Diminishing the Transformation Taught In Romans 7 and Romans 8 By the New Bible Versions

Posted : 30 Oct, 2013 07:15 AM

Diminishing the Transformation Taught In Romans 7 and Romans 8 By the New Bible Versions



Romans 7: 15: "For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I."



Romans 7: 18: "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not."



Romans 7: 22-24: "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"



Paul in Colossians 2: 16-17 teaches that "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." And Hebrews 10: 1, 4-5 says "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect".......For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:"



Paul in Acts 15: 2 disputed with the Pharisees who joined the Jerusalem Christians but taught that Christians must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses (Acts 15: 1, 5).



If no separation is made in what is called the law, the Torah, then the New Testament can appear to teach a double mindedness about the law. Paul says in Romans 7: 22 that he delights in the law of God, and in Romans 7: 14 he says the law is spiritual. But Paul in Colossians 2: 16-17 teaches that the law regarding meat or drinks, holydays, the new moon or sabbath days are mere shadows of the substance (soma, translated as body) which is Christ. And Hebrews 10: 1 says the law is just a shadow of good things to come. Verse 4 says it is not possible for animal sacrifice to take away sin. Then, observation of these laws about what to eat, holy days, sabbaths, animal sacrifice and circumcision is done away with in the New Testament which says they are just shadows pointing to what was to come, and not the real spiritual substance.



So, in Romans 7: 14 and Romans 7: 22 Paul is not talking about the law involving animal sacrifice, observation of holy days, not eating certain things or circumcision being spiritual and something he delights in. He is talking about the part of the law dealing with morals being spiritual and something he delights in as a born again man in Christ, having the Holy Spirit. But in Acts 15 the Pharisees, being Pharisees, and still having the leaven of the Pharisees (Matthew 16: 6, Mark 8: 15), did not make a distinction between the moral part of the Torah and its ceremonial part. And James in Acts 21: 20 when he told Paul that thousands of Jews believe and they are zealous of the law, at that time did not make the distinction that Paul and his followers were making.



In Romans 7 Paul is describing the sinner being in the state of the natural man of I Corinthians 2: 14, who cannot receive the things of the Spirit, and cannot know them. But suddenly in Romans 8: 1-2 Paul states that "here is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."



He is describing a transformation here between the state of the natutral man in Romans 7, who wants to obey the moral law, but cannot do so and being in the spiritual state of having the Holy Spirit.. "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Romans 7: 24



Romans 12: 2 says "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind..." Being born again (John 3: 1-8) means being transformed by the Holy Spirit and becoming a new creature (II Corinthians 5: 17) and having the mind of Christ (Philippians 2: 5).



In Romans 12: 2 transformed is from the Greek word metamorphousthe, meaning a metamorphosis, a big change. a transformation.



Romans 8: 1 says that three things are involved in not being under condemnation, (1) being in Christ, (2) not being in the flesh, and (3) being led by the Holy Spirit. A statement saying that all three of these things must occur before a person is saved, that is, not condemned, can be harder to spin by the false prophets to teach a very easy salvation. Just saying those in Christ are not under condemnation and leaving out not being in the flesh and not being led by the Spirit can make it easier for the false prophets to spin this statement into a doctrine of easy salvation.



With an easy salvation doctrine which does not acknowledge the whole counsel of God (Acts 20: 27), it is easier to claim to be in Christ while rejecting basic and clear doctrines of Christ. For example, Christ in John 10: 16 says "...and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." There are also some texts in which Paul says there is one Body of Christ, or one saved group, one group of the elect (see: I Corinthians 10: 17, I Corinthians 12: 12, Galatians 3: 28,especially, and Ephesians 2: 15, as well as Ephesians 4: 4. To believe that God now has two peoples, as dispensationalism teaches, physical Israel and the church, is to reject a basic and clear part of the Gospel, making the doctrine that God now has two saved peoples, two groups of the elect, and two chosen peoples, or really in dispensationalism two groups but one chosen people is to teach another Jesus and another Gospel (II Corinthians 11: 4, Galatians 1: 6-9).



So, it is important to take a very close look at the verse wording of Romans 8: 1. There are two Greek texts, which sometimes have the same verse wordings and sometimes different wordings for some verses. Romans 8: 1 is one of those verses for which the Westcott-Hort 1881 Greek text differs in such a way from the Textus Receptus that the Westcott-Hort fails in stating in an explicit way that transformation from the state of the natural man described in Romans 7 and the spiritual state of the new man in Christ, who is no longer led by the flesh but is led by the Holy Spirit.



