The Jesus Secret Version

In my intense insistence, over the years, of knowing exactly what God actually says, and of having those words written in my heart, I have not only written out the English verses over and over, but I have often looked at the Greek words as well. 

Then, as I began to write Symmorphy I: Purpose, my need as a teacher to know exactly what is inside these most important verses focused my pursuit of understanding the actual Greek words.

I am not a Greek scholar, nor have I had any formal training in New Testament Greek, for which I am grateful since Greek scholarship seems to be rooted in Calvinist definitions. Nonetheless I have much training in the English language and years of experience teaching the usage of words. I know language and how it works.

Although I have and use a number of Greek resources, my primary resource is found here: https://.biblehub.com  

Why the JSV

There are several reasons why I would attempt my own paraphrase/translation of the books of the New Testament. The primary reason is that I just love the word God speaks as He speaks it flowing through my fingers and onto the screen in front of me. The words of Paul and John, of Peter and James and the writer of Hebrews are simply beautiful to me and I love to know what they are.

The second reason for this Jesus Secret Version of selected New Testament books, however, is a bit more desperate. Let me state that reason in short form, and then explain myself.
   The translations from the Greek into English which we posess are often negative,
often inaccurate, and sometimes deliberately and deceitfully wrong.
I am well aware of how desperate that statement is and how foolish it would be for me to say, "But I've got it right." I don't want to "get it right," I want to know the Father through Jesus living in my heart as every Word God speaks.

I learned two things during my college years in my early thirties that caused me to understand words, especially Bible words, and their meanings. First, in a paper I wrote on "lexicography," that is, the writing of dictionaries, I discovered that there is no such thing as any "original" definition of any word. All word definitions are determined in one way only, and that is by looking at the context in order to use the context clues to determine what that writer meant by using that word in that way. I say, "all word definitions," except I do not include assumed "Bible" word definitions in that statement. And that is the second thing I learned in those years. That is, that when I write out every verse in the Bible containing a particular Bible word and then attempt to determine God's meaning of that word through the context clues, over and over, I could not find what the Bible scholars say that word "has to" mean. So often, God meant something quite different.

You will find those portions of New Testament books that I have done in the column on the right, under "The Jesus Secret Version." I have intermingled the rough drafts, a first version of the wording, with the almost-finished drafts. The primary difference in telling which is which is the verse numbering. In the almost-finished drafts, each verse is numbered separately whereas in the rough draft, they are numbered as groups. I have not taken the time to fix any typos, etc. in the rough drafts. You will notice that I have ordered the layout of the New Testament books in the order in which they were written.

Let me give a simple example - grace, with a claimed meaning of "unmerited favor." The problem is simply this, nowhere in the Bible that the word "grace" is used will you find any context clues defining that word as meaning "unmerited favor." When you do find context clues, they tell you that grace means either "God's enablement" or the gift of God Himself inside of us.

Let me define "translation" and "paraphrase" next. Translation is the attempt to transfer the meaning of a text from one language into another language. There has never been an accurate translation of anything, ever. The differences between languages do not allow such a thing. Thus the translator can seek only to provide the closest approximation of meaning that is possible, while retaining a specific style of English wording.

A paraphrase is more "loose," one might say, than a translation. A translation tries to stay with the original language as closely as translation allows. A paraphrase, on the other hand, provides more leeway in order to make the wording "current" and understandable. For that reason, however, a paraphrase is much more influenced by theology and temperament than a so-called straight translation.

The problem is that Bible translation seems to work in violation of all the rules used by all other forms of translation. Translation is an attempt to convey the original meanings of the author from one language into another language. Bible translation, in complete contrast, seems to be an attempt to force a certain pre-determined theology and meaning onto the words as they are being translated. And that theology is always Nicene Christianity, held absolutely by Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Charismatic, and Deeper Truth.

And that theology is built upon the fundamental belief that the serpent spoke the truth in the garden, that the serpent alone gives us the definitions of God, of man, and of what everything is all about. That theology places Genesis 3:5, "you can be like God if you try" as the ruling verse bending every other statement in the Bible into the same direction of unbelief and self-improvement by human performance.

Even more than that, Nicene theology is manufactured inside of intellects that know only a split-apart reality, ruled by Adam's death. The tree of Life, living inside of Jesus and Jesus living inside of us, is just not in anyone's picture.

