By Pastor Emanuel Rodriguez
President of the RVG Bible Society
INTRODUCTION
Please allow me to refute 2 false narratives against the Reina Valera Gomez Spanish Bible. The first lie is that Dr. Humberto Gomez did his work on the RVG alone. The second lie is that of those who worked with him none of them had any real academic credentials, especially in regard to the original languages.
Lie #1 – Dr. Gomez did his work alone.
The truth is that over the past 20 years there have been hundreds who have collaborated and contributed to the RVG project.
I know this for a fact because I headed up the effort to organize a worldwide team of collaborators to proofread the entire RVG text from Genesis to Revelation. This is the latest edition of the RVG that is currently available. It was a 2 year project. In my nearly 30 years of ministry, I can confidently say that this was the most taxing and overwhelming project I have ever participated in. I must admit that I did not realize the amount of work heading up such a proofreading project would be. My respect and appreciation for Dr. Gomez went through the roof when considering that he has been dealing with this for over 2 decades. Only God could have sustained him. The proofreading project wore me out and humbled me. By the grace of God, however, we did it and it was an honor to be a part of a serious effort to provide the Spanish-speaking world the pure words of God.
I organized over 70 collaborators from around the world. Some worked as teams. Others worked as individuals. Everyone was appointed at least 1 book of the Bible. Some took on multiple books. Mike Lemma, missionary in Mexico, took it upon himself to do about 3/4 of the whole Bible by himself.
I personally went through every word of Psalms, Proverbs, Jude, and Revelation. Others also went through those same books. I can confidently say that every word of all 66 books of the Bible was reviewed with a fine tooth comb. If anything was overlooked, it wasn't for lack of trying. Collaborators sent their observations to me in writing via email. Overall, we have on file a compilation of over 200 documents filled with proofreading observations.
Then on October 27, 2023 several members of the RVG Bible Society met in a room at the First Calvary Baptist Church of Brownsville, TX (Primera Iglesia Bautista Calvario) where my good friend Samuel Gomez is the Pastor. The men present in this meeting were Dr. Humberto Gomez, Dr. Joe Martines, Dr. Carlos Donate, Dr. Peter Putney, Missionary Don Rich, Pastor Shane Rice, Missionary Darren Townsend, and myself.
For multiple hours we all went back and forth over different observations that we shared one with another as well as observations that were sent to us in documents from all collaborators. At times, disagreements got heated yet all discussions were filled with respect and passionate concern for the purity and accuracy of God’s words.
This was just my experience with collaborators for the most recent edition of the RVG. This does not include how many collaborated in prior editions since 2004, which would easily put the amount in the hundreds. It would be impossible to keep track of all the input we've received over the past 20 years. We had nearly 100 just for the last edition and the RVG has gone through several editions over 2 decades.
Lie #2 – None of the men who worked on the RVG have any training in the original languages
Let me share with you a few men who were involved with the RVG project who have some serious academic credentials and bring credibility to our Bible.
Dr. Louis Tyler
Dr. Tyler is the head professor of biblical languages at Río Grande Bible College in Edinburg, Texas. One fellow educator wrote the following concerning Dr. Tyler's credentials:
"He has taught Hebrew, Greek, English, Spanish, German, and Bible. He holds a BSE from the University of Texas at Austin (1970) with teaching certification in English, Spanish, and German; the M.Div. degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1974); an MA in Hebrew (Greek minor) from the University of Texas at Austin (1981); and a Ph.D. in Foreign-Language Education-Hebrew (Aramaic minor), also at UT Austin (1988). He has made audio recordings of the entire Bible in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin."
Dr. Tyler has reviewed the RVG text. Concerning the RVG, Dr. Tyler said:
"Allow me to recommend the Reina-Valera-Gómez Bible. Over the years I have noticed that the RVR 1960 often follows the so-called “critical text,”... The RVG follows the Textus Receptus (TR) in the New Testament and closely follows the Masoretic Text (MT = original Hebrew/Aramaic text) of the Old Testament....I applaud the RVG for reversing the trend to go after the modern trend of following the NU (Nestle text as well as the United Bible Societies) text and returning to the text that God has preserved since ancient times...'
Dr. Donald Waite
Dr. D. A. Waite was our primary consultant concerning the Greek and Hebrew languages. No one involved with the Spanish Bible issue today has more scholarship credentials than Dr. Waite in regards to the original languages. He has studied the original languages since 1945, and has five earned degrees in this area.
