About the ISV Foundation

The ISV Foundation is a non-profit, tax-exempt educational corporation. It does not solicit public contributions, nor does it make solicited private or public grants.

 

 

Board of Directors

George Giacumakis, Ph.D.

Dr. George Giacumakis is Professor of History & Director Emeritus of the California State University, Fullerton – Irvine Campus (1963-1979 & 1985-2008). He was also Professor & Chair of the History & Political Science Department of Biola University, La Mirada, CA (2008-2010). He is at present Part-time Professor of History at both California State University, Fullerton and at Biola University. He is also at present Director of the Museum of Biblical & Sacred Writings, Irvine, CA. He is also at present an Adult Biblical & Historical Studies Teacher at Richfield Community Church, Yorba Linda, CA. His M.A & Ph.D. are in Mediterranean Studies (Near East and Islamic Studies) from Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass. (1959-1963). He formerly served as President and Executive Director, American Institute of Holy Land Studies (now Jerusalem University College) on Mt. Zion, Jerusalem, Israel (1978-1984).

William P. Welty, Ph.D.

Dr. Welty is the Executive Director of the ISV Foundation. A graduate of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (M.Div., 1978) and Louisiana Baptist University (Ph.D. in Communications, 2005), he taught New Testament Greek for 10 years at Simon Greenleaf University (now part of Trinity Law School, Santa Ana, California).

Pssst……What George? All modern versions are being changed, and the ISV is corrupt just like the rest?

Oh No…..

This is the problem:

Look at the following screenshots from the JW.org site of their New World Translation:

JW NWT 2

Note two things here;

1 – They literally delete the whole verse of Acts 8:37 altogether which says;

Acts 8:37 KJV

’37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’

And then they provide the explanation to justify why this the case, they say it is based on the Westcott and Hort manuscripts, and Nestle and Aland text.

JW NWT 1

And yet these are the same concerning manuscripts used for the ISV.

And sure enough our translators for the ISV do the EXACT same thing with the ISV 

Acts 8

34 The eunuch asked Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet talking about? Himself? Or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began to speak, and, starting from this Scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.

36 As they were going along the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look, there’s some water. What keeps me from being baptized?”[n]   …………………..      38 So he ordered the chariot to stop, and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water, and Philip[o] baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch went on his way rejoicing and did not see Philip[p] again. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus. As he was passing through that region,[q] he kept proclaiming the good news in all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Footnotes

  1. Acts 8:1 Lit. him
  2. Acts 8:5 Other mss. read a
  3. Acts 8:5 Or Christ
  4. Acts 8:5 Lit. to them
  5. Acts 8:6 The Gk. lacks his message
  6. Acts 8:10 Lit. This man is called
  7. Acts 8:12 Or Christ
  8. Acts 8:17 Lit. Then they
  9. Acts 8:24 Lit. Pray (pl.)
  10. Acts 8:30 Lit. He
  11. Acts 8:31 Lit. He
  12. Acts 8:33 Or generation
  13. Acts 8:33 Cf. Isa 53:7-8 (LXX)
  14. Acts 8:36 Other mss. read 37 Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” He replied, “I believe that Jesus the Messiah is the Son of God.”
  15. Acts 8:38 Lit. he
  16. Acts 8:39 Lit. him
  17. Acts 8:40 The Gk. lacks the region
International Standard Version (ISV)

Some of you might say a couple of things here:

  1. Its only a minor change
  2. And they do put a footnote at the bottom to clarify

But look at the verses

One obvious problem is there is no Verse 37. They simply skip from 36 to verse 38? They treat you like fools. 

These were the same battles fought 150 years ago with the release of the RSV in 1870 

The other major thing is without verse 37 the narrative doesn’t make sense. In other words without verse 37 the eunuch’s question is ignored. Philip does reply. Let’s just get on with it. 

But with verse 37 included we read;

“Philip said (or answered) , “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” He replied, “I believe that Jesus the Messiah is the Son of God.”

Incredible…..

The translators are not only omitting scholarship from the text, they are removing plain simple logic, and grammatical principles to guide their steps. 

————

Steven Elwart, Ph.D.

Dr. Elwart holds a Ph.D. from Louisiana Baptist University.  He has spent 40 years in the Oil Industry, covering the areas of Exploration & Production and Refining.  During his career, Elwart has been responsible for crude oil selection and custody transfers, planning and economics & process engineering. Currently, Elwart is currently working in the areas of Information Technology and Industrial Control Systems, but has worked in other areas as diverse as refining, retail sales and fleeting operations. Steve Elwart has served as Director of Systems Engineering, Chief Process Engineer and Manager of Economics and Planning several oil national and international companies. Elwart is extensively involved in management roles with universities, state & federal government agencies and professional technical societies. He is a member of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association and was the recipient of the 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award with that organization. Elwart is also a past member of the advisory board for Emerson Process Management and Invensys Process Automation. He is currently working with the Departments of Homeland Security and Energy as a Subject Matter Expert on cyber security and Petroleum Refining.  Elwart is also a member of Oil & Natural Gas Sector Coordinating Committee as well as several federal Control System Working Groups.  In those roles, he helped craft the “Roadmap to Secure Control Systems in the Energy Sector”.

