Does SATOR Square
confirm the Textus receptus ?
INTRODUCTION
Which texts,
which manuscripts?
As we have seen so far, without needing to demonstrate it further, the SATOR Square is first of all a real inscription, then an inscription in Latin and finally a Christian Latin inscription.
When we say Christian, we mean Bible, since the basis and reference for all Christians, both in their beliefs and in their conduct, remains the sacred text of the Holy Scriptures.
But which original Greek text does this SATOR Square refer to, the 5,000 majority manuscripts of the Bible or the 2 critical texts?
This is what we will discover below.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
First of all, we think it would be useful to give a brief historical overview of these different texts, to put them into their proper chronological context:
1) The SATOR Square: composed, we believe, by the apostle Paul around 60-65 AD, it first appeared in Latin in the Campania region of Italy, then in the rest of the Roman Empire, and even with Greek letters in the eastern part of the Empire (1), totalling around a hundred inscriptions during the first centuries of our era.
2) The New Testament: all 27 books of the New Testament were composed in ancient Greek on papyri between 30 and 95 AD, in other words during the 50 or even 65 years following the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (2).
As a result, the majority text comprises more than 5,000 Greek manuscripts that were copied from the 1st century AD until the end of the Middle Ages: papyri (especially in the first 4 centuries), codexes (from the 4th century), uncials and miniatures, and even lectionaries (3).
These manuscripts all coincide. Moreover, they were quickly translated:
- More than 10,000 manuscripts in Latin: these are the Vetus Latina of the first centuries and the Vulgate of Jerome of Stridon of 397;
- 9,300 manuscripts translated into various other ancient languages : Syriac (5th century), Coptic, Armenian, Ethiopian, Slavonic and Gotic.
All these translations also faithfully reproduce the Greek originals.
Finally, there is the testimony of almost a million quotations from the Fathers of the Church, which corroborate the original Greek text of the New Testament (4).
Thus, the Textus receptus (received text) has a solid basis in view of the number of original copies in Greek, themselves confirmed by a very large number of ancient translations and quotations.
3) The critical texts: there are essentially two late ones:
a) Manuscript B, which mysteriously appeared in 1475 in the Capua region of Italy, written in Greek. It is a 15th-century reconstruction containing an older passage that is thought to date from the 4th century. It is very incomplete (5).
b) Manuscript S, in Greek, cut into 4 by its discoverer between 1844 and 1859 for the benefit of his
benefactors: it is also very incomplete. Its discoverer dated it to 330 AD, even though the monastery of Saint Catherine at the foot of Mount Sinai in Egypt did not exist at that time, nor did its archbishop at a later date, even though it was the archbishop who apparently donated part of the codex to the famous bounty hunter of apocryphal manuscripts (6).
QUESTION OF CONTENTS
To refine our research still further, it is also worth comparing the contents of the texts presented above, which will give us a clear indication of the source of inspiration for the SATOR Square:
1) Content of the SATOR Square :
SATOR-AREPO-TENET-OPERA-ROTAS: The sower - I bear witness to this - sustains the whole universe with his sovereign power.
In this inscription, we discover that the divine labourer sowing the word of life in the world is Christ himself. This inscription also reveals, through its different levels of reading, that SATOR is linked with PATER and even with ASTRO, that Christ is also one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, that our Triune God is three in one.
Finally, one thing leads to another and this inscription also gives us advice on proclaiming the truth, the good news of salvation, and on prayer and adoration (7).
2) Content of the Bible, especially the New Testament :
As the apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" (1Co 15: 3-4 TBS).
The New Testament is therefore the collection of writings relating to the life of Jesus, his ministry as Son of Man and Son of God, and the teaching of his first disciples.
The Bible is also a book of prophecies. that about a hundred of them were fulfilled at Christ's first coming and the remaining 200 or so are being fulfilled right up to his triumphant second coming (8).
Moreover, by his miracles, Jesus clearly demonstrated who he was, even before he rose from the dead and lived in the hearts of believers who received his Holy Spirit by faith.
The omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient God thus accepted all human limitations in Christ to show us, in practical terms, how to live a satisfying human life, how to serve him and live in unity.
