it fits the contrived story being spun? .
You fail to demonstrate your allegation of a supposed "contrived story" to be true. Perhaps you are closing your eyes to some of the actual historical facts.
Do you ignore the evidence of the pre-1611 English Bibles, the Latin NTs of Erasmus and Beza, and the evidence of confessions of faith in the 1600's?
A Confession of Faith by a group of Separatists in 1596 maintained in Article 23 “that as every Christian congregation hath power and commandment to elect and ordain their own ministry according to the rules prescribed” and the verses cited were Acts 6:3, 5, 6 and Acts 14:23 (Lumpkin,
Baptist Confessions, p. 89). In a 1611 Confession of Faith thought to have been written by Thomas Helwys, Article 21 noted “that these Officers are to be chosen when there are persons qualified according to the rules in Christ’s Testament (1 Timothy 3:2-7, Titus 1:6-9, Acts 6:3-4) by election and approbation of that church or congregation whereof they are members (Acts 6:3-4 and 14:23) (Lumpkin, p. 122). The 1677 Second London Confession of Faith by Baptists maintained that a bishop or elder is “to be chosen thereunto by the common suffrage of the Church itself,” and it cited Acts 14:23 in the margin with the comment
“See the original” (Lumpkin, p. 287; McGlothin,
Baptist Confessions, p. 266). The 1742 Philadelphia Confession of Faith by Baptists retained the same words that had been based on Acts 14:23: “to be chosen thereunto by the common suffrage of the church itself” (Cathcart,
Baptist Encyclopaedia, p. 1320).
Baptists in England in the 1600’s had based at least a portion of their doctrine of church government on the original language text at Acts 14:23 with clear support from the Latin translation of Erasmus, the Latin translation of Beza, and the pre-1611 English Bibles. Did the KJV in effect remove part of the scriptural support for this aspect of the Baptist doctrine of church government?
Philip Doddridge (1702-1751) explained Acts 14:23 as follows: “And when they had with the concurrent suffrage of the people constituted presbyters for them in every church” (
Family Expositor, III, p. 210). Isaac Backus (1724-1806) noted that Paul and Barnabas “did ordain them elders by the people’s election, signified by their lifting up of hands, as the word is, and as the use was in popular elections” (
History of New England, I, p. 14). In 1844, Lyman Coleman maintained that the Greek word at Acts 14:23 “means,
to stretch out the hand,
to hold up the hand, as in voting; hence,
to vote,
to give one’s vote, by holding up the hand” (
Church, p. 62). Coleman added that “according to Suicer, the primary and appropriate signification of the term is, to denote
an election by the uplifting of the hand, and particularly denoting the election of a bishop by vote” (p. 64). Thomas Upham also asserted that the Greek word at Acts 14:23 “implies that the selection or choice of persons to the eldership was made by the vote of the body of the disciples [i.e. by the church]” (
Constitution, p. 105). In 1847, Edwin Hall maintained that “in the original, the word is the one in common use to denote an election by the suffrages of the people” (
Puritans and their Principles, p. 305). In 1848, Methodist Thomas Allin wrote: “In view of the whole, must we not conclude, that presbyters, like all other ecclesiastical officers, were elected in the apostolically churches by the suffrages of the people” (
The Jubilee, p. 208).
In the 1851 edition of the KJV’s N. T. as edited by Spencer Cone and William Wyckoff, Acts 14:23 began as follows: “And when they had ordained by election elders for them in each church.“ In his 1844 book, Baptist Warham Walker noted that the original word implied the election of pastors or elders "by holding up the hand (Acts 14:23)" (
Harmony in the Church, p. 19). In his 1846 book, R. B. C. Howell (1801-1868) asserted: “It is plain that the churches elected their own pastors by a full suffrage, expressed by [
cheirotoneo] stretching forth the hand” (
Deaconship, p. 52).
In his
Annotations, John Diodoti translated his own Italian Bible into English at Acts 14:23 as “when they had by common votes ordained.” James Harrington rendered Diodati’s Bible as “When they had ordained them in every church by the common votes” (
Prerogative, Two, p. 78). James Corcoran translated Diodati’s rendering as “ordained elders for them by general suffrage” (
American Catholic Quarterly Review, 1880, Vol. 5, p. 710). Gail Riplinger maintained that “the Italian Diodati” was a “pure” edition of the Bible (
Hazardous, p. 646).
The Dutch Annotations as translated into English by Theodore Haak in 1657 presented the first part of the text of Acts 14:23 as follows: "And when they in every church with lifting up of hands had chosen them elders." In 1657, Harrington translated the words in the Dutch Bible appointed by the Synod of Dort as “When in each church by the holding up of hands they had elected presbyters” (
Prerogative, Two, p. 78). In an article in
The Baptist Magazine for 1871, the author or editor W. G. Lewis asserted that they translated literally the 1637 Dutch Version at Acts 14:23 as follows: “And when they had chosen elders for them in every congregation with uplifted hands” (p. 584). Edwin Hall wrote that “the ancient French version reads, ‘And after having by common suffrages ordained elders’” (
Puritans, p. 305). Francis Turretin maintained that our French version of the Scriptures “understands
cheirotonian of a creation by votes or election” (
Institutes, III, p. 229). Perhaps that French version was the revision of Robert Oliventanus’ version that was made by Theodore Beza. Henry Baird noted that “Beza found time to give a careful and final revision to the French version of the Bible in common use among Protestants” (
Theodore Beza, p. 330). Baird wrote: “Thus was developed the famous ’Bible of the Pastors and Professors of Geneva,’ which, from 1588 on to almost our own times, has passed through a multitude of editions and exercised a vast influence on successive generations of readers” (
Ibid.). Harrington presented the rendering of the Swiss Bible of Zurich as follows: “When they had created them elders by suffrages in every congregation” (
Prerogative, Two, p. 77).
Along with the Latin New Testaments of Erasmus and Beza, the Italian, Dutch, French, and Swiss Bibles agreed with the pre-1611 English Bibles at Acts 14:23.