Mistaken Identity
3-26-10
People often say that the Reina-Valera of 1909 Spanish Bible is the Authorized Version translated into Spanish. This is not true--and not even close to true. The Reina-Valera is NOT an Authorized King James Bible. In reading it, I've come across very many deeply grievous differences. I no longer read the Spanish Bibles... I have compared about four Spanish Bibles, the most conservative ones, to the Authorized Version--
*Reina Valera 1909
*Cipriano of 1865
*Gomez 2010
*Antigua Versión de Cipriano de Valera 1602 (New Testament)
The Gomez 2010 is a new translation that is touted as having basically corrected the Reina-Valera and as being 100% Textus Receptus. From what I have seen and researched, I can say that the Gomez is NOT in line with the King James Bible. It is not even close.
In translating from the book of Ruth a few years ago, I became convinced that the Reina-Valera does not need to be corrected and neither does the Cipriano. I stopped reading the Spanish Bibles in my personal time long ago because I did not want the errors to stick in my mind (even though I tried to correct them as I would read). Someone noted that the peoples of the world could learn to read the Authorized Version.
The Authorized Version needs to be translated into Spanish--but only by those that tremble greatly at God's word and are well-acquainted with the Authorized Version. This is a feaful undertaking and anybody who is not scared does not need to do this. Fear makes you keep on looking at what you've already "done". It makes you search and search for the right word--the one that means the exact same thing as what you are reading (keeping in mind other future and past instances of that word in the scriptures)--not just "something in the ballpark." Fear makes you only grudgingly accept that there is no exact Spanish word for what you want to translate. In that case, you get close, as close as you can--and yet you still reserve space in your mind for when that closer word might appear.
The errors in the Spanish Bibles begin in Genesis chapter one (I will not go through all the errors there, but will give two examples. The Gomez is online so if you speak Spanish, you can take the Authorized Version (Pure Cambridge Edition) and do a comparison for yourself. The Reina-Valera 1909 is also online, so you can compare it also.
[Note: I've tried not to be too harsh about this subject in the past, and still do not want to appear to desire to take away the scriptures from my Spanish brethren--MAY GOD FORBID THIS GREAT POTENTIAL MISUNDERSTANDING--but they need the Authorized Version of 1611.]
EXAMPLE ONE
In the Reina-Valera 1909, Cipriano 1865, and the Gomez 2010, Genesis 1:2 it says the earth was "desordenada" (out of order) instead of "without form" which is what the Authorized Version says. An obvious, sound translation would be "sin forma" (without form).EXAMPLE TWO
Now let's go down to Genesis 1:24--AUTHORIZED VERSION:
24 ...CATTLE, and CREEPING THING, and BEAST OF THE EARTH...
IS TRANSLATED
24 ...BEASTS and SERPENTS and ANIMALS of the earth... (REINA-VALERA 1909)
24 ......BEASTS, and SERPENTS, and ANIMALS of the earth... (CIPRIANO 1865)
24...BEASTS and REPTILES [1] and ANIMALS of the earth... (GOMEZ 2010)
These are not the only errors found in the Spanish Bibles in Genesis 1:24, this was just a sample. As one continues reading Genesis in the Spanish Bible, more extremely grievous errors are found. The words and forms found in Spanish Bibles that I have seen are radically different from the Authorized Version. The jewels (joyas) of Genesis 24:53 are vessels (vasos) in the Reina-Valera 1909 (and the Gomez 2010)). The Reina-Valera of 1909 is not the King James Bible of 1611 translated into Spanish. Neither are the Cipriano of 1865 or the Gomez of 2010.
My daughter wondered if maybe someone tried to translate the Reina-Valera from memory and did a bad job of it (I said no one would remember that badly...) because they had read a bad manuscript in the first place (I don't know about that but something else came to mind...).
[1] I showed this error to David Daniels who was apparently defending the Gomez for Chick Publications (he is referenced on the chick.com website under "Spanish Bibles"). He answered me saying that he still believed the Gomez was good and would use it alongside his King James Bible. Was that a good response? To be confronted with the truth and still contend that the Gomez is the word of God for Spanish speaking people? [UPDATE (2014): Chick Publications materials is still doing this] The professed Christians that have power to do things (or at least garner the resources--in this case, just people who care and would translate not looking for payment) WON'T DO THEM. They are like a bump on a log. The apathy in the professed Christian church is systemic--the enemy knows this and I can only assume that he is helping church people to stay sleepy with whatever their particular false doctrines, lusts, and problems are. Out of all the horrors in the earth today, I still believe that the greatest one of all is the state of the professed church. The true church is the pillar and ground of the truth (ref. I Timothy 3:15). We are supposed to be supporting and being the ground of the truth in the earth. Where is the truth in the church (the real truth, not just something these people are saying is the truth (like dispensationalism lies))? How can anybody be delivered into freedom if the whole truth is not found in the church? We have to start looking for the church of the living God outside of manmade, man-run organizations. We have to look to the kingdom of God within--
Luke 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
May each sanctified individual be spurned on to anointed, effectual action.
Keywords: Authorized Version, Authorised Version 1611, Reina Valera