Psalm 22 and the bible babel of today
Psalm 22 and the bible babel of today
Psalm 22 - All about Christ's sufferings
Most Christians over the centuries have recognized that Psalm 22 is clearly a prophetic Psalm which speaks in great detail about the sufferings that Christ endured during the hours of His crucifixion on the cross. The Lord Jesus willingly took our place of deserved judgment, and offered up Himself to bear the wrath of a Holy God for our sins. In fact, while He is hanging on the cross of Calvary, He quotes the very words from the beginning of this Psalm.
Psalm 22:1 "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my ROARING?" Here the word is #7581 and it is always ROARING in the King James Bible. It comes from the verb to roar, and is used in verse 13 of a roaring lion, where ironically, all the other versions have correctly translated the same Hebrew word as "roaring". Usually this word is associated with a lion. Christ is portrayed prophetically in this Psalm in His sufferings on the cross. Christ is the LION of the tribe of Judah who hath prevailed to open the book. See Revelation 5:5. "Roaring" is the correct reading found in the Geneva Bible, the Revised Version, KJV 21, the Italian Diodati and Youngs.
The liberal RSV, as well as the NASB, NIV, and NKJV have changed this to "the words of my GROANING". This is incorrect since the word does not mean "groaning". Other Hebrew words do, but not this one. Also, of all the versions I checked, only the NASB changes the last part of this question into a statement. Instead of "Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?" the NASB has: "Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning." The Revised Version, American Standard Version, Holman, RSV, ESV, NIV and NKJV still retain this last part as a question and not a statement as the NASB has it.
Psalm 22:2 "O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the NIGHT SEASON, and am not silent." Here the RV, ASV and the NKJV correctly have "night season". Jesus Christ did not suffer upon the cross during the night, but during the daytime. Yet it was His "night season"; He called it "your hour and the power of darkness" Luke 22:53. But the NASB and NIV have changed "in the night SEASON", to "in the NIGHT". This simple change in meaning creates a contradiction when we look at the facts of the timing of the crucifixion as recorded in the gospel accounts.
Psalm 22:3 "But thou art holy, O thou THAT INHABITEST the praises of Israel." So read the Geneva Bible, the KJB, NKJV, RV, ASV, Darby and the Spanish Reina Valera. However the NASB and the NIV both give different meanings to this verse. The NASB says: "Yet You are holy, O You who ARE ENTHRONED UPON the praises of Israel", while the NIV has: "Yet you ARE ENTHRONED AS THE HOLY ONE; you are the praise of Israel."
Psalm 22:16 "For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: THEY PIERCED MY HANDS AND MY FEET." This piercing of the hands and feet never occurred to king David, but was prophetic of Christ on the cross.
It appears that many Hebrew manuscripts have deliberately been corrupted in this place, since it so clearly speaks of the crucifixion of the Son of God. The Jewish translations have a nonsensical reading in this place. Instead of "they pierced my hands and my feet", they say: " LIKE A LION, my hands and my feet." This is also the reading found in the Jehovah Witness New World Translation. It may surprise some to hear that Daniel Wallace, of Dallas Theological Seminary, in his idiosyncratic (i.e. goofy and weird) NET version, also makes up a similar reading, saying: "LIKE A LION THEY PIN my hands and feet."
However there are some Hebrew manuscripts, including as I have read and heard, the recently discovered Dead Sea Scrolls. In the book, The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, translated by Martin Abegg Jr., Peter Flint and Eugene Ulrich, on page 519 they tell us that the Hebrew Psalms scroll found at Hahal Hever (abbreviated 5/6HevPs) which reads: "They have pierced my hands and my feet". This is also the reading of the alleged Greek Septuagint, Lamsa's 1936 translation of the Syriac Peshitta, and almost all English and foreign translations, including Coverdale 1535, Bishops' Bible 1568, the Geneva Bible 1599, NKJV, NIV, NASB, RSV, RV, ASV, ESV, the Spanish Reina Valera of 1909 and 1960, French Louis Segond, and the Italian Diodati.
