Special Topic 4The Footnotes of the Recovery Version Bible

Mainland Scholars’ Gospel

Main Content

• Introduction

• Why Footnotes?

• The Bibles with Footnotes

• Source of RcV Footnotes

• Features of RcV Footnotes

• Case Studies

• Conclusion

Introduction

• The Recovery Version (RcV) has a few several critical components which no other versions can offer, one of which is the extensive footnotes stressing the revelation of the truth, the spiritual light, and the supply of life.

• RcV contains over 15,000 extensive footnotes.

Why Footnotes?• “The opening of Your words gives light,

Imparting understanding to the simple.” (Ps. 119:130)

• And when Philip ran up, he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, Do you really know the things that you are reading? And he said, How could I unless someone guides me? … And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he announced Jesus as the gospel to him. (Acts 8:30-35)

• “And [Jesus] said to them, O foolish and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! … And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, He explained to them clearly in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:25-27)

The Bibles With Footnotes• The Jerusalem Bible (Garden City, NY: Doubleday),

1970.• The Anchor Bible (Garden City, NY: Douleday), 1971.

44 volumes with extensive footnotes.• Oxford NIV Scofield Study Bible (New York: Oxford

University Press), 1984.• The NIV Study Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan),

1985.

• The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible (Iowa Falls, World Bible Publishers), 1988.

• The Catholic Study Bible (New York, Oxford University Press), 1990.

• Life Application Bible: NIV (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers), 1991.

• The New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV) (New York: Oxford University Press), 2001.

• ESV Study Bible (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles), 2008.

Source of RcV footnotes

Author Foonote

John A. Bengel (1687-1752)

Luke 13:7 fn 1; Acts 19:3 fn 1; 2 Cor 7:11 fn 9;

Henry Alford (1810-1871)

Luke 2:42 fn 1; 23:3 fn 1; 2 Cor. 3:17 fn 2; 4:13 fn 2; 5:10 fn 3, etc.

Marvin R. Vincent (1834-1922)

Luke 6:38 fn 1; Acts 2:4 fn 4; 7:43 fn 1; 17:18 fn 3; 27:16 fn 1, etc.

Kenneth Wuest (1893-1962)

2 Cor. 7:11 fn 9

Watchman Nee (1903-1972)

Footnotes in Rev. 2 and 3

Features of RcV Footnotes

• Holding on to the general principle of “Scriptures interprets itself.” One passage of Scripture must be clarified by other passages. (Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, 37:177)

• Taking Christ and Church as central line

• Stressing the revelation of the truth, the spiritual light, and the supply of life; 

John 10:10-11

• The thief does not come except to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly

• I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

Version Footnote

The NIV Study Bible (1985)

See note on 1:4Life. One of the greatest concepts of this Gospel. The term is found 36 times in John, while no other NT books uses it more than 17 times. Life is Christ’s gift (10:28), and he, in fact, is “the life”(14:6).

Life Application Bible (1991)

In contrast to the thief who takes life, Jesus gives life. The life he gives right now is abundantly richer and fuller. It is eternal, yet it begins immediately. Life in Christ is lived on a higher plane because of his overflowing forgiveness, love, and guidance. Have you taken Christ’s offer of life?

ESV Study Bible (2008)

Jesus’ promise of abundant life, which begins already in the here and now, brings to mind OT prophecies about abundant blessing (e.g., Ezek. 34:12-15, 25-31). Jesus calls his followers, not to a dour, lifeless, miserable existence that squashes human potential, but to a rich, full, joyful life, one overflowing with meaningful activities under the personal favor and blessing of God and in continual fellowship with his people.

Version

Foonote

RcV (NT: 1985)

10 fn 1: Gk. zoe. This word is used in the New Testament for the eternal, divine life.11 fn 1: Gk. psuche, soul; i.e., soul-life, and so in the succeeding verses. As a man, the Lord has the psuche life, the human life, and as God, He has the zoe life, the divine life. He laid down His soul, His psuche life, His human life, to accomplish redemption for His sheep (vv. 15, 17-18) that they may share His zoe life, His divine life (v. 10b), the eternal life (v. 28), by which they can be formed into one flock under Himself as the one Shepherd. As the good Shepherd, He feeds His sheep with the divine life in this way and for this purpose.