Finally, this very spiritual text that is the Bible is in fact very concrete for us : it concerns our faith and our works. This text is itself authoritative: it is the LOGOS, the Word, the Word of Life that is worth applying to our lives.
3) Content of the critical texts:
We were extremely surprised to find that the critical texts simply reiterate the Received Text, but totally sabotage it! These texts, which are very much in the minority, are a copy of the majority text, but with an infinite number of errors, omissions and deletions. Thus, in relation to the Textus receptus, these two manuscripts of the critical texts include:
a) Manuscript B: ... 7,800 alterations ;
b) Manuscript S: ... 23,000 alterations (for the New Testament alone!) (9)
These two manuscripts are so incomplete that it is impossible for them to be so old, so reliable and so true, since their errors are not the result of the usual inattentiveness of the copyists, but rather the result of deliberate and provoked oversights, omissions or truncations.
In order to do this, they had to have a complete reference Bible in front of them (such as Jerome's Latin Vulgate of 397 AD), so that they could falsify it; these manuscripts can in no way be the founding manuscripts of the Word of God, for the simple reason that they are themselves the cause of its own destruction (10).
What did they delete in many passages? Nothing more and nothing less than the very name of God (Jesus Christ), the words God and Lord, the facts about Jesus' resurrection or the prophecies fulfilled about him, as well as valuable practical advice given for living a normal Christian life (11).
And to make matters worse, despite their numerical inferiority, these are the only two manuscripts on which most modern Bibles are based! This is why, at present, the biblical versions of the New Testament have between 600 and 1000 verses truncated or deleted, the equivalent of 10 to 13 chapters missing from their editions, that's around 70,000 words missing or changed in the ancient Greek Word of God … (12)
Finally, to end this paragraph on a more positive note, here's the answer to the long-awaited question about the content of these texts: the source of inspiration for the SATOR Square is, of course, the Textus receptus!
IT'S WORTH KNOWING IT!
Is your Bible the Bible?
Just as the SATOR Square has only 5 lines, we suggest that you consider just 5 verses from the New Testament to find out easily whether or not your Bible is close to the original Greek manuscripts:
1) Is the last word in the Bible Amen ? (Rev. 22:21)
The correct verse is: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen! (AV and note 13)
2) Is the eunuch's confession included? (Acts 8:37)
Read correctly: Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may (to be baptised)."
And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." (NKJV)
3) Is God mentioned when he is incarnate in the flesh? (1 Tim. 3:16)
Read correctly: And great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. (AV)
4) Is Jesus mentioned when he begins his sermon on the Mount? (Mat. 5:1)
Read correctly: When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and when He was seated, His disciples came to Him. (AMP)
5) Is the divine testimony recorded both on earth and in heaven? (1 John 5:7-8)
Read correctly: For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one. (NKJV)
If, in your Bible, all these 5 verses are deleted, or truncated, written in brackets or put in a footnote, you can now be sure that you do not have in your hands a translation of the Bible that is faithful to the basic text, the normal text, the original Greek text.
On the other hand, if you also read in your Bible 4 or 5 of the verses correctly mentioned here, then you are in possession of a Bible version faithful to the Textus receptus, bravo!
This will tell you whether you can keep your Bible or not, so that you can get a good one, including the following :
In French: Martin (1744), Ostervald (1893: excellent) and TBS
In English: KJV, NKJV, AV (AKJV), Geneva Bible (1599) & Revised Geneva Translation
In Spanish: Biblia del Oso (1569: excellent), RV 1960 and 1977 and RV-SBT 2024
In German: Schlachter 2000
To our knowledge, all other versions or editions in these languages are unfortunately close to the critical texts. Please let us know - for the benefit of our readers - if you know of any other versions that are close to the received Text.
In the end, the blessings you receive from your Bible will depend on your choice: so be careful if you want to please both yourself and God! (14)
CONCLUSION
As was logically to be expected, the SATOR Square demonstrates by its intrinsic references its close links with the Textus receptus, the majority text, the original text of the Bible; the SATOR Square thus confirms the existence and veracity of the Textus receptus.
As a result, the SATOR Square is far more critical than the critical texts themselves, since it completely exposes them through the truth it transmits, thereby demonstrating that the latter are the work of forgers, works of human falsification.
