General Epistles Update

I have uploaded major updates to the General Epistles. The ratings of certainty for textual variants are updated to what is indicated in the new UBS 6th edition, and I added a footnote or two that had been missing, places where the Textus Receptus had unique readings. Another thing new in my eclectic edition is that in 2 Peter 3:10 I no longer follow the conjectural emendation there in the UBS text, but adopted the Majority Text reading. This is my English translation from the Ancient Greek, an Eclectic Greek Text, with the readings of 7 Greek New Testament editions— The Scrivener 1984 Textus Receptus; the 1904 Antoniades Patriarchal text; the Byzantine Greek text (family 35); the Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Text Type text of 2026; the SBL text, the Tyndale House Text, and the Nestle-Aland 29th Edition or ECM2; alternating verse by verse with a new English Translation by David Robert Palmer, and with Greek manuscript variant readings given in the footnotes, along with the ratings of certainty given in the UBS6 Greek New Testament. Of course, the print editions are updated too. The General Epistles on Amazon can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/195861212X

The Robinson-Pierpont edition is also updated. The print version is here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1958612030

Culturally Misunderstood Verses

Luke 11:7 κἀκεῖνος ἔσωθεν ἀποκριθεὶς εἴπῃ, Μή μοι κόπους πάρεχε• ἤδη ἡ θύρα κέκλεισται, καὶ τὰ παιδία μου μετ’ ἐμοῦ εἰς τὴν κοίτην εἰσίν• οὐ δύναμαι ἀναστὰς δοῦναί σοι.
7 That one inside may say in answer, ‘Do not cause me hassles. The door is already shut up, and my children are in bed with me. I can’t get up to give you something.’

NIV: my children and I are in bed.
CSB: my children and I have gone to bed.
NASB: my children and I are in bed
NET: my children and I are in bed

Did these translators dislike the idea of the children sleeping with their father in the same bed? For the vast majority of people in history, maybe even today, people did not have the luxury of having a separate bed for each child.

James 2:2 ἐὰν γὰρ εἰσέλθῃ εἰς συναγωγὴν ὑμῶν ἀνὴρ χρυσοδακτύλιος ἐν ἐσθῆτι λαμπρᾷ, εἰσέλθῃ δὲ καὶ πτωχὸς ἐν ῥυπαρᾷ ἐσθῆτι,
²For if a man with gold rings on his fingers enters your meeting, dressed in bright clothes, and a poor man also enters, dressed in dirty clothes,

It seems some people in church today would agree wtih discriminating against a man who is wearing dirty clothes in church. But this passage tells us to treat people with dirty clothes in church the same as those with bright clothes. Think of being a non-wealthy person in old times, before laundry machines, and in a desert environment.

Luke 14:23 Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ κύριος πρὸς τὸν δοῦλον, Ἔξελθε εἰς τὰς ὁδοὺς καὶ φραγμούς, καὶ ἀνάγκασον εἰσελθεῖν, ἵνα γεμισθῇ μου ὁ οἶκος.
23 And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the trails and the fence lines, and urgently invite them to come in, so that my house will be filled.

In this verse, the sevant has already gone to the “boulevards and lanes of the town,” and now the master is telling the servant to go to the trails and the “fence lines.” Many people in the modern western world do not know or understand that the trails are often along the fence lines.

John 17 Variants

John 17:11, 12 textual variants
TR: verse 11- those PEOPLE you have given to me
TR: verse 12- those PEOPLE you have given to me
RP: verse 11- in the NAME you have given to me
RP: verse 12- those PEOPLE you have given to me
NA: verse 11- in the NAME you have given to me
NA: verse 12- in the NAME you have given to me

17:11 txt ους δεδωκας D¹ 33-vid 69 168 205 209 226 732 792 892supp 1009 1230 1242c 1463 1505 1797 2106 2192 2713 2718 2886 it-aur,f,q vg cop-sa-ms eth geo² Ath-ms Cyr⅙ Hesych Jer Aug TR ‖ ους εδωκας Νc ‖ ου εδωκας N* ‖ ω δεδωκας 𝔓⁶⁰ 𝔓⁶⁶vid A B C E G H K S Y Γ Δ Θ Λ Π Ψ Ω 047 054 0141 0211 1 13 28 124 180 377 565 579 597 700 788 1006 1010 1071 1241 1243 1292 1342 𝔐 arm geo¹ Ath Cyr⅚ AN BG RP SBL TH NA29 {B} ‖ ω εδωκας 𝔓¹⁰⁷ ℵ L M W 579 ‖ ο δεδωκας D* U X 109 157 213 295 865 1424 2223 it-d vg-mss ‖ δεδωκας 1242* ‖ omit ω δεδωκας … ημεις it-a,b,c,e,ff²,r¹ syr-s cop-ach2 Hil ‖ lac V. Perhaps the dative case ᾧ was an attraction to the dative of the previous phrases, see Wieland Willker.

