Greetings and welcome to this episode of Jots and Tiddles. I'm Jeff Riddle. I'm the pastor of Christ Reformed Baptist Church in Louisa, Virginia. And in this short episode of Jots and Tiddles, I'm going to look at an error that was found in the modern English version translation of Psalm 10 and verse 13. I have written a longer review of the modern English version, and it's an interesting translation that attempted to base the Old Testament on the traditional Masoretic text and the New Testament on the traditional Greek New Testament, the textus receptus. It came out around 2014, and I think it's got some pros and cons. recommend it over the authorized version as the best English translation. But I did have some positive things to say about it, particularly the fact that they were attempting to make the translation from the traditional text. But a couple of weeks ago, I had someone get in touch with me online and ask a question about one verse in particular. So I put together a little PowerPoint and let me see if I can pull this PowerPoint up and we'll talk about this error in the modern English version of Psalm 10 and verse 13. So as I said, someone got in touch They actually sent a contact to my church's Facebook page, and we have a woman in our church who is in charge of that. It's her ministry, and she forwarded the message on over to me. Let me see if I can. This is frozen on me. There we go. There we go. This was the note that came from this fellow. He said, sorry to bother you, I have a question for Pastor Riddle. In Psalm 1013, I was just wondering why it reads different in the modern English version than the King James Version and the New King James Version. Did you realize this? And I emailed him back and said, no, I didn't realize this. And as we'll see in just a moment, I got in touch with someone who is involved with the modern English version to get an explanation on this. But this is the issue with Psalm 10, verse 13. In the modern English version, it reads like this. Why do the wicked despise God? He says in his heart, you will require an account. So we've got this scene where there's the wicked person, imagines the wicked person speaking in his heart and he despises God and he says to God, you will require an account. But if you look at this in the King James Version, it says, wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? He hath said in his heart, that will not require it. And so the key here is, is it God will not require it? Is that what the wicked man says? So he goes about doing his wicked things because he doesn't think that God will ever require anything of him, ever hold him to account or responsibility. But the modern English version doesn't have that negative. And so it says, God, you will require an account. Also the New King James Version, Why did the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, you will not require, and they put in italic, an account. And of course you can see some other things that are different just about the layout. The modern English version lays it out like poetry. It puts in quotation marks this reported speech of the wicked person. Whereas in typical, actually the New King James version also has this reported speech in quotation marks. But one of the things I like about the authorized version is it doesn't do that. It leaves it to the reader to interpret. But from the context, he, the wicked person says in his heart, thou will not require it. New King James, you will not require it. And I just pulled up off of Bible Gateway, their offering of a Hebrew text. And this is the Westminster Leningrad Codex. And if you look at it in Hebrew, why do the wicked despise Elohim, God, and then Amar, the call perfect, he has said, or he said in his heart, lo, and this is the key word, this is the negative particle, lo, in the Hebrew text. And so the Hebrew text has it as a negative, like in the King James Version, thou will not require it, New King James, you will not require an account, but The modern English version would appear, if you're just reading this, to be based on a text that doesn't have the low, the negative particle in Hebrew. And so this person rightly, it was a great question, wonderful that he caught that. I hadn't caught that. And I haven't read through every single part of the modern English version. I did my review of it based on a selective reading of different sections of it. But anyway, he caught this, and so kudos to him for catching it. So what I did was I emailed a person that I know who was actually the editor of the Old Testament parts of the Modern English Version. His name is Blake Hearson, and he is a professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri, and I actually know him. He's also the book review editor for the Midwestern Journal of Theology, and I've worked with him on submitting some book reviews to that journal, and so I sent him an email and asked if he could explain what this issue was. And I told him, this fellow got in touch with me, what's the answer to this? And he very kindly wrote back on September the 29th. And he said, Jeff, sorry for the delay in replying. The verse in question was a mistake that made it through the editing process. It has been corrected and will be corrected in the updated version. These things do happen, unfortunately. Even the ESV had a couple of errors that made it through that they quietly corrected in 2007. The verse in the updated version reads as follows. Why do the wicked despise God? He says in his heart, you will not require an account. Shalom from Blake Harrison. So anyways, what he said was this was simply a typographical error that happened. The not should have been in there. That was the translation of the translators and somehow in the editing process the omission of the not was overlooked and the original first edition went to print. with this error in it, but this is being corrected and in future printed editions of the modern English version, the negative particle not will be returned and reflected in the translation. And I was thinking about another example of this. He mentions that this happened with the ESV. But you may well know, if you've looked at anything about the history of the authorized version, about the so-called wicked Bible. And so printing errors are not unprecedented in the production of Bibles in various translations in various languages. One of the most famous omissions took place in a 1631 edition of the King James Version or the Authorized Version which failed to include the word not in Exodus 20 verse 14 giving the reading thou shalt commit adultery instead of thou shalt not commit adultery That 1631 edition of the Authorized Version in Exodus 2014 said, thou shalt commit adultery. And therefore, this printed edition became known as the Wicked Bible. And if you want to read more about that, almost every history of the Authorized Version tells that little anecdote. but I looked it up just to double check in Adam Nicholson's book, God's Secretaries, the Making of the King James Bible. It was published in 2003. So it seems as if we were able to solve the question of, is there an error in the modern English version of Psalm 1013? The answer is yes, there actually is an error that's there in probably most printed editions. I guess all of them, maybe they haven't had a recent printing of it. So if you have the modern English version, you need to take a pen and write a not in there at Psalm 1013. And I even looked Let me pull this up if I can. Also, I looked at Bible Gateway, which is a popular free online edition of the Bible in multiple translations, and I got it here at Psalm 1013 on the King James Version. Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God, he hath said in his heart thou wilt not require it. And if you look at the modern English version here, let's see, let's search for that. As it appears right now live on the Bible gateway, it still has the uncorrected form. Why do the wicked despise God? He says in his heart, you will require an account. So I hope in addition to the printed editions of the modern English version that it will also be corrected in the various online versions that appear of it. Well, I hope that this little short episode of Jots and Tiddles has been helpful for those who are listening. I'll look forward to speaking to you in the next episode of this podcast or the Word Magazine podcast. Till then, I ask that the Lord would richly bless you. Take care.