The SATOR Square also predicts that if we did not hesitate to remove God and His name from the Bible, there is nothing to prevent us either - via artificial intelligence - from soon replacing all the gaps inflicted on the Received Text with the very name of the antichrist.
If anyone has an ear, let him hear! ... If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, Jesus declared.
So it only remains for me to conclude with the following quotation...
Adam's critical error was not to submit to the authority of the Word of God. And that remains, as Christians, our greatest and most common error. (Derek Prince, note 15)
... and with the two challenges issued to all the readers of this blog (16) :
FIRST CHALLENGE - for everyone: who could invent a new inscription with the same characteristics as the SATOR Square, in any language other than Latin? Of course, this inscription would also have to be read in three dimensions without changing its meaning!
SECOND CHALLENGE - for those who call themselves Christians: if we followed the advice given to us by the SATOR Square, who would be able to simply read the Word of God, the Bible as it is? Who could renounce the altered, therefore falsified bible, i.e. renounce the bible translated from a falsified original? Then who could read the Textus receptus, the authentic original of the Bible, or a translation based on it, abandoning the man-made texts, i.e. the critical texts and all the translations derived from them?
Soli Deo gloria!
Olivier Perret
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1. At Dura-Europos in Syria, 4 inscriptions from the SATOR ROTAS Square have been found, written in Greek and dated to the 3rd century AD.
Here is the 4th inscription:
It is a great pity that this inscription has not been analysed either in detail or in context, because here the author has reconstructed the palindrome SATOR ROTAS from three other incomplete graffiti on the same wall, which he indicates in the last line of his inscription with the words : « (inscription) painted from three ».
2. In fact, the biblical writings were all produced soon after the events, which justifies their historical quality and accuracy. As Jesus Christ was born between 6 and 5 BC and crucified between 28 and 29 AD, it should be noted that Mark's Gospel was probably the first to be written, around 30-40 AD; John's Apocalypse was probably the last to be written around 80-90 AD, since John mentions the emperor Domitian who will die in 96 AD (Rev. 17:10 These are also seven kings: five have fallen, one exists, the other has not yet come, and when he comes, he must remain for a short time).
The Bible has been preserved in an incredible way: we have manuscript witnesses that are very close in time to the events mentioned. The Thiede Papyrus P64 (fragment of the Gospel of Matthew) dates from 40-50 AD, the Qumran Papyrus (fragment of the Gospel of Mark) from the early 60s AD and the John Rylands Papyrus (fragment of the Gospel of John) from 90 AD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4FblWz5284 (Lecture by César Vidal Manzanares organised by IPFB Chile - minutes 15' - 18').
3. More precisely, the great historian César Vidal indicates: 5686 manuscripts in ancient Greek, complete or partial, of the New Testament: 109 papyri, 307 uncials, 2868 minuscules and 2410 lectionaries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4FblWz5284 (Lecture by César Vidal Manzanares organised by IPFB Chile - minutes 10' - 13').
4. As a matter of fact a German Catholic monk has taken on the monumental task of recompiling almost a million quotations from the Fathers of the Church, but his work has not yet been published by the Vatican.
5. Prosper Mérimée, French writer, historian and Inspector General of Historic Monuments, wrote a very interesting commentary in his travel notes published in 1835, page 232 (Prosper Mérimée, Notes d'un voyage dans le Midi de la France, Editions Adam Biro, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-87660-032-3):
'If this bas-relief is not ancient, there are two hypotheses to choose from. Either it was made in the present day (editor's note: around 1830), or it was made during the Renaissance (editor's note: in the 14th-15th centuries AD). I don't know of any other period when people tried to make antiques'.
So, if we consider the critical texts as the work of forgers, we can see that manuscript B appeared precisely during the Renaissance, like manuscript S in Mérimée's own time...
