1. Plan ahead — it wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
2. Stay fit — when you are 600 years old someone might ask you to do something REALLY big.

3. Don’t listen to critics — do what has to be done.
4. Build on high ground.

5. For safety’s sake, travel in pairs.
6. Speed isn’t always an advantage — the cheetahs were on board but so were the snails.

7. if you can’t fight or flee, float.

8. Take care of your animals as if they were the last ones on earth.

9. Don’t forget we are all in the same boat.
10. Stay below decks during a storm.

11. Remember the ark was built by amateurs and the Titanic was built by professionals.

12. Remember the woodpeckers inside are often a bigger threat than the storm outside.

13. Don’t miss the boat.
14. No matter how bleak it looks there is always a rainbow on the other side.

15. When God shuts the door on this world for the last time, make sure you are on the right side.

Alfred Norris died in 2003, at the age of 89. He had spent 72 years actively working for the things of God. He was a man of great energy and extraordinary genius — having a flair for languages, which was put to good use in the service of gospel proclamation. In 1936 he organized the first Vacation Bible Campaigns, which for the first time brought the Truth to villages and towns throughout Britain. This enterprise led to the formation of the Christadelphian Bible Mission, which led the way in bringing the gospel to many other countries. Alfred Norris was active in this work for years, being the first editor of the Bible Missionary magazine.

In addition to numerous small pamphlets and magazine articles, his published writings include:

Acts and Epistles Apocalypse for Everyman On Reading the Bible Believing the Bible Understanding the Bible Preaching the Word Gospel of Mark The Holy Spirit and the Believer Today “I Believe”: A Personal Confession of Faith Peter — Fisher of Men What is His Name? The Ten Commandments for the Twentieth Century The Things We Stand For

Today, if we want additional laborers, we might, among other things, place an ad in the newspaper in the “Help Wanted” section. If we did the same thing for disciples of Christ, how would it read?

HEAVY LADEN? SEEKING REST? MY YOKE IS EASY, MY BURDEN IS LIGHT!

HELP WANTED: Master in search of faithful, full-time assistants. Only serious applicants need apply. Growing company of believers seeks eager, searching individual for position of disciple.

JOB REQUIREMENTS: Applicant must be faithful, hard working, dedicated and of high moral character. Also, servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Must exhibit the following characteristics: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

POSITION: Many opportunities available depending only upon skills and desires of applicant. No limitations based on income, social status or standing, language skills or physical abilities. No high school or college education required. Former work experience for sin will be cleaned up on first day on the job.

JOB ENVIRONMENT: Hours are 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No vacation or holidays. Once the job has begun, applicant must not turn back or the latter end may be worse than the first. Applicant must be willing to endure trials. No experience necessary.

TRAINING AND TESTING POLICY: Applicants must be willing to endure our strenuous training and testing. Will not test beyond what applicant is able to bear. Plus extensive and inspired training manual provided. Manual is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the trainee may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

ADVANCEMENT: Advance quickly from hopeless sinner to justified saint. Not merit based. It is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed.

DISCRIMINATION POLICY: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. No discrimination toward former servants to sin. All welcome.

BENEFITS: Wages — none. Gift — priceless. Benefits include large and loving family, redemption, forgiveness from sins. Unequaled retirement plan.

(KT)