Let me give evidence of what I mean. Here is Genesis 3:23 as it was originally written.  Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one who knows good and evil."  

But the translators, in obedience to their fundamental belief that the serpent spoke the truth and not complete blither, inserted, knowingly and deceitfully, two words into this line. "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil." Those two words are in no way found in the orginal Hebrew. Yet by that one deceitful action, the picture every Christian has of God is a Being who knows evil, a split apart "God" who sees everything by good versus evil and who completes all things as split between all good and all evil.

This is the triumph of the evil one in the church.
 

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How I "Translate." 

If you click on the link to biblehub.com, you will see the page for Romans 1:1. Then, under the words in the Greek alphabet, you will see the transliteration into our letters. For instance, Παῦλος is Paulos.

The more I have worked with this translation, the more familiar I have become with the Greek words, not the Greek alphabet, but rather, the transliteration. I have no need to learn the Greek alphabet. 

When I write the JSV, however, I use the suggested English words as a guide only. Any word I want to know more about, I click on the Strong's number on the left which takes me to a definition of that word, first Strong's, which is reasonably unbiased, and then a hyper-Calvinist definition added below. I also often look at the morphology of the Greek word in the right column to determine how that word is being used in the syntax of the sentence.

When I make my choice as to the English wording, I am definitely biased, as all translators and writers are, including God. I am convinced that I am not as biased as Nicene translators, however.

Let me list some of the elements in my bias as I choose which English words to use.

1. I assume that the ten "verses" that I have called "The Ten Most Important Verses in the Bible" should and do rule over every other word in the Bible and over all of our Christian definitions.


2. I assume that all reality is found only inside the Tree of Life, that is, living in John 14:20 in all present completion, that is living only inside of Jesus and He inside of us.


3. I assume that God is love, and that the demonic definitions attached to God during the fall into Roman darkness are, in fact, demonic.


4. I assume that God knows that He created us incapable of fulfilling our purpose except we be filled with God in Person.


5. I assume that Jesus Himself in Person is every Word God speaks, and that the words on the pages of the Bible come into us as the Lord Jesus who alone fulfills in and through us what God means by what He actually says.

As you can see, this is quite a different set of ruling assumptions than that used by other Bible translators. 
 

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Elements inside My Translation

Here are some of the things you will find inside this translation / parphrase / occasional commentary.

First, I have reserved regular parenthesis () for the actual wording of the text. That is, the author inserted his or her own parenthetical statement.

Then, I use the brackets [] to indicate an alternate translation of that word. Sometimes, however, I give two or three versions of the one Greek word in the flow of the text.

Finally, I use these brackets {} to indicate a comment I am adding. This comment could be either meaning coming into this verse from the ten ruling verses of the Bible, or it could be my own observations of the argument and intention of the writer.

In these rough drafts, I am learning my system as well as learning the Greek language and the style of the writers. I will change much as I work on second and third drafts.

Note: Much of the wording is, without question, quite similar to what you are accustomed to in your English Bibles. Of all the writers, John's words have been altered the least by the Nicene definers. At the same time, simple narrative such as Paul recounting something he did or the actions of Jesus provide little room for differences in translation. It is in the critical life/gospel statements that the bending towards a "God of good and evil" and a "salvation" of human performance is to be found. And no New Testament book has been more abused by the translators than Hebrews.

Another thing you will notice is that sometimes my English wording is a bit clumsy. The reason it is so is that I am attempting, in this first draft, to stay as close to the layout of the Greek words as I can. Following the Greek order of words is not required by the rules of syntax, however. My purpose is to get a better feel for the flow of thoughts going through the writers' minds. When I work on later drafts, I will make the wording less clumsy and more in line with English syntax.

Here is an example. "Christ I have been crucified with" is the layout of the Greek. I love that layout, but English syntax, intimately familiar to all English speakers, would say, "I have been crucified with Christ."

One final comment, working with the JSV has taught me on a personal level, the thinking and style of Paul and John, of Peter and James and the writer of Hebrews. Each of these are very different thinkers and writers. I love knowing and appreciating those differences.

I will add further comments about the translation, the writer, and God's meanings in the main page of each of the JSV portions.

Please enjoy the development of the Jesus Secret Version of Selected New Testament Books.