# Is The Passion Translation Finished? (Minor Prophets) > [!question] Lingering Questions > - What delisting threshold should Bible platforms (Bible Gateway, YouVersion) use for a translation with documented false-provenance claims? > - How many of TPT's "Aramaic" word studies have already propagated into published sermons/books beyond the named teachers (Sheets, Thompson, Duplantis, Zadai, Bolz), and are those retraceable? > [!tip] Article Ideas > - "Trace the footnote" — a short explainer using the paraklete/Younan-to-Roth-to-TPT case as a worked example of claim provenance tracing, generalizable beyond Bible translation to any citation-laundering problem. > [!link] Cross Reference > - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/Is the Passion Translation Heresy Bill Johnson Rediscover Bethel Series]] — a related but distinct prior Lit note on TPT; this episode adds the plagiarism/provenance case specifically > - [[3. Resources/MOCs/NAR and Charismatic Authority Critique MOC]] — TPT's endorser network (Bickle, Bill Johnson, Simmons) is core NAR-adjacent charismatic leadership > [!quote] Vocabulary > - *Aramaic primacy* — the (contested) claim that Aramaic, not Greek, is the original language of the New Testament, used to justify TPT's invented "Aramaic" word studies > - *diorthōsis* — the correctly-spelled Greek term whose misspelling ("diorthosis") was allegedly copied verbatim from du Toit's Mirror Bible into TPT, cited as the strongest plagiarism evidence ## Metadata - Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Full Document Contents/Articles/Is the Passion Translation Finished]] - Channel: Minor Prophets Podcast - Format: YouTube follow-up episode reviewing response to an earlier TPT critique video ## Author's thesis The Passion Translation is not a translation but a near-verbatim paraphrase plagiarized from at least three sources (Living Bible, The Message, du Toit's Mirror Bible, plus Aramaic sources Roth/Bauscher), marketed under a false claim of translating "from the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic." The hosts argue this deception has theological consequences: invented "Aramaic" footnotes have become the doctrinal basis for teaching across large charismatic ministries, and report Brian Simmons is now scrubbing Aramaic references from the text. ## Key arguments (≤3) 1. **The core charge is provenance fraud, not paraphrase quality** — claiming original-language translation while copying nearly verbatim from paraphrases and idiosyncratic websites. 2. **A traced fabricated footnote became doctrine**: a claim originating with Younan (who recanted in 2011), passed through Roth, landed in TPT, and downstream teachers (Dutch Sheets, Damon Thompson, Jesse Duplantis) built teaching on it without checking the source. 3. **The plagiarism serves theological ends, not just convenience** — TPT allegedly imports universalist/"unpunishable" readings from du Toit and Bauscher into passages like Hebrews 12 and Romans 8. ## Claim atoms ### TPT claims original-language translation while copying paraphrases > [!quote] ID:rw_pending > "when you are claiming to translate from the original languages and yet you are copying nearly verbatim from a paraphrase or from an idiosyncratic website" The core fraud charge: provenance, not paraphrase, is the problem. Sources named: Living Bible, The Message, Mirror Bible, Roth, Bauscher. ### A fabricated footnote, traced to its origin, became doctrine > [!quote] ID:rw_pending > "people have been building entire doctrines on fabricated footnotes from the Aramaic in the Passion Translation." Younan → Roth (p. 306) → TPT; *paraklete* is a Greek loan word; Younan recanted in 2011. Downstream: Dutch Sheets, Damon Thompson, Jesse Duplantis. ### A copied misspelled transliteration is the strongest plagiarism evidence > [!quote] ID:rw_pending > "he's literally copied a spelling error. And neither he nor his editors ... have the requisite skills to recognize that" "Diorthosis" (correct: *diorthōsis*) lifted from du Toit's Mirror Bible — shared-error reasoning is hard to explain by coincidence. ### The plagiarism serves a theological agenda, not just convenience > [!quote] ID:rw_pending > "It's not just the plagiarism. The plagiarism is unto the end of the theological perversion." Copies du Toit/Bauscher to import universalist/"unpunishable" readings (Hebrews 12, Romans 8). Hosts concede Simmons differs from du Toit on some conclusions (sexuality). ## Permanent candidates - This episode's central claim is already captured — see [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/A Trusted Intermediary Makes a False Claim Durable]] (existing note, sourced from this same doc). No new Permanent created; connect only. ## Processing checklist - [ ] Build a clean comparison table (TPT vs. Living Bible / The Message / Mirror Bible) for the four verse cases - [ ] Open question: what delisting threshold should Bible platforms use for false-provenance products? - [x] Connect into the relevant MOC — [[3. Resources/MOCs/NAR and Charismatic Authority Critique MOC]], [[3. Resources/MOCs/Faith & Theology MOC]] ## Links - [[3. Resources/MOCs/NAR and Charismatic Authority Critique MOC]] — TPT's endorser and downstream-teacher network overlaps heavily with NAR/charismatic leadership - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Faith & Theology MOC]] — a Bible-translation provenance and discernment case study