Revised American Version

REVISED AMERICAN VERSION EDITION

The Version Behind THE SCROLL™ – A Synthetic Harmony of the Ministry of Jesus Christ

A Modern Color Coded Blended Gospel

Synthesized By

The Scroll – A Contiguous Synthetic Harmony of the Ministry of Jesus Christ

Constituting a Modern Diatessaron

COLORIZED VERSION

See full completed version at http://www.jesus247.net/life-of-christ-reference.html

REVISED AMERICAN VERSION EDITION

© 2009 All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other – except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the author.

All scripture quotations are from the Revised American Version Bible except where otherwise noted. The Revised American Version Bible (RAV) © 2009 is a Modern English translation of the Holy Bible, based on the American Standard Version of the Holy Bible first published in 1901, the Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensa Old Testament, and the Greek Majority Text New Testament.

For further information visit www.ravbible.com

THE REVISED AMERICAN VERSION

The Revised American Version is a modern day rendition of the American Standard Version, a public domain version of the Bible published in 1901. It was produced as a basis to create The Scroll™, a modern day color coded blended Gospel of Jesus Christ. The RAV has incorporated several new conventions for easier reading in modern American English, while retaining the accuracy of the American Standard Version. The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) were finished in 2009. The rest of the New Testament was completed in 2012. The Old Testament was completed in 2015. Much research has gone into the coloring of biblical text by the editors. The red lettering of Jesus words in other versions of the Gospels might invoke, in our opinion, an unnecessary ‘angry or emotional’ feel to the words of Jesus. Blue however is a color that denotes hope and depth of thought. It is hoped that the reader enjoys the rendering of the Master’s words with this new coloring from a venerable and accurate American English version.

There have been many other renditions of the American Standard Version. What makes this one needed? The Revised American Version retains more of the original conventions of the ASV then the other renditions. The use of the word ‘And’ to begin many of the sentences in the ASV has been retained by the RAV. No contractions of words (such as don’t for do not) exist in the RAV. Also, the RAV has been very careful to preserve the original gender rendering for every pronoun of the ASV. Also, more recent biblical scholarship is not added to the ASV in order to preserve the text as originally produced by the scholars at the turn of the 19^th century. The Paragraph rendition of the RAV tends to be tighter then some of the other renditions with a less conversational rendering of the text so as to group topics together for more, in our opinion, convenient understanding of the subject matter at hand. It is hoped that this modern day rendition of the ASV will enable the reader to know that the more literal translation philosophy of the American Biblical Scholars of the turn of the 20^th century can still play an important part in delineating God’s truth in today’s modern vernacular without the worry of the text being influenced by the political and societal mores creeping into our culture, a strong trend found in 21^st Century America. The authors pray that God blesses your study.

The editors of this work have no special skill, training, or specific scholarly credentials other than the editors are smart, have common sense, have a good understanding of the English language, and a great sympathy and appreciation for Jesus Christ. We have a desire to present Jesus Christ’s words accurately and with a different color (blue), that in our opinion holds out the possibility of more accurately reflecting his nature and purpose. We approach the rendition of the scriptures from a very practical way. Accuracy of text is paramount. The desire to shield God’s holy text from the political correctness that characterizes American Society in the early 21^st Century has been a priority of ours. Readability is a close second in which we have taken liberties to render words in common everyday vernacular without being prone to, in our opinion, a paraphrase of questionable scholarship. Not that Dynamically Equivalent modern versions are not important in contributing to others understanding of Jesus, it’s simply that we want a more accurate version without losing the masses in archaic language. And lastly, we would like to give the student of this edition the experience of reading an unfettered version of the word of God uncluttered with footnotes and comments. Our desire is to give you the experience of reading the pure word of God without distractions so you can form your own initial perception of what God is saying. Readers like you are the judge whether we have been successful and we welcome your comments on our efforts. Please email us at feedback@ravbible.com.

