Difficult Robinson-Pierpont Readings

I had difficulty translating these first two passages from the Robinson-Pierpont text, so I looked at the WEB version, which is generally a Majority Text translation, and I see that he did not adapt the RP text in these two passages, but the NA28 instead.

In James 2:18,
the EMTV version follows the TR rather than RP, and the WEB follows the NA28 rather than the TR or RP.

RP: εῖξόν μοι τὴν πίστιν σου ἐκ τῶν ἔργων σου, κἀγὼ δείξω σοι ἐκ τῶν ἔργων μου τὴν πίστιν μου.

“Show me your faith by your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”


This completely misses the contrast set by the previous sentence: “You have faith, I have works.”  But here, they both have works by which they demonstrate their faith.  The Textus Receptus and the NA28 text do show the contrast, but the TR has one more σου- “your” in it and an extra μου- “my” in it. 

TR: δεῖξόν μοι τὴν πίστιν σου χωρὶς τῶν ἔργων σου, κἀγὼ δείξω σοι ἐκ τῶν ἔργων μου τὴν πίστιν μου.

“Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

EMTV: Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by means of my works. 

NA28: δεῖξόν μοι τὴν πίστιν σου χωρὶς τῶν ἔργων, κἀγώ σοι

δείξω ἐκ τῶν ἔργων μου τὴν πίστιν

DRP: “Demonstrate to me that faith of yours without works, and I will demonstrate faith to you by means of my works.”

WEB: “Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
The WEB follows the NA28 without the extra “your” found in the TR, because the NA28 text has the clearest teaching of the principle. 

Revelation 3:7

TR: ὁ ἔχων τὴν κλεῖδα τοῦ Δαβίδ, ὁ ἀνοίγων καὶ οὐδεὶς κλείει, καὶ κλείων καὶ οὐδεὶς ἀνοίγει

the one holding the key of David, who opens and no one closes, and closes and no one opens

NA28: ὁ ἔχων τὴν κλεῖν Δαυίδ, ο ανοιγων και ουδεις κλεισει
και κλειων και ουδεις ανοιγει
“the one holding the key of David, who opens and no one closes, and closes and no one opens”

RP: ὁ ἔχων τὴν κλεῖν τοῦ Δαυίδ, ὁ ἀνοίγων καὶ οὐδεὶς κλείσει αὐτὴν, εἴ μὴ ὁ ἀνοίγων: καὶ οὐδεὶς ἀνοίξει.

the one holding the key of David, who opens and no one shall close except the one opening, and no one shall open:

WEB: he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one opens

EMTV: He who has the key of David, He that opens and no man shuts, except He that opens, and no man shall open.”

The EMTV follows the RP text but it inaccurately says “no MAN” shall open, but that is not in the Greek.  The WEB version follows the TR or NA28, which say the same thing as each other with slightly different verb tenses. 

Acts 26:4

RP: τὴν ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς γενομένην ἐν τῷ ἔθνει μου ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις

My manner of life since youth therefore, which took place at first in my own country in Jerusalem

NA28: τὴν ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς γενομένην ἐν τῷ ἔθνει μου ἔν τε Ἱεροσολύμοις
My manner of life since youth therefore, which took place at first in my own country and also in Jerusalem

The problem with translations made from the Byzantine Greek text not containing τε – “and also” – is that they are saying Paul’s life was spent in Jerusalem from the beginning, when in fact his country was Cilicia, in the city of Tarsus. (Acts 9:11; 21:39; 22:3; 23:34).  Under the law, Paul was a citizen of Cilicia, Acts 23:34.  Paul consistently calls Cilicia his “country” and Israel his “nation.”The WEB version, a Majority Text translation, therefore does not follow the TR or Majority text here but follows the NA28 instead.

You can download my translations of James, Revelation, and Acts at these links.

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Updates September 2024

I updated the Gospel of Luke with the Tyndale House diamonded readings, as also the Gospel of John. Luke is also updated in the printed versions on Amazon: Gospel of Luke eclectic; Gospel of Luke Byzantine.