• Mat: Christ, Son of Abraham, and David’s Son and Lord according to promise

• Mar: Christ the Servant of his Father, and the Meeter of man’s need

• Luk: Christ the Son of Man in His service amongst men

• Joh: Christ the Son of God in the moral glory of His person and ways

• Act: Christ in heaven, and the energy of the Holy Spirit on earth

• Rom: Christianity unfolded

• 1Co: Church order and discipline

• 2Co: Christian ministry and superiority over all circumstances

• Gal: Christian blessing contrasted with law

• Eph: Christ the measure of Christian standing and blessing

• Phi: Christian experience

• Col: Christ and his glories — the Church’s Head

• 1Th: Christ’s coming for the eternal blessedness of His people

• 2Th: Christ’s coming for the eternal judgment of unbelievers

• 1Ti: Church order according to God

• 2Ti: Church disorder and the individual pathway

• Tit: Christian qualifications for ministry, and godly conduct

• Phm: Christian love counting upon love between brother and brother

• Heb: Christ the Apostle, Sacrifice, Priest, and Witness

• Jam: Christian morality in and out of the church and Synagogue

• 1Pe: God’s righteous government in relation to the saints

• 2Pe: God’s judgment upon the public Christian profession

• 1Jo: Christ the eternal life and power of communion with God

• 2Jo: Christ and the Truth the safeguard against heresy

• 3Jo: Christian hospitality to the saints, especially to laborers

• Jud: Christian apostasy traced down to the last days

• Rev: Christ assuming the government of the world

The oldest NT mss were written on papyrus (from which “paper” derives); it was made by taking strips from the papyrus plant, which still grows near the Nile and in northern Galilee. These strips were laid side by side vertically. Then horizontal lines of strips were laid across them, and the two layers were glued together. Writing was done primarily on the horizontal strips, though sometimes the back of the page was used.

The books of the NT were written on papyrus for perhaps the first three centuries. Since this material was so fragile, most of the papyrus mss of the NT books perished long ago. But in the dry sands of southern Egypt, some of these have been found during the 20th century. There are at present (1986) 35 Greek NT papyri from the 3rd century… and two copies of John’s Gospel from about AD 200!

In the 4th century the shift was made pretty much from papyrus to vellum (skins of young animals). The NT mss from the 4th to the 9th centuries are called “uncials”, lit “inch-high”, because they were written in large, square capital letters.

Mss from the 9th to the 15th centuries are generally “minuscules”, because they were written in small letters. They are also known as “cursives” (running), because they were written in a running script. We have about 2,400 cursive NT mss, as against about 270 uncials.

(“Codex” refers to a bound book, as opposed to a scroll.)

The Greek language has a system of punctuation marks somewhat similar to ours. Originally, this was not so; there was no punctuation, and moreover, the writing was not separated into words. (“The oldest Greek mss had no chapter and verse divisions, no punctuation marks and hence no separation into sentences, and not even any separation between words. All they have are line after line, column after column, page after page, through a whole book of the NT”: Earle, “NIV: Making of Contemporary Translation”)

Translators, therefore, are not bound to follow the punctuation which they find in their mss. Scott also tells us that punctuation marks were first introduced in the days of Jerome (c 400 AD), who translated the Bible into Latin.

Translators must therefore look at the possible meaning of a phrase as if all the punctuation marks were ignored.

The best example of this “complication”, at least to Christadelphians, is Luk 23:43, where the AV translates “Verily I say unto thee, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise”, but a much more appropriate translation might be: “I say to you today, You shall be with me in paradise.”

But other instances may be found. For example, the AV translated Luk 16:22,23 as: “The rich man also died and was buried. And in hell he…” William Tyndale (1525) translated this as: “The rich man died and was buried in hades.” Likewise, the Douay (Roman Catholic) version (1582) read: “The rich man died also, and was buried in hell” (Harold Hughes, Sh 85:5:7).

With perhaps a dozen exceptions, the text of every verse in the NT (written 1,900 years ago) is so far settled by scholars that any dispute as to its readings must relate to the interpretation of the words, rather than to any doubts respecting the words themselves.

But in every one of Shakespeare’s 37 plays (all less than 400 years old) there are probably a hundred readings still in dispute, a number of which materially affect the meaning of the passages in which they occur.

Author: Moses (date of writing: c 1440-1400 BC).

Period: c 1440-1400 BC.

Title: The English title is taken from the Latin translation (Numeri) of the Greek word Arithmoi, the title given to this book in the Septuagint. The traditional Hebrew title, “be-midbar” (“In the wilderness…”), is taken from the opening phrase of the book.

Summary: Numbers is the fourth book of the Pentateuch. It is a historical book, and its Greek and Latin names reflect the fact that two censuses of the Israelites are recorded in Numbers. The Hebrew title more closely reflects the contents of the book, which primarily tells of the rebellion of the Israelites in the wilderness after the exodus from their bondage in Egypt. Because of this rebellion, only two of the adults leaving Egypt were to enter into the promised land of Canaan. The book covers a thirty-eight-year period.

If the book were considered only as a historical record of the wanderings, then much of its message would be missed. One major theme throughout: God’s character is demonstrated in His dealings with His people — for example, His complete holiness in the incident of Moses smiting of the Rock to produce water (Num 20:7-13), and His righteous jealousy in Num 25:1-13. His justice can be seen in the establishment of the covenant of peace with Phinehas. His faithfulness is shown in Num 23:19. He established a covenant with Israel, and the events of this book show His faithfulness to that covenant even in the face of adversity from His people.