THE AMERICAN STANDARD VERSION

The American Standard Version has its genesis in the work that was done with the Revised Version (RV), a revision of the King James Version at the turn of the nineteenth century. In 1870, an invitation was extended to American religious leaders for scholars to work on the RV project. A year later, 30 scholars were chosen by Philip Schaff. These scholars began work in 1872. Any suggestions made by the American team would be accepted by the British team only if two-thirds of the British team agreed. This principle was backed by an agreement that if their suggestions were put into the appendix of the RV, the American team would not publish their version for 14 years. The appendix had about 300 suggestions in it.

In 1901, the 14 year agreement between the American and British teams expired, and the Revised Version, Standard American Edition, the original ASV Bible’s title, was published by Thomas Nelson & Sons that same year. It was copyrighted in North America to ensure the purity of the ASV text. In 1928, the International Council of Religious Education (the body that later merged with the Federal Council of Churches to form the National Council of Churches) acquired the copyright from Nelson and renewed it the following year. The copyright was a reaction to tampering with the text of the Revised Version by some U.S. publishers, as noted above, allegedly in the interest of the American reading public, which was legally possible as there was never a U.S. copyright filed for the RV. By the time the ASV’s copyright expired, interest in this translation had largely waned in the light of newer and more recent ones. The perceived accuracy of the ASV however has been one of its hallmarks.

Because the language of the ASV was limited to Elizabethan English, as well as because of what some perceived to be its excessive literalism, it never achieved wide popularity in the United States, or elsewhere for that matter, and the King James Version would remain the primary translation for most American Protestant Christians until the publication of the Revised Standard Version in 1952. However, for many years the ASV was the standard Bible for many seminaries.

There were two original rationales for the ASV. One reason was to obviate any justification for the unauthorized copied editions of the RV that had been circulating. Another reason was to use more of the suggestions the American team had preferred, since the British team used few of their suggestions in the first place, even in the later version which they had published incorporating some of them. Interestingly, while many of the suggestions of the American scholars were based on the differences between American and British usage, many others were based on differences in scholarship and what the American revisers felt the best translation to be. Consequently, there were several changes to the KJV text in the ASV that were not present in the RV.

1. Revisions of the ASV

The ASV has been the basis of seven known revisions. They were the Revised Standard Version (1946-1952/1971), the Amplified Bible (1965), the New American Standard Bible (1963-1971/1995), and the Recovery Version (1999). A fifth revision is currently in the making, the World English Bible. The ASV was also the basis for Kenneth N. Taylor’s Bible paraphrase, The Living Bible, which was published in 1971. The Revised American Version is yet another version, with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the Gospels produced by Blue Cumulus, LLC and finished in 2009. It is the basis of The Scroll™, a modern day Blended Gospel also produced by Blue Cumulus, LLC.

Preface to The Scroll

“The Scroll” is an entirely new work in the field and genre of biblical literature known as a “Synthetic Harmony of the Gospels”. A synoptic parallel harmony is what most people are familiar with, which, by definition, is two or more accounts of the same events; side by side paralleling two or more different vieszpoints. A synthetic harmony by contrast, is the individual gospel accounts interwoven and streamlined into the same text so as to provide one contiguous story instead of multiple side-by-side stories of the same incident. A synthetic harmony expands the text by adding details from one account to another to produce a conflated version that is not identical with either of the sources. This effort is a distinct scholarly approach in producing a ‘Blended Gospel’. This type of literature would be better classified as a commentary rather than scripture since timing and sequence decisions must be made to the text in Synthesis. It is also not considered scripture because if the Holy Spirit would have wanted one cohesive account of Jesus, he would have so directed.

Several new conventions have been adopted with this effort. Instead of page numbers, this harmony follows more of a story format describing the Ministry of Jesus Christ. It turns out that by following our method, there are exactly 200 separate and distinct stories comprising the Ministry of Christ. No story in the Scroll is longer than a 24 hour period, each story has a natural break from the story preceding and the story receding, and most of the stories in this work chronicling Jesus’ ministry last only a few minutes or a few hours. Extreme care was made not to add any words that were not in the original translation (RAV), or drop any words that were included in the Gospel account, hence the “rainbow” effect when looking at the text.

