Excuses for defense of the Russian Synodal Bible Or Why I quit using the Synodal Bible Dr. Perry Demopoulos Note: All scripture quotations are from the Russian translation of the King James Bible (2017). Advocates of the Russian Synodal Bible will defend their version for many reasons. We understand that a great many folk have come to believe, read, preach and teach from the Synodal Bible, the Bible that has been used for many years since its publication. The complete Bible was published in 1876. We are thankful to God for the thousands of people that have been saved because of hearing truth from that Bible. We cannot deny these facts. But, that is no reason to neglect other facts about the Synodal text. There are two sides to a coin. The other facts are not pretty but they are true. “Truth always hurts” as they say. Paul said, “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” (Gal.4:16). True love, “…charity…rejoiceth in the truth” (1 Cor. 13:6) and also “Open rebuke is better than secret love” (Prov. 27:5). The fact of the matter, (the other side of the coin) is that there are numerous corrupt readings in the Synodal Bible. Any Russian speaking person that has any knowledge of the English language, when comparing the Synodal Bible with the Authorized Version of the King James Bible, and has an honest and sincere heart to know the truth can clearly see these facts. What we would like to do in this work is to simply state what many adherents (missionaries or Russia speaking people) of the Synodal Bible say in defense of their text. It is absolutely incredible how that their reasons why they adhere to the Synodal Bible are the very same reasons why many English speaking people (for instance in America) will defend various perversions of the Bible, for example, the New King James Bible. It is amazing that two different people on two different continents (America and Former Soviet Union) will use the same excuses to adhere to their translations although their translations are pockmarked with false readings, and corruption, omissions from the word of God and additions to it. They are unified in conspiring against the absolute standard of Biblical translation – the Authorized Version of the King James Bible. Wrong Information The following is a quote from Wikipedia. The information given is absolutely false concerning the usage of the Septuagint as a source for the translation work of the Synodal Bible. “Official permission to use the Masoretic Text as preserved by the Jews (rather than relying on the Septuagint and/or the Church Slavonic translations as preserved by the Christians) was granted to Filaret by the Synod in 1862, even though technically the translation was already mostly completed by that time.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Synodal_Bible What was not told you is that Septuagint readings were inserted into the text and are scattered throughout the Old Testament of the Russian Synodal Bible. We’ve found them and proof is available. Now notice the following information concerning the Synodal Bible taken from Russian site of Wikipedia and note the contrast – “The translators were guided also by the Greek text of the Septuagint; they used the Vulgate - the Latin translation of Jerome and the previously made Russian translation.” Here is the quote as it stands in the Russian Wikipedia – “Переводчики руководствовались также греческим текстом Септуагинты, пользовались Вульгатой — латинским переводом Иеронима и ранее сделанным русским переводом.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Synodal_Bible English translation – “The translators were guided even by the Greek text of the Septuagint, used the Vulgate – the Latin translation of Jerome which is earlier than the Russian translation.” Here you see that the “Septuagint” was used during the translation. Anybody who has studied church history knows that Alexandria was the location of the so-called Christian school. On the contrary it was a school of philosophy and tradition, of which the Apostle Paul warns the body of Christ, specifically Laodicians (Col. 2:8). The so-called “Christian” school was actually the seedbed of much heresy taught in Christendom. Much of that is because of false readings in false bibles because of false manuscripts. Origen Adamantius was born near Alexandria about A.D. 185. Alexandria is located in Egypt. Egypt is a type of the world (Deut. 17:16; Isa. 30:1-3; 31:1). Alexandria is a bed-fellow to Rome and the Alexandrians contended with Stephen a Spirit-filled man. (Acts 6:9; 18:24; 27:6; 28:11). Origen is responsible for writing a perverted text called the Septuagint. That text was supposed to have been written before the time of Christ from which the Lord and the Apostles quoted. The whole story is a hoax. Jesus Christ was very precise concerning what was considered “scripture” (Lk. 24:44). He never mentioned anything about any “Septuagint.” That didn’t exist at least until 150 years after the completion of the New Testament. Origen critiqued the holy scriptures and perverted them creating his own perverted text of the Old Testament. That is the Septuagint upon which the Synod of the Orthodox Church looked to for “truth.” But of course any honest student of the scriptures is not so naïve. Although a great number of Russian speaking people hold to the Synodal Bible, there are many Russian speaking people that can prove without a shadow of doubt Alexandrian readings and other forms of corruption in it. [Please listen to our Bible Radio recordings at – http://harvestukraineaudio.org/preaching/radio.htm and also avail is the book “A Comparison of the Synodal Bible and the Russian AV.”] The Danger of Subtlety The Syodal text is more dangerous than any other translation in the Russian tongue because it is far more deceptive in many ways. Among the various English versions of the Bible, the most dangerous threat of all the false Bibles is the New King James Bible. It is “more subtle…” (Gen. 3:1) “…than any beast…” Why? BECAUSE IT IS LESS OBVIOUSLY DECEPTIVE. Most American, native English-speaking believers in the body of Christ are NAÏVE to that fact. One of the Devil’s devices (2 Cor. 2:11) or shall we say, “expertise” is DECEPTION, so he has to produce a ‘Bible’ that is the most DECEPTIVE AND THE LEAST OBVIOUSLY CORRUPTED (2 Tim. 3:13; Rev. 12:9). Having said that, when you take a very careful look the Synodal Bible it has numerous obvious corruptions in. For English speaking people, if you take for instance the New King James Bible it has numerous corruptions in it also. That can be proven in a court of law. It takes a keen eye to notice the less obvious ‘land mines’ of corruption. No experienced soldier is about to walk naively in a war zone where it has been reported that there are land mines planted all over. Soldiers are to stay close to the men that are using their detectors to find those mines. Or else too many soldiers have their legs blown off because they couldn’t locate the mines or carelessly walked the mine planted field despite the fact that they had been forewarned. The apostle Paul, a great soldier for Jesus Christ (2 Tim. 2:2) warned us in the first century. He said, “For we are not as MANY, which corrupt the word of God.” (2 Cor. 2:17). Three Levels of Subtlety As there are three levels of subtlety outlined in the Bible – so there are 3 main levels of perverted Bibles, “subtil,” “very subtil,” and “MORE SUBTIL” (Gen. 3:1). These are military war tactics used by the enemy, in this case, Satan – the deceiver. Let’s take a look at how the Holy Spirit exposes these three levels – i. First, there is “…a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart” (Prov. 7:10) ii. Secondly, we see that “Amnon had a friend… (a close relative) who is “…very subtil...” (2 Sam. 13:3) iii. And finally, “…the serpent was MORE SUBTIL than any beast of the field…” (Gen. 3:1), who when he spake his first words to man they were to a WOMAN, “…Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” The true King James Bible believer knows that the New King James Version is a perversion of the King James Bible. Although it is like many other perversions of the Bible it has true readings in it. But the Devil is not so stupid as to keep all truth from the reader. He’s got to use some amount of truth (and that will vary in all the false Bibles) to try to cover up the false readings to deceive the naïve (naiEVE, Gen. 3:1-6) reader. Remember that it is “a LITTLE leaven” that leavens the whole lump.” It is the little foxes that do the most damage, “Take us the foxes, the LITTLE foxes, that spoil the vines…” (Song 2:15). It is the flies (they are little) that do a lot of damage, “Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a LITTLE folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour” (Eccl. 10:1). No true English speaking Bible believer (a true Bible believer is one who believes the King James Bible is the absolute infallible word of God) would even think of even using the modern versions even the New King James Version of the Bible.