Wilbur Pickering

Wilbur Norman Pickering (São Paulo, April 25, 1934) is known for claiming that the exact wording of the Original Text of the New Testament has been preserved and is available in the Greek manuscript family that he called Family 35. Wilbur N. Pickering holds a Master of Theology (ThM) from Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas, and a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Toronto, Canada. Pickering defends the inerrancy and objective authority of the Sacred Text.

Biography

Wilbur Pickering was born on 04/25/1934 in São Paulo, Brazil. He is the son of Frank Merrit Pickering and Evangeline Payne Pickering and the widower of Ida Lou Pickering. Therefore, in addition to being an American, Dr. Pickering is a native Brazilian. A son of missionaries, his parents left by ship from New York to Santos-SP, on their way to Bolivia. Halfway through, his mother interrupted the trip for Dr. Pickering's birth in São Paulo at the Bom Samaritano Hospital. At just 5 months old, Dr. Pickering was taken to Santiago – Ñuflo de Chaves, Bolivia. At the age of 7 he went to a boarding school near Cochabamba, Bolivia, where he stayed until he was 11 years old. At the age of 11 he was taken to the USA, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he stayed until he was 13. At 13 he went to Florida for high school and stayed there until he was 17, and then he returned to Saint Paul where he stayed until he was 18. From there he went to Tennessee to attend university. After completing his academic studies, he returned to Brazil permanently.

He began his missionary career in Brazil in 1961 and worked with the Apurinã ethnic group in the Amazon for several years. He lived in the Amazon rainforest with the Apurinã ethnic group for 10 years to learn the dialect and start translating the Bible into the indigenous language. He was chief advisor for translation at the International Society of Linguistics in Brazil from 1967 to 1971. He was executive secretary of AWTB -Wycliffe Association for Bible Translation-in Brazil, in the period between 1978-1984. He was secretary and board member of ALEM-Associação Lingüística Evangélica Missionária, from 1982 to 1986; he was member of the Advisory Board, from 1993 to 1997, and has been member of the Board of Directors since 1997. He was professor and academic coordinator at the Seminário Teológico do Betel Brasileiro in João Pessoa, from 1991 to 1994. Since 1979, he has lectured throughout Brazil on cross-cultural missions, biblical spiritual warfare and the divine preservation of the New Testament text. He was President and professor at the Escola Superior de Missões, from 1996 to 1998.

Wilbur N. Pickering was married to Ida Lou Ammerman, American, and has two married daughters. Today he lives in Brasília - DF.

Family 35

Of those actively involved in New Testament textual criticism, he is among those who maintain a radical view in defense of the inerrancy and objective authority of the Holy Text. This includes the position that the precise original formulation has been preserved to this day and that we can know what it is. For some time Dr. Pickering felt that among the many hundreds of Greek NT manuscripts that exist today, surely God would have preserved the original text. After years of researching and comparing these manuscripts, he concluded that God used a certain transmission line to preserve this text. This line is by far the largest and most cohesive of all manuscript groups or families. It is distinguished from all other groups by the high level of care with which it was copied (Dr. Pickering has perfect manuscript copies of the archetype of that family for 22 of the 27 books of the New Testament). It is ancient and independent, and is the only one to have demonstrable archetypal form in all 27 books. This archetypal form has been empirically and objectively identified by a wide comparison of family representatives and, according to Wilbur Pickering, is error-free.

Books

In English

• Pickering, Wilbur Norman (1977). The Identity of the New Testament Text. Thomas Nelson Inc. ISBN 978-0840757449. 
• Pickering, Wilbur Norman (2014). A Framework For Discourse Analysis II. Wnp. ISBN 978-0989827348. 
• Pickering, Wilbur Norman (2017). God Has Preserved His Text!: The Divine Preservation of the New Testament. WNP. ISBN 978-0997468694. 
• Pickering, Wilbur Norman (2017). Assorted Biblical Topics: Clarifications, Difficulties, Discrepancies, Poison. WNP. ISBN 978-0997468618. 
• Pickering, Wilbur Norman (2017). Essays: Discipleship, Missions, Spiritual Warfare. WNP. ISBN 978-0997468601. 
• Pickering, Wilbur Norman (2020). The Greek New Testament According to Family 35. WNP. ISBN 978-0997468687. 
• Pickering, Wilbur Norman; Freitas, Marcelo (2021). Family 35: Original Text of the New Testament Exposition of Evidence. WNP. ISBN 978-1736823705. 
• Pickering, Wilbur Norman (2021). THE SOVEREIGN CREATOR HAS SPOKEN - New Testament Translation with Commentary: Objective Authority for Living. WNP. ISBN 978-1736823712. 
• Pickering, Wilbur Norman (2023). THE IDENTITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT V. WNP. ISBN 978-1736823750. 

In Portuguese

• Pickering, Wilbur Norman (2019). Guerra Espiritual Bíblica: A Vida Cristã Como Deveria Ser!. R. R. Bowker. ISBN 978-0997468649. 
• Pickering, Wilbur Norman (2020). Deus Preservou o Seu Texto: A Divina Preservação do Novo Testamento. Independently Published. ISBN 979-8669975203. 
• Pickering, Wilbur Norman; Freitas, Marcelo (2020). Família 35. Texto Original do Novo Testamento. Simplíssimo. ISBN 978-6586249521. 
• Pickering, Wilbur Norman (2021). O Novo Testamento Grego Segundo a Família 35. Os Semeadores. ISBN 978-6587421353. 
• Pickering, Wilbur Norman (2022). O Soberano Criador Já Falou. Clube de Autores. ISBN 978-1736823736. 

Videos

• WORKSHOP 2022 EPISODE 01 WILBUR PICKERING
  

External links

• www.prunch.com.br Dr. Wilbur Pickering's site
• www.prunch.com.br/en Dr. Wilbur Pickering's site in English
• @WilburPickeringBR YouTube channel
• New Testamentś collection