Let's look at the Codex Vaticanus (B)...said by H. P. Blavatsky to be "the Bible in true."

"Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky connections to Westcott & Hort:

"H. P. Blavatsky also attended the "Ghostly Guild" meetings with Westcott and Hort, along with Charles Darwin. In her books Isis Unveiled Vol. 1 and 2, and The Secret Doctrine Vol. 1 and 2, Blavatsky says, "we have the Bible in true in Codex Sinaiticus (א) and Codex Vaticanus (B)".

What else do you need to know about them?

Here is a look at Codex Vaticanus (B), from no less than, "a group of former Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and Secularists sharing various facts that we have learned over the years," from: https://www.bibleready.org/

"Codex Vaticanus (Codex B).

The Vatican 1209 manuscript was found in the Vatican library in 1481 where it was supposedly lost or misplaced for 1000 years.

"It fares even worse than Sinaiticus in reliability if that is possible.

"It was also written in the distinctive Alexandrian type-text, indicating its origin was from Egypt.



"The following portions of Scripture are missing from the Vaticanus:
Genesis 1:1-31; 28;
Psalms 106-138;
Matthew 16:2-3;
Mark 16:9-20;
The Pastoral Epistles of 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus
as well as everything after Hebrews 9:14.

"These were intentional omissions because the manuscript was found in excellent condition with no pieces missing.

"In the Gospels, it leaves out 237 words, 452 clauses, and 748 whole sentences.

"These omissions were intentional since there was room left on pages to write these in.

"The Vaticanus manuscript was written on expensive Vellum and was in good condition when found which means that the missing areas were not due to missing sections but were intentional omissions.

"The image above is a Vaticanus leaf of Hebrews in the first chapter. If you look closely you will see marginal notations in the first empty space column between the first two text columns.

"Someone had erased a word in verse 3 and wrote another word in its place.

"Later, someone else came along and erased the "correction" and wrote back in the original word.

"The marginal note denounces the "corrector" using words that hardly seem Christian.

"The note reads, "Fool and knave, leave the old reading, don’t change it!" Instead of God-fearing Christians working on this; doesn't it seem more likely that unsaved bible critics, even non-believers have been editing this manuscript? See Matt. 5: 22b - "whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire."

"Furthermore, the Vaticanus manuscript has nearly the entire text mutilated; almost every letter has been over-written with pen and ink.

"This of course makes exact identification of many of the characters impossible.

"Scholars think it was overwritten letter by letter in the 10th or 11th century, with accents and breathing marks added along with corrections from the 8th, 10th, and 15th centuries.

"Missing portions were supplied in the 15th century by copying other Greek manuscripts. Many of those who have studied this manuscript agree that all this revision makes precise paleographic analysis impossible.

"Consider these other comments:

"1. Dean John W Burgon: "The impurity of the text exhibited by these codices is not a question of opinion but fact...In the Gospels alone, Codex B(Vatican) leaves out words or whole clauses no less than 1,491 times. It bears traces of careless transcriptions on every page…"

"2. According to The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible, "It should be noted . . . that there are no prominent Biblical (manuscripts) in which there occur such gross cases of misspelling, faulty grammar, and omission, as in (Codex) B."

"3. Dr. David Brown observes: "I question the 'great witness' value of any manuscript that has been overwritten, doctored, changed and added to for more than 10 centuries." (The Great Unicals).

"4. Linguistic scholars have observed that Codex Vaticanus is reminiscent of classical and Platonic Greek, not Koine Greek of the New Testament (see Adolf Deissman's Light of the Ancient East).

"Nestle admitted that he had to change his Greek text (when using Vaticanus and Sinaiticus) to make it "appear" like Koine Greek.

"Codex Vaticanus contains the false Roman Catholic apocryphal books such as Judith, Tobias, and Baruch,

"while it omits the pastoral epistles (I Timothy through Titus),

"the Book of Revelation,

"and it cuts off the Book of Hebrews at Hebrews 9:14 (a very convenient stopping point for the Catholic Church since God forbids their priesthood in Hebrews 10 and exposes the mass as totally useless as well.

"Finally, it is estimated that Sinaiticus and Vaticanus disagree with each other at least 7000 times.

"These disagreements are not minor but involve major omissions and doctrinal conflicts of scripture.

"Just in the gospels alone there are the following number of disagreements:

Matthew 656
Mark 567
Luke 791
John 1022

Total Gospel Disagreements Between Vaticanus and Sinaiticus 3036 +


How can anyone realistically call these manuscripts "the best" simply because they are the oldest near-complete Greek NT manuscripts?

"There are older Greek manuscripts that are considered fragments.

con't

 

Jerome's Latin Vulgate.

Moving forward in time a bit; because of the numerous variant readings in Alexandrian manuscripts, Pope Damasus requested the scholar Jerome to revise and correct the New Testament.

"This he did in seclusion, it was a private enterprise.

