OTHER ARTICLE: Hodges and Farstad (1935-1998) The Problems of the Greek Text of the N.K.J.V
VON SODEN
AVAILABLE: The Von Soden - 4 Volume Special Edition - Greek Edition of the New Testament
Rudolph Kittel (his own Words) Available by Ebook
Please Note: Updated. Von Soden is NOT a reliable Bible Translator. A Great Deal of work under his leadership was actually done by his 40 Assistants - about whom we know very little. He was Not a friend of the Textus Receptus, despite rumors to the contrary. You can find the details of the problems with Von Soden,
by consideration of the work of Herman Hoskier, a defender of Textus Receptus.
Von Soden's Greek Text is the Basis for the NKJV. It is NOT a reliable text.
SODEN, HERMANN, FREIHERR VON (1852- ), German biblical scholar, was born in Cincinnati on the 16th of August 1852, and was educated in Germany at the University of Tubingen. He was minister of Dresden-Striesen in 1881 and in 1887 became minister of the Jerusalem Church in Berlin. In 1889 he became privatdozent in the university of Berlin, and four years later was appointed "extraordinary professor" of divinity.
Von Soden introduces, besides a new notation of MSS. (see Bible, NT. MSS. and versions), a new theory of textual history. He thinks that in the 4th century there were in existence three recensions of the text, which he distinguishes as K, H and I, with the following characteristics and attestations.
K corresponds roughly to Westcott and Hort’s Syrian Antiochian text; it was ‘probably made by Lucian in the 4th century. This was in the end the most popular form of text, and is found in a more or less degenerate state in all late MSS. The purest representatives are 61(tl), 75 (V), 92, (461), 94, 1027 (S), 1126 (476’-scrivener’s) 179 (66,). Later recensions of K are called K" and K’, and there are also others of less importance which represent the combination of K with other texts. H represents Westcott and Hort’s "Neutral" and Alexandrian texts
between which von Soden does not distinguish.It is found in eleven MSS. in varying degrees of purity: SI(B), 12 (ai),t53 (C), 16 (‘I’), 148 (33), 26 (Z), 56 (L), 76 (~~) 1026 (892), 371 (1241) [Vaticanus] and 376 (5l). Between these MSS. there is no, very intimate connexion except between I I and I 2 (B and s) which represent a common original (p2). ‘I1~ is the best representative of H, but it has been contaminated by the Egyptian versions, and sometimes by the K and I texts and by Origen, though not to any great extent.
The other H MSS. are none of them equal in value to the two great uncials. They have all been influenced by K, I, and by the text ofparallel passages, to a greater extent than Ie’i, or than either of the two witnesses to 1’°, but some of them have ‘less Egyptian corruption'.
The origin of the H text must be regarded as unquestionably Egyptian, [read: Alexandrian] in view of the fact that it was used by all the Egyptian Church writers after the end of the 3rd century,’ and von Soden adopts the well-known hypothesis, first made popular by Bousset, that it represents the recension of Hesychius.
It does not quite formally correspond to Westcott and Hort’s system, but has many points of contact with their own " Western " text. It is found in a series of subgroups of MSS. known as H’, J, I", and others of less importance (about eleven subgroups are suggested)., Of these Hr is a family containing Cod. land its allies (1254, 346, 1457, 1467, &c.), 288 (22) and some allied MSS. 203 (872), 183 and 131; J is the well-known Ferrar group; and J contains 15 (D), 93 (565), 133 (700), i68 (28), 050 and some others. It is necessary to note that von Soden is able to place D in this group because he regards it as owing many of its most remarkable readings to contamination with the Latin version. I is, according to von Soden, a recension connected with Eusebius, and Origen.
After establishing the text of I, H and K, von Soden reconstructs an hypothetical text, I-H-K, which he believes to have been their ancestor. He then tries to show that this text was known to all the writers of the 3rd and 2nd centuries, but has naturally to account for the fact that the quotations of these writers and the’text of the early versions often diverge from it. The explanation that he offers is that the Diatessaron of Tatian was widely used and corrupted all extant texts, so that the Old Syriac, the Old Latin, the quctations of Irenaeus, Clement, Tertullian and others may be regarded as various combinations of the Tatianic text and I-H-K. Finally, he tries to show that the Tatianic text is itself in the main merely a corrupt form of I-H-K altered in order to suit the necessities of Tatian’s plan.
We have been unable to find any statement by Von Soden concerning any personal belief or acceptance of the Bible or the claims of Jesus Christ. Anyone who knows of such claims by Von Soden. please direct our attention to that information.
These days, the work of Von Soden greatly influenced the text of Hodges and Farstad. Von Soden collated only about 440 manuscripts, out of more than 5000 Biblical Manuscripts. He used - AT MOST - 10% of the Biblical manuscripts but left out 90
%. In other words, Von Soden left out the Majority of the Biblical Greek Manuscripts.And even the work of Von Soden is what is REPORTED to have been done, not what has actually been DEMONSTRATED to have been accomplished. Very few people have access to the materials used by Von Soden.
It is therefore practically impossible to verify which manuscripts he claimed to have consulted.
The Issue no one talks about
The problem with the Von Soden work is that it is not HIS OWN. Being a German Professor, he had access to many assistants. These assistants were an INTEGRAL part of the work that was eventually printed (though rare now) as the Von Soden Collation.
Rather than helping the issue of Textual Criticism, the use of "assistants" by Von Soden raises many questions that are important to the End Product of the Von Soden Collation, and therefore also the NKJV that is derived from Von Soden's work.
Questions that affect the NKJV "Translation" - What do we know about Von Soden's "assistants" ?
Who were they ?
What were their names ?
