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Acts 17:1-3 - Part I (Research material) - Corps Notes - October 26, 1976

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Publication Date: 10-26-2019

On Ephesians 4:25 where I want to begin tonight, or where we will begin tonight , the first part of what the Research Team gave me is the work that Walter Cummins published in our wonderful Way Magazine on "The Spoken Word." Also, as we cover Ephesians 4:28 tonight, I had all the information in front of me from another article that Walter Cummins has in the... has had in the Magazine. The first article on Ephesians 4:25 is entitled "The Spoken Word." The one on Ephesians 4:28 is "Workers for God." Both of these pieces of work by Walter are absolutely superb. And I believe that they should appear and will appear in our research journal GMIR whenever we begin publishing that. {GMIR Aramaic word meaning ' to perfect, accomplish , mature, complete, arithmetically to be divisible without any remainder.}

And I noticed again that some of the things that were stated are just so beautifully and logically presented, I'm truly thankful for, not only Walter, but the whole Research Department. I think our Biblical Research Department is just second to none. And it' s even going to be better by God' s mercy and grace next year and in years to come than it is at this time. And right now I do not believe that our Biblical Research Department needs to take a back seat for any academic institution or work in the world.

And I thought today, I have never... I've never thought of Walter Cummins in any other capacity than to be my assistant. I know Vince Finnegan, you know, on the books is my assistant. And that' s great. But I've never thought of Walter Cummins in any other capacity for so many years as always being my assistant. And I think he' s just the most wonderful person that any president could have as his assistant. And also to be chairmen of the Department of Greek, and then the coordinator of the Biblical research of The Way International. For any one man to have that position and that responsibility is an awesome reality and I'm real proud of Walter and real thankful for him. But I am also thankful for the rest of our wonderful men and women in the Research Department.

I would like for the Corps all over the country to go to the Magazine and find "The Spoken_Word," that's the title of it, dealing with Ephesians 4:25 and other scriptures, and before the next Corps meeting next week, you endeavor to master that great piece of work by Walter Cummins. It's just, you know, the spoken Word. Over fifty Greek words are used in the New Testament in connection with the faculties of utterance. Over fifty. And then he takes the most important ones and he lists them and it' s just. .. it' s just a piece of research work that you should really as a Corps master in your heart and in your life.

Ephesians 4:25 in the King James reads, Wherefore put away lyin g, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.

The ' putting away' was interesting to me again because of the Greek word aniko, a-n-i-k-o.

And this word is ' the putting away,' this word ' put away,' aniko, is the same root word as in 4:22, where we use the word ' rest,' meaning ' to rest.' Is that right? Yep, that is right. I taught you that,

didn't I? Did I or didn't I? Doesn't look right to me. It is the same root. What chapter am I missing? Am I missing anything? I don't know. Right now I'm screwed up, ha ha. First time today. You check the word again and I'll do that, too and see what I'm missing here.

But a-n-i-k-o is the word for ' putting away from you. ' To put away. And it' s the same root as the word ' rest.' I don't know where the word appears, but it's got to be in there.

Now, that word ' speak,' every man speak. That word ' speak ' is from the Greek word

laleo, l-a-l-e-long-o. And that' s where Walter' s article on "The Spoken Word"_c omes in because that is.. .he uses that word laleo in here, which I teach in Corinthians when I teach the Foundational Class. And he says the word is employed 24 times in I Corinthians chapter 14. I had forgotten that.

This word is truly significant. I couldn' t quite understand it Research Department, what  you said on page 26B 16, where you defined it ' to make vocal utterance,' ' to babble,' 'to talk,'  'to  exercise the faculty of speech without reference to the words spoken.' I just wondered if there might not be another word that could be substituted or utilized at this point. I know that Zachariah 8:16 is the quotation that is used here, or spoken of. And that Zachariah 8:16 adds force to what is said by using a quote, a quotation. That' s why my question to the Research Department is, How can it be without reference to what is spoken if it is truth plus the quotation of the Word of God that's given. It doesn't quite fit for me.

'With his neighbor' has to be a believing neighbor. This 'speak truth with his neighbor' is a figure of speech gnome, g-n-o-m-e, which simply is a citation. And that' s a citation from Zachariah 8:16.

There are a series of figures of speech, Corps, in chapter four which just put the 00mph, the highlight, to the particular things that are set whereby you put off the old man. This phrase here 'speak every man truth with his neighbor'  is one of them. The other one appears in verse 26, 'be  angry and sin not.' ' Steal no more' is another one. 'Corrupt communication' is the fourth one.  'Grieve not the  holy spirit' is the fifth one. ' All bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking' is  the sixth. And  then  ' be kind' and so forth, is the seventh.

You see, the last phrase in that verse, in King James, For we' re members one of what? [Another] And it' s relative to the neighbor. Now you just look at that. Wherefore put away  lying, speak  every  man truth with his what? [Neighbor] For we are members  one of  another.  That  doesn't  mean just  a neighbor who lives next door, but it has to be a believing neighbor because  we are members  one of what? [Another]. You could not be a member ' one of another' ifhe  was an  unbeliever.  That's how I know this is going to  work. This tells me that the neighbor  is  a  believer.  And  this  ' we' re members one of another' continues the imagery of the Body of Christ.

