Featured A Bible Doctrine of Preservation

Good post, Rob. Jongkind's book looks like a good one. I should probably get it.

The distinction between general preservation and special preservation is a good one, a good way to distinguish the two concepts.

The question on whether or not the non-recorded prophecies of the Bible are preserved is, to me, a moot one. The Word of God as preached by such prophets is of course perfectly preserved in the mind of the omniscient God, even if such prophesies have not been written down and passed down. However, they are not something we need to know as presented in the four purposes of Scripture preservation given above in post #19. So they were no doubt culture- and era-specific.

 

The question often asked in regards to the preservation of Scripture is whether or not it is preserved perfectly. There are two answers to that.

1. Every single word and letter of the original manuscripts of the Bible and every other manuscript since then, as well as every single Bible translation done in every single language that has one is preserved perfectly in the mind of God due to His omniscience. The omniscience of God guarantees that. The Bible even says so, "For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven" Psalm 119:89). However, this is not due to God's providence, but to the fact of His omniscience, which is one of His unchangeable attributes. So, the possibility of a perfect preservation of Scripture on earth does exist due to God's unchanging omniscience.

2. On the other hand, the preservation of Scripture on earth is due to His providence. So, we have to ask the question, does the providence of God as worked through his human creation ever result in perfection? To put it another way, does God ever act through humans in such a way that the product they produce is perfect?

 

There are various biblical proofs of God's perfect preservation due to His omniscience, chiefly in those occasions when someone on earth destroyed a copy of a portion of God's Word. When the Word of God is destroyed on earth, God is completely able to replace it!

Note that after Moses destroyed the Decalogue (Exod. 32:19), God was able to replace every word with the exact same commandments (Exod. ch. 34). Again, remember that when the only earthly copy of a portion of God's Word was destroyed by evil king Jehoiakim (Jer. 36:23), God was able to give every word back to Jeremiah perfectly (Jer. 36:27-32). In these cases, perfect preservation of the Word of God took place, but it was not an act of providence, but an act based on God's omniscience.

Now, what is missing in almost all theological statements of the doctrine of preservation is that God has committed the earthly preservation of the Word of God to every believer in Christ, even while taking it upon Himself to oversee that preservation providentially.

Note that in Old Testament Israel, the priests were entrusted by God with the task of preserving the Scriptures (Deut. 17:18, Ezek. 44:8 and 15, Mal. 2:7). Remember that the Decalogue of Moses was to be kept in the ark of the covenant (Deut. 31:26), and that the Temple was where the scrolls of Scripture were to be kept (2 Kings 22:9-10).

Now, in the Church Age, each individual believer is a priest of God (1 Peter 2:5 & 9, Rev. 1:6, 5:10, 20:6). Therefore, each individual believer has a personal responsibility to preserve the Word of God.

When I teach this, what I ask next is what the student thinks about how humans can preserve the Word of God. Any thoughts, fellow BB denizens?

 

I agree, but is that preservation?

 

I completely agree. But for us to be able to live by every word of God, it must be preserved. How do humans preserve the Word of God?

 

Yes indeed! "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee" (Ps. 119:11).

 

Excellent! Now we have two of the many ways humans can preserve the Word of God.

 

I said two of the ways to preserve Scripture, but actually three have been given: the Christ life, memorizing Scripture, and copying Scripture.

Let me add a few and then get on with my theology:

Bible translation is definitely a way of preserving Scripture.

I'd say printing the Bible is preservation. I thank God for the Bible printing ministries that have sprung up in the past several decades, such as Bearing Precious Seed. I am distinguishing this way from copying, though they are certainly related. Even in modern times people have hand copied Scripture, such as in Communist countries when printing the Bible was forbidden.

Along with you, I use several software platforms that provide the Word of God as preserved. I use especially BibleWorks, e-sword, and PowerBible.

 

Now we come to Bible translation. How should we classify it, as providence or as miracle? Obviously Bible translations are processes: first draft, second draft, readers to check the grammar and semantics and style, final editing, formatting into a PDF, proofreading, printing. Bible translation is a process, not an event like miracles are.

The most blessed verse for God's providence is Romans 8:28, which many of us quote without knowing the doctrine: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Now, no one quotes this verse thinking it is talking about a miracle. It speaks of God's providence, the process by which He works things together for good.

The word for "work together" is συνεργέι, the 3rd singular present active indicative of συνεργέω. Since it is a present tense, the type of action (aktionsart) is usually imperfective, usually meaning continued or progressive action. So, God works things together for us continually in a process.

 

Now, both a miracle (an event) and providence (a process) can take place through humans. Also, either one can take place without human action. For example, it was a miracle when God wrote the Decalogue (Ex. 31:18). And it was providence that had the Ethiopian eunuch waiting for Evangelist Stephen (Acts 8:27-40), though no human had directed the Eunuch there.

