:
29 August 2009 at 12:17 AM.
Wow, this is just…wow. A loooong time ago in my nascent Christian stages I used to be bombarded with KJV arguments and warned about the “New Age” versions…I read “The King James Only Controversy” and was set on the path of common sense (thank God)…I still have that paperback…it saved me from so much craziness. Highly recommend it!
goodacre Says:
30 August 2009 at 7:46 PM.
Mike — I’ve added a comment on my NT Blog at http://ntweblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/666-verses-in-marks-gospel-in-niv-or.html . I did some counting. There are actually 661 verses in the NIV of Mark 1.1–16.8!
MSH Says:
30 August 2009 at 8:28 PM.
@ishcairn: funny!
bboyJeda Says:
30 August 2009 at 8:28 PM.
is there a Translation you could recommend?…the most accurate to date?
MSH Says:
30 August 2009 at 8:37 PM.
@bboyJeda: The best translation is the one that a person will read faithfully and that is comprehensible. That’s sort of a truism. There really is no one best translation; they all have strengths and weaknesses. You should use at least one that follows “formal equivalent” translation philosophy (attempts word-for-word translation where that is possible) and one that follows “dynamic equivalent” translation philosophy (“thought for thought”). I like the ESV (it is more textually up-to-date than many others – that is, it includes superior textual readings in the running text that are often just left to footnotes in other Bibles), so if I had to recommend just one, that would be it.
The NIV is the “Mark” of the Beast | Theology for the Masses Says:
31 August 2009 at 12:23 PM.
[...] You can’t make stuff like this up, folks. Click on this link to read Mike Heiser’s take on the video :: Another Great Moment in Pulpit PaleoBabble. [...]
Hundie Jo [dot] Com » The NIV is the “Mark” of the Beast Says:
31 August 2009 at 12:24 PM.
[...] You can’t make stuff like this up, folks. Click on this link to read Mike Heiser’s take on the video :: Another Great Moment in Pulpit PaleoBabble. [...]
tsorenson Says:
31 August 2009 at 2:15 PM.
I wonder where Pastor Caustic-Baptist went to seminary. Perhaps he missed all of the classes that dealt with the words of Jesus, or the teachings of Paul on civic duties (ie: Romans 13)
MSH Says:
2 September 2009 at 10:20 AM.
@tsorenson: yeah, I’d like to know where he went, too.
The State of the American Pulpit | The Journeyman Project: Blog Says:
16 September 2009 at 8:59 AM.
[...] you would like to read the counter arguments to his video, check out the posts from PaleoBabble & NT blog Last 5 posts in Church LeadershipChurch: 1 Day a Week or 7 Days a Week? – September [...]
steve95054 Says:
17 September 2009 at 9:26 PM.
“I wonder where Pastor Caustic-Baptist went to seminary.”
That explains a lot.
MSH Says:
25 September 2009 at 11:09 AM.
@steve95054: wonderful
A New Blog Taking on at Least One Point of PaleoBabble | PaleoBabble Says:
28 September 2009 at 9:49 AM.
[...] documents of the Bible. PaleoBabble readers got a little taste of this silliness with the “666 in the NIV” post I did a little while [...]