The literal  according  to  usage of this verse is as follows:   Wherefore  put away the  lie... and I believe in my heart, before I go on with the literal that until man is born again, it's all a lie anyways. And that' s why I believe that this translation will fit in the light of that knowledge. Because when  a man is not born again, his whole  life is just a  lie. Now you're  born again,  and that ' s  why  I think the text states it ' wherefore put away the lie,' the life you' ve been living , the screwed up life you have lived outside of God. It' s been just a life of a lie. It' s not truth. It' s just the opposite of truth and that's my reason for translating it this way... Wherefore put away the lie.

You've got to go with that translation. You have no other text to go by both from Aramaic and Greek it's 'lie.' Not 'lying.' If the Research Department has anything to share in the light of that, I'd be blessed to hear, but you' ve heard my reasons for translating it, Research Department, this way.

Now since they're born again, their whole life is changed, so the life of lying, and living a lie, and being a lie, and being false, is to be put away.

And every man... this is the translation ... and everyone, everyone. The word ' man' you could use because it's an inclusive noun, but I prefer to use the word ' one.'

Wherefore put away the lie and everyone speak the truth with his neighbor for we are members one of another. That is literal according to usage.

Now for the expanded according to understanding. It's not bad. Because of this... What we coughing for? Everybody sick?...Because of this... and the reason I went in the expanded along this line is because verse 24 last week told us that we are created by God in righteousness and in true purity, through holiness. Twenty four.

That's why 25, Wherefore ... 'wherefore' can be translated 'because of this.' Because of this what? Being created in righteousness and truly pure. See it's an inside job.

Because of this being created in righteousness and truly pure by the grace and the love of

God.. .Because of this being created in righteousness and truly pure, you put away, completely lay to rest the lie that you have been and were living and each one of you speak the truth using a quotation from the Word with his believing neighbor for we are members one of another in the Body of the Church.

Robinson {Edward} said, he translated, 'speak every man truth with his neighbor' and he said it's from Zachariah 8:16 which adds force to what is said by using a quote. That's why I translated that. I think that' s great. It adds force to what is said. If you're speaking to someone, it adds force to what you say by using a quote, a quotation from God's Word. In other words, ' you share the Word with them.' That' s why I went with that translation. I want to give it to you again in this sense.

Speak the truth using a quotation from the Word, which means 'share the Word.' Quote the Word to them. Tell them what the Word says, with his believing neighbor. Why? For we are members one of another in the Body of the Church. This verse is just mind blowing.

Here, you have a born-again believer neighbor who needs to grow up a little more. So what do you do? Each one speak the truth to that neighbor, that believer, using the Word, quoting the Word because we' re members one of another in the Body of the Church. It's a real positive thing to do.

Verse 26 in King James reads, Be angry.. .ha ha... we like that one, don't we. Be ye angry and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.

Here is a verse of Scripture that' s very, very difficult for most people. And it' s not too easy for us either. But I think we are able to share the truth of the greatness of this and it's been burning in my heart for a long time to do this with our people.

Everybody has problems with ' how can you be angry and not sin?' You know, how can raise hell with something and not be sinful in doing it? Teed off and not be sinful. And how can you go... and what does it mean 'don't let the sun go down upon your wrath?' See.

In the context, here, verses 26 and 27 deal with your believing neighbor, specifically. Then the Greek word for ' anger' which is from the root orge, o-r-g-long-e means 'anger together with the desire of revenge .' That' s bad. That' s a heavy. The Hebrew word means ' to kill, and all the tumults of passion that terminate in killing.' So it's a real heavy word when it said ' be angry.'

And the way I believe it's used in God' s Word, ' be ye angry' means ' it's a long time anger with your believing neighbor until a change has ensued.' The desire to... of revenge is a change. And I, knowing the Word in the light of the new birth, it's where a change finally comes about. Until that time, you just, long-term, you just stay put witnessing the Word, sharing the Word. You do not dislike the believing neighbor; you simply dislike that he is not fully accepting the Word and walking on it. So it' s a long-term anger until a change has ensued. You just stay faithful.

I don't know what else to do with those words. It is a righteous anger. Yet it is a righteous anger without sin.

Among the scholars, there is a disagreement on these words. Well, I don't know about my being a scholar; that I don' t anything about being about. But it's simple to me because righteous anger is commanded by God's Word when it says ' be ye angry.' Well, the scholars can fight about it. I don' t care. It' s a command. Not just permitted to get teed once in a while when somebody' s off of God' s Word, a believer is off of God's Word. You' re always teed off righteously at any believer, born-again believer, who is off of God' s Word. And for those of us in the Way Ministry, it' s been a lifetime.

Get into it with them on... Oh what subject do you want to talk about? Baptism? Food? One God? See. All that stuff.

The Aramaic is accurate in the words ' and sin not.' It literally translates ' and you will not sin.' Again, this ' be angry and sin not' is that figure gnome. Quotation. A citation from the Old Testament. It' s from Psalm 4:4. But in King James, Psalm 4:4, it's translated 'stand in awe.' The real sense of the Hebrew is ' one of admonition;' sin not. Where we' re admonished to not sin. Sin not.

