How to preach about texts with variants

11.7. How to preach about texts with variants
Members in the church will come to meetings with different bibles. They will realise that there are differences between the translations. How should you handle these texts, when you preach on them?
In the first place, you should not spend a lot of time on the issue of textual criticism. If necessary, briefly say what the difference is, and continue with the message. The believers are not gathered for a lecture on textual criticism. They want to hear you speaking by telling them, ‘thus says the Lord’. You have done your homework, and you have reached your conclusion. If you have done as I have advised you up to this point, you have used the best commentaries that helped you to reach your conclusion.
In the second place, where possible let them see that the differences are minor and do not undermine any major Christian teaching.
My favourite way of explaining a textual difference is by saying: we can translate the Greek manuscripts as follows: ‘a’ and ‘b’. In this passage we should follow translation ‘a’.
Finally, it is important to give God’s people the assurance that their bible in their own language is the Word of God. The early church did not use the Hebrew and Aramaic Old Testament. They used the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. That translation was their bible. The apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, quoted from that version, as did other writers of the New Testament.