However we continue to have a group of looney tune versions like the NRSV of 1989 which actually reads: "My hands and my feet ARE SHRIVELED." Then in a footnote, the NRSV tells us that the Hebrew reading is uncertain.
New English Bible 1970, New Jerusalem Bible - "they have HACKED OFF my hands and my feet."
Douay 1950- "they have DUG my hands and my feet."
Jerusalem Bible 1968 - "they TIE my hands and my feet"
New Jerusalem Bible 1985 - "as if to HACK OFF my hands and my feet"
Today's English Version (put out by the United Bible Society) 1992 "they TEAR AT my hands and my feet."
New Life Version 1997 - "They HAVE CUT THROUGH my hands and my feet."
Contemporary English Version 1995 (put out by the American Bible Society) - "TEARING AT my hands and my feet."
The Message 2002- "They PIN ME DOWN hand and foot."
New Century Version 1991 (put out by Thomas Nelson, Inc.) - "THEY HAVE BITTEN my ARMS and MY LEG."!!!
In closing this little study of Psalm 22, I would like to focus on the last two verses of this amazing Psalm and note how the meaning has been changed in such versions as the NKJV, NASB and NIV.
In the King James Bible Psalm 22:30-31 reads: "A SEED shall serve him; IT SHALL BE ACCOUNTED TO the Lord FOR A GENERATION. THEY SHALL COME, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this." This is also the reading found in the Bishops' Bible 1568, the Geneva Bible 1599, Darby, the Spanish Reina Valera of 1909, the Italian Diodati, Webster's, KJV 21st Century and the Third Millenium Bible.
Adam Clarke comments on this verse: "This seed, however, shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. It shall be a peculiar people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and called by Christ's own name."
However the NKJV changes the meaning of this verse. It says: "A POSTERITY shall serve Him. It will be RECOUNTED OF the Lord TO THE NEXT generation, They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He has done this."
The NKJV looses the idea of "the seed" and instead of the seed being accounted for a generation, the NKJV adds a word not found in any Hebrew text, and says the message will be TOLD TO the NEXT generation.
The NASB is similar to the NKJV saying: "Posterity will serve Him; IT WILL BE TOLD OF the Lord TO THE COMING generation. They shall come..."
The NIV goes even further along this line. The NIV omits the Hebrew reading of "They shall come" and follows the Greek reading like the RSV and NRSV. At least the RSV, NRSV tell us in their footnote that they have omitted these words from the Hebrew texts and followed the Greek, but the NIV fails to inform us of this fact. The words "THEY SHALL COME" are found in all Jewish translations, as well as the NASB, Holman, NET, and now the 2001 English Revised Version (a revision of the previous RSV, NRSV) has put these Hebrew words back in their ever-changing bible versions.
The NIV says: "POSTERITY will serve him; FUTURE (NOT in any text) generationS WILL BE TOLD ABOUT the Lord. (Then it omits the Hebrew words "They shall come", and continues
They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn - for he has done it."
The Hebrew word is clearly SEED and the Seed theology is consistently taught throughout the King James Bible, but not the modern versions. "a SEED" is the reading of the Jewish translations, Geneva Bible, the RV, ASV, Young's and Darby. The seed of Christ is the generation of His elect people from the beginning to the end of the world. "They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for THE SEED." Romans 9:8. "when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see HIS SEED...and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand." Isaiah 53:10
The seed is ACCOUNTED TO the Lord FOR a generation. 1 Peter 2:9 tells us: "But ye are a chosen GENERATION, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light."
In the KJB and other translations, the sense is that the seed, which is the body of believers who will be born from His death and resurrection, are the children of the promise who are COUNTED FOR THE SEED (Romans 9:8) and are considered as "a generation". Christ generated us, or gave us birth, by means of His death and resurrection. We were in Him when He died, and we were in Him when He rose from the dead.
The NKJV changes the meaning with: "A POSTERITY will serve Him. It will be RECOUNTED OF the Lord TO THE NEXT generation." Wrong! Can you see that the meaning is changed? If this were the only example in the Bible, you might say, Well, what's the big deal? But the fact is there are literally hundreds of such changes in meaning from one version to the next. You end up asking yourself, Well, what did God really say?
Will Kinney
