Keeping the Father’s Commandments
Keeping the Father’s Commandments
Just at the end of the Bible, we are told that we must keep the Father’s commandments (i.e. Torah) if we wish to have the right to the tree of life, and enter into the Holy City. The clear implication is that those who do not keep Torah will not have the right to everlasting life. The Church, having rejected God’s Law, has never been happy with this statement:
Revelation 22:14 Blessed are those keeping His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.
ΑΠΟΚΑΛΥΨΙΣ ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ 22:14 (TR1894) μακαριοι οι ποιουντες τας εντολας αυτου ινα εσται η εξουσια αυτων επι το ξυλον της ζωης και τοις πυλωσιν εισελθωσιν εις την πολιν
What did the lawless Church do about this embarrassment? In this case, it has been caught corrupting the actual word of God itself, in the original Greek manuscript text.
You will see from the following comparison of the Textus Receptus with the modern critical text, that three words have been subtly altered in order to dramatically change the meaning. These words have been highlighted for ease of reference.
The uncorrupted text is found in the Textus Receptus as follows:
ΑΠΟΚΑΛΥΨΙΣ ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ 22:14 (TR1894) μακαριοι οι ποιουντες τας εντολας αυτου ινα εσται η εξουσια αυτων επι το ξυλον της ζωης και τοις πυλωσιν εισελθωσιν εις την πολιν
- ποιουντες
- those who do
- εντολας
- commandments
- αυτου
- of him (i.e., the Father’s)
The corrupted text can be found in the so-called “critical” text of NA27/UBS4, as follows:
ΑΠΟΚΑΛΥΨΙΣ ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ 22:14 (UBS4) μακαριοι οι πλυνοντες τας στολας αυτων ινα εσται η εξουσια αυτων επι το ξυλον της ζωης και τοις πυλωσιν εισελθωσιν εις την πολιν
- πλυνοντες
- those who wash
- στολας
- robes
- αυτων
- of them (i.e., their)
We can see in the Textus Receptus, that ’εντολας’ = ’commandments’. However, in UBS4/NA27 they instead have ’στολας’ (= robes).
The ’εν’ in ’εντολας’ has been changed to a ’σ’ (sigma) to change ’commandments’ to ’robes’. A couple of the other words were changed to match, to make the text read, in English, “Blessed are those who wash their robes,” instead of, “Blessed are those keeping His commandments.”
It is clear that is was a deliberate alteration, and it is likewise clear what the motivation for it was.
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- PDF: Keeping the Father’s Commandments
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