Numbers has the first of many instances when God’s people choose to ignore Him and to worship other “gods”. This reveals that God will punish wrongdoing but be merciful to those who seek to follow His laws. In Num 16:1-50, God punished the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, but accepted Moses’ atoning intervention.

Numbers shows that God has established high standards, and He expects His people to maintain them. At the same time He is just and merciful, and He is faithful to His covenant. He continually dwelt with His people during their wilderness wanderings. The declaration made in Exo 29:45-46 is repeated in Num 35:34 — God dwells with His people. He leads them (Num 9:15-23) and He delivers them from adversity (Num 21:1-54). It is only proper that He expects faithfulness in return.

Num 1:1 — 10:10 Practical instructions for the wilderness journey.

• 1:1-54 The census

• 2:1-34 Positions of tribes during the journey

• 3:1 — 4:49 Duties of the priests

• 5:1 — 7:89 Various offerings

• 8:1-26 Consecration of the Levites

• 9:1 — 10:10 The Passover and God’s guidance

Num 10:11 — 12:16 From Sinai to Paran

• 10:11-36 Moving camp

• 11:1-35 The people complain

• 12:1-16 Miriam and Aaron

Num 13:1 — 20:13 At Kadesh

• 13:1-33 Spying out the land of Canaan

• 14:1-45 God’s displeasure

• 15:1-41 Various laws

• 16:1-50 Korah, Dathan and Abiram

• 17:1-13 Aaron’s rod

• 18:1 — 19:22 Duties of the priests, and various laws

• 20:1-13 Moses’ error

Num 20:14 — 22:1 From Kadesh to Moab

• 20:14-21 King of Edom

• 20:22-29 Death of Aaron

• 21:1 — 22:1 Opposition to Israel

Num 22:2 — 32:42 The Plains of Moab

• 22:2 — 24:25 Balak and Balaam

• 25:1-18 Punishment for sin

• 26:1-65 Another census

• 27:1-11 Further laws

• 27:12-23 Joshua — Moses’ successor

• 28:1 — 30:16 Further laws

• 31:1-54 War against the Midianites

• 32:1-42 Some settlement

Num 33:1 — 36:13 Sundry Matters

• 33:1-56 Summary of journeys

• 34:1-29 Settlement in the land

• 35:1-24 Cities of refuge

• 36:1-13 Concerning inheritance within the tribes of Israel

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. [See Lesson, “Homoousios”.]

Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.

And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

[Originally developed in 352, and approved in amplified form at the Council of Constantinople (381), it is the profession of the Christian Faith common to the Catholic Church, to all the Eastern Churches separated from Rome, and to most of the Protestant denominations.]

The New International Version is a completely new translation of the Holy Bible made by over a hundred scholars working directly from the best available Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts. It had its beginning in 1965 when, after several years of exploratory study by committees from the Christian Reformed Church and the National Associations of Evangelicals, a group of scholars met at Palos Heights, Illinois, and concurred in the need for a new translation of the Bible in contemporary English. This group, though not made up of official church representatives, was transdenominational. Its conclusion was endorsed by a large number of leaders from many denominations who met in Chicago in 1966.

Responsibility for the new version was delegated by the Palos Heights group to a self-governing body of fifteen, the Committee on Bible Translation, composed for the most part of biblical scholars from colleges, universities and seminaries. In 1967 the New York Bible Society (now the International Bible Society) generously undertook the financial sponsorship for the project — sponsorship that made it possible to enlist the help of many distinguished scholars. The fact that participants from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand worked together gave the project its international scope. That they were from many denominations — including Anglican, Assemblies of God, Baptist, Brethren, Christian Reformed, Church of Christ, Evangelical Free, Lutheran, Mennonite, Methodist, Nazarene, Presbyterian, Wesleyan and other churches — helped to safeguard the translation from sectarian bias.

How it was made helps to give the New International Version its distinctiveness. The translation of each book was assigned to a team of scholars. Next, one of the Intermediate Editorial Committees revised the initial translation, with constant reference to the Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek. Their work then went on to one of the General Editorial committees, which checked it in detail and made another thorough version. This revision in turn was carefully reviewed by the Committee on Bible Translation, which made further changes and then released the final version for publication. In this way the entire Bible underwent three revisions, during each of which the translation was examined for its faithfulness to the original languages and for its English style.