' Let not the sun go down on your wrath. ' Ha ha. That again is beautiful. People went to bed when the sun went down, when it got dark. That's when they went to bed. So what that simply is saying, ha ha, ' don't go to bed teed off.' Don' t let the sun go down on your wrath. In other words, go to bed; don' t go to bed mad. ' When you go to bed' is what it means. Let not the sun go down when you go to bed. And they went to bed when the sun went down. When it got dark, they went to bed, see.

' Upon your wrath.' And the word ' wrath' here is basically ' irritation.' Ha ha. Previously when I taught Ephesians, I made mention of this fact, ' don' t let righteous anger shake you, wondering if it was right on. When you go to bed, go to sleep.'

Now, this is what we have done with it in the literal, ha ha, according to usage. I got more papers up here than Carter has liver pills, or something. Then, I can' t find my... whatever it is I take off of it.

Okay, verse 26. You be righteously angry.. .this is literal according to usage.. .and you will not be sinning. Don't go to bed even with a momentary irritation, ha ha.

I don't think you get nearly as much fun out of this as I do. It's neat. It's absolutely scrumptious, see. At the opening, is that heavy word, remember? Anger. So it's a real heavy time. So what he is saying, in the heavy time, when your standing on God' s Word  and sharing that with the  believing  neighbor, you' re righteously angry... you're not sinning. And  you don't  even go to  bed with a momentary irritation. In other Words, when you go to bed, thank God the day is over. Say your last prayer and start snoring.

Boy, that would save a lot of sleeping pills, wouldn' t it? Practicing that principle. Boy, oh boy, what a tremendous Word. And hardly anybody understands verse 26. They argue about it, but they don' t get the understanding.

Now this is the expanded one according to understanding, I hope. And again, I would like to just lay some things before the Corps, and especially before the Research Department. I translated the first part of verse 26, You always stay angry with an all-out desire to have them to change which anger will not be sin on your part.

Then I have another translation of that first part of it: You be righteously angry, 'teed off' with sin... 'Teed off' I put in quotes. But don't  you sin  by acting  ' holier than thou'  vaunting  yourself  by acting so righteously like you never sin.

I do not know which one of those two the Research Department feels would be the better. The last part of the phrase that I translated which would go with both of these that I have given you here on the expanded one for understanding. This, the last part, goes with that first one and with the second ... also.. .even if it is only a momentary irritation.  When you go to  bed, go to sleep. That's what I did with it.

Now, verse 27. King James says, Neither (or neither) give place to the Devil. The word 'place' is simply a portion, a part. No believer will give full place to the Devil, but he may be giving a part, a portion. He' ll mark off a spot, ' this is Devil' s permission over here, over here, no permission, you know. And you really give the Devil a portion or a spot if you stew about it after you go to bed and you toss and you tum and can' t sleep.

This word 'the Devil,' ' the Devil' in the Aramaic is a very interesting and exciting Word to me and it blesses my heart. It' s a compound word where the first part means ' to eat' or ' to devour.' The latter

' to slander' or ' to accuse. '  So when I got to translating  this, literally according  to usage, verse 27 reads: Do not give any portion or space or an opportunity to the Devil. So I used those three words synonymously: portion, space, opportunity. Do not give any portion or space or an opportunity to the Devil.

The expanded according to understanding: And you will not give a toehold, an opportunity or an occasion for the Devil to eat you. Ha ha. I get more fun than you ever will out of working this stuff, huh.

You see, and to me, that communicates to my understanding. John 10:10. The thief cometh not but for to what? [Steal, kill, and destroy] Right. To eat you out. To beat you. And that's why that Aramaic word, on the word ' Devil' really thrilled me.

And that ' s why I put it into the expanded translation: And you will not give a ' toehold.' Now, at L.E.A.D., you know how important it is to get a what? [Toehold] Ha ha. And when you' re really climbing in, you' re blessed for a toehold. How thankful you are when you get a foothold. Now the adversary can never get a foothold in a believer' s life until he first has a toehold. That's why I translated it that way.

Do not give... and you will not give a toehold ... shave all the rocks off... an opportunity or an occasion for the Devil to eat you. And that' s exactly what he likes to do to believers.

Now we go to verse 28. King James says, Let him that stole steal not more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. And here again, is another great work that I believe should be in our research journal GMIR, Walter' s work on " Workers for God."

It' s just tremendous where he... you know... he just goes into God' s men are called many things in the Word. They' re called: fellow workers, ministers, or servants, slaves, fellow slaves, partners, messengers, soldiers, fellow soldiers, athletes, fellow athletes, stewards, ambassadors, witnesses, all of those. And he covers them so beautifully. And I love very much how he covered the word ' slave,' because it' s a much stronger word than to be a minister, or to be a servant. It is to be one who is branded, marked out, sold out. And baby, from that day on, there are no ifs, and' s, or but' s. You never budge on it. You are branded. Most believers are never branded. They may be servants, they may be ministers, but they are not branded. When you' re branded, you stay faithful. You do not budge. You do not change. You stay put. If all hell breaks loose, you still live the believing Word.

I think the prophet once said, If I was in the midst of hell, God I know you' d be there. (Psalm 139:8) He' d be there. That' s the doulos. That, of course, is just a tremendous piece of work.

