2006-10-20 06:00:48 · 20 answers · asked by sisterly love 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The Bible hasn't changed so many times. What people don't realize when they make such claims is that we have numerous manuscripts that have a high degree of unanimity with each other, and these in the original, not translated languages.
Allow me to show you. First, let's look at the Old Testament. The King James Bible's translators had a Hebrew manuscript that had been written in the 9th century A.D. This manuscript is called the Masoretic Text. It was this text that the King James translators relied on in their production of an English language Old Testament.
In 1947, an Arab shepherd boy was throwing rocks into a cave in the region of Qumran, near the Dead Sea in Jordan. He heard the shattering of pottery, and went to investigate. What he discovered was pottery that contained scrolls of Scripture. These scrolls contained every book of the Old Testament except Esther. These have been dated to ca. 150 B.C.
Bible translators have studied these scrolls ever since. They have been worked on by those who know ancient Hebrew. What they discovered was that these Dead Sea Scrolls compared very favorably with the Masoretic Text. Even though there is 1000 years between the two, there are no significant differences between them, and none that do exist compromise the message.
They also compared very favorably with the Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint, which was the work of 70 Hebrew scholars, who wanted to give Greek speaking Jews a Bible in their heart language. The Septuagint had been translated in the 3rd to 1st century B.C.
Both of these ancient texts were available at the time of Christ, and He said this about them: "For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not one letter or one stroke of a letter will disappear from the Law until everything has been accomplished." (Matthew 5:18)
Next, allow me to show you why the New Testament's history. There is no other body of work that has the numbers of early manuscripts available for translators to use than the New Testament. The New Testament was first written in Greek, and then translated into other languages, again, so people could have one in their heart language.
There are 24,000 manuscripts available for the New Testament, written in five languages. One is a fragment of the Gospel of John, chapter 18, dated to a generation of the original. And that was found hundreds of miles away from where John ministered. He had lived in Ephesus, and this fragment was found in Egypt.
Even without this overwhelming abundance of manuscripts, a nearly complete New Testament could be made from extra-biblical sources, such as letters from the early church, sermons, lectionaries, and the like.
We have these originals available so that people like you cannot come and say what it is you are saying in this question, and have any credibility. God has protected His Word, even though mankind has done their worst to destroy it. I guess when Jesus said what He said earlier in my response, He meant it.
2006-10-20 06:22:50 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well the last time I had coffee with god, he said he actually didn't write the bible. It at one point had been a screenplay he was working on and he lost interest. He hired a ghost writer to "flesh it out" but the guy was trying to make the big leagues and had made it into "sanctimonius garbage". He really kinda despises the idea that so many think they are "his" words. Sure he likes the creation part and the Jerico stuff is nice, crossing the red sea and the ten commandments are classic moments, but really it's an overall bore. If it wasn't for the new testament, nobody would read the thing anymore.
In reality the bible is a book by men...it always was. Most spiritual beings look to the love and grace in the pages, but look past the inherent presence of man.
If god were an english teacher, do you think he'd be an anal disciplinarian on your spelling and grammer or would he be supportive, flexable and encourage you to grow your skills and creativity?
"Faith by definition is rather non-specific" -me
2006-10-20 13:11:30 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
There are many translations out there, claiming to make the Bible easier for people to read and this is good in a sense but some might have taken the word a little to far and distorted it. Nevertheless, truth cannot be changed, so the truth will always be projected, go, read and you will see.
2006-10-20 13:08:52 · answer #3 · answered by charmaine f 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's not a matter of change. It's a matter of translations. The Bible was written in old Hebrew without vowel markers, which very few if any can read anymore, or else a form of Greek which is no longer in use. Has it had errors in translation? Sure it has. But I don't think "changed" is the word you're looking for.
2006-10-20 13:05:20 · answer #4 · answered by angk 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I don't hink most christians know enough about the history of the Bible to realize it has been changed many times over the years, with books added or deleted or wording changed to suit the editors and publishers of the different versions.
2006-10-20 13:05:30 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
The fact is that it is not God's words, they have been changing the bible every since it was written by men. Clear example of God's words that never changed even single letter is the Quran.
2006-10-20 13:25:32 · answer #6 · answered by ATK 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
It has been translated many times because translations don't always get the correct meaning of subtle words in the original.
When a group thinks that they see a flaw in the translation they could try to re-translate it to make the ideas more faithful to the original or to present the original ideas in modern words that make more sense to the ear of modern people.
2006-10-20 13:08:46 · answer #7 · answered by Rich Z 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
This a good quote I'll use for u. The Bible is the word of God not written by God.
Just think about. That's my answer.
2006-10-20 13:08:36 · answer #8 · answered by missgigglebunny 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Exactly. And none of the Christians get it. We're not talking about different translations here. The mere decision of what would make the Bible and what didn't cut it was a huge human editing of the Bible. It is pure politics. Nothing more.
2006-10-20 13:23:25 · answer #9 · answered by Phoenix, Wise Guru 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Are you mixing 'change' with 'interpret'? If God had something He wanted to say, could you stop Him?
Isn't the bible, due to writings found buried for almost 1700 years, shown to be almost the same now as it was then?
2006-10-20 13:05:07 · answer #10 · answered by TCFKAYM 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