6. With regard to this S manuscript, who could answer our questions for the benefit of readers?
a) Why does its discoverer give different versions of his own discovery? Which is the correct one? If it is the fact of finding leaves ready to be thrown into the fire (1,500 years after they were made) that makes you smile, the copyist monks of the Monastery of Saint Catherine, who specialise in preserving ancient manuscripts, are smiling less, because for them it's a case of defamation. Would a dentist break his patients' teeth instead of repairing them?
b) Is there any scientific proof of the dating of this codex? Why has there been no carbon-14 analysis or scanner analysis or spectrometric analysis of the ink used, etc.? Everyone agrees with the discoverer's statement that the manuscript dates from the early 4th century, and nothing more.
c) If the codex was separated into 4 parts, why does the part of the codex preserved in London still have a cover?
Furthermore, would we cut the Mona Lisa into 4 parts in order to exhibit it simultaneously in different museums? This would deprive it of all its intrinsic value and the possibility of analysing it seriously.
d) In the photos, why does this codex appear to be new, without ever having been used? Because the letters are marked with a very bright hue: this means that the codex cannot be as old as we are told. What is more, its pages are also thin and modern.
e) What about its handwriting? The form of its letters is not typical of a specific place of writing, as is normally the case for any ancient manuscript discovered, which raises doubts and simultaneously leads to various possible origins of writing: Caesarea in Palestine and/or Alexandria and/or Rome...
f) Why are these pages divided into chapters or paragraphs? This was non-existent in all ancient Greek manuscripts before the 5th century, which were written 'by the kilometre', with the exception, at the very end of the 4th century, of the codex Alexandrinus, which contains these capitulation marks, evidence of the division of the biblical text into chapters. In Latin, this invention - of marking chapters or subdivisions - only occurred for the first time in 397 and has since appeared on all the Latin manuscripts of the Vulgate, since it was the pioneering work of Jerome of Stridon. In Syriac, it was not until the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th that these subdivisions appeared (see: Francesca Barone. La Synopse de la Sainte Écriture attribuée à Jean Chrysostome et les divisions en chapitres de la Bible à Antioche. La bibbia ad Antiochia, 2022, 978-8837236434. hal-03910074).
g) Why does each column have an average of 13 letters? Once again, this is more reminiscent of esoteric research than of the normal use of paper in the past.
h) Why are there so many blank margins on each page, or even pages that are entirely blank, as at the end of Philemon, for example? This waste of paper was unthinkable in Antiquity...
Without at least a clear answer to the questions posed above, it would be easy to think that it is impossible for this S manuscript, which is also so incomplete, to date from the year 330; this codex could rather be, as some rightly deduce, the work of 19th century forger(s)...
The same questioning approach applies to the other critical texts.
7. On the epic and personal praise of God, see: Charles Cartigny, Le carré magique, testament de Saint-Paul, Diffusion Picard, Paris, 1984.
8. Even before the rapture of the church and the appearance of the antichrist, we are already well into this time of apostasy, of moving away from the truth, as described in 2 Thes. 2:3 and 1 Tim. 4:1.
9. See page 3 of : (en) David C. Parker, Codex Sinaiticus. The Story of the World's Oldest Bible, Londres, The British Library, 2010, 208 p. (ISBN 978-0-7123-5803-3).
10. To say that the Word of God was truncated at the beginning and that revelation was gradually completed afterwards makes absolutely no sense.
If Luke had forgotten the eunuch's reply to Philip (the missing verse in Acts 8:37) when he wrote Acts, why would he have written this famous chapter 8? Furthermore, if Mark had forgotten that Jesus had risen from the dead (Mark 16:9-20), why would he have written a whole Gospel without recounting the end, etc., etc.?
So the S manuscript does indeed seem to be a late manuscript in the literary transmission of the New Testament, and so it cannot be taken as the basis for a work of translation faithful to the original Greek text, being by no means the first document to exist either, since it would come, at best, only after at least a hundred surviving papyri, produced between the 1st and early 4th centuries, which manuscripts, even if they have not come down to us completely, nevertheless complement each other perfectly.
In other words, if you want to make a pair of jeans fashionable and put holes in them, you first have to buy the whole pair; similarly, if you want to falsify a document, you first have to have it complete in your hands so that you can then make as many alterations to it as you like.
