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I. The difference between the new testament and the old testament
А. The new testament and the old testament — the two covenants God made with man
1. The old testament — a covenant which was added and abolished
а. Ordained in the hand of Moses
b. Dedicated with the blood of bulls and goats
c. Based upon the law, which cannot give life, as its condition
d. Requiring man only to work, not to believe
e. Applying only to the Old Testament age
2. The new testament — a covenant which is better and eternal
а. Accomplished by Jesus Christ
b. Established with the blood of Jesus, the Son of God
c. Based upon grace, which gives life, as its condition
d. Requiring man only to believe, not to work
e. Applying to the New Testament age and eternity
II. The Apocrypha
А. Not being in the Bible in the beginning
1. The proof of Josephus
2. The proof of Cyril
3. The proof of the Lord Jesus and the apostles
B. Having been added into the Vatican manuscript
C. The recognition by the Roman Catholic Church
III. Some false revelations
А. The Koran of Islam
B. The Book of Mormon
C. The “Bible” of the Jehovah’s Witnesses
IV. The translations of the Bible
А. The Septuagint Version
B. The Vulgate Version
C. The Authorized (King James) Version
D. The Revised Version
E. The American Standard Version
F. Many other versions
G. Paraphrased versions of the Bible
H. The Recovery Versions of the New Testament
1. Accuracy
2. Readability
3. Outlines
4. Footnotes
5. References
6. Life-study messages of the New Testament
Many Christians do not fully understand the difference between the New Testament and the Old Testament. It is good to spend some time to study this matter.
[As we come to study the new and old testaments, we must first know the difference between these terms: a promise, an oath, a covenant, and a testament. A promise is an ordinary word spoken by God, promising you that He will do something for you. An oath is a confirmation of God’s word of promise. God confirmed His word of promise by means of His oath (Heb. 6:13, 17). When a promise is confirmed by an oath, it immediately becomes a covenant. What we have received from God is not merely an ordinary word of promise but a covenant confirmed by God’s oath and sealed with His faithfulness. When the One who made the covenant died, the covenant became a bequeathed will, that is, a testament. Today the covenant is no longer merely a covenant but a testament bequeathed by the One who enacted the covenant.]
[The new testament and the old testament are the two covenants which God made with man as the two conditions upon which man may have a relationship with Him. The new testament is a continuation of the covenant God made with Abraham. In Genesis chapter twelve, God gave a promise to Abraham and later also swore to him (Gen. 22:16). Hence, the promise became a covenant made by God with Abraham (Gal. 3:15-17). Two thousand years later, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to the world, who shed His blood on the cross and enacted the new covenant (Luke 22:20). At that point the new covenant was accomplished; moreover, it became a testament because of the Lord’s death.
The old covenant, which came four hundred and thirty years after God made the covenant with Abraham, was enacted at Mount Sinai, where God gave the law to the children of Israel. Strictly speaking, the old covenant does not cover the entire period of the Old Testament, from Genesis to Malachi. It actually began from Exodus 19 and continued until the time of John the Baptist (Matt. 11:12-13). The time of John the Baptist to the time before the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus is a transitional period between the Old and the New Testament times. Whereas God dealt with man in the Old Testament according to the old covenant — the law, He deals with man in the New Testament according to the new covenant — grace.]
[Romans 5:20 says that “the law entered.” This word means that the law was not in God’s original intention, nor was it God’s original ordination for man. Rather, it entered later; it was added along the way.] Due to man’s fall and corruption, God added the law for the following reasons: 1) the law expresses God, in His person and attributes, to fallen man; 2) the law makes manifest man’s transgressions; 3) the law exposes man’s real condition of being unable to express God according to God’s holiness, righteousness, and glory; 4) the law guards man as a child-conductor unto Christ; and 5) the law drives man to believe and receive Christ as grace that he may live and express God according to the demand of the law (Gal. 3:19, 22-26). [Since the old covenant was something added and was not God’s original intention for man, it could not remain permanently. Rather, it became old, grew decrepit, and disappeared (Heb. 8:13).]
[Galatians 3:19 says that the law was “ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator.” The mediator here refers to Moses (John 1:17; Exo. 24:3). Hence, the law was ordained in the hand of Moses. This indicates that it was not a pleasant and sweet matter for God to give the law to man; otherwise, He would have done it Himself.]