And the other great part that I think... and this is a second piece that I want the Corps to master before next Wednesday night, " Workers for God," the work on ' witness.' You see, it's the same word basically that's translated ' martyr,' see. And we got a lot of those canonized. That's not at all what a witness is. A witness is a living example, not a dead one. The word 'martyr' simply means that you lay down your life in witnessing. And boy, when you put the doulos together with ' witness,' then you' ve got power for abundant living. It's just a fantastic work by Walter and I' m real grateful that it was published. Because once it' s in print, people can take a look at it if they want to.

I'd like a cup of coffee, please.

Now, we are in verse 28. The Aramaic translation is ' and he who was stealing.' I understand it from the English, ' let him that stole,' past tense. The Aramaic is real simple, real strong. ' And he, the one who is born again, who was, past tense, stealing.'

Thank you.

His whole life was one of those before he was born again.

Whenever you bring a cup of coffee to a right-hand man, you put the handle to the right. When you serve a cup of coffee to a left-hand man, you put it on the left-hand side and put the handle to the left. Corps principle number seven or something, ha ha. Mrs. Wierwille would say, Well, be thankful you even get a cup of coffee. [Laughter] Ah, you're wonderful.

See, ' let him who stole, steal no more.' 'Stole and steal,' that' s a figure of speech and is polyptoton p-o-l-y-p-t-o-t-o-n. It' s a repetition of the same root word in different parts of speech or reflections. But, that's not earth shaking right now in my heart.

You see, in some Eastern culture, it was not considered a sin or a shame to steal because that's the way they lived, the only way they lived. Somebody told me... or not only told me, one of our people, but it was in a national magazine, that the basic culture of Russia today is to steal. And in some respects I can understand this. If you don't have anything and you're starving to death and there' s a loaf of bread you can get a hold of... steal the dam thing. I understand that.

So this verse is really sharp, really sharp. Let him who stole, even though that man previously considered it the way to live and there was no shame in it, no sin in it. He said, Well, let that fellow who stole, steal no more. Something has happened on the inside of that man. Something that happened, where He is able to meet all of our need according to His riches in glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory. More than conquerors.

A record in the Old Testament, I forget where it is, but it's in there, that it' s never, you never need to borrow or steal bread or... what is that in the Old Testament? Begging bread. One person stand and tell me. {Psalm 37:25, I have been young and now am old; yet have I seen the righteous forsaken, nor His seed begging bread.} Psalm 27:25 who? {Psalm 37:25} 37:25. All the years, he's never seen the righteous to have to do what? {Beg bread} Beg bread.

First of all, I wish the Christian world could hear this. Secondly, I wish our government in the United States could understand it. The Word says, If you don't work, you don' t eat. A lot of that stuff. Well, what we've been doing is stealing from the people who are willing to work to give to the people who don' t want to work. That's a bunch of crap. That's stealing. That's why this verse is so hot in my soul tonight. Let him who stole, quit stealing, dang it. See.

Many years ago I was really knocked for a loop along some of this line in India, from Dr. Williams. I think he loved India maybe like I love the United States, I don' t know. Because only a man knows how much he loves his own country, I guess.

But... as we were traveling together, he said to me, Dr. Wierwille, I hear you have whores in the United States.

You know, I never had given it a thought. I just took it for granted. [Laughter] And I said, yeah. He said, Why does a rich country like the United States have whores?

And I said, I don't know.

And he said, I can't understand it. Cannot your women make enough money to live? Yeah, but they figure that' s cheaper and more pleasurable or something, I don' t know. And he said, Well, I think it's sinful that the United States has whores.

And I said, What do you mean?

And he said to me, why, I can understand India. He said we don' t enough food, we don' t have enough of anything hardly for a lot of people. And we have whores because that' s the only way they can continue to live physically.

And I thought to myself, well boy, that' s slapping me in the face good. And I took it as a wonderful lesson. There is no excuse in the United States for any women being a whore because she doesn' t need to get screwed and paid for it in order to get money so she can live. There's plenty of work available and if there isn' t she ought to get born again, then there' s a guarantee of work. ..other work, available. I tell you, when you' re honest, some of these men in other countries have some real logic behind their thinking. How would you have liked to have handled that? I just simply admitted, Well, I think we' re wrong in the United States. But I said, I think you' re wrong in India, too, because no reason to have whores here if you get them born again.

So I don' t know. But this verse today as I worked the final working on this verse 28 is when my heart really went back and burned with that truth that Dr. Williams had stated. Because in many Eastern cultures, it was not considered as sin or as shame to steal, if it was a matter of livelihood. You sometimes wonder who will live in the greatest condemnation before God and justice and judgment when the time comes.

For in most of what are called poor countries even, there is sufficient money, food, and other things for the people to live if those in positions of authority were not so selfish and egotistical, and want it for themselves , and let the rest of the world die... or a country die.

The word ' labor' in verse 28 is the word which literally means ' hard work resulting in fatigue.' That's how I felt coming from the woods last night. And I didn' t do anything. It was just hard work being there with the rest of you. Today I got so tired of being with some, I came home. Ah, you' re wonderful.