So what is the difference? A miracle is perfection, happening with no human failure and no human evil involved. However, God's providence works through imperfect humans, and sometimes even involves evil acts. The prime example of this is when Joseph notified his brothers that God had used their evil act of selling him into slavery to preserve life, saying, " But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive" (Gen. 50:20). God can use any means He wants to for causing His providence to succeed: good deeds, evil deeds, natural disaster, human accidents, human purposeful acts, human skills, human failures, anything.

The most amazing acts of providence in my own life involve how God got me to the city of Tokorozawa, Japan, to be a missionary. When I was a freshman in college, God used a missionary to Japan to issue a call to that country to my heart. However, I simply considered that a call to be a missionary, and prayed for several years to go to Hong Kong, since I loved the Chinese people. However, when I graduated from college, God put a different missionary to Japan right behind my parents in the audience, Jim Norton. Jim found out I wanted to go to Asia as a missionary, so he went out and met me after the ceremony, asking me to work with him in Japan. As I prayed about it in seminary, God spoke to my heart through my reading of Romans 15:20-21 in my private devotions. After working with my grandfather for a year, then doing deputation for 3 1/2 years, I ended up in Tokorozawa, working with Jim Norton with my new wife and baby, brought to me through several preachers listening to the Spirit's leading. God's hand of providence has been all over my life!

 

So, to review, miracles are events but God's providence is a process. And there is no guarantee anywhere in Scripture that the path of providence will be perfect. Bible translation being a process, it produces an imperfect product, unlike inspiration, which is a miracle. The original manuscripts were produced through the miracle of verbal-plenary inspiration. Therefore they were perfect. However, the human element came in the earthly preservation of Scripture.

In order for there to be a perfect translation, there has to be a miraculous event. In all of my years as a Bible translator I've never seen a translation miracle, though I have seen the hand of God's providence in directing and providing for our translation over and over.

1. God guides in finding a "person of peace" to help the translator. Mine was Uncle Miya Miyakawa, a faithful co-translator for many years, but now in Heaven. 2. God often guides the translation leaders to find other translators for the team.
3. God providentially leads to others who help: editors financial supporters, proofreaders, printers, etc. I saw this happen in our translation effort.

If your read the biographies of missionary Bible translators, you will see this pattern over and over. Now apply it to our English translations.

 

To back up a bit, I should have listed this previously. There are many examples in the Bible of the human preservation of Scripture, and none of them involve miraculous events:

1. God commanded the Jews to bind God's law on their hands and on their foreheads (Ex. 13:9, Deut. 6:8 & 11:8, Prov. 3:3, 6:2, 7:3).

2. Each king of Israel was required to write out his own copy of the Bible. "And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites" (Deut. 17:18). Not only was he to have his own copy of the law, he was to live and rule by it (v. 19).

3. Moses cared enough about the Decalogue to make a box of shittim wood in which to preserve it (Deut. 10:3-5).

4. The ark of God was called variously "the ark of the testimony" (Josh. 4:16) and "the ark of the covenant" (Josh. 4:18), obviously referring to the fact that God's Word was to be kept inside it (Deut. 31:26).

5. God commanded the Jews to build an altar and write the law on the stones of it when they crossed the river into the Promised Land. (Deut. 27:1-8) Joshua obeyed God's command and did so (Josh. 8:30-35).

6. The Apostle Paul specifically asked Timothy to bring his personal copy of some of the Old Testament Scriptures (2 Tim. 4:13).

 

Now, please consider the translation history of the KJV. Remember that inspiration was a miracle; God gave the Word of God in the original manuscripts one time, and no further drafts semantic research or grammar correction or proofreading was needed. It was a miracle. However, the production of the KJV was clearly a process. (The following list is a simplified version of the effort.)

1. As commanded by King James, a conference was held in January, 1604, on the possibility of a new translation. It was inconclusive, but then "King James, who had a personal interest in biblical study and translation, endorsed the idea of a new translation, stating that none of the existing English versions was translated well.... Whatever his motives, James supported the project so vigorously that by July 1604 a translation committee or some fifty 'learned men' and a list of rules of procedure had been provided." (Bruce Metzger, The Bible in Translation. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001, p. 71.)

2. Six panels of translators were chosen, and given tasks: 3 OT, 1 Apocrypha, 2 NT translators. They began translating in 1607.

3. A review panel of six men began checking the translation, probably in 1609. They were paid to revise the original draft.

4. The first edition of the KJV was finally printed in three folio editions with over 200 variations in the text (ibid., 75).

So clearly, there was a process in the production of the KJV, and God's providence was at work. As per the plan of God, individual human translators did the work, no doubt helped by the Holy Spirit. However, also in God's providence, just as with the original manuscripts, the translators' manuscripts of the KJV do not exist. "having probably perished in the great fire of London" (ibid., 72).

 

Very helpful. Thank you.