The Hidden Agenda: To Undermine The Deity of Christ
“After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
3 In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.
4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.”
5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.
8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.
9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.
10 The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.” John 5:1-10
It’s usually, if not always, stated by Christians that Yeshua is the one that did away with the Torah. I don’t think I’ve ever heard it once stated that God is the one that did away with the Torah. I find that interesting. Don’t you?
If, then, God isn’t the one that did away with the Torah and Yeshua did, are they really one in the same Being?
Couldn’t it be possible to conclude therefore that Yeshua wasn’t really God? Perhaps he was just A god? Is there something more sinister going on here than meets the eye?
I believe there is a hidden agenda to cast doubt upon the Deity of Christ. And I believe this is a passage of Scripture that has been, knowingly or unknowingly, misappropriated and misrepresented in such a way by modern translations to be so used.
How?
You’re going to have to put on your thinking caps. This won’t be easy to wrap your head around. —
Because Yeshua is claimed to be breaking the Sabbath (which He didn’t do), Christians point to verse 10 as a proof that Yeshua was in the process of doing away with the Law.
Let me try to explain the fallacy in this line of thinking.
If you have all of v. 3b-4 in the passage along with verse 10, then you have God (represented by the angel in v. 3b-4) and Yeshua (v. 10) working in tandem as One. That very clearly implies the Deity of Yeshua.
If you just have verse 10 without v. 3b-4, you then have Yeshua breaking the Sabbath on His own without God and His angel, (v.3b-4). This does not as clearly imply, but rather could cast doubt upon, the Deity of Yeshua.
Therefore …
The logical line of thinking should go like this: “God wouldn’t break His own Law/Torah, would He? Therefore Yeshua can’t be God since He broke the Sabbath” What else are we to conclude?
On top of that, the Torah never said that carrying a bed was unlawful on the Sabbath; rather, it was the Oral Torah of the Jewish religious leaders that stated that. In reality, it was their Oral Torah that Yeshua was violating — not the Torah of God.
And … It’s verses like this throughout modern translations that cast doubt upon the Inerrancy and Infallibility of the very Word of God and by implication the Deity of Christ.
I’m going to let you ferret that out for yourselves. I just want to get the wheels turning in your heads.
But suffice it to say, I DO think there’s an Agenda …
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I don’t know if you’re aware of it or not but, many modern Bibles either don’t have verses 3b-4 or there is some other indication that these words aren’t in the “better” and older manuscripts.
Here’s something you need to be aware of. Every major New Testament translation of the Bible up until Westcott & Hort (1881) contained the disputed words in our verses. Let me tell you which ones they were.
Wessex Gospels 1175
Wycliffe Bible 1382
Tyndale Bible 1534
Coverdale Bible 1535
Matthew’s Bible 1537
The Great Bible 1539
Geneva Bible 1560
Bishops Bible 1568
KJV 1611
Webster’s Bible 1883
Young’s Literal Translation 1876
For many years (before I was aware of this list of translations) I felt like: “Who am I to question the scholars?” So many Bible schools, commentators, preachers readily admit that the King James Bible translators were inept and, at times, in error. Besides, those KJV translators lived a long time ago. Since then we’ve learned more, know the ancient languages better, and have older manuscripts as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The evidence is over whelming! — So they say.
Why is it that the King James Bible is the only one that gets mud thrown in its face? In the discussion of Bible translations the buck seems to stop with the KJV. It’s mocked, maligned and mangled by many, if not most, scholars since the early 1900’s.
I have never heard (or read) any reference made to all these other translations that are in agreement with the KJV. It would seem to me that there is a longer line of credibility for the KJV than for any other johnny-come-lately. There is 701 years of documented provenance from 1175-1876.
Are we to believe that countless saints lived and died for the WRONG manuscripts because the “better” manuscripts weren’t discovered until the 1800’s? And, incredibly, we have the questionable characters of Westcott & Hort to thank for bringing this amazing discovery to the world?
All of this, at the very least, should cause God’s people to ask some questions rather than just swallow everything we’ve been told about the translation issue.
An Appeal:
I believe we, as God’s people, have been entrusted with a mandate to continue on in the tradition of the Bereans.
“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)
There might not be a hidden agenda behind every verse. That would be too obvious. But mark my words, Satan didn’t stop messing with the Word in the Garden. He had a hidden agenda then, and he still does now.
Look into the translation issue for yourself. Set aside, as much as you can, your present understanding and bias. Ask God to open your eyes to see the wondrous things that He has for you in His Torah/Law.
Satan’s biggest agenda is to discredit the Deity of Yeshua. Don’t fall prey to the modern translation misrepresentations.
The KJV has been around over 400 years. That sounds like a pretty good track record to me.
I wonder how many of the modern translations will be around for 400 years?
Something to think about.