' Working with his hands' is an Eastern cultural type of thing. Today in our culture, you could have it, you know, the truth is working with your mind or working with your hand, whatever you' re working at. But in Eastern culture, every son was to be trained to work with his hands, even if he was the son of a king. Had to learn a trade, a profession of business.

Jesus Christ was a saddle maker. He made them to ride, I guess, what do you want? Tennessee Walkers , or? See. I think not only did he do that, Paul did it, too, you know. Someday I'm going to find a...or Walter, or some of those, are going to find me a manuscript to prove it. .. and a wonderful carpenter by trade. Many times doing carpentry work and being a saddle maker were sort of in the same household, because building carpentry and having saddles to use for their business and carrying on, were very, very closely aligned. Well, I won' t argue the point, but I wish we' d keep looking.

II Thessalonians.. .Do your hands ever get so dry you can hardly hold anything? Golly, mine are so dry tonight, I wonder why? II Thessalonians, chapter 3:10... this we commanded you that if any would not work, neither should he what? [Eat] Right. Even unemployment is no excuse for stealing. He just doesn' t eat. Goes and gets work. Boy, when I first saw the greatness of these principles many years ago, and then of course, I uniquely by God' s grace, inculcated that into our W.O.W. program and very dynamically in the Corps leadership.

Acts 17:1-3
October 26, 1976
Part I (Research material)
You see, through the years, the Word and its depth just began to grow on me gradually. What I’m
going to do here tonight, I could not have done thirty years ago. I could have shown you a little of
what I was doing, but I could not have done in totality, naturally, what I’m going to do tonight
because I’ve got thirty years more experience in it and learning.
I’m going to try tonight, and this is most unusual when I do this (this is like laying my heart all open
and all of you walk all over the thing). I’m going to try to show you how I work the Word before I
come to teach you or any of the other people in the Corps at anytime, and about a lot of other things
that may enter in.
I would not expect you to be able to do, at the present moment, what I am capable of doing. Not
because of my egotistical position, but because, after all, if you’ve had thirty to forty years working
something, and you had only one year; it would seem axiomatic if you keep working that the man
who has worked thirty years should have a little more knowledge than the fellow who has just been
in it six months or a year. And, of course, when you work long enough you retain some things in
your mind, then when you hit the same wording, the same usage of words, the same construction,
later in the Word, you don’t always have to check it out and refer back to it because of your recall.
And, of course, after all of these years and stuff, many times I don’t have to go back to checking
things if I am just generally teaching.
But, when I teach the Corps, it’s usually different, where again I do the one thing that I love to do
and that is just to take it word by word and line by line. And I check and I double check if I have any
question whatsoever or if I feel that there’s more needed or that I maybe could give you more, share
more with you. Because, sooner or later, some of you are going to have to come up having, not only
a little of the knowledge I have and stuff that I know about the Word, but to develop it even further. I
don’t know where it’s going to go, but I just know that these are some of the things that you have to
come to.
And, well, I was asking about this II Corinthians 4. We’re going to work Acts 17 tonight sometime
between now and midnight but I just don’t do things like this, because I... Just like now, I’m all
nervous about this thing and that’s not me. But you see, this is--I just don’t do this to myself, because
ordinarily, when I want to work the Word, I literally put myself behind closed doors, so to speak, or,
as the scripture says, if you want to pray, you go in your closet, in the gospels. (Matthew 6:6) I
isolate myself. And boy, then I just stay my mind on the Word. Even phone calls or anything else,
unless they are emergencies, I just forget about them. And, it’s difficult for me to do this in your
presence because I’m just not used to it. In other words, I’m just not exposed to this kind of thing.
But, I thought if I could show you a little bit, even if I don’t do very much with you tonight. At least
you will see that this ministry does have some depth in it, beyond anything that almost anybody
knows in the ministry except you people who have lived with us and worked with us and seen it.
Now, I am thinking, even like my Walter, and kids in the Corps, 1st Corps, who have known me all
these years.
II Corinthians 4:l-2:
Therefore ‘seeing we have’ [having] this ministry, as we ‘have’ [omit have] received mercy,
we faint not;
But have renounced the ‘hidden things of dishonesty’ [shameful secret things], not walking in
craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth (by
manifestation of the Word of God that we teach) commending ourselves to every man's
conscience in the sight of God.
And this, of course, as many of you know has just been my love in my heart. “Not handling the Word
of God deceitfully,” which indicates that it is possible to do what? Handle it deceitfully. And the very
thing that they accuse me of doing is the very thing that’s the opposite of which brought me to the
ministry of the integrity and accuracy of the Word. I found it was being handled deceitfully; time and
time again they were even doing this without knowledge that they were doing it. They meant well.
They were sincere. But sincerity is no guarantee of truth. And we are to study to show ourselves
approved to God, not men, by rightly dividing the Word, because it is His Word. And we do not
handle the Word of God deceitfully, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of
God.
And therefore the only way people can ever really know is to sit where you’re sitting, for instance, or
to live where you live and make up their mind whether we’re handling the Word deceitfully or
