On The 6th Day of Christmas the Lord Revealed To Me ......

...... modern bible translations are grossly falling short of the truth. If the translation says "New" it's probably best to avoid it. In fact, there is nothing "new under the sun" when it comes to these faulty translations. In fact, there was a movie a few years ago called "Lost In Translation" and boy are these "New" versions ever lost.

A great example of this is the birth of Jesus Christ as told in Luke 2, specifically verses 10-12.

Let's see what the New International Version or NIV has to say about this:
10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

This is how the New American Standard tells it:
10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people;
11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
12 "This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

This is how something called the New Century Version tells it:
10 The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I am bringing you good news that will be a great joy to all the people. 11 Today your Savior was born in the town of David. He is Christ, the Lord. 12 This is how you will know him: You will find a baby wrapped in pieces of cloth and lying in a feeding box."

Now, in contrast, let's look at this scripture in the King James Version.
10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

Did you notice the words in bold in each translation and the distinctive difference in the King James version of this account? The King James version is the only one that uses the term "swaddling clothes". You may say, "so what". Well, I am here to tell you what. This is tremendously significant and symbolic and is just another example of losing so much meaning in translation.

The "New" versions just say the baby Jesus was wrapped in a "cloth".

But the question arises, why would a baby in cloth be a "sign" to the shepherds that this was the Christ-child? The angel didn't mention the manger first, he mentioned the swaddling clothes. What is it about swaddling clothes that would be a sign?

The term swaddling clothes is still used today by nurses who wrap the baby after birth. Unfortunately, that term is a 2000 year old misnomer. The origin comes as a result of the harsh countryside in the Middle East. As people took off on trips that often lasted days into months, it was not uncommon for sickness or accident to take place. There we deaths in these journeys.

The Middle Eastern culture developed a way to deal with in-journey deaths. Each person would take a long, thin, gauze-like cloth and wrap it around their waist many times. This would be one of the bottom layers of clothing. This cloth would be reserved for death. If someone died during the journey, their friends or family would remove the "swaddling cloth" and wrap them from head to toe so they could compete the journey.

The baby Jesus was wrapped in Joseph's death cloth. The sign for the shepherds wasn't that they'd find a baby wrapped in a blanket in a manger. The sign was that they'd find a baby prepared for death. Jesus came to earth to die for our sins. That was his purpose. This was shown even from the instance of his birth.

By the way... this makes the wise man's gift of myrrh even more appropriate. Myrrh was the spice used for death. It was basically deodorant for the dead. Even though the wise men didn't actually show up until he was toddler, the theme continues.

Another neat fact is the baby Jesus was wrapped in the death clothes of a man named Joseph, and thirty three years later was buried in the tomb of a man named Joseph?

It's sad to think of how many people are going to miss the significance of this scripture because they only read the "New" versions of the Bible and never are exposed to such great truths.

Or what about Colossians 1:14, where it says "In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Why has "through his blood" been removed from all of the "New" translations? Do you really believe that you can be saved without the shed blood of Jesus Christ?