Welcome! My name is Dan Hopkinson and Sterling Ministries is my evangelistic ministry, which has been in existence since October, 1975. Feel free to persuse our entire site and if you have any comments or questions, please do not hesitate to sned them to us using the form on the Contact Us page.
As I am working diligently completing the standardization of the color-code across all sixteen English translations/versions in The Color-coded, Side-By-Side, Verse-By-Verse, Comparison Study that I have been writing about on Facebook, at Examiner.com, here on my own Sterling Ministries’ website, and other places, I find this morning that I cannot contain my righteous indignation any longer. How I wish today that God had given me the means to complete this study 45 years ago or so when I first discovered the similarities between The Revised Version, The Amplified Bible, and The King James Version; for then, maybe I could helped countless others who in their own ignorance have espoused positions concerning the various translations/versions of The Bible that present, at the very least, some amount of deception, and at the very most, outright lies! But I must constantly remind myself that the prophetic Word contained in The Bible, the prophetic Word of Almighty God, must be fulfilled and be fulfilled in the manner that God intended when His Holy Spirit inspired the writers of that prophetic Word centuries ago. Specifically, I am referring to the prophecy of Amos found in Amos 8:11-12 which reads:
Before continuing my rant, notice that this prophecy is NOT a famine or shortage OF the Word of God, that is not a shortage of translations/versions of the Word of God, but a famine or shortage of the HEARING of the Word of God! The fulfillment of this prophecy can arguably be claimed to have begun in the late 1800’s when the first of a long series of newer, more modern translations/versions of The Bible was published, The Revised Version (published 1881). For since that time when anyone first seriously adopted the notion that there were, somehow, deficiencies in the Authorized King James Version [for the ‘errors’ that so many critics and opponents of The King James Version of The Bible insist exist, were, for the most part (1) printer’s errors in print type set painstakingly by hand, (2) standardizations in spelling brought about by the same standardization in spelling the English language in general, and (3) minor changes in word choices that had absolutely no or very little effect on the meaning of the passage such word changes occurred in] a plethora of newer, more modern translations/versions have exploded upon the scene, each supposedly discovering some new and different issue with The King James Version and all the translations/versions that have been published before. Allegedly, many of these newer, more modern translations/versions were claimed to have been needed because of discoveries in translation brought about by the application of the Higher (historical) and Lower (literary) Criticism as well as certain discoveries made in archaeology, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. In all actuality, these claims were more misleading and false rather than being the plain and simple truth. And the one simple thing that was missing from the mix is that which has now been accomplished in The Color-coded, Side-By-Side, Verse-By-Verse, Comparison Study completed and produced by Sterling Ministries. And this brings us to the overwhelming feeling of righteous indignation that has been welling up inside of me for months if not years: The historical record identifies a minimum of 25 scholars, translators who worked on The Revised Version completed in 1881. Among those scholars were several Americans whose renderings in translation differed from the majority, and, who were coerced into signing an agreement that they would not publish their own translation/version of their work for a minimum of fourteen years. After the fourteen years had expired, the American translators published their translation/version known as The American Standard Version. Let us remember that these scholars, Americans, English, and others, were ostensibly interested in promulgating the truth about The Bible, yet the majority who worked on this translation/version insisted on a fourteen year cushion BEFORE the American scholars published their variant translations. The obvious question that arises is why; why, if these scholars were interested in the truth, then why was a fourteen year ban on publishing variant renderings insisted upon? For clarity, let us focus merely on the five newer, more modern translations/versions that have been included in The Color-coded, Side-By-Side, Verse-By-Verse, Comparison Study, although there have been a score or more of other newer, more modern translations/versions that we could include in this part of the discussion. Exactly how many scholars were employed to complete The Revised Standard Version in the 1950’s, or The Amplified Bible in the 1960’s, and/or The NIV in the 1970’s? The exact number is immaterial to this discussion; to merely raise the question in our minds serves my purpose for this righteous indignation rant! In short, there were a number of scholars involved in creating these translations/versions yet not one that I am aware of provided the kind of information and feedback on not only these five newer, more modern translations/versions and The King James Version, let alone those translations/versions that were contemporary with The King James OR the English translations of the most ancient copies extant, The Tanakh, The Greek Septuagint, The Syriac Peshito, and The Masoretic Text, that The Color-coded, Side-By-Side, Verse-By-Verse, Comparison Study has provided. This parallel comparison of these sixteen English translations/versions has provided an unprecedented, unparalleled, and hitherto unavailable opportunity for analysis of the development of not only the English Bible in general but the side-by-side, verse-by-verse comparison of any or all of the sixteen translations/versions included. And of the plethora of information that could be mentioned and commented upon, the single, preeminent observation that must be admitted by anyone who even just casually glimpses at these pages is HOW SIMILAR THE TRANSLATIONS ARE TO EACH OTHER including The King James Version! And the end of my righteous indignation rant is this: why, in light of the overabundance of available scholars and scholarship involved in not only producing this plethora of newer, more modern translations/versions of The Bible, but also the vast number of other scholars critically analyzing their work, WHY have we NOT heard about the overwhelming number of similarities between these translations/versions, including the Hebrew, the Greek, the Syriac, and the Latin most ancient copies, but instead, have had the focus drawn upon the paltry number of differences, that has resulted in discussion, debate, and argument amongst scholars and lay people alike and created DOUBT in God’s Word in the process; DOUBT that has extended beyond the confines of scholarly and religious circles out to the general population --- what a wonderful testimony such actions have provided to a lost and dying world! |
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February 2016
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