He received a Bachelor of Arts in classical Greek and Latin from the University of Michigan in 1948. He graduated with high honors in New Testament Greek Literature and Exegesis from Dallas Theological Seminary in 1952. He went on to earn a Master of Arts degree in Speech from the Southern Methodist University in 1953, a Doctorate of Theology, with honors, in Bible Exposition from Dallas Theological Seminary in 1955, and a Ph.D in Speech from Purdue University in 1961. (That’s a total of sixteen years of college studies!)
In addition to his extensive knowledge of the original languages and Latin, Dr. Waite also has formal training in French and Spanish. In fact, early in his ministry he spent two years pastoring a Spanish-speaking church.
Dr. Waite is licensed in two different states (New Jersey and Pennsylvania) for the instruction of Greek and Language Arts. Most language professors in Bible colleges today, as fine as their abilities may be, do not have the official certifications by their state to teach the original languages. But Dr. Waite does.
He has taught Greek, Hebrew, Speech, English, and Bible courses in one junior high school, one senior high school, three Bible institutes, two colleges, two universities, and one seminary (nine schools altogether).
Concerning the RVG, Dr. Waite said:
“I am pleased to recommend the Spanish Bible of Dr. Humberto Gomez's. I have found him to be a kind, careful, humble, and able student who has spent hundreds of hours in carrying out his burden to get the Spanish Bible of 1909 (by which he was led to the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior) in line with the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Words underlying the King James Bible.”
“There are over 8,000 documented differences between the Received Greek Text and the Revised Critical Greek Text. Included in these 8,000 differences are at least 356 doctrinal passages where the Revised Greek Text is in doctrinal error. I have listed 158 of the most important of these 356 doctrinal passages in Chapter V of my book, “Defending the King James Bible.” I have personally compared Dr. Humberto Gomez’s Bible and each of these 158 passages in my book. I found that all of them were in agreement with the Received Greek Text and have been doctrinally corrected. This cannot be said of the 1960 nor the 1909 in each of these places.”
In addition to these places Dr. Waite reviewed, since then he served as our primary consultant whenever we had a question that involved expertise in Greek or Hebrew. I have gone to him many times with observations. Dr. Waite always responded with grace and brilliance.
Dr. Waite further elaborates:
“Dr. Gomez has corrected some of the places where there have been translation errors in other Spanish Bibles such as Psalm 12:6-7; Exodus 25:18,19,20,21,22 and many other verses; John 3:5; Matthew 4:3; Matthew 26:63 and other places in both the Old and New Testaments.
Dr. Gomez is aware that there may be places in his translation that need correction, and he has the humility and honesty to accept suggestions wherever they come from. When suggestions are received, I am assured that Dr. Gomez will consider them carefully and if he thinks they are meritorious he will make the changes in his own printing. What more could a Spanish speaker want?”
Today Dr. Waite is with the LORD. We miss him and we are eternally grateful for his valuable contribution to the RVG Bible.
Dr. Rex Cobb
Dr. Cobb now serves as the director of Baptist Bible Translators Institute in Bowie, Texas, where he and his staff train missionaries from all over the world in advanced linguistic studies for the purpose of translating the scriptures into foreign languages. There is not another institution in the Independent Baptist world that addresses the subject of linguistics more than BBTI.
Dr. Cobb is not just a teacher. He also has practical experience in what he teaches. He served as a church planting, soul winning missionary in Mexico for 21 years. While serving in Mexico, he became burdened for the Zapotecas Indians in Oaxaca. These people had no Bible, so he took it upon himself to translate the entire New Testament into their language. As a result, this faithful man has firsthand experience in Bible translation and now trains other missionaries to do the same.
Perhaps no man has spent more hours collating all the major Spanish Bibles and comparing them with the Textus Receptus than Dr. Cobb. He concluded that the RVG is the purest and most accurate Spanish Bible available.
Here is Dr. Cobb’s own personal testimony to this:
“I have spent literally hundreds, maybe thousands, of hours in this study. I developed a checklist of 1,100 places in the N.T. where there are differences between the Received Text and the Critical Text. I then compared sixteen different Spanish N.T.s against this list. I discovered that there is a big difference between corrupt Critical Text Bibles and those coming from the Received Text.”
