[Will Kinney]

2 Corinthians 11:3 “the simplicity that is in Christ” or “your sincere and pure devotion to Christ”?

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from THE SIMPLICITY THAT IS IN CHRIST. For if he that cometh preacheth ANOTHER JESUS, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive ANOTHER SPIRIT, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. --- For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. “ 2 Corinthians 11:3-4; 13-15.

There are two problems in the differences between the King James Bible and the modern versions such as the NIV, NASB and ESV. One is textual and the other is translational, and the doctrinal emphasis has been changed as a result.

The context of 2 Corinthians 11 is the contrast between the true Jesus Christ (and by direct implication, the true Bible) versus another, false Jesus and the deceiving work of Satan.

The apostle is telling us that there is a simplicity in the doctrine of Christ and we should not be moved from these fundamental truths that are revealed even to babes in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures. (1 Cor. 15:3-4)

The famous Baptist commentator, John Gill, remarks on this verse: “should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ; that is, lest their judgments should be misled, their minds be vitiated with corrupt principles, and be carried away in any degree with the error of the wicked, from off the pure and simple doctrine of the Gospel, which respects the person and grace of Christ; and chiefly lies in this one plain, easy, and important truth, salvation alone by him.”

Likewise John Calvin translates the verse as it is found in our King James Bible and comments: “by the simplicity that is in Christ is meant, that which keeps us in the unadulterated and pure doctrine of the gospel, and admits of no foreign admixtures.”

Agreeing both with the underlying Greek texts and the meaning of the King James Bible are the following bible translations: Wycliffe 1395 “the simpleness that is in Christ.”, (Tyndale 1525, Coverdale 1535, Bishops’ Bible 1568), the Geneva Bible 1599 - “so your mindes shoulde be corrupt from the simplicitie that is in Christ.”, Wesley 1755, Webster’s 1833, Young’s, Hebrew Names Version - “corrupted from the simplicity that is in Messiah. “; Darby, World English Bible, Douay-Rheims, NKJV 1982, KJV 21st Century 1994 and the Third Millenium Bible 1998.

The Spanish Reina Valera 1602, 1909, and the 2004 Reina Valera Gomez also agree with the King James Bible saying: “Mas temo que en alguna manera, como la serpiente engañó a Eva con su astucia, así sean corrompidas vuestras mentes, DE LA SIMPLICIDAD QUE ES EN CRISTO.”

However, several modern versions based primarily on the Westcott-Hort Greek Critical Text have changed both the text and the spiritual emphasis of the verse.

NIV - “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from YOUR SINCERE AND PURE DEVOTION TO CHRIST.”

NASB - “...your minds will be led astray from THE SIMPLICITY AND PURITY OF DEVOTION TO CHRIST.”

ESV, RSV - “your thoughts will be led astray from A SINCERE AND PURE DEVOTION TO CHRSIT.”

Holman Standard - “your minds may be corrupted from A COMPLETE AND PURE DEVOTION TO CHRIST.”

First of all, these modern versions are based on a different Greek text which comes primarily from the Vaticanus manuscript. Vaticanus adds three extra words here - kai tns agnoteetos - which literally would be ‘and the purity’. There is no Greek word in any text for “devotion”. The modern versions have added it to their own English translations.

The three extra words are not found in the Majority of all Greek texts, nor in the modern Greek Bible used throughout the Greek Orthodox churches, nor are they in the Sinaiticus correction. Even Tischendorf, who himself discovered the Sinaitic manuscript, did not include the extra three words in his own published Greek text. Furthermore, Westcott and Hort, as well as today’s Nestle-Aland critical texts, continue to bracket these extra words, indicating doubt as to their authenticity. Yet they are found in versions like the NIV, NASB, RSV, NET and Holman Standard.

Let’s do a simple contrast between the two different readings here.

King James Bible - “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from THE SIMPLICITY THAT IS IN CHRIST.”

NIV - “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from YOUR SINCERE AND PURE DEVOTION TO CHRIST.”

The theological emphasis found in the text of the King James Bible (and many others as well) takes our eyes OFF of ourselves and focuses our attention ON Christ Himself and the simplicity that is found in His saving gospel.

The variant text and consequent translation of modern versions like the NIV, NASB, RSV takes our eyes off of the simplicity found in Christ and instead turns them upon our own religious feelings. The whole context is wrenched out of place. The true words of God, as found in the King James Bible, are telling us to keep our minds on the simple truths that are found in the true Jesus Christ, and not to be led astray by “another Jesus”.

People can be very passionate and “devoted” to a false Jesus and a false religion. This happens all the time; we see it on every hand. The modern version reading would tend to turn us into spiritual belly-button watchers constantly testing the temperature of our own “devotion” and religious zeal, rather than on the objective, unchangeable and simple truth found in Christ.

Satan already has most Christians not believing that any Bible in any language is the complete, inspired and 100% true words of God, and “another spirit” is rapidly persuading the world that all religions are equally valid paths to God. Satan convinces them that what is really important is that they only be sincere and devoted to whatever it is that they might believe about their ‘God’.

The King James Bible is the only true Bible on the earth today. Don’t let the ‘scholars’ and scribes cause you to doubt it, and don’t let your minds be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ - that through the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ ALONE is there salvation from sin, death and hell, and there is absolutely no other way to have your sins forgiven and find peace with the one true God.