whether we are endeavoring to rightly divide it to show ourselves approved unto God and not unto
men.
Last Saturday, at the meeting with the Minnesota Harvesters, I opened with chapter 4 and 5 of II
Corinthians. It’s very, very timely. As I said, I wouldn’t expect you to be able to do what I can do
many times in the Word, as I said, because of my years of working it.
On this particular desk here, I have the basic things that I carry in the motor coach. This is with me
all the time except for this particular Bible which happens to be with me wherever I go. This is basic
to me. Ninety-five percent or more of the things that I need to cover or handle at anytime with the
Way Corps or in a public meeting, I have access to in the motor coach. It’s not very much. But, one
of the reasons I do not need much more is because of other things that I have in my mind that are not
laid out here on this particular table.
1) Greek Text - always available to me
2) Bible Dictionary
3) Regular Dictionary
4) Young’s Analytical Concordance
5) Bullinger’s Figures of Speech – this I do not use a great deal unless it’s a real in-depth thing I want
to do on figures of speech.
6) Bullinger’s Bible - I always have this when I work. One of the reasons I like it, is because
Bullinger gives me a lot of Greek words quickly and he gives me access to information
quickly.
I have found, in my years of working, that it is a way whereby I can facilitate my working of
the Word. I believe Bullinger was one of the great Bible students of all time. Naturally there
are a few places where I believe that our spiritual perception has some additions or changes
to make. I’ve often felt that if men like he and I could have sat together and talked over some
of these tremendous things; I wonder if both of us would not have grown immensely. I’ve
never considered myself to be a scholar. I think Bullinger was. Dr. Ginsberg, who collected
the work on the Masorah, contributed much toward the acquisition of the materials in figures
of speech so this could be compiled and put together as Dr. Bullinger did it. These were
scholars, great men of great ability. They were not endeavoring to handle the Word of God
deceitfully. They were endeavoring to rightly divide it. I feel that Dr. Bullinger lost the
greatness of the Holy Spirit field because of the things he saw in the senses world that he
could not reconcile himself with; the shouting, the clapping, the laying on the floor, the
speaking in tongues.
7) Bullinger’s Critical Greek Lexicon and Concordance
8) The Analytical Greek Lexicon
9) Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible – I read it less and less; it’s such fine print
This is a small portion of what I have in my personal library:
These six books I have read and re-read to teach the Book of Acts:
1) The Apostle of Reconciliation by Charles Welch. Welch took over after Dr. Bullinger died, in the
Berean Publishing Trust. Dr. Welch is dead now.
2) Handbook of Biblical Chronology by Finegan.
3) Life and Epistles of Paul by Conybeare and Howson.
4) Paul of Tarsus, His Life and Teaching.
5) International Revision Commentary on Acts
6) The Acts of the Apostles, Volume 5. - by Philip Schaff, a fine Bible scholar. Schaff and Walker
did histories of the Christian Church. When you read these Church histories, you have the
occidental view of the best there is. I read this completely before I stared teaching Acts to
you.
These are different translations of The Bible or The New testament. This makes it possible for me to
look at any one of these translations if I run into a complication where the Word doesn’t fit. Because,
if it’s God’s Word then, it has to fit like a hand in a glove. It just has to be.
He reads examples:
Hebrews 2:14 by Rotherham:
…that He might paralyze him that held the dominion of death…
Romans 5:12, 15-17 from The New English Bible:
It was through one man that sin entered the world and through sin, death and thus death
pervaded the whole human race in as much as all men have sinned.
[If I were doing it I would have said “permeated” instead of “pervaded.”]
But God’s act of grace is out of all proportions to Adam’s wrong doing. For if the wrong
doing of that one man brought death upon so many, its effect is vastly exceeded by the grace
of God and the gift that came to so many by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ.
And again, the gift of God is not to be compared in its effect with that one man’s sin, for the
judicial action following upon the one offence, issued in a verdict of condemnation but the
act of grace, following upon so many misdeeds, issued in a verdict of acquittal.
For, if by the wrong doing of that one man, death established its reign through a single sinner,
much more shall those who receive, in far greater measure, God’s grace and His gift of
righteousness, live and reign through the one man, Jesus Christ.
I Corinthians 12:3 from The New English Bible:
Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking under the power and influence of
the spirit of God, can ever say, “Jesus be cursed.” And no one can really say, “Jesus is my
Lord” except by and under the power and influence of holy spirit.
That’s where I get the “really” from.
New Testament Works:
1) Numeric English New Testament by Ivan Panin – when I had time, for about 2-3 years I worked
this. Davis did a take-off of Panin. Panin was the brain. What happens with all of these works
is; everybody has a theological point to fit it into. So they begin squeezing. When you work
the Word of God on the mathematical exactness only, then you have a tendency, if something
doesn’t quite fit like you think it should, then you work it around to try to get it to fit. We
don’t do that. We work it from a mathematical point and then when we can’t understand it, or
it doesn’t fit quite where it should, then we drop off of that. Then we start looking for figures
and have a lot of these other things that we go around to see how it really could work.
2) Alford Greek Testament – he looked over a lot of manuscripts and then came up with what he
called his “Critical Greek Text”; the best reading from all the manuscripts that he examined.
3) ??? – by Noyse (sp.) – uses the text of Tishendorf (a critical Greek text editor).