Instead of verse numbers or footnote numbers in The Scroll, each unique gospel word is assigned a corresponding color denoting its source, with a redundant hierarchy of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in that order being the basis of deciding which color to assign redundant words. This “redundant hierarchy” means that for words which are duplicated in more than one gospel account, a decision had to be made as to which of the Gospels should be referenced as the redundant word or phrases for the particular story in question. Colors were chosen to differentiate the source of the text with an attempt made to represent the writer’s temperaments and possibly style of writing. Matthew is used as a base (i.e. always trying to use Matthew first when any redundant word comes up). Mark is then used for any additions that are not found in Matthew and(Red Orange is used to denote Mark. Luke is then used for any additions that are not found in Matthew and Mark (Blue), and John is lastly used for any redundancies that are not found in the synthesis of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Gold). The reason the hierarchy of Matthew being used as a base reference is, 1) it is the first gospel, 2) it is the gospel with the most words 3) it is the Jewish gospel, an audience known for moral detail, and therefore the most literal description of the ministry of Christ, and 4) Matthew was a kind of an accountant and in his own way in describing the Ministry of Christ, he has developed a reputation as a stickler for detail. Using Matthew’s Gospel as the base would, in our opinion, eliminates most questionable redundancies. Matthew also tends to focus on the PHYSICAL. Please see Appendix “C” for a more detailed discussion on the mechanics of synthesis. A Patent Pending exists for all our synthesis techniques, both used and unused in this edition of The Scroll.

Mark is then used in the hierarchy because 1) Mark is more a feeling based gospel and closely aligns itself with Matthew in story sequence and many of the same words and 2) Mark is the second gospel. Luke is then used because Luke takes a more intellectual approach to Jesus’ story, adds some interesting detail the other writers leave out, and it provides a nice rounding of ideas needing to be expressed that many times Matthew and Mark put forth. Finally John is in the fourth position of the hierarchy because much of John’s gospel is unique and it has the least redundancy of words and stories as the other three gospels. John stands completely alone and has no peer in most of the stories it puts forth.

Please follow a couple of examples of the synthesis rationale.

In story number 13, we find Herod imprisoning John the Baptist – Matthew 4:12, Mark 1:14, Luke 3:19-20, John 4:1-3. This is an example of not much redundancy in the text, i.e. each version of the gospel account offers some relatively new thoughts to keep the accounts whole and distinct.

But Herod the tetrarch, being rebuked by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things which Herod had done, added this also to them all, and he shut up John in prison. And now when Jesus heard that John was delivered up, taken into custody, and when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples), he left Judea. Jesus withdrew, came,and departed into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of God.

In story number 52 however (found in Matthew 14:13b-23a, Mark 6:32-46, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1b-15), each account of Jesus feeding the crowd of people gathered in Bethsaida needs to be interwoven carefully so as to not break the continuity of each unique account. Notice the care given to not let one word be discarded or added that was not in the original source in order to provide accurate “color” to the story. The determination as to which word to use from the separate gospel account is guided by the synthesis technique which are conventions invented, patent pending, trademarked, and copyrighted by the Author.

And after these things, the apostles, when they had returned, told him what things they had done. And he took them, and they went away in the boat by themselves to a deserted place of a city called Bethsaida. Jesus went away to the other side of the sea of Galilee, which is also called the Sea of Tiberias. But when the great multitudes heard it, and the people saw them going, many recognized him and perceiving it, they followed him and ran there on foot from all the cities because they saw his signs which he did on those who were sick. And they arrived before them.

And Jesus came and went out, up into the mountain, and he sat there with his disciples, and he saw a great multitude. And he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and welcomed them, and spoke to them of the Kingdom of God. He began to teach them many things, and he healed those who needed healing. And the day began to wear away and when it was late in the day, his twelve disciples came to him, saying, “For we are here in a deserted place, and the time is already late in the day. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the surrounding farms, country and villages, and lodge, and buy themselves food and bread, for they have nothing to eat.”

And now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Jesus therefore lifting up his eyes, and seeing that a great multitude was coming to him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread that these may eat?” And this he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered and said to him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may receive a little.” But Jesus answered and said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” And they asked him and said, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give them something to eat?” And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go see.” And when they knew, they told him and one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these among so many? We only have here no more than five loaves and two fish unless we should go and buy food for all these people.” For they were about five thousand men. And Jesus said to his disciples, “Bring them here to me. Make the people sit down in groups of about fifty each.” Now there was much grass in that place. And he commanded the multitudes, and they did so, and made all the mensit down on the grass in groups about five thousand. And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties.