11. For your information, the variants found in the 5,309 manuscripts that make up the majority text, the Textus receptus, are 'normal' copying errors, such as writing we instead of you, faith instead of his faith, etc. If verses disappear, this is mainly due to the ravages of time on the document. In all cases, it is only the first or last page of the manuscript that is damaged, or it is due to the distraction/fatigue of a copyist who may have interchanged one verse with the next, and so on.
But the fact that the equivalent of at least 13 chapters of the New Testament are missing from manuscript S (and almost as many from manuscript B), i.e. an average of 2 falsified verses per chapter, makes these 2 codices seem to me to be historically and scientifically unreliable: they were not made in a serious work of copying, or, if the work had been serious, it was precisely not with the aim of promoting the gospel, because if we examine carefully all the deleted or changed verses, they all have, strangely enough, a very close link with the Christian faith and life : it's never just a simple clerical error, such as copying the 7th hour instead of the 8th hour, for example, but much more a meticulous and systematic work of intentional deletions...
Here is a sample of just 20 intentional gaps (out of a total of about 1,000) which represent the main theological discrepancies between the S or B manuscript and the original Greek text of the New Testament:
a) Suppression of the divinity of Christ: Mat. 9:13, 18:11; John 3:13, 6:47,69; Acts 8:37; 1 Cor. 15:47; Eph. 3:14; Col. 1:14; 1 Tim. 3:16, 1 John 5:7; Rev. 22:21.
b) Deletion of references to fulfilled prophecies: Mat. 27:35; Mark 15:28.
c) Deletion of advice for the Christian life: Mat. 6:13, 23:14, 17:21; Mark 10:24, 15:26; Gal.3:1.
12. Compared to the Textus receptus, there are approximately :
1) Nestle-Aland (26th ed.) - 1000 verses missing and/or altered
2) Darby - 750 verses missing and/or altered
3) Louis Second - 750 verses missing and/or altered
4) Catholic Vulgate - 700 verses missing and/or altered
5) Yvan Panin - 700 missing and/or altered verses
6) Zionübersetzung - 600 verses missing and/or altered
7) Recovery version - 600 verses missing and/or altered.
8) etc., etc.
N.B. The biggest problem with Nestle-Aland translations and versions is the very mixing of the critical texts with the Textus receptus. Instead of leaving the modern Bibles with 13 fewer chapters, in order to be faithful to the only two critical texts, the translators eventually opted to stuff most of the existing gaps in the critical text with Received Text, resulting in an average of 700 (not 1,000) missing and/or altered verses in the modern Bibles; this process demonstrates the lack of intellectual honesty of both translators and editors.
If the Received Text is rubbish, then let's use the 100% critical text. If the critical text is dubious, let's forget about it and just use the Bible as it is!
Let me remind you that the author of the Bible is still alive: if in doubt about a term used, you can always call on its creator to ask whether a verse and its translation are correct!
13. Pay attention: just one word removed and the Bible is no longer the Bible!
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. (Mat. 5:18)
14. If you don't believe me, take a look at the following passages:
I declare to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to them, God will strike him with the plagues described in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share from the tree of life and from the holy city, described in this book. (Rev 22:18-19)
You shall not add to what I command you, nor take away from it, but you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, as I command you. (Deut. 4:2).
You shall observe and do all the things that I command you; you shall not add to them nor take away from them. (Deut. 12:32).
15. El error critico de Adán fue que no se sometió a la autoridad de la Palabra de Dios. Y ese sigue siendo también, como cristianos, nuestro más grande y común error. Derek Prince, Guerra en los cielos, La batalla cósmica contra el mal, chap. 6, p. 96. Editorial Desafío, ISBN 978-958-8285-97-9, Columbia, 2008.
16. I haven't put a post here below, because there is no need to reply to me about challenge no. 2.
God already knows each person's attitude to the truth and it is He who will judge each one of us. His Word is written in heaven and thus will not change.
Finally, the pure and simple return to the Textus receptus would allow, no more and no less, a return to deep faith in Jesus Christ, to love of the truth, to the visible unity of all true believers, and consequently, would put an end pure and simple to all the existing denominations and sects, as well as to all our religious concepts that are so persistent! Finally, wouldn't it be worth it to really take into account the original text of the Bible in ancient Greek, on which the SATOR Square is based?
