Where was the Authoritative Text before 1611?
In the textual purity debate critics will sometimes present the following question: “If the King James Version and its base text are the final authority as to the preserved text of the Bible, then where did we have the pure words of God before its existence?”
The base text of the Old Testament in the KJV is the Hebrew Masoretic Text. By word count, the Hebrew Masoretic is 77% of the King James Bible. This text has been persevered perfectly for thousands of years. The dead sea scrolls testified to the incredible preservation of the Hebrew Bible. Where was the authoritative and pure text of 77% of the KJV prior to 1611? It was found in the Hebrew Masoretic Text. See my article The Perfect Preservation of the Old Testament to read about why the Hebrew is the correct text.
So, what about the other 23% of the Bible that is not in Hebrew? Where was the pure text of the New Testament prior to 1611? The pure text of the Bible was found in the over 90% of the Greek manuscripts that support the KJV and the Received Text. See my article The Perfect Preservation of the New Testament for more information.
While the vast majority of all existing manuscripts support the New Testament Received Text and the KJV, opponents of the doctrine of the Preservation of the Scriptures will point out that there are occasionally slight discrepancies amongst individual manuscripts. Although these differences are small and few (such as the spelling of a word), the Bible tells us that not one jot or tittle will pass away and therefore we should resolve these differences, however small they may be. The good news is that these discrepancies are easily resolved through a process of comparison with all the available manuscripts within its family. To help the reader understand this process, imagine a table with 100 manuscripts of the gospel of John. Suppose that 95 contain a word in a verse and 5 of the manuscripts omit the word. The conclusion can be safely made that the word is indeed part of Scripture and that the 5 manuscripts that omit it contain a scribal error. This process of comparison is what is used to allow us to resolve any discrepancies within a manuscript family, however small they may be. Prior to the KJV and finalized Received Text we had the reliable Greek manuscripts, and any discrepancies, however small, could be collated out.
Since we know what the preserved and authoritative text of the Bible is, it is only reasonable to conclude that our translations of the Bible into other languages should be translated from the exact same base text as the King James Bible. In Spanish, the Reina Valera Gomez (RVG) has done just that and that is the reason why it agrees with the KJV. Many of those that support the Reina Valera Gomez Spanish Bible believe in a final text and a final authority.
The problem with this explanation is not that it is hard to understand, it is that some do not want to accept it. They want a flexible Bible. They want to pick and choose what the Bible says according to what they prefer. To prove this, let us use the Old Testament (77% of the Bible) as an example.
Do critics submit themselves to having a final authoritative text for at least 77% of the Bible seeing it’s such an easy thing to recognize the Hebrew Masoretic text as that authority? Of course not. In the Spanish Bible debate, they defend the RV1960 departing from the Hebrew Masoretic to follow the corrupt Greek Septuagint. See my article Critics defend the Septuagint to see how they try to justify these corrupt readings in the RV1960. The point is that they are not asking these questions honestly. They only are interested in inventing any excuse to justify the textual corruptions in the RV1960.
Critics of the perfect preservation position do not have any final authority nor do they have a problem with the corrupt Critical Text in the version they defend, the Spanish RV1960. They do not want a final authority. They want a flexible Bible. The problem is that God did not give them a flexible Bible. He gave them certainty whether they like it or not.
That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee? – Proverbs 22:21