“Also during those days I began to pray that God would give us a good, faithful revision of the Reina Valera that would be equivalent to my English Bible. Of course, I did not want a literal King James Bible in Spanish. That is not possible. The KJB is an English Bible. A few years ago I learned about the work of Humberto Gómez and became very interested. When I finally received a copy of his initial work, I began to look it over. I liked it, but also found a few things that could use a little work. I only found one small textual problem, and Bro. Gómez promptly corrected that. Over the next few years we communicated from time to time about improvements to his work. He was always happy to listen to any suggestion I had. He didn’t always follow them, but he always gave a good explanation why he couldn’t. During these years Bro. Gómez has been open to suggestions from all the Spanish-speaking brethren. In 2008 I read through completely the RVG Bible.”
“I would encourage anyone who cares about Bible purity to seriously consider using this Bible. I would especially encourage local church Bible printing ministries that stand for pure Bibles to print this RVG Spanish Bible. For those who do not want to change from the Bible they currently use, I’m sure the Bible Society will continue to sell the 1960 Revision. I understand that it is difficult to tell people that there are problems in their Bible. The easy thing to do is to pretend that these Critical Text problems do not exist. Personally, I cannot accept a Bible with a considerable number of corruptions. If others can, that is between them and God. I would urge these brethren, however, to be more candid with the pastors in the U.S. who ask about the Spanish Bible that they use. It is going to be very difficult in the days to come to say, “The Bible I use (referring to the 1960) is just like the King James.” The pastors in the States are going to know that simply is not true.”
David Daniels
Brother David Daniels is the head Director and Research Consultant at Chick Publications. Everyone is familiar with the Gospel literature of Chick Publications, especially their famous “Chick tracts”, which have been used worldwide in over 100 languages to bring souls to Jesus Christ.
Brother Daniels graduated in 1984 from the Pacific Christian College (now Hope International University) in Fullerton, California, with a B.A. in Linguistics and Bible. In 1986 he finished a three-summer course at the Summer Institute of Linguistics (associated with Wycliffe Bible Translators). In 1987 he received his Master of Divinity in General Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.
Concerning the 2010 edition of the RVG, Mr. Daniels said:
“I asked our Spanish translators and various other Spanish speakers to read them and give me their thoughts, as I checked my copy of the RVG. The results were quite positive. Brother Humberto was humble enough to correct the few errors we found at that earlier stage. “After all,” he said, “it is not my Bible.” That has been his attitude in all the time I have come to know him.”
“It is exciting that Brother Gómez spent several years cleaning up the text, in conjunction with other Bible-believers in thirteen countries. Even when Brother Gómez only had a draft copy, the people received the RVG 2004 as the best Bible they had ever seen, and offered themselves to help in the proofreading process.”
“In this way many Christians were able to read and re-read the RVG 2004 and show him anything that still needed to be corrected to match God’s preserved words. Now the process has been completed. The RVG 2010 is the result of over five years of careful review from many qualified scholars and Bible-believers of all sorts.”
The RVG Bible Society
To the time of the writing of this article we have 16 men that serve in the RVG Bible Society. This is an organization that I founded several years ago for the purpose of networking and collaborating one with another in RVG related projects, not just in the work of revision but in regard to printing, distribution, and developing RVG-friendly resources. We also hold conferences every year for the purpose of educating folks on the issues.
All the men in this Society are in full-time ministry and are intimately involved with reaching the Spanish-speaking world with the Gospel. All have collaborated in varying degrees in the RVG Bible. They are good men. Proven men. Soul winners. Church planters. Bible-believers.
All have varying degrees of academic skill. While none of us would consider ourselves experts in the original languages, or in anything else for that matter, all of us are students who share a passion for the purity of God’s words.
For example, Dr. Carlos Donate is perhaps the world’s foremost expert in textual criticism in regard to the Spanish Bible. He has legitimate understanding and classroom training in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin and has applied that knowledge during his involvement in 2 different Spanish Bible projects over the past 30 years.
Dr. Francisco Trujillo has an earned PhD. Other men in the Society such as Dr. Peter Putney, Dr. Joe Martinez, Pastor Shane Rice, Missionary Mark Gerosin have some training in Greek.