Accepted in the Beloved, (Eph. 1:6)

Will Kinney

For many other articles defending the King James Bible as being the only true, preserved and infallible words of God, see:

http://www.geocities.com/brandplucked/

[chette777]

Will great work. Keep up the battle for the Truth as it stands in the KJV AV 1611

[Will Kinney]

Originally Posted by chette777

Will great work. Keep up the battle for the Truth as it stands in the KJV AV 1611

Thank you saint. I appreciate the encouragement and am thankful that God also has other Christians still around who believe The Book.

God bless,

Will K

[Steven Avery]

Excellent study, Will.

2 Corinthians 13:1-4
Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly:
and indeed bear with me.
For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy:
for I have espoused you to one husband,
that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

As Will notes, the emphasis is on Christ, not us.

2 Corinthians 13:3-4
But I fear, lest by any means,
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty,
so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus,
whom we have not preached,
or if ye receive another spirit,
which ye have not received,
or another gospel,
which ye have not accepted,
ye might well bear with him.

I noticed a few things in reading up on the side. (Using Will's studies as a fulcrum for additional research is always excellent.)

The early church writers strongly support the true Bible reading, although most are not easily available on the Net. Here is one that was, in a very readable Latin:

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.iv.iii.html
Clement of Alexandria Stromata Book III
Jam veto vel invitum cogit Paulam generationem ex deceptione deducere, cure dicit:
"Vereor autem, ne sicut serpens Evam decepit, corrupti sint sensus vestri a simplicitate, quae est in Christo."

Along with that the later Thomas Aquinas is on the net, similar. Afaik nothing else quickly available, although perhaps a more technical Corinthians commentary would offer some of the references. Rarely do such commentaries give extensive early church writer references.

This added phrase in the W-H "probably, maybe, who knows" reading represents something that is relatively rare, an alexandrian addition to the true Bible. As such, if you delve in textual matters, it has a special interest.

According to the apparatus the early church writers strongly support the true Bible, sans the added phrase. Origen, Eusebius, Didymus, Chrysostom and Jerome and others support this reading, they do not have any addition (there are two or three competing forms of the addition). As an addition/omission question, in a verse like this that should generally mean that they quote the text in full without the added phrase. There is support for the alexandrian addition, mostly a bit later, Ambrose and Augustine are listed, I am taking the most well known for here. (Keep in mind that the apparatus is untrustworthy, and often skewed to the alexandrian reading, however here it shows the true reading preponderance anyway.) The phrase addition may actually be an Old Latin variant, reasonably early, it could predate the mass of alexandrian tamperings, which are usually corruptions or omissions, not additions. An Old Latin addition (the variant is in some Old Latin MS) would go along with its exceptional nature of an alexandrian MS addition. While the three largest textual lines, the Byzantine Greek, the Aramaic Peshitta and the Latin Vulgate all agree on the text and have no phrase addition in their mass of MS. Athough there is a minority maintained in the Greek line for the addition.

You can see that Will makes an excellent point that there is no Greek word for devotion in the minority Greek that is apparently deliberately mistranslated in modern versions. The Greek word that they tamper with in the English text translation (since it would not make sense to talk of our purity) agnothtos, means simply purity, not "devotion to purity". Here is its other NT use, with the modern versions doing similar.

2 Corinthians 6:6
By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,

John Gill's notes given by Will may well be the simplest and clearest and best commentary. As well as the John Calvin note. In the John Calvin edition there is mention that the referent question (simplicity in Christ -- simplicity of the believers) had been a Reformation discussion. John Gill and John Calvin had a clear picture on this. (Not that they are always right, nor do you have to be oriented towards Calvinism to see this truth that matches the pure Bible. )

Shalom,
Steven

[Will Kinney]

Hi Steven. Thanks for your comments and the references you point out. Good stuff.

God bless,

Will K

[Steven Avery]

Hi Folks,

Originally Posted by Will Kinney

Thanks for your comments and the references you point out. Good stuff.

Welcome, Will.
Here is a bit more that I can bring over here, where the forum is sensible.

On exegesis, here is John Owen sharing similarly to Will.

http://books.google.com/books?id=C30...J&pg=RA1-PA445
The Works of John Owen

Hereby he hopes to draw off men from the simplicity that is in Christ,
or the plain declaration of the will of God in the gospel,
unto false and foolish imaginations of his own suggestion

And the apparatus puts Augustine as one of the few for the corruption. Yet we have at least three references matching the true Bible from Augustine. So the apparatus is again skewed toward the Alexandrian, giving misinformation. At most, even if the minority reference were found and solid, Augustine would be on both sides.

AUGUSTINE - 3 REFERENCES

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Ci..._XIV/Chapter_7
The City of God by Augustine of Hippo Book XIV, Chapter 7

And, “I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102188.htm
Augustine - Letter 188 - To the Lady Juliana (A.D. 416)

Let her rather listen to the apostle when he says: "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1801127.htm
Augustine - Exposition on Psalm 127

But that which is the house of God is also a city. For the house of God is the people of God; for the house of God is the temple of God....This is Jerusalem: she has guards: as she has builders, labouring at her building up, so also has she guards. To this guardianship these words of the Apostle relate: I fear, lest by any means your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ. He was guarding the Church.

Here is a Chrysostom section that supports the true Bible. The translator has it as towards Christ, which appears at least to be the Chrystostom interpretation. The phrase italicized given twice on the page.

http://books.google.com/books?id=hggNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA384
Chrysostom - Homily XXIII

"But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is toward Christ."

"neither out of wickedness .. nor out of your not believing, but out of simplicity"

Shalom,
Steven