The Westcott-Hort Greek says "ουδεν αρα νυν κατακριμα τοις εν χριστω ιησου." "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." But the Textus Receptus says "ουδεν αρα νυν κατακριμα τοις εν χριστω ιησου μη κατα σαρκα περιπατουσιν αλλα κατα πνευμα." μη κατα σαρκα περιπατουσιν αλλα κατα πνευμα, not according to the flesh (sarka), but according to the Spirit (pneuma) is left out. Westcott and Hort claimed that the shorter verse wordings are the best because they are older.



This is a serious change in a doctrine in the Westcott-Hort Greek text. Yet the church Christians conditioned to prefer the new Bible versions will argue that the new versions are right and the King James is wrong.



"There is then no damnation to them which are in Christ Jesu, which walk not after the flesh: but after the spirit. " Tyndale Bible, Romans 8: 1



" Now then there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, which walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Geneva Bible, Romans 8: 1



"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." King James Version, Romans 8: 1



"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." New Revised Standard Version



"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus," New International Version



The short wording of Romans 8: 1, saying "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" could be interpreted to imply that being in Christ, a person has also been born again, transformed and is no longer living in the state of the natural man, but is led by the Spirit. But the problem is that Baby Christians, and a huge number of those in the churches are in this condition are not able to make accurate implications from scripture.



I know also that Romans 8: 4-9 explains that the carnal mind leads to death and that those who walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh fulfill the righteousness of the law. But false prophets deceive Christians in making use of one verse in building doctrines and do not teach the whole counsel of God (Acts 20: 27).



Again, Romans 8: 1 is important for an understanding of what Paul is doing in Romans 7 and in Romans 8, describing a change in spiritual state from Romans 7 to Romans 8. It is important to teach this change because the leaven of the Pharisees has returned as modern day apostasy.



http://textus-receptus.com/wiki/Romans_8:1



"In Romans 8:1, the vast majority of Greek texts, including Sinaiticus correction, D correction, some Old Latin copies like ar and o, the Syriac Harkelian, Georgian and Slavonic ancient versions, support the KJV/TR reading. "



"However Sinaiticus original, and Vaticanus omit all these words..."



And Westcott and Hort got their shorter wording of Romans 8: 1 from the Sinaiticus and Vaticanus.

But the longer wording of Romans 8: 1, saying that there is no condemnation to them "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" is in the vast majority of Byzantine Greek manuscripts. The Textus Receptus was made from the Byzantine text type. not the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus.



"So it is missing in both Vaticanus and Sinaiticus. In the footnotes of the United Bible Societies fourth revised edition, the names of Marcion and Origen appear as those who are the ones responsible for removing the above part of this verse. It is interesting to note that a fifth century (maybe earlier in date) manuscript entitled Alexandrinus (A) contains the removed portion, yet the modern scholars of today have chosen to leave it omitted since it does not appear in the two "crowning manuscripts" of modern scholarship. "



http://www.scionofzion.com/romans_8_1.htm



"Corrupt Manuscripts

This verse is corrupted in the following manuscripts:

Aleph 01 - Sinaiticus - Fourth century (original)

B 03 - Vaticanus - Fourth century

C 04 - Ephraemi Rescriptus - Fifth century (original)

D 06 - Paris: Claromontanus - Sixth century (original)



Manuscripts which agree with the Textus Receptus for this verse

Byzantine Text (450-1450 A.D.)

Aleph 01 - Sinaiticus - Fourth century (corrected)

D 06 - Paris: Claromontanus - Sixth century (corrected)

K 018 - Ninth century

L 020 - Ninth century

P 025 - Ninth century

33 (Minuscule) - Ninth Century



Published Critical Greek Texts with Corruptions

Omit �who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.�

Greisbach, Johann - 1805

Lachmann, Karl - 1842

Tischendorf, Constantine - 1869

Tregelles, Samuel - 1857

Alford, Henry - 1849 revised in 1871

Wordsworth, Christopher - 1856 revised in 1870

Westcott and Hort - 1881

Weiss, Bernhard - 1894

Nestle - 1927 as revised in seventeenth edition in 1941

Nestle-Aland - 1979 - Twenty Sixth Edition

Nestle-Aland - 1993 - Twenty Seventh Edition

United Bible Societies - 1983 - Fourth Edition

Von Soden, Freiherr - 1902"

Post Reply