I also updated the Textus Receptus whole Bible on Kindle. The Textus Receptus whole Bible PDF is also updated, as are the eclectic whole Bible, and the Robinson-Pierpont whole Bible.

I am continuing working on Revelation, updating it from the ECM, and also plan to add the Tyndale House diamonded readings in the Gospel of Matthew.

Ambiguity of No Spaces

A Greek textual variant in Revelation 17:3 shows the ambiguity of ancient manuscripts having no spaces between words. This particular variant has caused the Editio Critica Major (ECM) to change its reading away from the NA28 text to that of the Robinson-Pierpont.

txt γεμοντα ονοματα Avid P 2053 2062 2329 SBL TH NA28 (γεμον[τα]) {\} γεμον ονοματα ℵ² 046 93 911 922 1611vid 1678 1734 1778 1828 2070 2814 2846 AN HF RP ECM γεμων ονοματα 469 792 1006 1852 γεμον ονοματων 051 2074 2344 2723 Hipp TR BG γεμον τα ονοματα ℵ* lac C 2050 2080.  The ECM says the MSS that I show reading γεμοντα ονοματα read instead γεμον τα ονοματα with ℵ*, and then shows no MSS support for the SBL/TH reading.  (We know Sinaiticus reads γεμον because it uses a high line, which is a final form of NU. And the dots above the letters TA indicate a corrector saying “delete.”)  As for Codex A, it certainly had room for γεμοντα τα ονοματα.  It would make sense in Textual Criticism that when there are two τα in a row, one would get accidentally dropped.

Codex Alexandrinus (GA 02):

GA 2053:

GA 2062:

GA 2329:

Codex Sinaiticus (GA 01):

Current Activities August 2024

In the Gospel of Mark, I added the diamonded variant readings indicated in the Tyndale House Greek New Testament (the diamond meaning another variant of equal weight as the one printed in the main text), plus a half dozen new TC footnotes, and a few updates from the Editio Critica Major (ECM). So this is essentially a 3rd edition of Mark, which you can download here, or purchase a Mark printed edition here.

I recently purchased the ECM of Revelation, so am in the process of updating the Apocalypse of John textual criticism footnotes, including also adding the diamonded readings from the Tyndale House GNT.

I also purchased the ECM of the Acts of the Apostles, and am still creating the TC footnotes for Acts.

Minuscule GA 2324

I found a 10th century gospels minuscule that I have not seen collated, GA 2324, so I obtained its readings for:

Matt 17:21 – includes the verse, with the ἐκπορεύεται variant
Matt 18:15 – αμαρτηση εις σε
Mark 9:29 – καὶ νηστειᾳ
John 5:3,4 – includes, with text similar to Antoniades
John 7:8 – οὔπω ἀναβαίνω
John 7:53- 8:11 – omits PA

I added its readings to my PA chart, which includes John 5:3,4, https://bibletranslation.ws/trans/pachart.pdf

The Catholic Letters

Announcing a new upload of a PDF, and also an Amazon printed version of same. It is the General Epistles (also known as the Catholic Letters) translated from an eclectic Greek Text; alternating verse by verse with a new English Translation by David Robert Palmer; with the readings of 7 Greek New Testament editions and Greek manuscript variant readings given in the footnotes. The editions cited are the Scrivener TR, the Antoniades 1904 Greek Patriarchal edition, the Byzantine Greek NT (family 35) edition, The Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Text Stream edition, the SBL edition, the Tyndale House GNT, and the NA28 (or ECM2– Editio Critica Major). This PDF file contains the epistles of James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude; eclectic Greek text source; free download; 3.74 MB. The printed edition on Amazon is here.

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Timing of Baptism

The apostles and prophets gave us teaching by example on the topic of the timing of baptism. We find in the book of the Acts of the Apostles that believing the gospel and getting baptized are closely associated.

Acts 2:38– And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized each one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
Acts 2:41- The ones therefore who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand souls were added during that day.

Other passages in Acts showing immediate baptism are 8:12; 8:36-38; 9:18; 10:47-48; 16:14-15; 16:32-33; 18:8. You were expected to be baptized at the same time as you believed, they are a simultaneous event.

