He that commitETH sin is of the devil... 1 John 3:8

Whosoever is born of God DOTH not commit sin. -- 1 John 3:9

Modern Bible Correctors, who have given the world the American Standard Version, the Good News for Modern Man, and the Living(?) Bible(?) have been careful not to copy the Revised Version and the Revised Standard Version with their "th" endings changed to "s" endings in the above passages. Not liking the A.V. ending, no doubt, fearing accidently LISPING the King James terminology into their more modern perversions. They decided, instead, on terms like "continue" to sin and "keep on sinning" and "practicing sin."

If a verb ends in "th," they believe a continued action is intended, but this gets them into all kinds of trouble. For example, a divorced person is one that commitETH adultery under certain circumstances, resulting in PERPETUAL or CONTINUED adultery in some versions and watered down "keeps on" and "practices" in other versions. A fornicator in 1 Cor. 6:1, who commitETH fornication, would be guilty of perpetual fornication in some versions to the dismay of those, who think that fornication is a premarital affair of a betrothed virgin. Nevertheless, then, other versions would have her practicing or keeping on breaking her betrothal, also hardly acceptable.

Without regard to the Greek tenses and senses, we need to examine the English of First John three with some spiritual common SENSES taking note of those, who would corrupt our English Bibles with nonsense. Imagine 1 John starting out by saying, "the world does not keep on knowing us or does not practice knowing us instead of "the world knowETH us not." Or the world does not continue to know us or perpetually know us. How about, "Whosoever keeps on or continues or practices abiding in him does not keep on or continue to or practices sin instead of "Whosoever abidETH in him sinnETH not. Or "whosoever continues to or keeps on or practices sin does not continue or does not practice to see him (3:6). Or "whosoever is born of God does not practice sin; for his seed practices remaining in him instead of "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remainETH in him (3:9).

Certainly, to change "God knowETH all things" to "God practices knowing all things (3:20) would be the height of absurdity. Also, the change of "he abidETH in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us" to "he practices abiding in us should raise the stiffest eyebrow (3:24).

So much for modern inconsistency, but what about the annoying proposition of a child of God not being born again and being of the devil if he sins, if we allow the KJB reading to stand? For a child of God not only sins, he keeps on sinning, he continues to sin, and he practices sin. So, watering down the word will not solve the problem, which does need to be addressed.

Obviously, the same epistle makes provision for a Christian's sins (plural - 1 John 1:9) and makes deceivers of those, who would deny such sins (1:8). 1 John 3:9 states plainly that a born of God person CANNOT SIN without any "doth" or "th" ending. Personally, we do not know of anyone that is not able to sin, if we are talking about the flesh, the old man, or the carnal nature. Still, if we do as we are supposed to in counting that part of us dead, then we can correctly say that the new creature, the new nature, the seed that remainETH in us, that which is born of God, truly CANNOT and DOTH NOT COMMIT SIN!

All this is merely old English old verb conjugation. Older verb forms had special inflections in both the second and third person singular. The suffix - est denoted the second person singular. The suffix - eth denoted the third person singular. Sometimes the "e" is dropped as in doth versus doeth. The Hebrew and Greek and other languages inflect verbs in number and person. The capability exists also in the second and third person in old English. So, what is the big deal, Bible Correctors?

-- Herb Evans