John 3:6

• That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Version Footnote

The NIV Study Bible (1985)

None.

Life Application Bible (1991)

Who is the Holy Spirit? God is three persons in one…The Holy Spirit first became available to all believers in Pentecost (Acts 2). Whereas in Old Testament days the Holy Spirit empowered specific individuals for specific purposes, now all believers have the power of the Holy Spirit available to them.

ESV Study Bible (2008)

This discussion of the need for spiritual rebirth further develops the earlier reference to the “children of God” who are “born of God” (1:12-13; cf. 8:39-58; 11:51-52). ..Water here does not refer to the water of physical birth, nor is it likely that it refers to baptism. The background is probably Ezek. 36:25-27,…

The New Oxford Annotated Bible (2001)

None.

Version

Foonote

RcV (NT: 1985)

The first Spirit mentioned here is the divine Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, and the second spirit is the human spirit, the regenerated spirit of man. Regeneration is accomplished in the human spirit by the Holy Spirit of God with God's life, the uncreated eternal life. Thus, to be regenerated is to have the divine, eternal life (in addition to the human, natural life) as the new source and new element of a new person.

Rev 1:4

• John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,

Version Footnote

The New Oxford Annotated Bible (2001)

The seven spirits are either a symbolic reference to the manifold energies of the spirit of God (Isa 11.2), or a reference to the seven principal angels of God (Tob 12.15; 1 Enoch 20.1-8). Seven, the number of completion (of a ritual in Lev 4.6; of divine punishment in Lev 26.27-28) or wholeness, is the most important symbolic number in Revelation.

NIV Study Bible (1985)

See NIV text note; cf. Zec 4:2, 10.Text note: Or, the sevenfold Spirit.

ESV Study Bible (2008)

Revelation presents the Holy Spirit as one person (3:6, 13; cf. Eph. 4:4), but he also appears as “seven spirits” (cf. Rev. 3:1; 4:5, etc.), representing perfection, and as “seven torches of fire” (4:5) and “seven eyes” (5:6) to express his omnipresence and omniscience.

Life Application Bible (1991)

The “seven spirits” is another name for the Holy Spirit. The number seven is used throughout Revelation to symbolize completeness and perfection. For more about the Holy Spirit, see the notes on John 3:6 and Acts 1:5.

Version Foonote

RcV (NT: 1985)

The seven Spirits are undoubtedly the Spirit of God because They are ranked among the Triune God in vv. 4 and 5. As seven is the number for completion in God's operation, so the seven Spirits must be for God's move on the earth. In essence and existence, God's Spirit is one; in the intensified function and work of God's operation, God's Spirit is sevenfold. This is similar to the lampstand in Zech. 4:2. In its existence it is one lampstand, but in its function it is seven lamps. At the time this book was written, the church had become degraded; the age was dark. Therefore, the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God was needed for God's move and work on the earth.In Matt. 28:19 the sequence of the Triune God is: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Here the sequence is changed. The seven Spirits of God are listed in the second place instead of the third. This reveals the importance of the intensified function of the sevenfold Spirit of God. This point is confirmed by the repeated emphasis on the Spirit's speaking in 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22; 14:13; 22:17.At the opening of the other Epistles, only the Father and the Son are mentioned; from Them grace and peace are given to the receivers. Here, however, the Spirit is included; from Him grace and peace are imparted to the churches. This too indicates the crucial need of the Spirit to counteract the degradation of the church for God's move.

Conclusion

• The RcV Bible footnotes stress the revelation of the truth, the spiritual light, and the supply of life.

• These footnotes are a crystalization of divine revelations inherited from Christians before us, and also present a further, more advanced exposition of the Scripture according to the present truths.