4) New Testament Greek - Westcott and Hort – this is the one critical Greek text editor that is not
covered in the Interlinear, where it gives the different readings at the bottom of the page.
5) Word Studies in the New Testament by Vincent, Eerdmans Co. - Vincent is one of the men that
quite a few people quote, but you’ve got to know a lot more than Vincent if you want to
rightly divide this stuff. He’s okay.
6) Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament by Thayer, Zondervan Co. - He gives a lot of
background on words.
7) Englishman’s Greek Concordance of the New Testament, Zondervan. - You have to use the Greek
words with this.
8) The New Testament, An American Translation by Goodspeed, University of Chicago Press. –
Goodspeed was New Testament and Smith Old Testament. They were fine scholars but they
came up at the time of what is known in the theological circles as the “emergence of higher
criticism”, therefore their translations were sort of influenced by the “move.”
9) The Living Bible or Paraphrased Bible
10) Young’s Literal Translation of the Bible – this is a very literal translation, being very awkward to
read.
We have a phrase that I think covers it the best of all time; a literal translation according to usage.
We can give you a literal but basically according to usage; in the light of how it was used then and
related to our time. We try to be solid on the integrity of the Word and put it in practical terms that
communicate to you or to the people of our particular era.
11) American Standard Version, 1901. In England it was done in 1881 and 1885, and then they
brought it to the United States and did it over here. When they did that they had some of the
American advisors work, but England didn’t accept all of the American suggestions on
translation. So we weren’t allowed to put out one in the United States of America until so
many years after the English one of 1881. And then 1885 is when the Old Testament was
finished.
12) The Oxford Annotated Bible - it’s the Revised Standard Version. I simply look at it. I haven’t
gotten a great deal of help out of it.
By the way, when I read something, I always read the footnotes first, and then I go to the body.
13) The Emphasized Bible - has a real elaborate system of markings, a whole coding system.
14) The Newberry Reference Bible - has certain things that he couches in a language that
communicates to me. He handles the verb “to be” pretty accurately. I like the flavor of it at
times.
15) Lamsa’s Bible Of course his great work along the line of “My God, my God, why did you spare
me is in there. I want to tell you something about Lamsa. Holman published his Bible. Lamsa
knew three times as much about the Word of God as they would allow him to publish
because Holman is in the sales business. They’ve got to sell Bibles, and Dr. Lamsa, if he
could get anything published, he didn’t care who published it. He just wanted his stuff
published, and so many times Lamsa would give and do it the way they wanted to do it. That
is why his work does not stand as one of the greats. There were just fantastic things that
Lamsa knew. I want to say, in behalf of Lamsa, whom I love very much, “I think he was a
fantastic scholar of Aramaic and the ability to handle Aramaic beyond anything that is in
extant in the world today.” I’m convinced of this. I am only sorry that, again, what I call “the
system” closed off a man who had knowledge that would have just blown this thing apart. Dr.
Lamsa died a year or so ago. His book Origin of the New Testament will be reprinted in the
next year.
16) The Jerusalem Bible – Jews Catholics and Protestants translated this – so you know it’s a mess.
This one is the Catholic edition. It’s a revision that I think is the finest Roman Catholic one I
own. I use it when I want to check out what the Roman Catholics should be reading.
17) The Millennium Bible – introduction:
“The Millennium Bible being a help to the study of the holy scriptures in their testimony to
the second coming of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.”
This was done by Dr. Bederwolf. It just basically highlights those things that in his opinion
relate to the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the reasons I had to work this
field is because of the ‘pre’ and ‘post’ millennium groups. One group of Christians thinks
we’re going through the tribulation and the other thinks we won’t. The “pre-millennial-ists”
think you’re going to get “raptured” before. The “post-millennial” think it comes after the
thousand years. Millennium means “thousand” and therefore you go through the tribulation
period.
I’ve taught you that whenever there is a contradiction in so-called Christian bodies, I usually looked
at all of them to understand what they were teaching and then I put them all aside and then just go to
the Word and see if that Word doesn’t clarify itself. That’s how I got to the “Christ in you” being the
baptism instead of the water, whether it immersion, sprinkling, dipping or dry cleaning. In order to
do that, that Bible helped me in the “pre” and “post” millennial type of work.
18) The Amplified Bible - This is in the category of an expanded version in that it has extra
words added over and beyond. All the extra words are marked in the verse so you can tell
what has been added. Kenneth Wuest does an expanded translation but he doesn’t tell you
what he adds. It’s a little more difficult to use.
19) The New Testament Octapla – It has eight different Bible translations on the two pages; four
on each page. This is giving the background of the English bible. It starts with Tyndale;
1525, The Great Bible; 1539, The Geneva Bible; 1560 (which all the lay-people liked
because it was in their language and it was in a small size that they could handle.
The Bishops didn’t like it because there were notes in the margins criticizing the hierarchy of
the Church, so the bishop came out with another bible in competition with it [the Bishop’s
Bible] and they made that the Bible of the Church of England), The Bishop’s Bible; 1568,
The Rheim’s Bible (Catholic); 1582, The King James; 1611, The Revised Version; 1881, and
The Revised Standard Version; 1960 (which has been revised since). This lets you see the
