The Living Oracles

Photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova on Unsplash

Disciples History Moment for May 4, 2025

In 1826 Alexander Campbell edited/changed and published a New Testament that had been previous translated by Church of Scotland scholars, but he added prefaces, extensive notes, and a significant appendix. It was called The Living Oracles. Campbell’s New Testament was extremely popular in its day and was the forerunner of modern language translations such as the American Standard and Revised Standard Versions of the Bible.

The reason Campbell published a new New Testament was because he did not like the King James Version (KJV) and because there were now better manuscripts and better knowledge of the Greek language. Additionally, changes in the English language had made the need to revise the 1611 KJV imperative, for example spelling changes like “shew” for “show.” Campbell believed the Bible should be easily read by all and so championed new updated revisions.

There were numerous changes that Campbell made from the Greek. One notable translation change was of the word “baptism”. The Greek word for “baptize” is baptidzo. However, that word, in the older versions, was left untranslated and, instead, was retained as a transliteration (a representation of the original-sounding word). An accurate translation of baptidzo is “to dip or immerse.” Thus, “John the Baptist” rightly translated becomes “John the Immerser” for Campbell in his Living Oracles version.

Why was baptidzo transliterated instead of translated in the KJV Bible? The reason was to avoid church controversy. King James and the revision committee had to navigate significant theological debate, particularly among the Baptist and Puritan churches which understood the word meant “to immerse.” However, King James, the head of the Anglican church which tended to baptize by sprinkling or pouring, opted to keep the word untranslated, thus avoiding the issue.

Rev. Kevin K. Adams