How much has the Bible been changed?

Question

The ORIGIONAL Bible had lots of things you Christians wouldnt beleive. The Priets and authors edited it so it fits a christians point of view so they can say christians are right. BS!

Answer 1

There are manuscripts dating back as far as about 200 B.C. that can be compared with our English translations, and they have shown to be remarkably accurate. Translators use the oldest documents available, so there is little chance for error. People have been trying to disprove the accuracy of the Biblical texts for ages but nobody ever wants to check out the evidence FOR the Bible. Read up on the Dead Sea Scrolls and do a Google search for Biblical textual criticism and you'll understand how it is that the Bible can be trusted because the manuscript integrity has not been changed.

Answer 2

You have stated for a fact that the Bible has been tampered with by priests and its authors, or whomever. Then, you say that the original Bible had things in there that Christians wouldn't believe. How would you know? Where is this "original" Bible? The Bible, especially the Old Testament, is the same one Jesus would have used. Allow me to demonstrate the authority and accuracy of the Scriptures.

First, I'll give a brief history and show you about the accuracy of the Old Testament manuscripts. When the translators of the King James Bible wrote the Old Testament, the oldest available manuscript for them to use was known as the Masoretic Text. This had been written in the 9th century A.D. It was this text that the translators based their work on the Old Testament. In 1947, a shepherd boy discovered some pottery in caves in the area called Qumran, near the Dead Sea. In these jars, he discovered scrolls, which archaeologists and Bible scholars have researched ever since. Every book of the Old Testament (except Esther) was discovered. Most of these scrolls are dated to 150 B.C. After comparing these Dead Sea Scrolls to the Masoretic Text, the scholars discovered an amazing degree of unanimity between the two, although they were written a thousand years apart. Further, the Septuagint (the Greek language translation of the Hebrew Bible) was also compared. With all of these references, there is plenty of evidence that no biblical doctrine has been tampered with.

Naturally, the next part of the Bible you'll dispute is the New Testament. However, there is no larger ancient body of manuscript evidence in the history of mankind, than the papyri and parchment manuscripts of the New Testament. With over five thousand actual Greek manuscripts, and numerous other manuscripts in four other languages, there are about twenty-four thousand available manuscript texts for the New Testament.

Even if we didn't have these documents, we could almost have a complete New Testament from extra-biblical sources, such as ancient lectionaries, church fathers' records/sermons/writings, etc.

No other body of ancient work comes close. No one really disputes Julius Caesar's The Gallic Wars (10 manuscripts remain, with the earliest one dating to 1,000 years after the original autograph). No one really disputes Pliny the Younger's Natural History (7 manuscripts; 750 years elapsed). Or Thucydides' History (8 manuscripts; 1,300 years elapsed). No one disputes Herodotus' History (8 manuscripts; 1,350 years elapsed). No one really disputes Plato (7 manuscripts; 1,300 years elapsed). No one really disputes Tacitus' Annals (20 manuscripts; 1,000 years elapsed.) Homer's Iliad, the most renowned book of ancient Greece, is the second best-preserved literary work of all antiquity, with 643 copies of manuscript support discovered to date. In those copies, there are 764 disputed lines of text, as compared to 40 lines in all the New Testament manuscripts.

But we have ancient manuscripts of the New Testament that are written within a generation of Christ's resurrection, (For example, a papyrus fragment of John's Gospel dated at the turn of the century.) and people have the audacity to say it's been tampered with!

Answer 3

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who's heard about this. I don't know how much the bible has changed exactly, but I do know that the Church was the one who altered it. They have taken out whole chapters to make people believe what they wanted them to believe. One main thing for example is that a true follower of Christ should never set foot near a church. Of course the church couldn't keep that in there! I heard on the news a few months back that a new page of the bible was found (i don't remember where) stating that Jesus actually told Judas to betray him. It was on Yahoo! for a while, but then they took it off. This should have been a huge deal.However, they only talked about this once, for fear of more and more people discovering the truth.

Things like these really make you wonder just how accurate today's version of the bible really is.

P.s. I am not of any religion (not exactly an atheist either), but I'm still interested in theology, and I'm open minded, so I've done my research on this.

Answer 4

Enough for 7 books to disappear between the Catholic version and the King James. If you don't believe me, compare the table of contents in a Catholic Bible to one in a Protestant Bible. Tobit, Judith, Maccabees 1 & 2, Wisdom, Sirach, and Baruch appear in the Catholic Bible, but not in the Protestant. Mark also has multiple endings. Some newer Bibles actually note that this is the case. The oldest manuscrips end with Mark 16:8, but most Bibles continue to Mark 16:20. As for other things that have changed or been left out over the years, read Eusebius for a history of the Bible and the early church. Eusebius was a very devout Catholic bishop who lived from 260-339 A.D. His account of how the Bible was actually pieced together and the controversies that ensued are certainly eye opening for the modern Christian.

Answer 5

There is, compelling evidence that the Hebrew and Greek texts on which modern translations are based represent with remarkable fidelity the words of the original writers. The evidence consists of thousands of handwritten copies of Bible manuscripts—an estimated 6,000 of all or portions of the Hebrew Scriptures and some 5,000 of the Christian Scriptures in Greek—that have survived to our day. A careful, comparative analysis of the many existing manuscripts has enabled textual scholars to detect any copyists’ errors and determine the original reading. Commenting on the text of the Hebrew Scriptures, scholar William H. Green could thus state: “It may be safely said that no other work of antiquity has been so accurately transmitted.” Similar confidence can be placed in the text of the Christian Greek Scriptures.

Answer 6

While it is true books were left out of the Bible, that was absolutely necessary to ensure the purity of the teachings of Jesus, the authority of Scripture, and the leaving out the impurity of false teachings. Wouldnt you like to know what youre reading is true? What good with the Bible be if every religious group since Jesus was allowed to add to it? Paul wrote what he wrote for good reason........

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! -Galatians 1:8

This notion is predicated upon the fact that there is only 1 God, 1 religion, 1 baptism, 1 truth and the Bible is the reflection of that truth!

Answer 7

Anyone can write a book and claim divine inspiration. The Bible does make that claim, but it also backs it up with truths that stand the test of time. No other book has been or could be written by 40 different writers in 3 different languages in several different countries over hundreds of years and yet be completely harmonious and without error or contradiction

Answer 8

The original (that's how you spell the word) Bible has been changed? I'd like to see the evidence you have for that?
There is plenty of evidence to prove the opposite. There are manuscripts thousands of years old that prove much of the Old Testament is EXACTLY as it was in the beginning. And there are copies of the New Testament and parts of it that show exactly the same thing: That it has been recorded and translated faithfully for centuries.

Answer 9

Man changes things to please themselfs,and the bible has taken a major hit through out history.The translations have come about when man questions the meaning of a word or phrase.When this happens scolars attemt to define the word or phrase.In so doing the meaning of the word is changed to suit the scolar and the people.

Answer 10

At least 7 books were removed. It happened in the 14th century under the rule of King James. Most of it was removed because it actually taught people that the only place you can find 'God' is with in yourself. If the people knew this, they wouldn't go to church, give their money, and the church would loose control of the people. So they removed alot of material that had to do with Astrology, Karma, reincarnation and other 'occult' type of beliefs (by today's standards).
I think they need to re-edit it so it fits with all the latest scientific evidence known today, 'cause I for one am tired of these people asking for facts and reasons, then when you explain it to them, they still refuse to understand. 'But it's not in my Good Book', that's right, it's not! Think about it.... ; )