Brief Introduction

to the Spanish Bible Issue

by Robert Breaker III

 

* The following has been designed to be "printer friendly."  So please feel free to print the entire thing and read it through!   Or read it here on online.

 

             As a Missionary Evangelist to Spanish Speaking people, (but more importantly, being a born again child of God by faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ), it has been my desire to provide Spanish Speakers with the best Bible available Spanish Bible, which would be the closest to the inerrant, infallible King James Bible.  Yes, I am a King James Bible Believer, and make no apologies for it!

           My desire is not just to give away corrupt Bibles, but to take them the pure words of God in their own language.  This has proved a difficult task, for in my studies I have found there are many different conflicting texts in Spanish all claiming to be a "Holy Bible."  But which one is correct? 

           I belong to the Independent Baptist denomination, and I've found that there are several groups within this movement which are divided on this issue.  Each "camp" has their own Spanishversion and claims only their version is the right one. 

           On one side, you have the 1960 Reina-Valera crowd, which erroneously claim the 1960 is the "King James" in Spanish.  But according to one of the "consultants" of this (per)version, this simply is not so.  The truth is the 1960 translation committee used the corrupt English RV and RSV in their translation work.  (Click here to see the quote by Jose Flores).

            Another group takes a stand for the 1909 Spanish revision of Reina and Valera, claiming it is "God's word" in Spanish.  But what about the translators of this version using the corrupt text of "Tischendorf" and the wicked "Critical text" of unregenerated scholars in their work?  (In 1881 Westcott and Hort published their corrupt Greek Text, and all Bible translations after that date were based upon it.

            Recently another group has gone back to 1865 American Bible Society translation, and claims to "defend every word" of it as the word of God in Spanish.  (This after changing it 50 in fifty places to read closer to the Textus Receptus, and then changing those changes back to the way they were before).  Although it is true the 1865 reads much closer to the King James in many places, it deviates from any Greek Text on the face of the earth in many others.  It was the work of Mora and Pratt (Presbyterians).  And it still calls Jesus Christ "Lucero" (the word used for Lucifer in Isa. 14) in 2 Peter 1:19 as do all versions of the Spanish Bible (except the Valera 1602 Purified, published in Monterrey, Mexico.  More about this later,).  Is the 1865 "the word of God in the Spanish tongue!"  If it is, why would it dishonor God by calling his son the Devil?  Click here to see more errors in the 1865.

            Should we accept the opinions of men and choose which Bible to use in Spanish because a man or a group tells us to?  Clearly the answer is "No!"  We must study the words to find out whether or not each version reads with the King James, the Textus Receptus, and the Hebrew Masoretic text.

            Immediately, the scholarly crowd would stand up and say, "But how can anyone know what God said?"  (That sounds like something we heard back in Genesis 3, doesn't it?).  They say, "We have no idea what God really said, and the best we can get is a reliable translation."  But, this argument doesn't hold water.  If you speak English, and you have a King James Bible, you know exactly what God said!  That KJB is not only the inerrant, inspired, words of the living God, it is a miracle as it is the preserved and purified words of God!  (Ps. 12:6,7)

            For those of you who don't believe this, then let me appeal to your "scholarly" instincts.  If you listen to all the liberals, you'll hear that the "older manuscripts" are the "better manuscripts" and you need a Bible that comes from these (examples Septuagint or LXX, the texts of Origen, Westcott and Hort, Tischendorf, Tragelles, Nestle-Aland, etc).  But these so-called "better manuscripts" are only better if you are accustomed to questioning what God said, for these texts have been revised (i.e. changed!) by men who believe that their own opinions are the final authority rather than what God said! (We are speaking of men like Origen, Jerome, Tischendorf, Tregellis, Westcott, Hort, Aland, Nestle, Kittle, etc). For this reason, they have been termed "the Critical Texts."  In other words, these texts were made by men who "criticized" what God really said!

            Those responsible for these "perversions" of God's words are not interested in giving you the pure words of God.  They are only interested in being "Critical" of what God really did said.  Without shame, they change God's words to give you what they think God meant to say.  They want you to look to them as God, and worship them and their opinions rather than God and his words.  They want to to be the final authority.

            Obviously, God wouldn't give his words to a bunch of atheists or liberals to "correct" or mess with.  Jesus said in Lucas 11:28, "...Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it!"  Clearly, God gave his word to his true church (and not the Roman Catholic one either), and he used his own to preserve it. 

