Why is "sabaoth" spelled in this way in James 5:4? Does it mean the same as "Sabbath"? W. S. No; this is a different word from "Sabbath." "Sabaoth" means hosts, and the expression here conveys the thought that the Lord of all the hosts in heaven and earth is the guardian and avenger of the poor who are oppressed by the grasping rich. The Common Version renders 1 John 5:7, 8: "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one." But the American Revised Version reads thus: "And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three who bear witness, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and the three agree in one." Why is the difference? Was something added in the one, or was it left out in the other? J. A. P. There are a few very slight differences in the various original manuscripts that have been preserved, of the different books of the Bible; and this is one of those places where a difference occurs. Some of the best Greek manuscripts have it as translated in the King James Version, while others have it as it is given in the Revised. Boothroyd's and Rotherham's translations both omit verse 7. The Syriac retains the verse in the original, but encloses it in brackets. So also does Young's. But the marvelous thing to the student of the Bible is that there are so few differences in these original manuscripts, and that none of these differences are really essential. Whether you follow the King James Version or the Revised, in this text or in any other, you get practically the same great truth. There is nothing in this text, in either one of these versions, but what is abundantly and clearly taught in other portions of the sacred Word. God's great book was copied by hundreds of hands, into many languages, during the first centuries of the Christian era. These original manuscripts, in all these various tongues, as they have been passed on to us, are in substantial agreement in every particular. There is no disagreement that amounts to a contradiction. This shows the miraculous care that God has had for His word. No other book has passed through such an ordeal and come out with such a clear testimony. The way in which the Book has been preserved shows that it is divine. It will be found not only profitable but intensely interesting to secure and read Dr. Gaussen's "Inspiration of the Bible." A more modern volume, that has had brought into it some of the clearest and strongest scholarship of this day, is "The Ancestry of Our English Bible," by Ira M. Price, Ph. D. The evidence that God's word has been miraculously preserved is of the clearest character.