[Man is sinful, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Heb. 9:22). Without forgiveness of sin there is no way to fulfill the requirement of God’s righteousness that by it the covenant may be enacted. Therefore, the old covenant was dedicated with the blood of bulls and goats (Heb. 9:18-20; Exo. 24:6-8).]
[In the Old Testament God dealt with man according to the law. Everyone who kept the law would be blessed (Deut. 6:1-3), and everyone who did not abide by all the things written in the book of the law to do them would be cursed (Gal. 3:10). The law was able only to demand and condemn; it could not give life. Galatians 3:21 says, “If a law was given which was able to give life, righteousness would have indeed been of the law.” But actually man cannot be justified by law, for the law only demands and condemns; it cannot give life, nor can it give man the power to be justified by God.]
[Galatians 3:12 says, “And the law is not of faith, but he who does them shall live by them.” The law is not of faith; it is of works. The law is not based on the principle of faith; it is based on the principle of works. Man must do the law in order to live. Therefore, Moses spoke many times to all Israel in this way: “Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live” (Deut. 4:1; 5:1; 6:1, 25).]
[Referring to the old covenant, Hebrews 8:13 says, “In saying new, He has made the first old. Now that which is becoming old and growing decrepit is near to disappearing.” The prophecy in Jeremiah 31:31-34 concerning the coming new covenant indicated that the first covenant had become old and decrepit. It might have been that Jeremiah realized the weakness and unprofitableness of the old covenant and was deeply burdened about this matter. Therefore, God had an opportunity to come in to say through him, “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will consummate a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” (Heb. 8:8). Not only was the old covenant decrepit, but it was also near to disappearing. Therefore, it could only be applied to the Old Testament age.]
[The new testament, or the new covenant, is a better covenant (Heb. 8:6). The new covenant is better than the old one, just as the reality of a person is better than his photograph. The old covenant, like a photograph, had only the outward form, but the new covenant, like the real person, has the inward life with all its reality. The old covenant was lifeless; the new covenant is constituted with the indestructible life (Heb. 7:16). Everything in the new covenant is much better than the things in the old covenant because everything in the new covenant is the reality constituted with life. Therefore, it is a better covenant.
Furthermore, the new covenant is an eternal covenant (Heb. 13:20). Unlike the old covenant, which became old and decrepit and was abolished (Heb. 8:13), the new covenant is eternally effective.]
[The new covenant was accomplished by Jesus Christ Himself. When the Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross and shed the precious blood, He made the way for God to enact a new covenant with us (Matt. 26:28). Unlike the old covenant which was ordained in the hand of Moses, the new covenant was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, God’s beloved Son.]
[After eating the Passover with the disciples, the Lord established His table with the bread and the cup. He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood” (Luke 22:20). The new covenant was established with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. First John 1:7 also says that the blood of Jesus, the Son of God, cleanses us from all sin. Because His blood satisfied the requirement of God’s righteousness, it opened the way for God to enact a new covenant with us. Therefore, the new covenant was enacted through the blood of Jesus, the Son of God; it is not like the old covenant which was enacted with the blood of bulls and goats.]
[Now that we are in the new covenant, we are not under the law but under grace (Rom. 6:14). Grace is the Triune God processed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to become everything to us. He is our redemption, salvation, life, and sanctification.
The new covenant is based upon grace, which gives life, as its condition. This means that in the new covenant the processed Triune God intends to be our all. Hence, the new covenant does not require man to keep the law; rather, it deals with man according to grace, which is God as everything to man.]
[Romans 11:6 says, “But if by grace, it is no longer out of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace.” Whereas the law is altogether out of works, grace is absolutely not of works. Anything that is out of works is not grace but law. John 3:15 says, “That everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.” Thus, the New Testament shows us very clearly that God does not require man to work; God requires man only to believe. In the New Testament age, the unique cause of God’s judgment on man is man’s unbelief, his not believing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God (John 3:18).
