Revelation 17:4 “full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication”
Revelation 17:4 “and FILTHINESS of her fornication”
At one of the Facebook clubs called King James Version Only Discussion, a man who fancies himself to be quite the scholar who thinks “the Catholics are coming out with some really good bibles” and who himself does not believe that ANY Bible in ANY language IS or ever was the complete, inspired and 100% true words of God writes:
“Erasmus put readings in HIS Greek text that are not found in ANY Greek mss any where of ANY type. In fact he even literally coined a few Greek vocabulary words that simply do not exist! For example in Revelation 17.4 “akathartatos” … there is no such Greek word. It does not EXCEPT in Erasmus. He invented it. In Acts 9.6 Erasmus Greek Text includes the reading taken straight out of the Vulgate: “And he trembling and astonished said, Lord what wilt thou have me do?” This reading exists in NO known Greek mss … including ALL the Byzantine mss. Where did that reading come from? It came straight out of the Latin Vulgate and now appears – WITH NO GREEK SUPPORT AT ALL – in the King James VERSION. Facts are difficult things beloved.” Bobby Valentine
As for this bible agnostic’s completely erroneous and ignorant claims about Acts 9:6 you can see an article on these verses on our website Bibles Full Of Errors – Wasco Free Will Baptist Church (wfwbc.org)
However in this short study I would like to focus on this man’s silly blunder and unfounded criticism when he emphatically states that Erasmus “coined” and “invented” the Greek word akathartatos,- τῆς ἀκαθάρτητος – which is translated as “filthiness” in the King James Bible and many others as well.
Bible agnostics who come up with silly claims like this almost always got them from some other guy who likewise posts laundry lists of alleged, fabricated, imagined and ultimately untrue “errors” in the King James Bible.
Do these Bible critics have any inspired and infallible Bible to replace our beloved King James Bible with? You’ve got to be kidding. Of course they don’t.
Each one of them, without exception, has NO infallible Bible to give you but has made his own mind and understanding his “final authority” subject to change at any moment and NOBODY agrees with any of them 100% of the time; not even other bible agnostics. It’s a case of Every Man For Himself Bible Versionism gone to seed.
So, let’s take a closer look at this self styled scholar’s “errors” to see if there is indeed any truth at all to his statement that Erasmus coined and invented this particular Greek word.
Perhaps the guy who posted this alleged error found this reference in Thayer’s Lexicon where this deity of Christ denying scholar writes concerning the word akathartes found in Revelation 17:4 saying: τῆς ἀκαθάρτητος “not found elsewhere, and the true reading here is ta akatharta. – τὰ ἀκάθαρτα”
Well, what has happened is that Thayer was a Vatican Version critical text proponent, as is also our ‘esteemed scholar’ Bobby Valentine over at the Facebook club, and he was following the wrong text.
In fact the ever changing UBS – Nestle Aland Greek text is GRAMMATICALLY incorrect. The true text and proper Greek grammar should have both words following the words “full of” in the genitive case.
You can see this in the Modern Greek translation of this verse which reads – “η ποτηριον γεμον βδελυγματων και ακαθαρσιας της πορνειας αυτης”, and you can see it in the written Greek texts of the Textus Receptus published by the Trinitarian Bible Society and the Greek texts of both Stephanus 1550, Beza 1598 and Elzevir 1624 which read with two genitives following the words “full of”, which looks like this – “γεμον βδελυγματων και ακαθαρτητος πορνειας αυτης.”
