Why yet another translation of the Holy Bible?
Much confusion has arisen from the practice of translating the many Hebrew words referring to God as simply "God". Imagine reading an English novel where the words "brother", "sister", "cousin", "mother", "father", "uncle", etc were all rephrased as "relative". Technically, it would be correct but much of the meaning would be lost to the reader, with potential misunderstandings and confusion. Alice may be described as a relative of John, but is she his mother, his sister, his wife, his cousin, his grand-daughter, etc? Why not prevent the confusion by retaining the original words?
Our "Restored King James Bible Translations" in this Library have been derived from the King James Authorized Version with the words "God" and "LORD" restored to the original Hebrew words (according to Strong). To improve readability, the verbs and pronouns have been updated to modern forms (no "thou", "sayest", etc).
These volumes are very useful in understanding the usage and meanings of "God", "LORD", "El", "Elohim", "Eloah", "YHVH" (or "YHWH"), "YHVH YHVH" (or "YHWH YHWH"), "Adon", "Adonai", etc.
As an example, the important word "Elohim" is central to the understanding of the Old Testament God and to the reason for salvation, but is the subject of numerous claims regarding its meaning. Some meanings have been "creator", "man from space", a collective noun meaning a family of gods, and a group of powerful angels. The proponents of these claims all tell good stories and appear to have evidence to support their ideas. How can you tell what is correct? Check for yourself in these Restored King James books! or do the restoration yourself with your own concordance. Don't take the word of some one else; prove it yourself from the original documents!
These RKJV books have all of the "Elohim" restored and shown explicitly, allowing the reader to learn the true meaning of "Elohim" and to see which alleged "meanings" do not fit. Let the original inspired scriptures of the Bible explain themselves. By considering all of the uses, not just a selected few which support the story teller's spiel, you will see from the usage that many of the claims about the meaning of Elohim are incorrect.
Note that the Restored Names King James Version (http://www.eliyah.com/Scripture/) is a different translation and has no connection with our Restored King James Version publications.
Individual books, using YHWH, available on this site are:
Genesis
(Updated January 2005)
Leviticus
(Updated January 2005)
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua (Updated January 2005)
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job (Updated February 2005)
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
The following versions of individual YHWH books are stored in the Wayback Machine at archive.org, and are snapshots of the pages at the time of capture. Note that the source URLs are no longer correct; use the URLs shown by the Wayback Machine in your browser location field.
Exodus (January 1998)
Leviticus (January 1998)
Numbers (January 1998)
Deuteronomy (January
1998)
Joshua (January 1998)
Judges (January 1998)
1 Samuel (January
1998)
Job (September 1998)
Isaiah (September 1998)
Daniel (January 1999)
Two margin sizes are available.
There are three alternate Divine Name versions, which should suit almost everyone who is seeking a more accurate rendition of the Divine Name. Only the four consonants are displayed; the reader can mentally expand it to whatever is desired. For example, JHVH can be a representation of 'Jehovah'; YHVH a representation of 'Yahveh", 'Yehovah', 'Yahovah', etc; and YHWH a representation of 'Yahweh', 'Yehowah", 'Yahowah', etc.
JHVH version
YHVH version
YHWH version
e-Sword Version 8 compatible modules, using YHWH, are available. (eSword Version 9 adopted a different internal structure which is incompatible with earlier versions, thus rendering all previous modules unusable with eSword versions 9 and later.)
The Lite version of the Restored King James Version was derived from the King James Version by replacing "god", "gods", "God" by the corresponding el, elah, eloah, or elohim; "the LORD" by YHWH or YHWiH; as indicated by Strong's Concordance. It also replaces "Jesus" with "Yehoshua". Unlike the regular Restored King James Version, it does not attempt to modernize any other English. The Lite RKJV is intended for those who prefer the old English wording.
Free e-Sword software is available from e-sword.net.
The archived Archival Christianity Study Library with early documents can be viewed at
archive.org.
Paticularly recommended is Read the Book! by
David Jon Hill at
http://web.archive.org/web/20010528221827/web.wwa.com/~curadist/ReferenceLibrary/Christianity/WCG/DJHill/readbook.htm
. A copy is available.
Also see David Jon Hill's How to Study the Bible recommendations.
The Translator's Dilemma shows why "sons of God" is misleading when applied to angels in the Old Testament. Readers will be surprised by the wide range of meaning of the hebrew word "ben", which is often well rendered as "thing made by" but English does not read well with a literal translation of a phrase such as "ben Elohim" as "thing made by God". Translators know the problem but should they use a simple poetic word like "son" or use a lengthy explanation? Unfortunately some people have been misled by the simple translation "son" and have established foundational doctrines of their churches on it.
Read the whole of the Old Testament in a Year will assist you to become better acquainted with the Old Testament, with suggested daily readings, enabling you to read the whole of the Old Testament painlessly year after year.
Read the Whole New Testament in One Year will assist you to become better acquainted with the New Testament, with suggested daily readings, enabling you to read the whole of the New Testament painlessly year after year.
Read the Whole New Testament in Six Months is similar to the previous item, but has an accelerated schedule for those who want to progress faster. The daily readings enable you to read the whole of the New Testament in six months.
An open invitation for the Last Day of the Great Feast examines several verses in John chapter seven. What future is there for those who have died and never had an opportunity for salvation?
Passover Days 28-35 CE uses data from the US Navy to produce calendar fragments forthe weeks around the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread in the years 28 CE to 35 CE.
The Crucifixion could not have been on a Friday is an analysis of the week day of Nisan 14 in the years when the Crucifixion might have occurred. It considers data from the US Navy to reach the conclusion of its title.