In the New Testament, the meaning of the word faith has two aspects. Objectively, faith is what we believe. Subjectively, faith is our believing. Therefore, faith denotes both the act of believing and that in which we believe. The things in which we believe include God’s sending His Son into the world, the Son’s human living, His death on the cross to accomplish redemption, His burial, His resurrection, His becoming the life-giving Spirit, His ascension, and His pouring out of the Holy Spirit. When we hear of all these divine matters, we will be stirred up and filled with appreciation. This is our faith and this is our believing act. In the new covenant man only needs to have such a faith; man does not need to strive to keep the law.]
[The new covenant was established when the Lord Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood. Hence, to those who believe in Him, that was the beginning of the new covenant. But as far as the Israelites are concerned, the prophecy in Jeremiah 31 will not be fulfilled until Christ’s second coming. The new covenant will be applied unto eternity, because it is an eternal covenant (Heb. 13:20).]
[The new and the old testaments first refer to the two covenants which God made with man as the two conditions for man to have a relationship with Him. The old covenant was ordained in the hand of Moses, dedicated with the blood of bulls and goats, and based upon the law, which could not give life, as its condition, requiring man only to work, not to believe. It was not God’s original intention but was added later and eventually was done away. Thus, it was applied only to the Old Testament age. The new covenant, the better and eternal covenant, was accomplished by Jesus Christ, was established with the blood of Jesus, the Son of God, and is based upon grace, which gives life, as its condition, requiring man only to believe, not to work. It is of God’s original intention and is applied to the New Testament age and eternity.]
[There were fourteen books of the Apocrypha which were not included in the Bible. Some have thought that these fourteen books were included in the Old Testament before the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament into Greek in 277 B.C. But we can find out from verified historical information that such a postulate is wrong.]
[The authoritative Jewish historian Josephus (born in A.D. 37) said: “We [the Jews] are not like the Greeks, having a lot of books that do not agree and are contradicting. We have only twenty-two books, including all the past writings, as recognized correctly to be divine. After such a long time, no one has ever dared to add to, delete from, or alter them.” This proves that even at the time of Josephus (first century A.D.), the Old Testament had only the original twenty-two books without the additional fourteen books from the Apocrypha. Therefore, to assume that the Old Testament contained the Apocrypha before 277 B.C. is not correct.] The Old Testament today has thirty-nine books. Originally, there were only twenty-two. Judges and Ruth were one book. Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles did not have first and second books. Ezra and Nehemiah were one book. Jeremiah and Lamentations were one book. Hosea to Malachi, twelve books in all, were one book. These twenty-two books were divided into the present thirty-nine when the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into the Greek Septuagint Version.
[There was a scholar in Jerusalem called Cyril, born in A.D. 315, who said, “Please read the Holy Scripture, the twenty-two books of the Old Testament, which were translated by the Seventy-Two.” This shows that even as late as A.D. 315, the authoritative Jewish scholars still recognized their Old Testament to have only twenty-two books. His words also clearly prove that in the translation of the Septuagint (Cyril referred to the Seventy-Two, the number of scholars who translated the Septuagint. The historians are unclear whether it was seventy or seventy-two people there.), there were no fourteen apocryphal books in the Old Testament.]
[The Lord Jesus and the apostles quoted the Old Testament frequently. If the fourteen books of the Apocrypha were already among the Old Testament books, the Lord and the apostles should have quoted them. However, we cannot find them quoting from the Apocrypha once. This proves that at the time of the Lord Jesus and the apostles, these books of the Apocrypha were not there in the Old Testament.]
[Among three manuscripts of the Bible which are considered some of the oldest in the world, one is kept in the Vatican, the place where the Roman Catholic Pope resides. It is called the Codex Vaticanus, or the Vatican Manuscript. According to the historians, this manuscript was finished in the fourth century A.D., and in the Old Testament part, which was a Septuagint translation, it included the fourteen books of the Apocrypha. This must have been added after A.D. 315. It might have been the objection to this move that caused the Eastern Greek Orthodox Church to call a council at Laodicea in A.D. 361 to officially denounce these fourteen books of the Apocrypha. They also forbade the use of these apocryphal books in the church. This proves that up until A.D. 361 there was a big question whether or not these apocryphal books should be included in the canon of Scripture.]
