Does Reading and Trusting the Codex Sinaiticus Lead to Faith?

By: David W. Daniels

Did a man who saw more of Sinaiticus than anyone but Tischendorf grow in faith by trusting its words?

Let’s look at what I found in a book called, "The Religion of Yesterday and Tomorrow", by Kirsopp Lake. Lake spent more time with Codex Sinaiticus than pretty much anybody but Tischendorf.

He and his wife photographed the Sinaiticus New Testament in the Summer of 1908 and published it in 1911. Then he photographed the Sinaiticus Old Testament in 1913 and printed it in 1922.

In chapter 3 of my book, Is the World’s Oldest Bible a Fake?, I stated that the original verses of the Sinaiticus would affect somebody’s faith, if you read them as they are written.

For example: in Mark 1:1, it leaves out "the Son of God." Then by the time you get to verse 10, 11, and 12, you start realizing: “Wait a second. the Sinaiticus is saying that Jesus didn’t ‘become God’ or at least ‘become called God’ until He was baptized.”

That’s called Adoptionism. It was a belief that Jesus was only human until John baptized Him. After that, he was “adopted” by God to become a Son of God. This was a teaching of some early Gnostics who pretended to be Christians.

You can see how those missing words could affect somebody’s faith.

Listen to Lake from page 134:

“... it may be argued that Mark … only shows that Jesus was believed to have become a ‘Son of God,’ possibly at the Baptism, and that the disciples (and perhaps Jesus himself) believed that he was the ‘Son of Man’ (which only means ‘Man’), who would come from heaven at the last day to judge the living and the dead."

"This is ‘Adoptionism [Jesus wasn’t God in the flesh; he was an ordinary man that God adopted] … for it is historically unsound to identify with God a ‘Son of God’ (which may mean in Jewish language an angel, or a king, or a righteous man); and whatever the ‘Son of Man,’ means, it certainly is not God and cannot ever have meant this to Jewish ears.”

So, by 1925, Kirsopp Lake, photographer of the Sinaiticus, didn’t believe that Jesus was God come in the flesh. That’s bad. But he also declared that he did believe Adoptionism, God adopting Jesus the man as His son, —little “s.”

So, Lake’s Jesus isn’t really God the Saviour. And I can prove it.

Back on page 18, Lake said:

“From Greek and Oriental sources came belief in a Divine Saviour...who was able and willing to give to those who trusted and believed in him, a supernatural power of obtaining in a future life an immortality and happiness denied to the rest of the world.”

So, Lake is saying that this doctrine didn’t come from the inspiration of God. It came from Greek and Oriental, that is, heathen, sources.

Wow. That sounds like Lake is explaining away John 1:12: “But as many as received him [Jesus Christ], to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:”

I can’t quote this whole book to you, but here is another excerpt from page 147:

“Whether therefore he [Jesus] claimed to be the Messiah… or was merely so acclaimed by his disciples, is likely to be disputable…”

Lake’s trust in the fake Sinaiticus appears to have destroyed his faith. How many others today, suffer the same doubt after reading modern Bibles based on the Sinaiticus?

By focusing on the stream of counterfeit Bibles, Lake ignored the stream of over 5,700 Bibles and manuscripts that support the preserved Bible in English, the King James Bible. The KJV has over 400 years of history, inspiring faith-filled people to spread the gospel throughout the entire world. The preserved King James Bible is the only Bible we need!


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