Were they saved ? Did Von Soden require of ANY of his assistants for them to make a personal profession of Faith in Jesus Christ BEFORE they were accepted to work on the Von Soden Collation ?
If they were NOT saved, but then were working on the collation of the Greek Texts of the New Testament, How did their LACK of internation regeneration by the Holy Spirit, affect their DISCERNMENT and their ability to make the distinction between an accurate Greek manuscript and one that was a fraudulent manuscript ?
What were their academic careers ?
The von Soden translation appeared in Germany in 1911/1914. Does this mean that those "assistants" were still alive, around 15 years later, when Hitler began taking power in 1933 ?
How did those "assistants" fare in the Germany of those days ?
What was their political stand ?
Did they retain their academic positions ?
Did they loose those positions ?
The Atmosphere and overwhelming influence of Anti-god and Anti-Jesus Textual Critics was very strong in Germany from the 1840s onward. Those academics trained most of the leaders of the earlier generation to ATTACK the Bible and its inspiration, and to use all means and methods to accomplish this. A small part of their work is described in the 500 pages book Ravenous Wolves - History of German Theology in the 19th Century by Lichtenberger [which we offer, in EBOOK PDF INSTANT DOWNLOAD - Click here for info page].
Von Soden was a German Textual Critic who worked in the German University System. He would have been right in the midst of these debates about the Inspiration of the Bible. There is very little record about which position Von Soden took on these issues. That should serve as a basis to ask many More questions, not fewer.
There is One very serious Work that has taken Von Soden to task for his reliance on Subverted and Altered Greek Manuscripts in addition to his own rules which he applied to his own collation [or his assistants did] - very Inconsistently.
There are THREE Manuscripts that are described in the work of Hoskier.
Hoskier - in his 2-Volume work - Codex B and its allies - Refutes 3 Manuscripts:
1. Codex Vaticanus
2. Codex Sinaiticus, AND
3. The Collation of Von Soden
Those who want to understand the impact of Von Soden on the NKJV will Not be able to accurately evaluate the Scope of the problem, without recourse to Codex B and its allies. (We offer it as a two volume set and as an 2 Ebook Downloads).
Despite these problems, Hodges and Farstad decided to call their Von Soden Greek New Testament "The MAJORITY TEXT". This is not an accurate claim, but it did help them promote their Von Soden based Translation.
Historically ,the Majority Text has always been the Received Text, better known as the Textus Receptus.
The Claims made by Hodges and Farstad will only serve the purposes of Westcott & Hort, to confuse the landscape of Greek Manuscripts, which depart from the Bible and the Greek Textus Receptus.
And Since Hoskier was a friend of the Textus Receptus, many questions about Hodges and Farstad are left unanswered by their decision to lean on Manuscripts that were known to have serious problems with the manner in which those were assembled and collated by Von Soden.
Sources: Ravenous Wolves: Textual Criticism and the Abandonement of the Reformation- A History of HIgher Criticism and German Theology by Lichtenberger. In addition, the works of the subjects of this biography, and Early Editions of Ency. Brit.
IF YOU ARE REALLY SERIOUS
IF YOU REALLY WANT THE NKJV GREEK TEXT WITH ORIGINAL NOTES
AND COMPREHENSIVE APPARATUS
IF YOU WANT THE ORIGINAL UNFILTERED, UNEDITED WORK OF PROFESSOR VON SODEN,
THAT IS THE BASIS AND THE ROOT TEXT UPON WHICH THE NKJV DEPENDS AND IS BASED ON
THIS 4 VOLUME SET IS AVAILABLE in PDF Format for DOWNLOAD
FREE GENEVA BIBLE NEW TESTAMENT (1560) IN PDF
The Von Soden - 4 Volume Special Edition [BAD] Greek Edition of the New Testament
We offer The Revision Revised by John Burgon as a PDF Ebook for FREE.
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The Real Question is what are you going to do with the information that was presented in this article.
Is the Information True ?
Is the Information Accurate ?
Is the Information documented ?
Do I - before God - have a responsibility if I am a Christian to accept and act on the information in this article ?
Am I comfortable in the knowledge, that some leaders under the guise of clarifying the text of the Bible, are actually changing that text, and changing MY understanding of what God wants to share with me through His Holy Word, the Old Testament and the New Testament ?
Do I understand that these "small" changes number from the hundreds to the THOUSANDS depending on which Modern Versions I use, and that these changes serve to cut away the clarity and the specific understanding found in the Greek New Testament, that these new modern versions are preventing me from understanding ?
Do I understand that most of these new Modern Versions were not developed because there was a genuine need, but because the teams of Bible Translators were Hired by PUBLISHING companies who are eager to make a profit on the Word of God, which remains the Number ONE bestseller every week of every year, and that these Publishers decided to cash in ?
Do I understand that the problem was that if these Bible Adjusters and Correctors did NOT make the changes that they chose to, that they would not be able to claim copyright protection, and therefore they would not be able to make a financial Profit from their new versions ?
Do I understand that there are Spiritual Forces that want to prevent me from having GREATER spiritual understanding about God, but that God himself is always in MORE of a hurry than I am, for Me to get to know HIM ?
Do I realize what my personal state of preparation will be, within me, when Islam becomes the Dominant Religion in the United States, as it is already in Europe, and how I will personally be required to defend my Faith, by argument and persuasion, using knowledge of the Bible and of History and of Christianity, and that God will rightly hold me accountable because I am claiming to be His Child and a personal follower of Jesus Christ ?
In view of these facts, should I try to set aside more time for the study of the Word of God, and more time for the study of History and the true history of the Christian Church, and to learn about how other Christians in the past, actually learned to have and to gain GREAT spiritual strength ?
If no one reaches out to help prepare me for the coming challenges, whose job is it STILL for me to be prepared to answer these challenges and questions ?
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