17:12b txt ους δεδωκας μοι A C¹ D¹ E G H K M S U X Y Γ Δ Θ Λ Π Ψ Ω 047 054 0141 0211 1 13 18 22 28 35 69 109 124 138 157 168 180 205 209 213 226 265 295 317 333 357 377 397 543 544 565supp 597 700 732 788 792 799 807 821 826 828 841 865 884 992 994 1006 1009 1010 1014 1029 1071 1079 1093 1128 1192 1210 1219 1230 1241 1243 1242 1278 1292 1293 1319 1320 1321 1342 1344 1424 1463 1505 1546 1561 1571S 1582 1654 1689 1788 2106 2192 2193c 2223 2372 2411 2561 2575 2615 2680 2713 2718 2766vid 2768 2786 2886 𝔐 it-a,aur,b,c,e,f,ff²,q,r¹ vg syr-p,h eth geo² Or-lat Did Ps-Just Vict-Rome Ambrosias Jer Petil Aug TR AN BG RP ‖ ο δεδωκας μοι D* ‖ ους εδωκας μοι N ‖ ους δεδωκας μοι και 𝔓⁶⁰vid ‖ ω δεδωκας μοι και 𝔓⁶⁶cvid B L 33 579 syr-pal cop-samss,pbo,bo,ach² arm geo¹ Cyr SBL TH NA29 {C} ‖ ω εδωκας μοι και C* W ‖ ο δεδωκας μοι και ℵ² ‖ και 𝔓⁶⁶* ℵ* (syr-s) ‖ lac V. Perhaps the dative case ᾧ was an attraction to the dative of the previous phrases, see Wieland Willker.
Download John with the Greek: https://www.bibletranslation.ws/trans/johnwgrk.pdf

Communion

I have decided to have Communion every morning. Yes the bread and the wine, and reading Luke 22 or 1 Corinthians 11. It helps me remember that I was bought with the price of the dear blood of Jesus, and my body is not my own to do what I want this day, but to do what God wants this day. It also reminds me, that though my sins were as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.

Update February 2026

have updated the UBS ratings of certainty for the textual variants in the gospels of Luke and John. That is, updated them to that indicated in “The Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament,” a companion to the Sixth Edition of the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament by H. A. G. Houghton. In addition, I have added a few new TC critical apparatus footnotes. So now the ratings that look like this: {B} after a TC footnote, are updated to the UBS6 (and the NA29). You can download the updated gospel of Luke here, and John here.

Aries Greek God of War

In Greek mythology, the god who rules war, anger and aggression is Aries. (The Roman version is Mars.) Aries is mentioned in the Bible in Acts 17:19,22 and 33 — “the Hill of Aries.” Most English translations do not translate this but read “Areopagus.” A few translations render it “Mars Hill.”

I recently read the book by Christian psychologist and caster out of demons, Rita Cabezas, titled “Defeating Demonic Principalities,” self-published by Rita Cabezas, © 1992, San José, Costa Rica. On page 64 is a table of names of the hierarchy of fallen angels and demons, which she has learned during her practice. High in this table is a very powerful demon named Arios, who is in charge of war, violence, aggressiveness.

Is the Greek god Aries this same entity, this powerful demon? Their names are practically identical, as are their areas of responsibility.

There is also a Kindle edition of this book.

Defeating Demonic Principalites, by Rita Cabezas

1 Timothy 5;16 variant

1 Timothy 5:16:
πιστος η πιστη “male believer or female believer” D K L 0150 𝔐 it-b,d vg-mss syr-p,h TR RP ‖ πιστη “female believer” ℵ A C F G P 048 33 vg-ww,st cop-sa,bo TH NA28 {B} ‖ πιστος “male believer” it-f vg-cl eth ‖ πιστας it-g vg-mss

KJV- If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.

ESV- If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those who are truly widows.

The majority reading raises a question. Why the need for Paul to say “male or female believer” when just “believer” would have sufficed? The shorter reading is not weakly attested. If it seemed unacceptable to give this responisibility only to women, could that have given rise to the longer reading?

On the other hand, if the majority reading is original, why the need to make it clear that it was both men and women’s responsibility? My hunch is that 1 Timothy 5:8 earlier in the same context, was already being misinterpreted as something speaking to only men and fathers and male heads of household. Or, because the masculine form for just “believer,” πιστος, though gender inclusive, might be misinterpreted as applying to only males. Or, more likely, Paul as a prophet foresaw that it would later be misinterpreted that way.

1 Timothy 5:8, which is shaming people of all genders if they neglect to provide for their widowed mother or grandmother or aunt, has now been stretched to mean that a married Christian man has to provide wealth for his family by modern standards, that is, a house with a bedroom for each child, a car, a college education, etc., when this same epistle says in 6:8 “But having food and clothing, let us be content with that.” And later Paul warns us in 6:9 that the desire to be rich will lead to eternal punishment and damnation.

The Forbidden Fruit

The forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden was not an apple. We do not know what it was. It was probably unique, and not existing any more. Here is what the book of Enoch says about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Enoch 32:3-6
And I arrived at the Garden of Innocence, and saw at a distance from those trees, more trees, with large, beautiful branches, attractive and magnificent, and also the tree of knowledge, whose fruit they eat and know great wisdom. This tree was as tall as the fir tree, but its leaves like the carob tree, and its fruit like a very beautiful cluster of grapes, and its smell spreads a long way from the tree.
At that time I said, “How beautiful this tree is, and how pleasing its appearance!”
Then Raphael, the holy angel who was with me, answered, “This is the tree of knowledge, from which your forefather ate, and your ancient mother, which when they ate they learned of knowledge, and their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they were driven from the garden.”
https://www.bibletranslation.ws/down/enoch.pdf