Take for example the Philippian jailer, when he believed, he was baptized “on the spot…in the middle of the night.” (Acts 16:31-34).

In Acts 8:13 Simon the magician was baptized by the apostles even though they knew his heart was not right. But he had professed belief, so he had to be baptized immediately, that is true doctrine and practice.

This doctrine of immediate baptism is so important, that God performed a miracle for the Ethiopian eunuch. In Acts 8:26, the scripture tells us that the road he was on was desert. Yet as soon as the eunuch believed, they saw a body of water deep enough for both Philip and the eunuch to get down into it and the eunuch be baptized. (Acts 8:36)

Have you believed, but are not yet baptized? If so, you are in disobedience to the apostles of Christ, and your leaders are in disobedience, who have neglected to baptize you immediately upon your profession. Satan, the enemy of your soul, wants you to have a cooling down period.

Am I saying that, if say, a man leads 3 people to belief in the gospel on Thursday, that he should not wait until the next Sunday to baptize them? Exactly! I am saying that if he led someone to the Lord during lunch break at work on Thursday, the convert should tell his boss he is leaving his job temporarily in order to find water to be baptized that Thursday afternoon, baptized by the believer who told him the gospel. What a powerful testimony that is, that you drop everything else going on in order to find water and be baptized. You are now dead to the world, so what else matters? Find water, and show everyone that you died and were buried with Christ, and have come out in newness of life, and nothing else matters. Do not allow anything or any human to let you cool down from your first love.

This truth about the timing of baptism has bearing on a couple textual variants in the Greek New Testament text. The biggest one is in Acts 8:37, where it was added to the narrative of the Ethiopian eunuch, where the eunuch had asked, “Look, water. Is there anything forbidding me to be baptized?” Then an addition was made later to the text which says, 37″And Philip said, ‘If you believe with all your heart, it is permissible.’ And he answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’ “

Similar is an addition made to Acts 2:41. Papyrus 74, Codex Sinaiticus, Codices A, B and C, Sahidic Coptic, the Ethiopic, Clement, and Eusebius read: “The ones therefore who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand souls were added during that day.”

But later manuscripts read: “The ones therefore who READILY accepted his message were baptized…”But this “readiness” was not for the baptizers to judge. If the person accepted the message and professed belief, they were to be baptized, period.

The bishops had later decided that there should be some kind of “probationary period” to see whether the convert was serious or not. They also made baptism something only “clergy” could perform, but this is not indicated by the example and teaching of the apostles.

At the same time, since believing the gospel and baptism are closely connected, it is not appropriate for an infant to be baptized since the infant is not capable of believing the gospel and repenting of his/her sins.

James Ch 4 verse 5


James 4:5

I love the King James Bible and I read it more often than any other translation.  But there are some very strange renderings in it that are a problem.  The epistle of James, chapter 4 verse 5 is one example.  But most of the other translations are not much better here.

KJV – The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy  


On the surface, the KJV sounds like it is saying that the Holy Spirit really really wants to envy. But that is certainly not true about the Holy Spirit.

NASB – “He jealously desires the Spirit whom He has made to dwell in us”?


NASB1995 – “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?

That also is a problem. If the word Spirit were not capitalized, it would be a little less of a problem.  But as it is, how does God jealously desire himself?

ESV – “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?


CEV – “God truly cares about the Spirit he has put in us”?

NRSV – ‘God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us’?

NIV – he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us*?           

*Or that the spirit he caused to dwell in us envies intensely;           
  or that the Spirit he caused to dwell in us longs jealously


CSB – The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely? 
(No, surely not. )

NET – “The spirit that God caused to live within us has an envious yearning”? 

NLT – God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. 


The following are closer, but are under-translating in my opinion: 


GW – “The Spirit that lives in us wants us to be his own.”ERV – “The Spirit God made to live in us wants us only for himself.” 

ISV – the Spirit that God caused to live in us jealously yearns for us? 

My translation (DRP) reads, “The Spirit whom God made to dwell in us craves possession of us, tending toward jealousy”

https://bibletranslation.ws/trans/james.pdf