All of this involved many thousands of hours of research and discussion regarding the meaning of the texts and the precise way of putting them into English. It may well be that no other translation has been made by a more thorough process of review and revision from committee to committee than this one.

From the beginning of the project, the Committee on Bible Translation held to certain goals for the New International Version: that it would be an accurate translation and one that would have clarity and literary quality and so prove suitable for public and private reading, teaching, preaching, memorizing and liturgical use. The Committee also sought to preserve some measure of continuity with the long tradition of translating the Scriptures into English.

In working toward these goals, the translators were united in their commitment to the authority and infallibility of the Bible as God’s Word in written form. They believe that it contains the divine answer to the deepest needs of humanity, that it sheds unique light on our path in a dark world, and that it sets forth the way to our eternal well-being.

The first concern of the translators has been the accuracy of the translation and its fidelity to the thought of the biblical writers. They have weighed the significance of the lexical and grammatical details of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts. At the same time, they have striven for more that a word-for-word translation. Because thought patterns and syntax differ from language to language, faithful communication of the meaning of the writers of the Bible demands frequent modifications in sentence structures and constant regard for the contextual meaning of words.

A sensitive feeling for the style does not always accompany scholarship. Accordingly, the Committee on Bible Translation submitted the developing version to a number of stylistic consultants. Two of them read every book of both Old and New Testaments twice — once before and once after the last major revision — and made invaluable suggestions. Samples of the translations were tested for clarity and ease of reading by various kinds of people — young and old, highly educated and less well educated, ministers and laymen.

Concern for clear and natural English — that the New International Version should be idiomatic but not idiosyncratic, contemporary but not dated — motivated the translators and consultants. At the save time, they tried to reflect the differing styles of the biblical writer. In view of the international use of English, the translators sought to avoid obvious Americanisms on the one hand and obvious Anglicisms on the other. A British edition reflects the comparatively few differences of significant idiom and of spelling.

As for the traditional pronouns “thou,” “thee” and “thine” in references to the Deity, the translators judged that to use the archaisms (along with old verb forms such as “doest,” “wouldest” and “hadst”) would violate accuracy in translation. Neither Hebrew, Aramaic nor Greek uses special pronouns for the persons of the Godhead. A present-day translation is not enhanced by forms that in the time of the King James Version were used in everyday speech, whether referring to God or man.

For the Old Testament the standard Hebrew text, the Masoretic Text as published in the latest editions of Biblia Hebraica, was used throughout. The Dead Sea Scrolls contain material bearing on an earlier stage of Hebrew text. They were consulted, as were the Samaritan Pentateuch and the ancient scribal traditions relating to textual changes. Sometimes a variant Hebrew reading in the margin of the Masoretic Text was followed instead of the text itself. Such instances, being variant within the Masoretic tradition, are not specified by footnotes. In rare cases, words in the consonantal text were divided differently from the way they appear in the Masoretic Text. Footnotes indicate this. The translators also consulted the more important early versions — the Septuagint; Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion; the Vulgate; the Syriac Peshitta; the Targums; and for the Psalms the Juxta Hebraica of Jerome. Readings from these versions were occasionally followed where the Masoretic Text seemed doubtful and where accepted principles of textual criticism showed that one or more of these textual witnesses appeared to provide the correct reading. Such instances are footnoted. Sometimes vowel letters and vowel signs did not, in the judgment of the translators, represent the correct vowels for the original consonantal text. Accordingly some words were read with a different set of vowels. These instances are usually not indicated by footnotes.

The Greek text used in translating the New Testament was an eclectic one. No other piece of ancient literature has such an abundance of manuscript witnesses as does the New Testament. Where existing manuscripts differ, the translators made their choice of readings according to accepted principles of New Testaments textual criticism. Footnotes call attention to places where there was uncertainty about what the original text was. The best current printed texts of the Greek New Testaments were used.

There is a sense in which the work of translation is never wholly finished. This applies to all great literature and uniquely so to the Bible. In 1973 the New Testament in the New International Version was published. Since then, suggestions for corrections and revisions have been received from various sources. The Committee on Bible Translation carefully considered the suggestions and adopted a number of them. These are incorporated in the first printing of the entire Bible.