I myself have 3 years of classroom training in Greek and have studied, taught, and written extensively on Bible manuscript evidence and textual history. I was humbled and honored to be elected to serve on the Executive Board of the King James Bible Research Council in March of 2024. This is an organization that researches and educates churches worldwide concerning the King James Bible text. Most of the members of this organization highly recommend the RVG, including President Dr. David Brown and Vice President Dr. Phil Stringer, all of which are friends with Dr. Humberto Gomez.
CONCLUSION
Although I believe enough has been said here to demonstrate varying levels of academic skill among those who worked in this project, our greatest strength has been that of thoroughness. Here is an irrefutable fact. Of all the modern day, well intentioned projects to try to provide TR and KJV proponents with a pure Spanish Bible, NONE of them can claim to be a more thorough work than the RVG.
With all due respect to the good brethren who worked on the 1602 Purificada, the 1865 Valera, the Trinitarian Bible Society Spanish Bible just recently released, the Enzinas project, the McVey project, and others, none of them can claim to be a more scrutinized and vetted text than the RVG. None of them have been attacked by more critics who have proven themselves useful despite their intentions to discredit our text.
None of the other projects can claim the sheer amount of collaborators worldwide who have enthusiastically contributed to this cause. Some of our collaborators are academics and educators. Some are bi-lingual missionaries. Some are native preachers and laymen with Spanish as their first language (some with Spanish as their only language). We have a great variety of collaboration which has ensured thoroughness.
Over 3 million copies of the RVG have been printed over the past 20 years. Think about the hundreds of congregations around the Spanish-speaking world that have gone through the text. It has been overwhelming how many of them have shared observations with us. Yet all observations have been considered and continue to be.
If any had any doubt as to the collaboration in this project, let me put that to rest by concluding this article with the following (incomplete) list of at least 70 individuals who have given input and contributed to the RVG cause in varying degrees over the years and the countries they represent:
Members of the RVG Bible Society
1. Dr. Humberto Gomez, Missionary to Mexico for over 50 years
2. Pastor Emanuel Rodriguez, former missionary to Puerto Rico and Paraguay
3. Dr. Joe Martínez, Missonary to Cuba and Spanish Church planter in the US
4. Dr. Carlos Donate, Missionary to Guatemala
5. Pastor Shane Rice, former missionary to Peru and Italy
6. Pastor Don Rich, missionary to Peru
7. Dr. Peter Putney, Missionary to Colombia
8. Pastor Manuel Gomez, Missionary to Mexico
9. Dr. Francisco Trujillo, FL
10. Pastor Lacy Wheeler, Missionary to Mexico
11. Pastor Carlos Almanza, CA
12. Pastor Jonathan Everhart, TN
13. Pastor Mark Gerosin, Missionary to Colombia
14. Pastor Nathan Saint, Missionary to Chile
15. Darren Townsend, Missionary to Peru
16. Rodney Frey, former Missionary to Argentina
17. Pastor Nelson Gimenez, Paraguay
Other Collaborators
18. Dr. D. A. Waite, former President and Founder of the Dean Burgon Society
19. Dr. Louis Tyler, Seminary Professor of the original languages
20. Dr. Rex Cobb, Director of the Baptist Bible Translators Institute
21. David Daniels, manuscript evidence expert, linguist
22. Dr. Stephen Zeinner, Director of Bearing Precious Seed Global, trainer of Bible translators
23. Rey Villareal, Missionary to Mexico
24. Michael Lemma, Missionary to Mexico
25. Ulises Velazquez, Pastor in Mexico
26. Donald Heinz, educator and former missionary to Chile, trained in Bible translating
27. Gary Castner, former missionary to Chile
28. Vincente Delgado, native Spaniard, layman in Spain.
29. Dr. Pedro Almeida, Brazilian pastor.
30. Jose Martinez, native pastor in Argentina
31. Elson Portugal, native Brazilian, fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. Veteran missionary and Church planter in Germany, Brazil, and Costa Rica.