[It was not until April 8, 1546 that the Roman Catholic Church called a council in Trent directly under the Pope to affirm the authority of these fourteen books of the Apocrypha. From that time on, these apocryphal books remained in the Roman Catholic Bible. This proves that until the sixteenth century A.D., even the Roman Catholic Church did not officially acknowledge these apocryphal books as canonical. Although this matter was affirmed at the Council of Trent by the Roman Catholic Church, the Lutherans solemnly denounced that these apocryphal books were divinely inspired. In 1646 more than one hundred fifty Protestant Bible scholars put together the “Westminster Confession,” which also declared that the Apocrypha has no divine authority and is the same as any other human composition.
By now we should be clear that the whole Bible consists of the present thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. The fourteen books of the Apocrypha were added in by the Roman Catholic Church arbitrarily and cannot be trusted. Moreover, the contents of the Apocrypha include many ridiculous historical anecdotes. There is no way to trace some of the authors or the time and place they were written. For this reason, they do not have any canonical value.]
The Lord Jesus Christ said, “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and out of the holy city, which are written in this book” (Rev. 22:18-19). The end of Revelation is the completion of all God’s revelations to man. Any addition or deletion resulting in any changes to the complete revelation of God — the Bible — is wrong. Since the completion of the Bible, there have been some false revelations written by men trying to deceive the people of God.
The Koran is a counterfeit of the Bible. It contains many names of biblical people and places, yet it is mixed with human concepts, mainly of Mohammed. He pronounced himself to be the prophet of the one God. He wrote the Koran and claimed that it was the word of God. The moral standard of the Koran is very low. It talks about lust in its “heaven.” We definitely do not accept the Koran as part of the revelation of God.
The Book of Mormon is another false revelation. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, wrote the Book of Mormon. He claimed to have discovered some gold leaves inscribed with heavenly script containing God’s revelation. After he translated the inscription into the Book of Mormon, the gold leaves were taken back to heaven. No one else ever saw them. The Book of Mormon is full of errors and contradictions. Many portions have been removed because scientific discoveries proved them wrong. For example, the Book of Mormon originally said that the moon was inhabited. That portion was removed after man landed on the moon in 1969. [The claim of Joseph Smith to have had a revelation in addition to what is in the Bible is nonsensical and heretical. Revelation 22:18 and 19 indicate that the entire revelation of God has been completed and that no one should add anything or take away anything. Therefore, we should not think that we can receive a new revelation in addition to what is recorded in the sixty-six books of the Bible.]
Although the Jehovah’s Witnesses use a version of the Bible, they have modified some parts to agree with their heretical teachings. They do not believe that Jesus Christ is God Himself. They consider Him to be a separate God and a lesser God. John 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Their version says, “...and the Word was a God.” They added an “a” to modify the meaning of the verse so it would coincide with their heretical teaching. Therefore, we do not regard their version as the true Bible.
Most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. Only Jeremiah 10:11, Daniel 2:4—7:28, and Ezra 4:8—6:18 were written in Aramaic. Most of the New Testament was written in Greek. However, there were some portions written in Aramaic, such as Mark 5:41 and 15:34. There are some Latin words as well.
The written content of the Bible is crucial to us. The translation of the Bible is also important to us. Without the proper translations, the Bible can neither be correctly presented to us nor properly understood by us. God inspired approximately forty men to write the Bible. He also inspired many more to translate the Bible throughout the ages. The following are several of the most popular translations.
Seventy scholars in Alexandria of Egypt translated the whole Old Testament into Greek around 277 B.C. This is the oldest translation of the Old Testament. Because there were seventy translators, this translation is called the Septuagint. It is also called the Alexandria Version because it was translated in Alexandria.
The Vulgate Version was translated during the fourth century in North Africa. It is a Latin version translated from the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament and the original Greek manuscript of the New Testament. Vulgate means popular or common. This was the first Bible that was brought to England.
In A.D. 1611, fifty-four scholars translated the Old Testament and New Testament into the best English version of that time. Because this version was directed by King James I, it was called the Authorized Version. This is the most popular version among English readers.
From 1870 to 1885, about one hundred scholars from England and America revised the Authorized Version and called it the Revised Version.