As in other ancient documents, the precise meaning of the biblical texts is something uncertain. This is more often the case with the Hebrew and Aramaic texts than with the Greek text. Although archaeological and linguistic discoveries in this century aid in understanding difficult passages, some uncertainties remain. The more significant of these have been called to the reader’s attention in the footnotes.

In regard to the divine name YHWH, commonly referred to as the Tetragrammaton, the translators adopted the device used in most English versions of rendering that name as “Lord” in capital letters to distinguish it from Adonai, another Hebrew word rendered “Lord,” for which small letters are used. Wherever the two names stand together in the Old Testament as a compound name of God, they are rendered “Sovereign Lord.”

Because for most readers today the phrase “the Lord of hosts” and “God of hosts” have little meaning, this version renders them “the Lord Almighty” and “God Almighty.” These renderings convey the sense of the Hebrew, namely, “he who is sovereign over all the ‘hosts’ (powers) in heaven and on earth, especially over the ‘hosts’ (armies) of Israel.” For readers unacquainted with Hebrew this does not make clear the distinction between Sabaoth (“hosts” or “Almighty”) and Shaddai (which can also be translated “Almighty”), but the latter occurs infrequently and is always footnoted. When Adonai and YHWH Sabaoth occur together, they are rendered “the Lord, the Lord Almighty.”

As for other proper nouns, the familiar spellings of the King James Version are generally retained. Names traditionally spelled with “ch,” except where it is final, are usually spelled in this translation with “k” or “c,” since the biblical languages do not have the sound that “ch” frequently indicates in English — for example, in chant. For well-known name such as Zechariah, however, the traditional spelling has been retained. Variation in the spelling of names in the original languages has usually not been indicated. Where a person or place has two or more different names in the Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek texts, the more familiar one has generally been used, with footnotes where needed.

To achieve clarity the translators sometimes supplied words not in the original texts but required by the context. If there was uncertainty about such material, it is enclosed in brackets. Also for the sake of clarity or style, nouns, including some proper nouns, are sometimes substituted for pronouns, and vice versa. And though the Hebrew writers often shifted back and forth between first, second and third personal pronouns without change of antecedent, this translation often makes them uniform, in accordance with English style and without the use of footnotes.

Poetical passages are printed as poetry, that is, with indentation of lines and with separate stanzas. These are generally designed to reflect the structure of Hebrew poetry. The poetry is normally characterized by parallelism in balanced lines. Most of the poetry in the Bible is in the Old Testament, and scholars differ regarding the scansion of Hebrew lines. The translators determined the stanza divisions for the most part by analysis of the subject matter. The stanzas therefore serve as poetic paragraphs.

As an aid to the reader, italicized sectional headings are inserted in most of the books. They are not to be regarded as part of the NIV text, are not for oral reading, and are not intended to dictate the interpretation of the sections they head.

The footnotes in this version are of several kinds, most of which need no explanation. Those giving alternative translations begin with “Or” and generally introduce the alternative with the last word preceding it in the text, except when it is a single-word alternative; in poetry quoted in a footnote a slant mark indicates a line division. Footnotes introduced by “Or” do not have uniform significance. In some cases two possible translations were considered to have about equal validity. In other cases, though the translators were convinced that the translation in the text was correct, they judged that another interpretation was possible and of sufficient importance to be represented in a footnote.

In the New Testament, footnotes that refer to uncertainty regarding the original text are introduced by “Some manuscripts” or similar expressions. In the Old Testament, evidence for the reading chosen is given first and evidence for the alternative is added after a semicolon (for example: Septuagint; Hebrew father). In such notes the term “Hebrew” refers to the Masoretic Text.

It should be noted that minerals, flora and fauna, architectural details, articles of clothing and jewelry, musical instruments and other articles cannot always be identified with precision. Also measures of capacity in the biblical period are particularly uncertain.

Like all translations of the Bible, made as they are by imperfect man, this one undoubtedly falls short of its goals. Yet we are grateful to God for the extent to which he has enabled us to realize these goals and for the strength he has given us and our colleagues to complete our task. We offer this version of the Bible to him in whose name and for whose glory it has been made. We pray that it will lead many into a better understanding of the Holy Scriptures and fuller knowledge of Jesus Christ the incarnate Word, of whom the Scriptures so faithfully testify.

The Committee on Bible Translation June 1978 Revised August 1983