Jeffrey Sisk

Mr. Sisk is the Chief Technology Officer of SWANsat Holdings, LLC and serves as CEO of SWANsat Information Systems, LLC, Bradenton, Florida. He also serves as webmaster for the ISV web site.

Charles W. Missler, Ph.D. (Emeritus, 2017)

During the past 30 years, Dr. Chuck Missler has served on the Board of Directors of over a dozen public companies, and was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of five of them. Chuck Missler received a Congressional appointment to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Upon graduating with honors, he received his commission in the U.S. Air Force. By the time he completed his military obligations, he had become Branch Chief of the Department of Guided Missiles at Lowry Air Force Base. Chuck completed a Masters Degree in engineering at UCLA with additional post-graduate studies in applied mathematics, advanced statistics and information sciences, and completed his PhD at Louisiana Baptist University. He founded Koinonia House (Couer d’Alene, ID), and the Koinonia Institute, a think tank also located in Reporoa, New Zealand.

Historical Background

The ISV Foundation, a biblical studies research center, is a combination of two distinct visions.

  1. LEARN, Inc. was founded as a nonprofit organization in 1967 under the direction of Mr. William Whitney, Fullerton College Reference Librarian. Other members of the Board who shared this vision were Dr. Robert Carpenter, Medical Doctor; Dr. George Giacumakis, Professor of History at California State University, Fullerton; and Dr. Irving Ahlquist, Professor of History at California State University, Long Beach. Over the years, LEARN, Inc. has produced microfilm and microfiche copies of out-of-print books and documents for personal research libraries of ministers and Christian workers. Thousands of books and documents, available only through such media, were produced through this organization.
  2. The second vision was that put forth in 1986 by Mr. William P. Welty to develop a research center that would produce an updated version of the Hebrew Old Testament text. From this proposed first project would flow other related academic materials for the biblical scholar. Both of these visions came together in 1996 under The ISV Foundation.

Importance of the Bible

People of faith throughout the centuries have recorded the revelation of God pertaining to the affairs of daily life. The experiences of prophets, kings, and common people have been communicated through the written text of Scripture. Jewish and Christian scholars have been concerned to make sure that the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts would be communicated to each new generation.

Even though governments and rulers have attempted to prevent the distribution of the translated Bible in many periods of history, faithful scholars such as John Wycliffe and William Tyndale gave their very lives to translate and distribute the books of the Bible. In every period of revival and renewal in the church, the Bible was central. This awesome history compels The ISV Foundation to undertake such projects as those listed below.

Projects of the Foundation

The ISV Foundation undertakes to produce accurate biblical materials both in printed and electronic formats for use around the world. Projects that are currently being developed include:

  • A computer network based on biblical texts located in different countries
  • Critical editions of the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts of the Bible
  • Translations from the various texts of the Old and New Testaments
  • Bible related computer software
  • Critical textual commentaries on the Old and New Testaments

It is our prayer that through using these tools believers will grow to love the Scriptures more, will seek to apply them more faithfully to their lives, will interpret them with greater clarity, and will teach them more fervently.

ISV Triglyph

The ISV logo is a triglyph of three historic symbols:

  1. The upper symbol is the Menorah. It was used by the Israel of Bible days as a symbol of the nation.
  2. The center symbol is the Magen David. Sometimes called the “Star of David,” it became a common symbol of Israel after the destruction of Israel in 70 A.D. under the Roman general Titus. Some scholars believe that the Magen David was not commonly used as a symbol of the Jewish people much before the twelfth century A.D. Today the Magen David is the official national symbol of the State of Israel. It appears on Israel’s national flag.
  3. The lower symbol, the ICHTHUS, is that of a fish. This symbol was used by the early Christians as a symbol of the Christian believers. In the Greek language, the word “fish” (ichthus) is an acrostic that spells out the words “Jesus Christ, Son of God, [is] Savior”.

The ISV triglyph logo as constituted here is a combination of all three historic images, thus symbolizing the historical roots from which New Testament era believers (the ICHTHUS) emerged as a direct result of Old Testament prophecy (the Menorah). Because the message of the entire counsel of God consisting of both Old and New Testaments is for Jewish believers also, we have symbolized the present and future hopes of modern Israel by the Magen David.

In the Spring of 1996, ISV Foundation’s Executive Director William P. Welty observed the logo at The Galillean Experience, a Christian-owned gift shop in Tiberias, Israel. The owners of The Galillean Experience claim that the logo was discovered in an archaeological dig from the late first century to the early second century, A.D. If this claim is accurate, the existence of this logo means that the Magen David has existed as a symbol of dispersed Israel from at least the late first or early second century, A.D. — nearly a thousand years before the traditionally accepted date for the first attestations of the Magen David.

Because the ISV’s triglyph is a historic symbol, it is in the public domain. Accordingly, the ISV Foundation claims no copyright ownership of the generic logo as it has been portrayed in various archaeological artifacts. However, the ISV Foundation has registered the rendering which appears on the home page of this web site as a trademark to indicate ISV Foundation’s exclusive rights to utilize the triglyph device for use in Bible translations and Bible study tools produced by various ministry subsidiaries of the ISV Foundation (including, but not limited to those produced by the International Biblical Research Center).

Credit

Photo of Triglyph on vase by Robert Fischer. Copyright © 1999 by Olim Creative Products, Ltd. All rights reserved internationally. Used by permission.