Textual Scholar Wilbur Pickering: Why The Majority Text (Family 35)? Interview by Thomas Ross (1/3)

Dr. Wilbur Pickering, New Testament scholar, linguist, and missionary in Brazil, explains why the Greek Majority Text is superior to the Nestle-Aland or United Bible Society Greek New Testament, in an interview with Thomas Ross (part 1 of 3).

Dr. Wlibur Pickering is the author of the classic defense of the Majority Text and critique of the Greek minority text The Identity of the New Testament Text. He also edited the Greek New Testament According to Family 35 and many other scholarly studies of the New Testament. Dr. Pickering holds a Master of Theology degree from Dallas Theological Seminary and a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Toronto, Canada.

In part 1 of this three part presentation, Thomas Ross asks, and Dr. Pickering discusses, the following questions:

1.) What do you think the Bible teaches about its own inspiration and preservation?

2.) What broader theological tradition do you come from?

3.) Why is the Majority Text superior to the NA/UBS text?

Dr. Pickering believes in the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Bible. Scripture is God's Word without any error. Dr. Pickering also, in common with advocates of the Textus Receptus but in disagreement with most advocates of the Textus Rejectus / Nestle-Aland / United Bible Society Greek New Testament, believes that God has preserved every word that He inspired. However, Pickering claims that no verse states specifically how God would preserve Scripture-that must be determined empirically. Dr. Pickering's claim that Scripture does not indicate how God would preserve His Word differentiates him from advocates of the Textus Receptus, who believe God promised to preserve His words in the text in common use among His people (Isaiah 59:21; Matthew 4:4; 5:18; 28:18-20). Advocates of the Textus Receptus therefore believe that the canonical text in use for centuries among the saints and true churches, the Received Text, is superior to printed editions of the Majority Text where they differ.

Dr. Pickering has a Baptist and Baptistic background, as well as influences from broad evangelicalism. He believes in the continuation of the sign gifts rather than in cessationism, and he denies the eternal security of the believer. He does not himself personally speak in tongues, but he believes that other people have the Biblical gift of tongues today. These beliefs differentiate him from the large majority of independent and fundamental Baptists.

Dr. Pickering discusses many reasons why the Majority Text is superior to the NA/UBS Textus Rejectus from which the large majority of modern English Bible versions are translated.

First, Pickering points out that every single one of the editors of the Greek Nestle-Aland / United Bible Society Greek text was an unbeliever, a child of the devil. None of them believed in the infallible inspiration of Scripture. Sadly, there is every reason to think that Kurt Aland, Matthew Black, Bruce M. Metzger, and Allen Wikgren died and went to hell. Later, the Roman Catholic cardinal Carlo Maria Martini became an editor. Martini also was not born again.

Second, Pickering discusses the many serious textual corruptions in the NA/UBS text, including:

"GOD was manifest in the flesh" (1 TImothy 3:16)--the Textus Receptus and Majority Text include the word "God," while the NA/UBS omits it.

Mark 16:9-20 are removed, attacking the resurrection of Jesus Christ, His resurrection appearances, and the Great Commission.

John 7:53-8:11 are removed, deleting an important Biblical account and requiring a denial of the doctrine of the preservation of Scripture.

Dr. Pickering and Ross discuss Mark 16:9-20 at some length. Codex B or Vaticanus omits this crucial passage, but it contains a large space at the end where the missing verses could be located-a gap of this kind exists only here in the New Testament of Vaticanus. Pickering also argues that codex Aleph or Sinaiticus contains forgery at the end of Mark 16:9-20.

Furthermore, the Nestle-Aland Textus Rejectus contains plain errors of fact-it is not an inerrant text.

1.) The NA / UBS is in error in Mark 1:2, claiming that Isaiah wrote the book of Malachi.

2.) The NA/UBS is in error in 1 Corinthians 5:1, claiming that a particular kind of immorality did not exist among the Gentiles, when it certainly did.

3.) The NA/UBS is in error in Luke 4:44; Christ was in Galilee, not in Judea.

4.) The NA/UBS is in error in Luke 23:45, claiming that the darkness when Christ was crucified was an eclipse, which is impossible at a new moon.

5.) The NA/UBS is in error in Mark 6:22, where it claims Herodias was Herod's daughter.

6.) The NA/UBS is in error in Luke 3:23-it introduces fictional people into the geneology of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the texts above the NA/UBS is following a tiny minority of Greek MSS, rejecting the vast majority.

The NA/UBS text is also a patchwork that does not look like any known manuscript on the face of the earth.

#majoritytext #pickering #f35 #kjv #textusreceptus