# 2026-06-20 Minor Prophets — Is the Passion Translation Finished? A follow-up episode of the [[Minor Prophets Podcast]] (host "John Mark" with guest David Fish) reviewing the response to their earlier Mike Winger / David Fish video on [[The Passion Translation]]. The hosts — both self-described continuationists — celebrate repentant pastoral responses, document fresh plagiarism evidence, and show how fabricated TPT footnotes have become the basis for whole charismatic doctrines. (Source: `Readwise/Articles/Is the Passion Translation Finished.md`) > [!note] Source caution > Plagiarism and fraud charges are serious and rest partly on the hosts' own source-identification work; the discussion mixes documentable textual claims with contested spiritual judgments ("demonic," "doctrines of demons"). The hosts call for grace toward repentant leaders while pressing platforms to remove TPT. --- ## Key claims (new evidence beyond the existing TPT page) 1. **The core accusation refined: plagiarism, not paraphrase.** Simmons claims to translate from original-language manuscripts but copies "nearly verbatim" from existing English paraphrases and idiosyncratic Aramaic-primacy sources — while reportedly admitting to Dr. Mark Strauss that he doesn't know Aramaic. Open paraphrase (The Message) is fine; claiming original-language translation while copying others is the fraud. (Source: this episode) 2. **Aramaic primacy is being scrubbed.** Simmons reportedly told the hosts he is now removing the Aramaic claims — including from the legally sensitive copyright section, while keeping softer language on the FAQ. That foundation ("Aramaic was Jesus's heart language; Greek only reaches the mind") was TPT's whole selling point, amplified by figures like Kevin Zadai. Hence the episode title. (Source: this episode) 3. **The "paraklete / redeemer who ends the curse" case study.** TPT renders the Holy Spirit a "savior" in John 14 and footnotes an Aramaic word study claiming *parakleta* means "to end the curse." The hosts trace it: invented by Paul Younan → carried via Andrew Roth's *Aramaic-English New Testament* (plagiarized from p. 306, including Roth's own citations) → into TPT — even though *paraklete* is a Greek **loan word** in Aramaic/Syriac, and Younan himself walked the idea back in a 2011 forum *before* TPT published. Dutch Sheets, Damon Thompson, and Jesse Duplantis then built doctrine on the fabricated note ("the other savior is actually you"). (Source: this episode) 4. **A pattern of instrumental copying.** Luke 7 tracks the 1971 Living Bible's "wedding/funeral" wording; Luke 11 matches The Message's idiosyncratic "spider" (for scorpion) and invents a gender switch to "his daughter"; Hebrews 9:10 copies a misspelled Greek transliteration ("diorthosis") from François du Toit's Mirror Bible; Hebrews 12 softens "scourges/chastises" into affirmation via a fabricated Aramaic note plagiarized from David Bauscher; Romans 8:9 follows du Toit's universalist reading. The plagiarism is *instrumental* — it imports heterodox/universalist theology into the text. (Source: this episode) 5. **The discernment thesis: the "Jenga tower of trust."** Charismatic "intuitive" discernment trusts feeling and endorsers over evidence; people wait for trusted leaders to rule before deciding. The hosts' appeal: question your own discernment. They name Michael Brown and Patricia King as "accountability" figures who repeatedly minimize misconduct ("I've met Brian, he's a good guy"). (Source: this episode) --- ## Notable quotes > "I am deeply sorry for my failures as a shepherd." — repentant pastor Matthew Esquibel, quoted approvingly; he had distributed TPT Song of Songs/Psalms (2017–2019) on the strength of Bickle/Johnson/Brown endorsements. (Source: this episode) > "This might as well be from the Book of Mormon. … the guy who made it up said effectively that he knows it's not true." (host, on the paraklete doctrine, this episode) > "I cannot endorse the subculture that I came from, nor the leaders that I once held in high esteem." (host, a continuationist, this episode) --- ## Connections > [!contradiction] **Plagiarized footnote softens the very text that would rebuke the theology.** The Hebrews 12 case is the sharpest convergence in the wiki: TPT's fabricated Aramaic note turns "the Lord scourges every son he receives" into "it proves you are his delightful child," importing the Bethel "God is always in a good mood / unpunishable" theology — the same Danny Silk / [[Jonathan Welton]] *Unpunishable* frame mapped in [[2026-05-19-bethels-book-platformed-a-wolf-video|Bethel's Book Platformed a Wolf and Silenced His Victims (YouTube exposé video)]] — into the one passage that most directly contradicts it. TPT and the Bethel accountability-collapse cluster are the same theology working two channels: the text and the discipline system. This is a distinct critic source from [[Mike Winger]] (a different channel, the Minor Prophets), but builds on his work; it extends [[readwise-passion-translation-critique-cluster|Readwise — Passion Translation Critique Cluster]] with named, traceable plagiarism source-trails. The hosts' continuationism (like the Remnant Radio source) keeps the critique from collapsing into cessationism — the objection is dishonesty, not spiritual gifts.