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THE
HOLMAN CHRISTIAN STANDARD BIBLE [HCSB]
A Brief Critique |
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As
of 2004, the Holman Christian Standard Bible [HCSB] is the official Bible
translation for use in all new Southern Baptist Convention [SBC] Sunday
School literature published by the SBC's LifeWay Church Resources [LCR].
Called the "Family Bible Studies" series, the KJV is sometimes retained
along with the HCSB, or obtainable as an "option." At the 2005 "Pastor's
Conference" sponsored by Dr. Jerry Vines and the First Baptist Church,
Jacksonville, FL, the F.D. editor secured a copy of the HCSB at the church's
bookstore and examined it for his perusal.
It seems apparently clear that so far as LifeWay Church Resources is concerned, the HCSB will gradually replace the KJV in incremental stages, with more and more HCSB use and less KJV utilization. While the HCSB is an improvement over the RSV, NRSV and the NIV, it is still based on the unreliable critical text, using the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum 27th edition and the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament, which are virtually the same entity. |
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HCSB
DELETIONS
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| HCSB readers will discover that "repentance" is missing from Matt. 9:13; "and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery," deleted in Matt. 19:9; "but by every word of God" is gone in Luke 4:4; "Thou shalt not bear false witness" absent in Rom. 13:9; "that ye should not obey the truth" no longer in Gal. 3:1; "through his blood" deleted in Col. 1:14; and the Johannine Comma [triune God] omitted in I John 5:7 [The above is just a deletion sampling.] |
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HCSB
ALTERATIONS
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| "Joseph" is changed to "his father" in Luke 2:33; an unnamed "he" replaces "God" as being manifest in the flesh in I Tim. 3:16. All forms of the word "impute" are changed in all 14 occurrences in Scripture, including the five usages in Romans 4 to variations of credit/charge, so that the word impute does not occur anywhere in the Word of God. |
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FOOTNOTE
CONFUSION
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| Every page in the HCSB has footnotes that cause questions about genuine textual readings and meanings; virtually hundreds of statements declare that "other" manuscripts either add/delete words/phrases/passages. If you accept all the footnotes, no one really knows what constitutes the entire contents of genuine Scripture, except God! |
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A
SCHOLAR'S ANALYSIS
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| Dr.
D.A. Waite authored a booklet entitled Holes in the Holman Christian
Standard Bible: A Predictive Analysis of the Gospel of John 1-4 in which
he analyzed the first four chapters of the Gospel of John in the HCSB. Concerning
the use of footnotes in just those four chapters, he noted that "82
footnotes refer to a more 'literal word or meaning,'" "45 footnotes refer
to a different Greek manuscript," and "22 footnotes refer to words added
for clarity or implied," John's gospel covers only 11% of the total N.T. word content and the other N. T. books 89% of the N.T.'s substance. Based on this fact and his analysis of John 1-4, Dr.Waite projected the HCSB would have "742 footnotes referring to a more 'literal' word or meaning," "407 footnotes referring to a different Greek manuscript," "199 footnotes referring to words added for clarity or implied" and "1,348 footnotes denying 'precise Bible translation.'" In just those first four chapters of John's Gospel, this noted Greek scholar's analysis also uncovered "50 changes in words," "47 omissions of words," "12 gender neutral words," "6 New Age words," "5 False Interpretations," and "138 errors." Considering verse totals, Dr. Waite noted that the first four chapters of John compose 164 verses, about 2% of the N.T. total verse numbers, meaning the remainder of John and the rest of the N.T. books contain the other 98% of Scriptural verses. Based on this projection, he estimated that the HCSB would contain "2,426 examples of word changes," "2,280 examples of omissions of words," "873 examples of additions of words," "582 examples of gender neutral words," "291 examples of New Age words," "243 examples of false interpretation and "6,695 total examples of error." [All quotes from Holes in the Christian Standard Bible, pp. 5-9] Now that the entire HCSB is available, the above projections could be exactly tabulated by someone with a computer and sufficient time. It must also be remembered that Dr.Waite's projections do not include any of the 39 O.T. books! |
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CONCLUSION
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| If you have a HCSB and are using it, replace it with a reliable KJV, the English version in which you can place full confidence and trust, even in the 21st century! If you don't own a HCSB, don't purchase one. |
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April-May
2005, The Fundamentalist Digest: Permission granted for reprint,
so long as proper credit is given.
The above item is a sample of the numerous timely articles that are contained in the bi-monthly issues of The Fundamentalist Digest. |
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