Stephanus Textus Receptus 1550 Revelation 17:4 =-
εχουσα χρυσουν ποτηριον εν τη χειρι αυτης γεμον βδελυγματων και ακαθαρτητος πορνειας αυτης
http://www.textusreceptusbibles.com/Stephanus/66/17
Beza Textus Receptus 1598 –
γεμον βδελυγματων και ακαθαρτητος πορνειας αυτης
http://www.textusreceptusbibles.com/Beza/66/17
Elzevir Textus Receptus 1624 –
γεμον βδελυγματων και ακαθαρτητος πορνειας αυτης
http://www.textusreceptusbibles.com/Elzevir/66/17
Scrivener Textus Receptus 1894 –
γεμον βδελυγματων και ακαθαρτητος πορνειας αυτης
http://www.textusreceptusbibles.com/Scrivener/66/17
The Modern Greek Version – χρυσουν η ποτηριον γεμον βδελυγματων και ακαθαρσιας της πορνειας αυτης,
If you can read Modern Greek you will notice that they have changed the grammatical form of the word “filthiness”, yet both “blasphemies and filthiness” are in the genitive case, just as the texts are that underlie the King James Bible. This is grammatically correct. It is the Critical Text that is clearly the wrong grammar.
The Wrong Ungrammatical Text of Westcott-Hort/UBS/Nestle-Aland Critical Greek text
εχουσα ποτηριον χρυσουν εν τη χειρι αυτης γεμον βδελυγματων και τα ακαθαρτα της πορνειας αυτης
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+17%3A4&version=WHNU
In the case of the Textus Receptus this is true and is grammatically correct. However the Critical text reads “full of” followed by a genitive and then has the grammatically incorrect accusative for “filthiness” (or, uncleanness) instead of the proper genitive. It looks like this: “γεμον βδελυγματων και τα ακαθαρτα της πορνειας αυτης.
The critical text is grammatically incorrect but not the Textus Receptus followed by Erasmus, Stephanus 1550 nor Beza’s printed Greek text of 1598, or Elzevir in 1624. All four of these printed texts read with the correct ακαθαρτητος.
Is this word a legitimate Greek word? The evidence tells us overwhelmingly that it is. In the textual apparatus of the 1550 Stephens printed Greek text of the New Testament he lists at the back of his book two words meaning “filthiness, or uncleanness”.
One of them is Number 168 akathartes, and the other is Number 169 akathartos, and they appear to be two synonyms for the same thing. We have many such synonyms in the English language and we have two different ways of spelling the same English words. Words like: axe/ax; behaviour/behavior; centre/center; colour/color; defence/defense; goal/jail; grey/gray; litre/liter; metre/meter; tonne/ton; tyre/tire.
In both Analytical Greek Lexicons of Wigram’s 1852 and that of Wesley J. Perschbacher 1990 we read listed the Greek word found in the Textus Receptus that underlies the King James Bible and many other translations. The Greek word is ακαθαρτητος and they both list it under Number 168 and tell us it is the genitive, singular feminine noun found in Revelation 17:4!
See The New Analytical Greek Lexicon, by Wesley J. Perschbacher editor, published by Hendrikson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, copyright 1990.
In addition to this we have several other Greek Lexicons that list this particular word as a real Greek word.
The Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature by Bauer, Arndt and Gingrich, University of Chicago Press 1957 lists this akathartEs (Not the other Greek word, which is akathartOs) with the genitive form being ακαθαρτητος and references Revelation 17:4.
Then there is Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament words who tells us on page 1189 “The A.V. follows the texts which have the noun akathartes – the filthiness.”
We also have Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon, 17th edition, published by Boston Ginn & Company 1887. It also lists the word akathartes with the genitive being akathartetos as being a synonym for the similar word akathartos. This information is found on page 23.
And finally we have the Modern Greek dictionary by D.C. Divry published in 1974 and on page 401 of the Greek section it lists this same Greek word akathartos as meaning dirty, filthy or unclean.
The King James Bible, nor the Greek and Hebrew texts that underlie this magnificent Bible, is NOT in error. It is the only Bible believed by thousands of blood bought children of God today to be the inspired and 100% historically true and doctrinally pure words of the living God.
Don’t let the “No bible is infallible” crowd drag you down to the slippery bogs of their basic unbelief, but stand firm, strong and confident upon the Rock of God’s infallible words as found in the Authorized King James Holy Bible.