And Jesustherefore took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, broke them, and having given thanks,he distributed and he gave the loaves to his disciples, to set before the multitude. Likewise also he divided the two fish among them all and the disciples gave to the multitudes as much as they desired. And they all ate, and when they were all filled, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the broken pieces which are left over, that nothing be lost.” So they took and gathered them up and filled twelve baskets full of that which remained left over from the broken pieces from the five barley loaves, and also of the fish which were left over by those who had eaten. And those who ate the loaves were about five thousand men, besides women and children. When therefore the people saw the sign which Jesus did, they said, “This is truly the prophet who comes into the world.”

And Jesus therefore, perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force, to make him king, immediately made his disciples get into the boat, and to go ahead of him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he himself sent the multitudes away. And after he had taken leave of them and sent the multitudes away, he withdrew again and went up into the mountain by himself to pray.

The author of this work has taken liberties to add prepositions to facilitate the easier reading of the text when so warranted.

Instead of chapter numbers, a unique numbering system denotes the overall story number within the Ministry of Christ, the setting in sequence, and the story within that sequence. This is explained more fully on the following page.

Why the title “The Scroll”? Because “The Scroll” is simply a collection of “The Words”. As John stated in beginning his account of Jesus, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God, and the Word was with God”, the Scroll is a collection of every word of Jesus’ earthly ministry within the context of 200 distinct, stand alone, stories comprising the entirety of the ministry of the Life of Christ on earth. Only the ministry of the Life of Jesus Christ on earth is chronicled in The Scroll.

The Scroll is called a contiguous synthetic harmony of the gospel, because the stories in the Ministry of Christ are naturally divided by events, not arbitrary chapters, and are divided by a timeline sequence which touches other stories that do not last longer than one day.

Webster defines contiguous as:

1: being in actual contact : touching along a boundary or at a point2of angles : adjacent 23: next or near in time or sequence4: touching or connected throughout in an unbroken sequence <contiguous row houses>

The stories in the ministry of Christ are indeed an unbroken sequence of stories which make it a beautiful contiguous harmony. The timeline followed comes from a completely new Chronology in the Life of Christ by Don Sikes, M.A. The New Chronology is as fascinating as it is accurate. The preface of The New Chronology is found in Appendix A at the end of this compilation, and ordering information for The New Chronology is found there as well. The complete Julian/Jewish Calendar for every day that Jesus lived is retrievable by a link within Appendix A.

Any suggestions, comments, and criticisms are welcome and can be emailed to admin@thescroll.us. Enjoy your journey into the fascinating and life changing Ministry of Jesus Christ.

Explanation concerning The Scroll’s numbering sequence of the stories within the Ministry of Christ

0010101 First large 3 digits – story number out of 200 stories in the Ministry of Christ, next two digits – Jesus Location based on the Settings Key below, and the next two digits is the story # within Jesus’ Location below. The settings key below is the sequence in which Jesus visited the particular location, i.e. Jesus had visited five recorded places in the scriptures before he visited the sixth, Jerusalem.

Settings Key

01 – Wilderness of Judea

02 – The River Jordan possibly near Bethany across the Jordan

03 – Judean Desert

04 – Cana in Galilee

05 – Capernaum in Galilee

06 – Jerusalem in Judea

07 – Judean Countryside

08 – Machaerus

09 – Sychar in Samaria

10 – Towns in Galilee

11 – Nazareth

12 – Sea of Galilee

13 – Village of Nain

14 – Gadarenes

15 – Bethsaida

16 – Gennesaret

17 – Tyre and Sidon

18 – Decapolis

19 – Magadan / Dalmanutha

20 – Caesarea Philippi / Iturea/Trachonitus

21 – Caesarea Philippi / Mt. Hermon

22 – Samaria

23 – Bethany

24 – Bethany across the Jordan

25 – Ephraim

26 – Perea

27 – Jericho