A question to Christians (and my fave Darwin)?

Question

I'm sure you get asked this alot, but I haven't seen the answers for myself and therefore wanted to hear the views of others.

If you believe that the bible is the right words and true word of God, then why has it been altered? Why has it not stayed 100% pure? Also, how do you know which bits have been altered by man and which bits were sayings of God? Where's your certainty?

This is to the Christians and it is a genuine questions, thanks.

I just wanted to say that I didn't mean any disrespect about it being altered, just what Christians tell me.

But however, I am a little confused, as half of you are saying that it's been altered, and others are saying it hasn't....

Answer 1

Brother, don't expect to get a convincing answer.

(I already asked)

Answer 2

How do you know the Bible has been altered? You don't. You have not even looked to see. If you had you would know just how many ancient manuscripts are available (about 3,000) for use to check against a modern translation. There is only about 1/2% variation in all the texts. The majority are spelling variants. I agree that the NIV will not agree with the KJV word for word. But they are in two different languages. The meanings of the passages are the same. You are mistaken.

Answer 3

The King James Version was only altered by spelling and grammar errors. Due to the "old ways" of making copies, with no mass production, it was all done by hand. Even humans will make errors when making copies this way through 1500 pages.
Understand this, the New Testament was coined in Koinos Greek, which is officially a dead language. God ensured no "human linguistics" could change the words.
Unfortunately, man has "translated" the Greek more ways than one.

Answer 4

Altered in what way ? I believe the KJV of the Bible is the preserved Word of God for the English-speaking people. It is an accurate and dependable translation of the preserved copies of the original scriptures. Many translations or versions have not stated pure because the translators have paraphrased and interpreted the text instead of faithfully translating it.

Answer 5

Your question presupposes that Christians imagine the Bible to have been dictated directly from the mind of God through the hands of passive scribes to the page. This isn't at all how most Christians understand the concept of inspiration of Scripture.

Speaking as a mainstream, mainline Christian: I believe that the Bible didn't just "happen"; I believe that it is, for whatever God's reasons, the primary vehicle by which God has made Godsself known to humanity. I don't believe that the words of the Bible fell, so to speak, directly from the mind of God into the heads of human beings. I believe that the Bible records the story of God's unfolding revelation to humanity -- which, in the Christian story, happened in the peculiarity of God's relationship with a particular community over time. As people experienced these "faith events," they spun them into written texts (sometimes based on earlier oral traditions); they used a variety of genres with which to do so: folklore; court records; poetry and song; polemic; allegory; etc. The fact that there are slight variations in manuscripts of these texts, or that they are not always historically or scientifically factual, has not a thing to do with mainstream/mainline Christians' belief that the Bible nonetheless communicates essential truths about the nature of God and God's relationship with humanity.

To answer your question about "proof": There is no proof. That's where the concept of faith comes in. As someone once said, faith isn't about knowing, but rather about NOT knowing, but betting your last nickel on the proposition. That "living in the leap" is what faith is all about. Christianity isn't an algebraic formula to be solved, but a relationship to be lived into. I'd also point out that fundamentalist Christian groups, as well as other, non-Christian belief systems with sacred texts, have the same sorts of internal conflicts over textual meanings and their implications as mainstream Christianity does, no matter how these belief systems understand "inspiration" to work.

Answer 6

It has survived both natural and human obstacles. The record of how it was preserved despite tremendous challenges is truly unique among ancient writings.
Not only were the copyists very skilled but they also had a deep respect for the words they copied. The Hebrew word for “copyist” has reference to counting and recording. To illustrate the extreme care and accuracy of the copyists, consider the Masoretes, copyists of the Hebrew Scriptures who lived between the sixth and the tenth centuries C.E. According to scholar Thomas Hartwell Horne, they reckoned “how many times each letter of the [Hebrew] alphabet occurs in all the Hebrew Scriptures.” Think what that means! To avoid omitting even a single letter, these devoted copyists counted not just the words they copied but the letters as well. Why, according to one scholar’s count, they reportedly kept track of 815,140 individual letters in the Hebrew Scriptures! Such diligent effort ensured a high degree of accuracy.
There is, in fact, 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.

How easily the Bible could have perished were it not for the handwritten copies that replaced the originals, with their precious message! There is only one reason for its survival—Jehovah is the Preserver and Protector of his Word. As the Bible itself says, at 1 Peter 1:24, 25: “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like a blossom of grass; the grass becomes withered, and the flower falls off, but the saying of Jehovah endures forever.”

Answer 7

your questions would require a lot more space to answer than should be used here... I invite you to read my Bible page from my website...there are a couple of other pages you can go onto from there if you like concerning the Bible..

http://pages.zdnet.com/mikevanauken/outreach/id4.html

there is no inerrent text of The Bible existing today because man has mucked around with it for the last two thousands years... that is man's sin nature at work.... but for those of The Church God's word and will can still be found in what texts we do have...but only with the leading of The Holy Spirit... There is nothing in The Bible of The True Christian Faith for non-believers anyway... so they need not be concerned for it ... nothing in The Bible aplies to them any way.

Answer 8

We do get asked this question a lot. No, I do not know which parts are altered. I have yet to have anyone show me these alterations other than some books left out of the King James and newer translations.

Answer 9

The Bible hasn't been "altered", it's just been translated into many different languages so everyone could read it. The King James Version Bible might have a couple mistranslations of a couple words here & there, but the stories and truths remain unchanged.

Answer 10

Who said it's been altered?If you do research,not just take some bone-heads word for it ,you will see there are no changes.They found a text of Isaiah in the"Dead Sea Scrolls",it's exactly like we have today.Codex Sinaticus ,exact,Codex Alexandrina exact,and on and on.It hasn't been changed but there are "Creeps" that tried and are trying to add to what scripture should be.Such as the dumb crappy "Gospel of Judas,and Barnabas and Thomas.They are all Gnostic Heresy's that even Paul and John railed against.

Answer 11

The whole thing is written by man. But... God caused men to write what He wanted said. We can nit pick and debate every ancient fragment that has been found, but we can rest assured that how ever the text came to be, it came to be exactly what God wanted it to be. The formation of the bible, the councils and so forth is way to much to get into here, but there are plenty of resources on the net that discuss such things. maybe try www.monergism.com