Why does the Jewish calendar have postponements?provides an explanation of the necessity for those who follow the traditions of the Jewish elders to adjust their calendar months, or "postpone" months by one or two days or even a whole month or so, to avoid conflicts between religious duties.
Why New Moons Are Irrelevant to the Jewish Calendar shows how new months are arrived at in the Jewish calendar. It is not the way some think it is.
Who Are Christ's "Fellows"? explores the meaning of the word "fellows" in Psalm 45. It shows that the Bible itself overwhelmingly explains through dozens of verses that the "fellows" of Psalm 45:7 are Christ's fellow Christians and not angels.
Is Christ Immortal? An analysis of 1 Timthy 6:16, examines dozens of scriptures and delves into the Greek to discover what it really meant to Timothy.
Let Us Make Man in our Image discusses Christ's role in creation. It uses non-controversial scriptures which show that "Elohim" in Genesis 1 is a single being.
Alcohol and the Christian This article considers the many scriptures that relate to alcoholic drinks.
Are Only Evil Angels Judged by the Saints? An analysis showing that resurrected Christians will be greater than angels.
Whose "loud voice" in Revelation 12:10? considers all of the verses in the Book of Revelation where the phrase "loud voice" is used, to identify the crier in 12:10.
Herbert W Armstrong and Vegetarianism A historical view point from an eye witness in Australia. Includes discussion of selective extraction from Paul's package of "doctrines of demons" and biased dishonest interpretation leading to stupidity such as deductions that a heart specialist who advises on diet is a preacher of doctrines of demons.
Romans 14: Meat Offered to Idols? Did the Jews in Rome have the same problems in purchasing meat that the Greeks in Corinth had?
The Key to the Calendar shows how the Wave Sheaf Offering indicates the yearly beginning of the Calendar of Leviticus 23.
This file is a PDF version of the article as at 28 June 1997. Some of the references may have gone off the Internet, and some links have changed. The references to http://acsl.home.ml.org of course no longer apply. The PDF file was at http://www.geocities.com/selwynrussell/SR/keycal.pdf until Yahoo closed Geocities. The target paper size is A4 but use "shrink to fit" on the printing menu if you are using another size paper. It is 43 pages long, the PDF is 224K bytes.
Why was "The Key to the Calendar" written? There is a calendar revealed in the Bible, which is largely ignored by Christians in favour of a pagan calendar imposed centuries ago by military force from Rome. Why are Christians still using this Roman calendar? Most don't even know a Biblical calendar exists, but one problem is that there are different versions all claiming to accurately represent "God's Calendar".
Many of the minority of the Christians who want to follow the religious Festivals of God embedded in the Bible calendar use the version propagated by Jewish culture, which was published by Rabbi Hillel around the time theologians in Rome were creating the doctrine of the Trinity, three centuries after the resurrection of Christ. The Rabbis now admit the Hillel calendar does not comply with the specifications in the Bible, and use the additional complex rules of Rabbi Hillel to justify their behaviour which gives priority to the traditions of Judaism.
The problem for Judaism is that often the lunar dates fall on days of the week which make it impossible to conduct their traditions. For example, if the tenth day of the seventh lunar month of the lunar year, i.e. the Day of Atonement, falls on the sixth day of the week, i.e. Friday, then the traditions of the (Friday) afternoon before the weekly Sabbath cannot be observed because they are regarded as work, which tradition says cannot be done on the Day of Atonement. As another example, if the tenth day of the lunar month falls on the first day of the week, i.e. Sunday, then the very important traditions of the (Saturday) afternoon before Atonement, i.e. Yom Kippur, cannot be done because that would be doing work on the weekly Sabbath.
The solution officially adopted by the Sanhedrin before it was dissolved because of Roman persecution in the fourth century was to abandon the astronomical lunar calendar in favour of a fixed 19 year cycle tabular calendar designed so that clashes never happen in it. This calendar declares when a month begins, which may or may not happen to coincide with the start of a lunar month. Astronomical calculations and observations were made irrelevant. The calendar mostly had months starting on the day of the astronomical new moon, but, where there would otherwise be a clash, it "postponed" the start of a month to a convenient later day so its followers would be able to conduct the traditions and still appear to observe the correct date according to this calendar (but not according to the astronomical calendar). It seems that this calendar was not a new invention by the Rabbi, but was a brilliant documentation and justification of practices which had been followed in Judaism for quite some time.
If the followers of Judaism do not follow the calendar documented by Rabbi Hillel, they would have to abandon some of the traditions of the elders in some months of some years. So Judaism has its own special calendar, oriented around the traditions of Judaism.
Important points to note are
The followers of Judaism have a good reason for using the Hillel calendar and its postponements, namely so they can carry out their traditional customs, but what about the Christians who don't follow the traditions of the elders? Why are they using a calendar with postponements designed to permit the observance of customs which they do not observe? Why use a "postponed" date if you have no clash with dates and traditions, and so no reason to postpone?
One of the excuses used by Christians who follow the Judaism tradition-centred Hillel calendar is founded on the claim that the Bible does not indicate when the Biblical calendar year starts and so the Judaism traditions must have the correct times, so the calendar of Judaism should be copied. This claim of no indication in the Bible is not true, and this article explains the overlooked key to the problem of determining the starting month for the Biblical year.
A list of academic writings up to the end of 2002.
Written by Selwyn Russell, first published September 1995. Copyright Selwyn Russell 1995, 1997, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010.
Latest update: October 2010. (Sept 2010, 17 Jan 2010; 20 Oct, 11 April 2009. 2008 updates: 12 October; 27, 22 September; 31 August; 21 June; 7 May; 22 March 2008)
URL of this page: http://home.lizzy.com.au/srussell/index.html. See also rkjv.org, rkjv.net, rkjv.info