32. Ole Olson, Spanish-speaking Jew, fluent in Hebrew.
33. Ruben de la Rosa, Mexico preacher, engineer
34. Juan Riquelme, veteran missionary in Chile.
35. Antoni Mendoza Miralles, reacher in Spain.
36. Ricardo Monteagudo, preacher in Argentina.
37. Jose Luis Nuñez, native Mexican pastor
38. Alonso Rico, Pastor en Tejaban, Guanajuato
39. Jesús Rico, preacher in Mexico
40. Alejandro Martínez, Preacher in Mexico
41. Jesús Centeno, Bible teacher and preacher in Mexico
42. Antonio Pantoja, Pastor in Mexico
43. Jorge Arjona, Pastor Mexico
44. Pastor Sam Eastep, Missionary in Mexico
45. Jorge Blanco, Layman in Mexico
46. Humberto Nava, Layman in Mexico
47. Samuel Garcia, Layman in Mexico
48. Jonathan Bryan, Missionary in Mexico
49. Pastor Tim Urling, former Missionary in Mexico
50. Pastor Allen Copeland, former Missionary to Mexico
51. Pastor Raymond Jones, Missionary to Mexico
52. Antonio Capilla, Mexico
53. Andre Capilla, Mexico
54. Osiris Capilla, Mexico
55. Pastor Mike Lemma, Missionary in Mexico
56. Pastor Mike Myers, Missionary in Mexico
57. Adam Russell, Missionary in Mexico
58. Pastor Clint Rearden, Missionary in Mexico
59. Pastor Alfredo Gimenez, Paraguay
60. Pastor Arturo Ramirez, Paraguay
61. Julio Jara, Paraguay
62. Daniel Alvarez, Paraguay
63. Efraín Acosta, Paraguay
64. Dario Mendoza, Paraguay
65. Pastor Andrew Sluder, US
66. Axel Trepovich, Spanish-speaking evangelist
67. Pastor Pedro Pantoja, US
68. Giovanni Acosta, layman in US
69. Celso Aranda, layman in US
70. Jesus Lopez, Colombian preacher
71. Pastor Michael Mullins, Missionary in Chile
72. Dr. Shawn Creamer, former Missionary to Puerto Rico and former Vice President of a Bible seminary (now with the LORD)
Addendum A
(The following is the list of proofreading instructions I sent to all collaborators. It was sent in English and Spanish. I offer this to give readers an idea of what went into this project.)
FINAL EDITION OF THE REINA VALERA GOMEZ
SPANISH BIBLE REVISION
Proofreading Project
Instructions
DO NOT SHARE THE RVG DOCUMENT WITH ANYONE WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION.
Pray over this project.
Review every word of every verse of the book assigned to you from the beginning to the end.
Look for anything that might need revision. Look for anything in regard to spelling, grammar, textual, translational, etc.
Make note of every single observation. If you have the slightest amount of doubt concerning anything, make note of it. You may also suggest or recommend how you think it should be changed and why. Please record all such notes in the Observation Form.
We plan to collect the notes of all collaborators on all 66 books of the Bible and organize them into a book that will explain the process of finalizing the RVG Bible project. We believe this will be a helpful tool in the future.
If you are able to, and if you have any of the following resources:
For all of our bilingual collaborators, please compare everything with the King James Version.
The Greek text to be used is the Textus Receptus.
The standard edition of the TR we use will be the 1894 Scrivener edition. But comparison with any other edition of the TR could be helpful.
The Hebrew text to be used is the Masoretic text (Ben Chayyim, Daniel Bomberg edition).
You may also compare with other Spanish Bible versions, and other Bible versions of other languages.
You may use any dictionary, lexicon, and any other helpful resource you have available.
The dictionary that we recommend most is that of the Real Academy of Spain. (www.rae.es) This is the official standard of all Spanish dictionaries.
In your notes, please include what resources you used in your review.
Do not worry if you are not able to use any of the resources mentioned here. Do the best you can with what you have. At the very least compare every word with the KJV. Whatever you are not able to do will be made up for by the involvement of others who are able.
Submit your observations to Pastor Emanuel Rodriguez by the deadline.
You can send it to his email: mannyisback@yahoo.com
DO NOT SHARE THE RVG DOCUMENT WITH ANYONE WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION.
Addendum B
To further give an idea of the work that was put into this project, below are screenshots of documents by some of the collaborators who went through every word of their assigned book in the Bible and compiled a list of observations for consideration and further revision in the most recent editions. We have on file over 200 pages of documents like this.
Observations by Dr. Francisco Trujillo
Observations by Missionary Michael Lemma
Observations by Dr. Carlos Donate
Observations by Dr. Peter Putney
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