When these scholars were revising the Authorized Version, some of the suggested revisions by the American scholars were not accepted. Later, in America, the American scholars revised the Revised Version, incorporating their suggestions, and called it the American Standard Version. Most of this version is the same as the Revised Version.
The Bible has been translated into many languages, and many versions have been written. According to the 1990 Scripture Language Report published by the United Bible Societies (UBS), the Bible has been translated into 1,946 languages. There are about fifty English versions.
There are some versions of the Bible that are mostly paraphrased. The Living New Testament Version is a paraphrased version. John 1:1 of the Living New Testament version says, “Before anything else existed, there was Christ, with God. He has always been alive and is Himself God.” Most versions say, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” You can see that the paraphrase is not exactly like the original. Paraphrased versions include many concepts of the writers concerning the Bible. Serious students of the Bible use properly translated versions.
The Recovery Version is translated into English, Chinese, and Spanish. The Chinese Recovery Version was published in 1988. The English Recovery Version will be published in the Fall of 1991. The Spanish Recovery Version will follow. Brother Witness Lee and his co-workers condensed the best of the Bible studies from the past two thousand years and integrated them into the Recovery Version. The Recovery Version has many advantages over the other versions and study Bibles.
The Recovery Version is the most accurate translation. It is an improvement based on the existing acceptable versions and the most recently recovered truths. The translators did not compromise the true understanding for traditional teachings or for cultural preferences. They endeavored to provide the most accurate translation so that man may know the truth according to God’s divine revelation.
The Recovery Version is one of the most readable translations. The style and word usage of many versions are old and hard to understand. As a result, many people do not like to read the Bible. Some translators have tried to please the readers by publishing paraphrased Bibles, yet they compromise the truth. The Recovery Version is both accurate and easy to read.
The Recovery Version provides an outline for every book of the New Testament. Many readers of the Bible, even though they have faithfully read the Bible for years, do not know the subjects, outlines, or backgrounds of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. The outlines help the readers to better understand each book.
The Recovery Version also includes footnotes. Footnotes explain many hard-to-understand portions. There are four types of footnotes: 1) the literal meaning of a word or words in Greek; 2) a brief definition of a word or a verse; 3) an introduction or conclusion to a book or a section of the Word; and 4) a thorough study of a word or a topic. These footnotes open the Word to the readers to enlighten them, causing them to know the truth and to experience life.
The Recovery Version gives many references in the margins to help readers find supporting verses for their study. Unlike an exhaustive concordance, the references list only the related verses.
The Life-study messages are an accompanying set of study aids for the New Testament. This set of messages opens up every verse of the New Testament. If readers still desire to further research a verse or subject matter after studying it in the Recovery Version, they can receive additional help from the Life-study messages. They will not only get the knowledge of the Word, they will also get nourished with the Word to experience life and grow in life.
The Bible is still the “best seller.” It is translated into more languages than any other book written by man. More than six hundred million Bibles were sent out in 1989.
The Bible is most definitely the precious gift of God for man. God did not write a book in heaven and send it down by an angel to man. He did not just inspire one well-known man of God to write a book for Him. First, there was the speaking of God to many godly men for nearly 2,500 years. Then Moses took the lead to write down God’s revelations. After having been written by more than forty men over a period of 1,600 years, and after having been tested by being read and experienced by God’s people for over one thousand years, the final sixty-six books were at last canonized to be the Word of God. But shortly thereafter, the Bible was locked up by the Roman Catholic Church. Many faithful believers were put to death for having the Bible in their possession. After a thousand years, Martin Luther and his co-workers liberated the Bible from the unlawful custody of the Roman Catholic Church and made it available to the common people. However, most people received very little revelation in reading the Bible. Finally, after another five hundred years of extensive study and research, most of the Bible has been opened to us in the Lord’s recovery. We did not receive all the revelations direct from God, but gathered many of them from an accumulation of revelations recorded over the past six thousand years. What we have in the recovery today is the cream of the revelation of God and the rich experiences of the saints and the churches throughout church history. We should treasure the Bible and all the recovery books that unveil the Bible to us! How much we need to study the Word with the help of the ministry! “O Lord Jesus, I want to give myself to devour Your Word until I am full of You and come to the full knowledge of the truth.”
