Cassidoro de Reina

A BRIEF EXPLANATION OF WHY IT'S CALLED THE "REINA-VALERA" The Spanish Bible, and the many Protestant revisions of it are today commonly referred to as "Reina-Valera Spanish Bibles." This is because of two men, Casiodoro de Reina and Cipriano de Valera. Casiodoro was the first to translate the ENTIRE Spanish Bible into Castilian Spanish (Castellano). His work was printed in 1569, and because of a picture of a bear on the coverpage of his Bible, it became known as "THE BEAR BIBLE," or in Spanish, "La Biblia del Oso." Because Reina did not have access to all the pure texts, and because he used what he called "corrupt" texts in some places, as well as the Latin Vulgate in others, Reina's work was not perfect, and he did not produce a pure Spanish Bible. For this reason, Cipriano de Valera later revised the work of Casiodoro de Reina and his revision was printed in 1602. Some today call his Bible, "La Biblia del Cantaro." However, he did not do a thorough job, and for this reason, although it was very good, his edition was not pure either. Yet, Valera's revision became greatly accepted among exiled Protestant Spanish-speakers during his time, but it did not see much distribution. In fact it was only printed about four or five times after 1602 up until the late 1700's, and then only in very limited quantities. This is because of the Spanish Inquisition, which prohibited the Bible in Spanish, especially Protestant versions of it, from being printed and distributed in Catholic countries, including Spain. Because of this, the original Valera was never printed EXACTLY the way it was in 1602 in the 1800's. Rather Protestant Bible Societies revised it once again with CATHOLIC texts, in hopes that their "hybrid revisions" would be allowed to circulate in Spain and Latin America in the 1800s and 1900s. This made their Bibles less pure. For more on these "hybrid Protestant Reina-Valera Spanish Bibles" click here. The Catholic church would not allow a version of the scriptures translated into Spanish unless it was a version they condoned, and then ONLY if it was done from the Latin Vulgate, a corrupt translation that even Casiodoro de Reina said was "full of errors." (See the preface of his 1569 Spanish Bible for this quote.) However, a Catholic Spanish translation of the Bible did occur in the late 1700s by a man named Felipe Scio de San Miguel, who translated directly from the Latin Vulgate into Spanish. His translation is today simply referred to as the "Scio" Bible or the "Scio text." And, it was this man who was the first to change the word "Palabra" in John 1:1, in referring to Jesus, to "Verbo," the CATHOLIC WORD from the latin word "Verbum." This is an important point, although many make light of it today. However, "verbo" is more than just a catholic word, it is an occultic, Kabbalist word as well. For more info about this, click here. Protestant Bible Societies in the 1800's and 1900's produced these hybrid "part Protestant-part Catholic" revisions by the thousands, and distributed them far and wide. Some were burned by Catholic priests and Inquisitors, while others were allowed, as they appeared to be Catholic (seeing as they were part Protestant texts and part Catholic texts.) NOTE: Even though these Bible Societies MIXED the catholic texts into their revisions, Protestants still called their Bibles, "VALERA" versions. This is important, as their revisions were always referred to as "Valera Bibles" and not "Reina-Valera" Bibles. (Reina was often omitted, and on purpose, as he was viewed as more Catholic than Valera.) It was not until around the time that the 1960 American Bible Society Spanish revision that people began to call Protestant Spanish Bible revisions, "Reina-Valera Bibles." This is why those behind the 1865 are very adamant about calling their version only the "1865 Valera Bible." Also, "the Valera 1602 Purified" purposely leaves out Reina, not only for this reason, but also for Reina's anti-semetic views. Thus, calling a version a "Reina-Valera" version, as does the "Reina-Valera Gomez," the "Reina-Valera 1909," the "Reina-Valera 1960," etc. is to use the modern term, and not the older more accepted term. Both Reina and Valera were NOT the first Protestants to produce Spanish Bible translations. Before them we find the works of: 153? Portion of the Psalms translated by Juan de Valdes 1543 New Testament translated by Francisco de Enzinas 1556 New Testament translated by Juan Perez de Pineda Of all of these, by far the best was that of Juan Perez de Pineda, and it was his New Testament that was read by both Reina and Valera that led to their salvation. Of all the Spanish Bibles available today, Independent Baptists (my denominational affiliation), Protestants, and Evangelicals use one of the following: 1865, 1909, 1960, the modern Gomez, or the Valera 1602 Purified. All of these, except the last one, are modern versions, which have been tainted and mixed with the Scio text. The only Spanish Bible that goes clear back to the 1569 and 1602, as well as the older versions like the Juan Perez de Pineda and the Francisco de Enzinas, is the Valera 1602 Purified Spanish Bible, which chose to purify the old Protestant Spanish Bibles with the following: The King James Bible, the Greek Textus Receptus, and the Hebrew Masoretic Texts. It is the work of a NATIVE SPANISH-SPEAKING Independent Baptist Church in Monterrey, Mexico, which toiled over 15 years towards the goal of a pure Spanish Bible, like we have a pure Spanish Bible in English in our KJV. NOTE: The modern Reina-Valera Gomez 2010 claims to have used the TR, Hebrew Masoretic, and the KJV as well. But it is based on the 1909 and the 1960, and DOES NOT go back to those older Protestant versions. For this reason, there are many modern words used in that version that are NOT those long-standing words used and blessed by God for over 400 years. Thus, to reiterate, the only Spanish Bible today that is truly old (from around the time of our King James Bible), truly Protestant, and truly from the pure texts is the Valera 1602 Purified Spanish Bible. Further, the Valera 1602 Purified, or (1602 P for short), is the ONLY Spanish Bible available today that uses the word LORD (SEÑOR) in the Old Testament in all caps, as does the King James and the old translation of Juan de Valdes. (Others use "Jehova" or "Jehovah." Sadly, this has helped the Jehovah Witnesses grow by leaps and bounds in Spanish-Speaking countries). Moreover, the 1602 P is the ONLY Spanish Bible available today which reads "Palabra" instead of the catholic, occultic term "Verbo." Finally, the 1602 P is the ONLY Spanish Bible available today which is truly closest to the KJV, the pure texts underlying the KJV, and the old Protestant versions used by God in the reformation. Click here to see a comparison chart which proves the Valera 1602 Purified is the best. Sadly, there is still much debate and bitter fighting among many Independent Baptists and evangelicals about which Spanish Bible is the best. They argue continually about the CONTROVERSY, without even knowing where the controversy began. Click here to read my book about the Spanish Bible Controversy It's my hope that more people will open their minds and hearts to the TRUTH, and will find out more about the best Spanish Bible. For there are many camps who are more interested in FIGHTING one another and DEFENDING the version their group uses, rather than simply choosing and printing the purest Spanish Bible. Please peruse my site for more information about the Spanish Bible and which one is the indeed the best. Click here to go back to the Spanish Bible Issue Page NOTE: The Valera 1602 Purifed is still a work in process. Although the New Testament is finished, the Old Testament is still in progress. However, a whole Bible with the yet UNFINISHED OLD TESTAMENT text is available. For information on how to obtain a Valera 1602 Purified, click here. To see the latest edition of the entire Valera 1602 Purified and to download it in .pdf Adobe format, click here. written by Robert Breaker in 2012