# 2026-07-23 Ward on Words — Top Ten Errors in The Passion Translation Bible-translation specialist Mark Ward (the "Ward on Words" channel, a self-identified **cessationist**) interviews pastor **David Fish** (New River Fellowship, Hudson Oaks TX, a **continuationist**) walking through ten passages and footnotes that expose a recurring method problem in [[The Passion Translation]]: the work repeatedly abandons the Greek/Hebrew source text for English-language paraphrases and disputed "Aramaic insight," then presents the interpretive addition as an original-language discovery. Published 2026-07-23. (Source: `Readwise/Articles/Top Ten Errors in The Passion Translation.md`, [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9e74NB6w38)) > [!note] Source caution > This is an adversarial analysis, not an independent peer-reviewed study. Ward and Fish repeatedly concede they are not Syriac scholars and are "using the tools available to us." Their strongest claims (fabricated etymology, plagiarism, copy-and-paste dependence) rest partly on their own source-identification work and would need a published parallel-text corpus to be fully reproducible. The textual claims are checkable on public tools (Dukhrana); the motive claims ("manipulation," theology "steering the text") are their inference. --- ## Why this source is distinct The wiki already holds the [[2026-06-20-minor-prophets-is-the-passion-translation-finished|Minor Prophets — Is the Passion Translation Finished?]] episode (continuationist hosts) and the [[readwise-passion-translation-critique-cluster|Readwise — Passion Translation Critique Cluster]]. This one adds two things: (1) a **cessationist host** (Mark Ward) interviewing a continuationist critic — widening the critique beyond the continuationist-insider vantage that dominated the prior sources; and (2) a **systematic ten-passage list** rather than a few case studies. David Fish is the same critic featured in the earlier Mike Winger marathon and the Minor Prophets work. --- ## The ten passages (method, not just wording) 1. **John 14:16** — a footnote turns the Greek loanword *paraklētos* into a fabricated two-root Syriac etymology ("to end… the curse") and calls the Holy Spirit a **second savior**. The etymology was invented by Paul Younan, carried via Andrew Roth's *Aramaic-English New Testament*, and Younan himself recanted it *before* TPT published — yet major charismatic ministries built doctrine on the footnote. (Source: this video, 00:02:12) 2. **Hebrews 12:6** — "the Lord… chastises/scourges every son" is softened to "when he draws you to himself," lifted from David Bauscher's Aramaic-primacy work whose stated reason is that "God just wouldn't do that to his child." (Source: this video, 00:12:02) 3. **Romans 8:9** — a footnote flips "does not belong to him" into "cannot be himself," built on François du Toit's *Mirror Bible* by confusing a personal pronoun with a reflexive form (falsely paralleling the prodigal "came to himself" in Luke 15:17). (Source: this video, 00:19:12) 4. **Ephesians 6:21–22** — adds that Tychicus "will also prophesy over you," a clause absent from every scholarly Syriac translation; sourced to an amateur filmmaker's website. (Source: this video, 00:25:07) 5. **Colossians 3:25** — "wrongdoer"/repayment-for-wrongdoing becomes "disciple"/repayment-for-learning, weakening judgment language. 6. **Psalm 34:14** — "seek peace and pursue it" expands into a generalized life motto with a disputed source note. 7. **Galatians 6:6** — the 2017 edition adds "a sharing of wealth takes place"; a later revision silently removes it with no visible edition history. (Source: this video, 00:41:12) 8. **Colossians 2:17** — a wooden rendering of "body" nudges toward a church-centered reading the context doesn't require. 9. **John 3:30** — a footnote imports the ecclesiology that "the church becomes Christ's increase." 10. **Psalm 81:10** — expanded into spoken-decree language; Fish reports the psalm runs ~45% longer than the ESV and alleges broad dependence on the Living Bible and *The Message*. (Source: this video, 00:52:36) --- ## The general rules the discussion establishes - **A good doctrine can still be an unlawful insertion.** Agreement with a teaching (e.g., prophecy) does not license placing it in a passage where the source text does not state it. This is the clearest transferable rule in the interview. (Source: this video, 00:25:07) - **The Syriac Peshitta is a translation *from* Greek**, so it carries Greek loanwords. A borrowed Greek word cannot support an invented native-Syriac etymology — this collapses TPT's entire "Aramaic insight" apparatus for words like *paraklētos*. (Source: this video, 00:02:12) - **Revision needs provenance.** Responsible correction shows what changed, why, and which source backed the old reading; silent removal (Galatians 6:6) does not. Translation claims need an audit trail. (Source: this video, 00:41:12) - **"Inside critique."** Fish is careful to answer "are you doing this because you hate charismatics?" with no — he, Mike Winger, and John-Mark Baker are all continuationists indicting "my own tribe." Ward, a cessationist, frames the shared "lowercase-o orthodoxy" both camps hold. The objection is dishonesty, not spiritual gifts. --- ## Connections > [!contradiction] The plagiarized footnote softens the one text that would rebuke the theology. > The **Hebrews 12:6** case is the wiki's sharpest convergence: TPT's fabricated Aramaic note turns "the Lord scourges every son he receives" into "when he draws you to himself," importing the Bethel [[danny-silk|Danny Silk]] *Unpunishable* frame ("God is always in a good mood; believers can't be punished") into the passage that most directly contradicts it. This is the identical finding logged in [[2026-06-20-minor-prophets-is-the-passion-translation-finished|Minor Prophets — Is the Passion Translation Finished?]] — reached independently by a cessationist-hosted source, which strengthens it. > [!contradiction] Second-savior footnote vs. Trinitarian order. > The **John 14:16** "the Spirit is our savior" move blurs the economic Trinity (the Son pours out the Spirit; there is no second savior). Fish reports named charismatic ministries built a doctrine — "the other savior is actually you" — on a footnote whose own author recanted the etymology before publication. This source extends the [[The Passion Translation]] concept page's method critique with a full ten-passage inventory and a cessationist-host angle. It corroborates the du Toit / Mirror Bible, Andrew Roth, David Bauscher, and Paul Younan source-trails already documented in [[readwise-passion-translation-critique-cluster|Readwise — Passion Translation Critique Cluster]] and the Minor Prophets episode. Feeds the [[NAR Fallacy Taxonomy]] (word-study-as-authority; "from the Aramaic" as a thought-terminating warrant) and the wiki's worship-vetting thread on [[The Passion Translation]]. > [!question] Open thread — new entity candidates > [[Mark Ward]] (cessationist Bible-translation specialist, "Ward on Words") and **David Fish** (continuationist pastor, recurring TPT critic across three channels) are each now referenced by multiple sources. Neither has an entity page yet; both approach the threshold. Deferred to a directed pass.