From "Answers To Your Bible Version Questions"
© 2001 by David W. Daniels

Question: What is the Lamsa Bible? Is it trustworthy like the King James Bible? If not, how is it different?

Answer: I used the Lamsa Bible myself, when I was into the occult, over two decades ago. But I still remember the strange things it says to this day. The Lamsa Bible is supposedly a translation of the Aramaic Peshitta Bible, authored by occultist George Lamsa. He was a very sly man. He used as his base text the King James Bible, and changed passages to fit what he wanted them to say, then claimed he was only "translating the Aramaic."

For example, in Matthew 27:46 God's words say: "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" But Lamsa's book says "Eli, Eli, lemana shabakthani," which according to his notes means, "My God, my God, for this I was spared," or "this was my destiny." This destroys the Lord Jesus Christ's quotation of Psalm 22:1. Even worse, he changed Psalm 22:1 into heresy:

"My God, my God, why hast thou let me to live? and yet thou hast delayed my salvation from me, because of the words of my folly."

A person reading Jesus' words on the cross and Psalm 22 would have no idea that God made that psalm into a precise prophecy of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We know that the Lord Jesus is the "only-begotten" of God the Father. But in Lamsa's perversion it reads, "the first-born" (John 1:14, 18). Jesus wasn't the first born from God; He is the ONLY one, God the Son and Son of God.

1 Timothy 3:16 says clearly "God was manifest in the flesh;" but Lamsa wrongly wrote, "it [the "divine mystery"] is revealed in the flesh." Jesus wasn't a mystery with a body. He was, and is, God Himself.

Micah 5:2 tells us that the Lord Jesus has always lived; but instead of "whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting," Lamsa lies, "whose goings forth have been predicted from of old, from everlasting." This makes no sense. Jesus wasn't predicted from eternity; He has existed from eternity!

He changed other passages, too, such as one in Daniel 11:38, which many believe prophesies the antichrist. The KJV clearly says: "But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things." But in the Lamsa Bible, it says this evil man will honor "the mighty God..."

Isaiah 14:12 tells us about the spirit behind the kings of the world, namely Lucifer: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" But in Lamsa's perversion it reads: "How are you fallen from heaven! howl in the morning!"

The Lamsa Bible is not Christian at all. It is Lamsa's own blend of occultic ideas made to look a lot like the King James Bible. Amazingly he published books with both Holman Publishers and the occultic Unity "School of Christianity." For a while, some Christians endorsed this Bible, and it was the choice for Oral Roberts' study Bible years back. I have not heard anything more about it for years.

It is better to stay with God's preserved words in English. All these supposed "more ancient" and "better" Bible texts have done is bring confusion to the Christian world. And we all know who is the author of confusion.