change from one translation to another.
20) The New Testament of Gospels and Acts of the Apostles by Barkley
21) The New Testament for English Readers – the Alfred text; the English translation of the
Greek.
22) The Reach Out – the Living Bible in an appealing form; to appeal to young people.
23) The Special Arrangement - is where they would take the parallel quotations from the Old and
New Testament and arrange it so you could see it. It came out in 1961. From the work:
“The principle importance of this new work is that it assists in increasing bible knowledge for
those with limited time to study. The assembling of more than 1800 correlated parallels and
1600 verse end references represent 7 years of study and research. There are no explanations
or interpretations of any kind offered by the compiler of this special arrangement.”
This is the first one I worked when I got to where we are today; International Headquarters.
24) The Numerical Bible by Davis. He used the work of Panin and followed on his heels.
25) The New Testament From 26 Translations – that sounds real great until you get into it and you
find you don’t have 26 complete translations you can work with; just little bits. They give
you the different readings, of what they think you ought to read, from 26 translations.
26) The Numeric English New Testament – this is where he took the Greek words and gave them
so many numbers and added them up and if it didn’t fit, he would add some or subtract some
until he got it to fit.
20) The Resultant Greek Text by Weymouth. This made him like a critical Greek text editor but he’s
not handled in our interlinear. He was a fine scholar.
21) Good News for Modern Man – probably one of the worst news that ever came out. They put a
different introduction in these for Catholic use or Protestant use.
Weymouth was English who collaborated with another man from Cambridge but Weymouth did the
Resultant New Testament.
Walter Cummins joins Dr. Wierwille:
We also check a lot of Greek versions in order to make it so we don’t handle the Word of God
deceitfully; like:
1) The Englishman’s Greek New Testament
2) Zondervan
3) Nelson
4) Westcott and Hort
5) Stevens
6) Weymouth
7) Tishendorf
8) Weiss
These were put together by Eberhard Nestle. Then his son, Erwin Nestle, carried on the work. Dr.
Aland, in Munster Germany is the one who is carrying it on today. They now have the 26th edition
out, which is supposed to be “it” as far as critical Greek work is concerned. Aland, Metzger, Black,
Dr. Bruce and Martini - - they took the Nestle-Aland text and reworked it to where they feel they
have got as close as you can get with all the available manuscripts. I think they are on the 3rd edition
of that.
9) Octavia Major by Tishendorf is his 8th critical edition. It has some Greek text on the page and
the rest of the page is footnotes from different manuscripts.
I think you’re beginning to see that we just don’t flip the Word off the top of our lid because we have
something to argue about. We have spent years and years and years deepening ourselves in the
knowledge of it. When somebody says that we deliberately fabricate stuff, that has to be a lie.
10) Hermann Von Soden - did a work similar to Tischendorf’s.
11) Legg - started a work and only got through Matthew and Mark in his lifetime but he did a lot
more manuscript work than either Tishendorf or Von Soden. He did the best of them all as far
as having available information. There’s a group in California that’s working on Luke now.
They’ve been working on it since the 1940’s.
12) Aland - the one Walter Cummins worked with in Germany, who reworked Nestle’s edition,
did the gospels similar to what Legg did but not quite as extensively. He doesn’t list as many
manuscripts in his edition.
We check out our Greek texts when we’re working and if it still doesn’t fit, then we look here and
find manuscripts which may be newer but may have been copied from manuscripts that are much
older than the oldest manuscripts in existence. You can’t discard any manuscript evidence, even if it
only appears in one or two manuscripts. It still has the possibility of being copied from a much older
manuscript.
Nobody has really done an extensive work in the Aramaic or Syriac text like they’re doing in Greek.
Syriac is the dialect of Aramaic that is most prevalent as far as manuscripts are concerned and it
carries the dialect basically that Jesus spoke. These manuscripts are available to us on microfilm.
Aramaic sources:
1) This New Testament is out of print – so we guard this with our lives.
2) This one has two different scripts having basically the same vocabulary; Nestorian and Jacobite.
Our manuscripts are all in Estrangelo, handwritten. Then when we get into printing, we have
Nestorian and Jacobite. This is basically because the Church split and they didn’t want to look like
each other.
3) Basic dictionary – taken from a two volume dictionary which has the explanations in Latin.
It’s called the Syrus Syriacis (Latin).
4) We have all the New Testament, except Revelation, and all of the Old Testament on microfilm
in Estrangelo Aramaic.
5) We also have the Apocrypha in case we want to look at that.
6) Book from the Oxford Press - Gospels with critical footnotes that tell you about 46 different
manuscripts that they come from. Some of the explanation is in Latin but most of the stuff we
can read.
The Pashita Institute in Lyden, Netherlands has a list of Old Testament manuscripts, so I believe if
they have Old Testament manuscripts they have New Testament manuscripts. We can get a lot of
these from the British museums.
This again is just an exemplification of how we work the Word and that we don’t handle it
deceitfully. We have to be very very careful that we just don’t give you something off the top of our
heads. We check it out very very carefully.
We have about 7 grammars that we can check out. Two of them we have on microfilm. One is
Everhart and Nestle. We have Theodore Noldeke. Both of these are translations from German.
Noldeke is supposed to be one of the best. We have about 5 or 6 different dictionaries. We have
Brakelmann’s which has Latin explanations. We have Schaff’s 1709 lexicon on microfilm with some
explanations in Latin also.