Did God Have a Daddy?

Why I use the Authorised Version, Reason .3

Who was Jesus’ Father?

This blogs title question is one that a child may ask and it may seem like a very stupid question on the surface, all Christians worth their salt affirm the truth of the Virgin Birth of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus did not have a physical earthly father like you and I He was born by the miraculous intervention of God’s Holy Spirit. Joseph may have been one of His earthly parents but he was by no means His father. So why ask the question?

Well, the truth that I have just outlined becomes somewhat blurred by the modern translations of the Bible. A quick study of two incidents as recorded in Luke chapter 2 will illustrate what I mean.

In Luke Gospel chapter 2 verses 22-40 we read of how Mary and Joseph took the infant Lord Jesus to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord as commanded by Moses. In verse 27 of this passage in the King James Version Mary and Joseph are described as the Parents and this is correct, the Greek word correctly translated parents is the word ‘goneus’, the modern versions also translate this as parents. However, in verse 33 the Holy Spirit makes a distinction. The AV describes Mary and Joseph in the following terms ‘Joseph and his mother’. This is the correct rendering of four Greek words that mean exactly what the AV says. But this is not how the modern versions translate this phrase. The NIV, ESV, NCV and NASB all render the word Joseph as ‘father’ and the NLT continues to refer to them simply as the ‘parents’.

Now it must be said most clearly that Joseph was not the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, he may have been His parent, he may have performed the role of an earthly father but he was not the actual father and when the Holy Spirit makes that distinction clear in the Greek text then the translators should reflect it as such. This is a clear attack on the doctrine of the Virgin Birth. If Christ is not Virgin born then He was born in sin like the rest of us and how then could He have been a spotless sacrifice. The notion is blasphemous and these translation errors need to be exposed.

Just to prove that this was not a one-time mistake by the translators of the ‘New Bibles’ I want to show you how they did it again later on in the passage. You could maybe see past one mistake but to do it again tells me there is an agenda.

From verses 41-51 of Luke we find the record of how Mary and Joseph took the then 12 year-old Lord Jesus up to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. As in the previous story the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to use the word ‘goneus’ which is rightly translated by all versions as ‘parents’ in verse 41. However, once again we see a divergence from the Greek text. In verse 43 the same four Greek words are used as were in verse 33 and are rightly translated as ‘Joseph and his mother’ in the AV but the NIV translates the phrase as ‘his parents’ as does the ESV, NCV, NLT & NASB.

For my part I would rather have a Bible that is faithful to the original text. If the Holy Spirit puts a phrase a certain way there is clearly an important reason for it. I hope the modern translators are not trying to undermine belief in the virgin birth, for me that is how it appears and for that reason I’m sticking with the AV!