Intro 8 to "The Secret of GOD", as revealed by John in the Revelation of Christ, with a renewed mind and our victory as foretold.

Now for the conclusion of our forward look in the text of this little stand alone book titled simply Revelation, meaning, "the lifting of the veil," should be its subtitle.

The Mirror:

The Text:

Revelation was clearly a book that needed to circulate with much commentary and explanations. In many cases the text represented by the commentary is older than the (most often very late) manuscript in which it is found.

Deliberate changes to the wording of the Book of Revelation itself were made to improve and clarify the force of its message. One of many examples can be found in the note of Revelation 20:5. The words, "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished," was added at a time when the worlds churches claimed to be fulfilling the thousand-year reign of Christ. The Sinaitic manuscript - remarkable as for being the oldest as well as for its completeness and accuracy - is the only Greek authority on Revelation ante-dating the fifth century: and it does not contain the clause. Most minuscule manuscripts of Revelation are accompanied by a commentary; And these represent an unusually high proportion of witnesses. "Text appears to have been added first as an explanatory note, and in process of time crept into the text." This stated by Adam Clark in his Commentary on the Bible.

WE have no original manuscript-the thousands of manuscripts we do have are handwritten copies of copies for centuries and what happened was, that, from time to time, a scribe's notes became the text. The majority of these do not alter the meaning of the text thought. But some do, which makes it an important observation.

The first edition of the NT with a Greek text was prepared by Erasmus and published in 1516. For Revelation, he based his Greek text on a single manuscript, minuscule 1r (now numbered 2814 according to the new Gregory-Aland number.) This manuscript, however, lacks the final verses of the book of Revelation, and in order to have a complete text, Erasmus retranslated these verses into Greek from the Latin. Elements of his translation suvive in every edition of the so-called Textus-Receptus, which were the standard text of the printed Greek NT until the nineteenth century.

Codex Sinaiticus [Aleph B 33] and the Codex Vaticanus are considered among most current scholars to be the best Greek texts of the NT. These were extensively used by Westcott and Hart in their edition of t\The New Testament in the Original Greek in 1881. Aleph is the famous Sinaitics, the great discovery of Constantine von Tischendorf, the only surviving complete copy of the NT written prior to the ninth century.

It is also significant to mote the difference between the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint of the OT. The Scriptures in Jesus' and NT times were the Septuagint, since Greek was the academic language for 300 years already, though Aramaic was the spoken language. [The Roman letters for 72, LXX is used to name the Septuagint which was translated by 72 Hebrew and Greek Rabbis 300 BC] The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, confirms the Septuagint as based on a different, and older Hebrew text than the Masoretic text.

For example, one of the main Jewish apologist arguments against Messianic interpretation of Isaiah 53 is that all the references to the suffering 'servant,' so they say, are in the plural, making him a symbol of Israel. But in the LXX they are singular.

Look at commentary notes in Rev. 8:1, Isaiah 52:13 in the Septuagint reads, Behold my boy! The word, "servant" is only in the Masoretic Hebrew text which dates a thousand years later than the LXX.

Also Isaiah 53:4, Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by GOD, and afflicted. Look at Isaiah 53:10 in the Septuagint! No! It did not "please the LORD to bruise him!!" The LORD desires to cleanse his wounds-and in the offering of his life as sacrifice he shall see his seed afar! See verse 11- the joy that is set before him! The offspring is the fruit of the travail of his soul! Hebrews 10:2, for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame!

I believe that, just like gold-containing ore, so the Bible contains the Word. Though the ore is a most important commodity, it remains a pointer to the gold, it cannot be confused with gold, just as light cannot be confused with simple light. Jesus is the Word unveiled-He studied scripture with a different intent; He knew that he was reflected there! Familiar with the text, he brought context! Psalm 40:7 and Hebrews 10:7; also John 5:39.

These are indeed perilous times but we have all been charged by GOD to study to show ourselves approved by Him not man. And it is to that end that I do and say what I do. And it is for this reason that I am using the Mirror Bible as it follows my learned thought over the short time of doing this blog, has brought the expected change of perspective in me and others, brought about by GOD.

Okay! In our next visit we shall begin our look a new at Revelation having the veil lifted after our coming out from among them. The "them" being the worlds religious forms and systems. 2Corinthians 6:11-7:3 and this after answering the question of Matthew 11:29 of 28-30 and the vision of Galatians 2:20's meaning of our own human form being that of Jesus Christ's also given me in 2007.