When I first started deputation way back in 1998, I was shocked to see that almost all Missionaries to Spanish-Speaking peoples used a Reina-Valera Spanish Bible that was corrupt! (At that time, they used either the pro-critical text 1960 dynamic equivalence version or the A.B.S. 1909 critical text bible).
As I read through the 1960 with my KJV, I was greatly appalled at the many doctrinal errors and critical text readings I found. I then bought the older 1909, and was devastated to find many critical text readings and doctrinal errors in it as well.
This drove me to study the history of the Spanish Bible, and I found the inconvenient truth that all Bible Societies had done an evil thing. They had revised all their Reina-Valera Spanish Bible revisions with catholic and/or critical texts.
Because of this, I bought a facsimile of both the old 1569 of Reina and 1602 of Valera and began reading them myself. I found that though they were much better, they were not perfect, reading with the corrupt Latin Vulgate time and again, but at least not as much.
In 2001, the 1865 American Bible Society Spanish translation was resurrected by the Valera Bible Society, and claimed to be the word of God in Spanish. However, as I studied it, I found it too was full of errors, reading not only with the Latin Vulgate, but also it changed many words with no textual basis to do so. Although it might have fixed some verses with the KJV, it butchered others, and left others unchanged, reading against the pure texts, often in favor of the modern critical texts.
Then, in 2002 came the Gomez Bible, which used the corrupt Bible Society translations of 1909 and 1960 as it’s basis, claiming to have “corrected them” with the pure texts underlying the King James Bible. However, it did not do a thorough job, (as it still has critical text readings), nor did it go back to the original 1602 to retain the pure old Castilian language. (It’s in modern Spanish). Further, it changed many synonyms in the Spanish Bible for no reason to do so, which made it read even closer to the modern Spanish NIV than the old 1602!
All of these versions also kept the corrupt catholic reading of VERBO in John 1:11, instead of going back to the pure Protestant reading of PALABRA in referring to Jesus Christ. All the old Spanish Bibles, including the 1543 N.T. of Enzinas, the 1556 N.T. of Juan Perez de Pineda, the 1569 of Reina, and the 1602 of Valera, read “Palabra.” (Note: The word VERBO did not even appear in Spanish, until it was added by Miguel Scio in his 1793 Spanish translation, translated completely from the catholic Latin Vulgate, in which the word in John 1:1 for Jesus is “Verbum”).
I couldn’t help but ask myself, “Why did so many so called Bible-Believers use a corrupt Spanish Bible that read closer to the corrupt catholic texts than the pure Protestant Spanish Bibles which dated back closer to the time of our King James Bible?”
I still wonder why they do. The only Spanish Bible ever to go back to those old Protestant texts of the Reformation, and “purify” the Spanish text by taking out any corrupt Vulgate readings, while still remaining true to the Castilian Spanish is The Valera 1602 Purified Spanish Bible. (It is also the only one today to read PALABRA instead of VERBO).
Sadly, many of those who claim to be Bible Believers today and preach to Spanish-Speakers don’t appear to even want to hear or know the truth. Instead, they dogmatically defend their corrupt versions in Spanish, even going so far to proclaim that “Verbo” is better than “Palabra.”
Gail Riplinger has recently written a great essay on the subject of why Verbo is WRONG, and Palabra is RIGHT! And boy is it a definitive work on the subject! She gives proof that the Pope is behind “Verbo” and that that catholic word is also used by modern occultists and New Agers in describing their own god. She also shows how Erasmus and many others were dogmatically against “Verbo.”
Below is her treatise on the subject. I hope it will be informative. My prayer is that you will read it and pass it along to others, so that they might see the truth about their perversion of the Spanish Scriptures. What the Spanish-speaking world needs is a pure Spanish Bible, and not a corrupt version done by liberal Bible Societies that prefer critical and catholic text readings over the pure word of God.
Cipriano de Valera said it best in 1602, “Because it is not right to confirm the certain with the uncertain, the word of God with the word of men.”
With the mountain of evidence Gail presents in her booklet, it’s hard for me to understand how anyone, when faced with this truth, could defend a Spanish version that uses the catholic, new age word “Verbo” instead of the more correct word “PALABRA.”
http://www.rrb3.com/PDF%20files/Catholics_Changing_Gods_Name_mailed2.pdf