            Now, if you wanted to know what God really said, would you go to a secular university and ask an educated, lost man to tell you, or would you go to those that profess to be saved, and have the Holy Spirit inside of them, and ask them what God said?  I'd have to say, I'd accept the testimony of those with the "Received Text" (received by true believers throughout church history) rather than a bunch of cultist, devil worshippers (like Westcott and Hort) and liberals who make their living adding and subtracting to the words of God.  Click here to read the Truth about Westcott and Hort.

            With that in mind, I stand for the old King James that is based on those Received Texts, and I shun the "Yea hath God said, Society" with their anti-scripturally theories and "Bible-of-the-Month Club." I also reject those "Critical Texts" which used as their basis texts found in Rome and Alexandria. (You should really study those two cities sometime!  Here's a good book about it entitled "The Tale of Three Cities"). 

            To find out what God said, you'd have to look for those texts that come from where the church started (Antioch) and follow the line of true manuscripts and copies of the true word of God from there down through the centuries. These of course would be your Syrian, Byzantine, and Old Latin (not the Roman Catholic Vulgate of Jerome) manuscripts.  And these are what men like Erasmus of Rotterdam, Beza, Elziver, and more used that produced a "Reformation" and revival all over Europe during the 1500's.  It wasn't the Catholic texts that God used, it was his pure word that He protected, preserved, and revived during this time that eventually gave us our King James Bible! 

            Knowing all this, I began my preparation of going to Honduras as a Missionary (I was there 7 years), by looking for a Spanish Bible without error, that was based on the Textus Receptus text, and read with my King James Bible, and not the "Critical Texts" of men, or the Catholic denomination.  Unfortunately, during my studies of the Spanish Bible Versions I found no "perfect" Bible in the Spanish language like that of my blessed King James in English.  Click here to read the book I published in 1999 about a "Brief History of the Spanish Bible."

               The more I studied, I found that the history of the Spanish Bible is truly a tragic one.  The Spanish Bible has been dissected, mutilated, and changed many, many times over the years by many different Bible Societies, self proclaimed "scholars" and different denominational groups.  Because of this, I found that there is no "standard" Spanish version in Spanish that is perfect and without error as our blessed King James in English.  

            The first complete, whole Protestant Bible in Spanish was printed in London, England in 1569.  It was the work of Cassiodoro De Reina (a converted Catholic monk that fled from Spain and the Spanish Inquisition).  However he used, among other things, the corrupt Latin Vulgate of Jerome, and his translation was riddled with errors.  For 20 years Cipriano de Valera worked using "Received Text" manuscripts to wash the Spanish Bible from Catholic influence, and earthly wisdom.  In 1602, Valera produced the Spanish Bible that most people accepted.  The only problem was that it too contained some errors.  Because of this, during the next 400 years, it seems everyone and their grandmother tried to make their own revision of the 1602 Valera, thinking that they were "correcting" it.  Some did a good job, and made it read much better and closer to the King James and the Received Text.  Others destroyed it, and made it more of a mess than 1569 before it.  Yet they all had one thing in common.  They each thought that their version was better than everyone else's.  (For particulars, see my book "The History and Truth of the Spanish Bible Controversy.")

            Nowadays, the Spanish-speaking world is very confused about what God said.  With over 100 different translations in the Spanish language, and a new version coming out about every five years (most are based on the Critical Texts), Spanish speakers have trouble answering the question, "Which Bible in Spanish?"

            Sadly, most "Independent, Fundamental Baptist" missionaries sent to Spanish speaking countries don't even address the issue.  They jump on the band wagon of whichever group they come from, and use whatever Bible their "crowd" recommends.  Even though they will dogmatically defend the King James in English, they become inconsistent when it comes to Spanish, and say, "We'll, people are getting saved from our version, so it must be okay.  God is using it, so I will too.

            But, what if someone gets saved from an English NIV (Non Inspired Version)?  Does that mean I should use it because so and so trusted Christ from this version?  The answer is "NO!"  The NIV is corrupt!  There are over 63,000 words missing in this perversion.  It consistently attacks the deity of Christ, removes the blood, and waters down sound doctrine. Not to mention it also calls Jesus Christ the devil.  No, we should not use a Bible just because "people get saved from it."  We should study the issue and find the pure words of God without error and use them. 

          Today, the majority of Fundamentalists (maybe I should say Funnymentalists) use the 1960 version in Spanish.  But, this version is very corrupt, containing many doctrinal errors!  Click here to see some of the errors in the 1960.  It is nothing more than a glorified Revised Standard Version translated into Spanish, and its fruits have been nothing but many more numerous "watered-down" revisions of the Bible in the Spanish tongue, each one becoming increasingly more corrupt ("by their fruits ye shall know them") as each one reads closer and closer to the "Critical Texts." 