"St. Jerome began his revision with the four Gospels and then more hurriedly revised the remaining books of the New Testament. The work was completed at Rome about A.D. 383-4.

So, was Jerome influenced by the sophistry of the Alexandrians?

"Well, curiously Philo, an Alexandrian secular statesman was included by Jerome in his work De viris illustribus (On illustrious men).

"This was a thumbnail compilation of 135 men of prominence in Church history up until that time. All but three were Christians.

"It is striking that Jerome includes sketches of Philo the Roman statesman, the philosopher Seneca, and the Jewish historian Josephus among all these Christian worthies.

"Of these three chapters, the one on Philo is the longest.

"Why is the Alexandrian Jew Philo given such a prominent place in this work?

"It is apparent that Philo was well-known in some "Christian" circles and that his works were enthusiastically received.

"In fact, a close reading of the sources shows that most Christian intellectuals were quite well aware that Philo was a Jew who had lived at about the time of Jesus, may have met the Apostle Mark, and were familiar with his writings.

"It is most revealing that Jerome includes a list of his writings, something he also does for Josephus and various Christian protagonists. He does not tell us from where he gets this list.

"Jerome also informs us that Philo had countless outstanding writings on the five books of Moses to his credit. Jerome gives us a long list, which he concludes with the following words:

"Concerning this man the following statement is in circulation among the Greeks: h Platwn filwnizei h, filwn platonizei (either Plato philonizes or Philo platonizes), that is to say, either Plato follows Philo or Philo follows Plato, so great is the similarity of thought and style.

"Philo regarded the physical nature of man as something defective and as an obstacle to his development that can never be fully surmounted, but still as something indispensable in view of the nature of his being.

"Philo is not entirely certain whether the body in itself or merely in its preponderance over the spirit is evil. But the body in any case is a source of danger.

"His concept of the Logos as God's creative principle apparently influenced early Christology.

"To him, Logos was God's "blueprint for the world", a governing plan. (3)

"Philo used allegory to fuse and harmonize Greek philosophy and Judaism. His method followed the practices of both Jewish exegesis and Stoic philosophy.

"The sophists of literalness," as he calls them, "opened their eyes superciliously" when he explained to them the marvels of his exegesis.

"In other words, those who simply read the bible literally were made to realize just how little they knew once Philo expounded on his allegorical (spiritual) interpretations.

"Sound familiar?"

"If Arius was a forerunner of Charles Taze Russell in his jettisoning of the divinity of the Son, then certainly Philo is a forerunner of Fred Franz with all his "type" and "anti-type" interpretations.

"In other words, the practice of spiritualizing any scripture that is not to your liking has a very long history, apparently back to the days of the apostles through the unsaved bible critic Philo of Alexandria.

"Also listed as "illustrious men" are both Clement of Alexandria and Origen of Alexandria.

"They both heavily drew upon Philo and furthered his methods and philosophy into the Christian era applying them to Christian teachings. Origen went so far as to castrate himself.

"These are just some of the Alexandrian influences that Jerome bore as he carried out his solitary work in creating the Latin Vulgate, which was the bible of the Catholic Church for well over a thousand years. In addition to these influences, we have Jerome's own words here:

"I follow no leader but Christ and join in communion with none but Your Blessedness, that is, with the chair of Peter.

"I know that this is the rock on which the Church has been built.

"Whoever eats the Lamb outside this house is profane.

"Anyone who is not in the ark of Noah will perish when the flood prevails."

Letter of Jerome to Pope Damasus, 374 A.D. 15,2 J1346 .

"Heretics bring sentence upon themselves since they by their own choice withdraw from the Church, a withdrawal which, since they are aware of it, constitutes damnation."
Commentaries on the Epistle to Titus, 376 A.D. 3,10 J1371a

"It is obvious from these quotes that Jerome was a "company man" and regarded church membership as a prerequisite for salvation and that faith outside of that organizational structure would constitute damnation.

"Over 20 Catholic Popes over an 800-year period carried on inquisitions enforcing this view whereby up to 50 million European people were excommunicated, had their property confiscated, and were murdered in horrific ways for the crime of exercising faith in Christ alone outside of the Catholic hierarchy.

"The Walsensenses, Vaudois, and other indigenous Christians throughout Europe were virtually wiped out during the Catholic Inquisitions.

"Eventually, the dark ages began to fade and a new day began to dawn during the 16th and 17th centuries when a number of "recognized" bibles began to be produced. (These readings had in fact always abundantly existed)

These were based upon the very different "majority text" (99% of all known manuscripts) of Antioch origin.

"They were discretely copied and handed down throughout Europe during the unrestrained governance of the Popes.

"Centuries of bible burnings, tortures, and burning Christians while alive at the stake could not wipe out these texts.

"The greatest of these compilation works resulted in the King James 1611 version.

"The King James or Authorised Version reigned supreme for 277 years until two men revived the Alexandrian influence that had affected Christianity for most of the previous 1800 years."