Hey everybody, Pastor Steven Anderson here from Faith Ward Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona to talk to you about Hebrews chapter 13 verse 4
which in the King James Bible reads marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled, but
whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. One of the modern versions, this verse has been changed and
it reads completely differently. Let me read it for you from the ESV and the NIV. The ESV says
Let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled
For God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Here it is
and the NIV pretty much says the same thing marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept pure
For God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. So which one's right?
Well, we're gonna look at the original Greek here. I'm gonna prove to you that the King James is right
And there's a big difference in meaning between these two things. Okay, and I'm gonna explain that as well
But in this case, there is no textual variant in the Greek text
So sometimes the modern versions are saying something totally different because they're translating from a corrupt Greek manuscript in this case
both the King James and the ESV are
Translating from the same Greek original and we're gonna go through this word by word
Let me just start out by explaining to you what the difference is because in the King James it's saying marriage is honorable
The bed is undefiled
But whoremongers and adulterous God will judge basically what it's saying is that the activity between husband and wife
In bed is a good thing. It's honorable. It's undefiled
It's pure that act between a man and his wife is a pure act within marriage
Outside of marriage. It's wicked outside of marriage. It's something that God will bring his judgment down upon
Fornication is happening outside of marriage adultery. That's without the bounds of marriage
So that's what the King James is teaching now when you read this in the modern versions of well
We need to keep the marriage bed
Undefiled that makes it sound like there's something that you do within the marriage bed that that could be
impure or something something wrong with it, you know, there are a lot of
Christians quote-unquote who have some perverted views on the bedroom
You know starting with the Catholics who basically teach that
Having intercourse with your own wife is is you know venial sin because you know
It's only for procreation or you know
You're not supposed to enjoy it or whatever and and I'm sure you've heard about all the different weirdo
teachings throughout the centuries coming from Catholics on that issue and
That's why they think that it's so much better to be celibate and everything else
Because they're basically having a corrupt view of the marriage bed not what the Bible teaches Bible consistently teaches it within marriage
It's a good thing. Okay
and then
basically
Other groups out there have similar views trying to say that it's only for procreation
Or you know, it's better to abstain
I mean there are all kinds of strange teachings out there and and when you have this verse and the NIV in the ESV
It's it's it's feeding into that as opposed to the King James telling you. Hey, look within marriage go for it
You know go for broke you're married
So anyway, let's look at this in the original. Let's see which one's right. Okay, so here we I'm gonna go through this
Word-by-word first. I'll just read the whole thing. Timioso gamos en pasi que kitty a me andos
pornos de que mi jus crinio fail so
Timios honorable
Olamos
marriage or literally the marriage, but it's just
honorable marriage in all and posse and
que
He kitty the bed. This is where we get the word coitus in English
ekiti the bed a me andos
Undefiled and then we have our punctuation mark here. It's just a colon leading into
For news that so the word bad means but but it comes second in the phrase so it would be translated but
fornicators for news that
fornicators and me who's adulterers
Will judge creamy future tense
Othello's God so God will judge
fornicators and
Adulterers and there's your butt coordinating conjunction. So what's the first part?
Timios o gamos
honorable marriage in all and
The bed undefiled. Okay now
In this case, we do not have
The state of being verb here that we have in the King James where it would say marriage is honorable
So basically if we're taking the King James
We're basically adding an is here because in English we need a verb for an
Independent clause like this. Okay, whereas in Greek and Hebrew you don't need it
So often when you're reading in Hebrew and Greek the state of being verb isn't gonna be there
So it has to be supplied like well, here's let me give you another example of this
What about in John chapter 4 when it says God is a spirit. Okay, here's what that would look like in Greek
Okay
Okay, that's ma Othello's spirit God
So that's all you in the original. You just have spirit God and and basically in order for this to make
Sense in English you have to add the is and say, you know, God is a spirit
God is a spirit. Okay Nevema Othello's would be the original. So here we have marriage is
Honorable in all and the bed undefiled
So the King James is translating this word for word
Just supplying the is here just like you'd supply the is here just like you are frequently doing
Literally thousands of times when you're translating, you know
The Hebrew Bible the Greek New Testament
Whatever because you're gonna run into this constantly where you have to supply the state of being verb that isn't used in the original languages
Okay, so what's what's the ESV doing though?
Okay, the ESV. Let me grab the ESV is saying
Let marriage be held in honor among all so where is this idea of
Holding marriage in honor. What we have is just honorable marriage
Bob was just saying honorable equals marriage, but they've added this concept of
Be held let it be held that that whole let it be
mood
there's no verb here with that mood of
Say a subjunctive or optative mood here. Where is it? It isn't there
Okay, they've added that into the text this let it be attitude it isn't there
There's no let it be in the original
Let it be held in honor held isn't there
Let the marriage bed be undefiled. There's no let it be here. It just says ikiti amiandos
Where's the let it be? Where's the subjunctive or optative mood? It isn't there
The NIV again says
Marriage should be honored by where's the should here. There is no should there's no idea of should in this verse
they are just inserting that reading that into it because they have weird views on marriage and
the marriage bed kept pure
Okay, and again, there's no keep it pure. There's no it should be kept
Where's kept where's held where's let it be. Where's should these are all just being at
So the King James adds and is because you have to have an is in order for this to make sense in English
They're just putting in a state of being
Adding anything radical. They're just making it coherent in English
But the ESV and the NIV are making all these radical changes should let it be
Kept held it's it's adding all these elements that aren't in the original
So, you know the King James is giving you an accurate translation and this like I said this matters because you know
The King James is giving us a powerful verse telling us that the marriage beds undefiled, you know
Giving us a green light in the bedroom as married couples to enjoy that union
And you know what? It's not just for procreation
Guess what? There are all kinds of scriptures Proverbs chapter 5 the book of Song of Solomon
that rejoice in and
laud
The virtues of that relationship the joy and the pleasure that's found in the marital relationship. It's perverts
who have this weird view of
You know, they're gonna go beat themselves or something because they desired their wife, you know
these bunch of Catholic monks or whoever so
You know the plain reading of the text is exactly what the King James says god bless you have a great day