         The purpose of this website is to show the Pastor, the curious, the missionary, and the serious student the facts about the Spanish Bible Issue.   The sad truth is:  for almost 400 years, there has been no perfect Bible in the Spanish language, as we have a perfect King James Bible in English.  That is until the 1602 Purified Spanish Bible has come on the scene (Click here to read about the 1602 Purified), the work of Iglesia Bautista Biblica de la Gracia (Grace Bible Baptist Church) in Monterrey Mexico.  As a local church they worked on purifying the Spanish Bible making it come in line with the King James, the Textus Receptus Greek, the Hebrew Masoretic Text, and the original Castellan 1602.  This is the version I use and preach from.  I am also a member of this church.

         In Revelation chapter three, verses 8 and 10, God commends the Philadelphian church for keeping His words.  It is the church's job to keep the words of God. But, in this age (Laodicea), a bunch of liberal, unbelieving bible correctors are changing God's words (see Eve in Gen. 3), corrupting them (2 Cor. 2:17), and cutting them out of the text (Jer. 36), all under the guise of being "scholarly."  This things ought not to be so!

The church should guard God's pure words from the critical Bible Societies, Scholar's unions, and university professors, who wish to change them.  Sadly, most Christians don't care about God's words, fand have given away the job of preserving them to the secular world.  The modern Christian now looks to the scholar as though he was the final authority in all matters of faith and practice.  Christians are like sheep following false shepherds thinking they are "godly men," when in most cases, they are not even born again Christians (Westcott and Hort, Nestle, Tischendorf, etc).

I believe when it comes to the scriptures, the LOCAL CHURCH, made up of a body of believers, should keep, defend, and translate the word of God in order to "STUDY TO SHEW THEMSELVES APPROVED UNTO GOD" (2 Tim. 2:15).

            As a Missionary Evangelist to the Spanish Speaking People, I've studied this issue about the Spanish Bible for some time now.  I've come to the conclusion that modern Spanish Bibles are corrupt.  Many other Independent Baptists are starting to awake to this truth as well, and are asking questions about the corrupt 1960, and the old 1909.  Some are looking at the 1865, but are a bit perturbed to find that it still has "Lucero" (Lucifer) in 2 Peter 1:19.  Others are going to something like the Gomez, which is not the work of a local church, and has introduced many new 1960 words into the text, instead of keeping the good, sound original 1602 Castellan Spanish words.  And some are picking up and preaching from the 1602 PURIFIED SPANISH BIBLE.

THE 1602 PURIFIED

             Back in August of 2001, Bro. Bob Adams of W.I.N.G.S. Bearing Precious Seed told me about the 1602 Purified Spanish New Testament.  I then learned about the church behind it, and attended their Spanish Bible Conference on "the Inspiration and Preservation of the Scriptures," in Monterrey, Mexico the same year. 

            There I found a church that had not "revised" but rather "restored" the old 1602 Valera Bible by using the King James and the Greek Textus Receptus.  They also consulted many older versions on the Spanish Bible before 1602.  What they produced was a New Testament that, in my opinion, is the purest words of God to date in the Spanish language.  It not only reads more in line with the KJV than the old 1865 by Mora and Pratt, but holds to the heritage of the original 1602 of the Protestant Reformation. They did not pretend to have a new "version," but a "restoration" of the old 1602 to make it read like the Textus Receptus and King James.  

            The entire Old Testament has now been finished, and the whole 1602 Purified is now available.  They used the Masoretic Hebrew Text, and the King James as their basis, instead of the corrupt Hebrew Kittle text used by modern (per)versions.

            My desire is to take the purest words of God to the Spanish speaking people.  Having studied the issue extensively, and having written three books on the subject, I believe the 1602 Purified Spanish Bible is the right Spanish Bible!  Click here to see How to order a 1602 P.

 

THE WEBSITE

            This have been a brief introduction to the Spanish Bible Issue.  But there is far more information that I can give you.  That's why I've set up this website.  

            Please feel free to copy, distribute, print, or quote anything you find on this website about the Spanish Bible Issue.  I only want people to see the truth and understand the issue at hand.  God's word is the most important thing in all the universe.  It must be sought after, loved, kept, and distributed in all languages to all people across the globe!  How important are the words of God to you?  They mean everything to me, and I want them--all of them!

 

CLICK HERE TO GO TO SPANISH BIBLE ISSUE PAGE

 

     

"Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it."

                                                     -  Luke 11:28

 

 

 

Questions, comments, or desire more information?  Please contact me at:

Robertbreaker3@hotmail.com