Hasn't the Bible has changed down through the ages?

Question

Did God has preserved His Word?

In the spring of 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. These manuscripts were copies of large portions of the Old Testament, a thousand years older than any other existing copies. Study of the scrolls has revealed that the Bible hasn’t changed in content down through the ages as many skeptics had surmised.
Anyone can now obtain access to computer programs that give the original Hebrew and Greek words, and the only "changes" have been made for clarity. For example, the old English translation of 2 Corinthians 12:8 is "For this thing I besought the Lord thrice ...," while a contemporary translation is "Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times..."


What do you think?

Answer 1

The english translations are not a good basis for understanding if the text has changed over time. One has to go back to the greek and Hebrew texts. This is a form of Textual Criticism that has existed since the enlightenment. One can see clearly that the recieved text (modern day text) is very similar to the texts that were written two thousand years ago. If one looks at a Biblia Hebraica Stutengartensia (the Hebrew Bible) or at their Nestle Allen Greek New Testament that their are very few changes that have occured. 99% of them are copying errors, for example a scribe was writing and mixed up two letters (i.e. I am Maen instead of I am Mean) or an error where they accidently skipped a line. The thing that shows these are not purposeful errors is that the errors only occur in a limited number of the traslations. Not all of the texts contain the same slight errors.

What the questions really comes down to is the difference between Materia and Meaning, what is meant and how it is transmitted. The meaning of the texts have remained intact, dispite the fact that the slight copiest errors occured. Secondly, the translation doesn't make much difference as long as it does convey the same meaning.

The examination of the correctness of the scirptures began in the 3rd century AD with Origen, and his Hexapla, which compared six different versions of the OT to one another, and compared differences etc. The fact of the matter is that the differences were very slight, and were only the afore mentioned mistakes. The meaning does not change.

Once again, English Translations are not a true measuring rod, as each of them (through the very process of translation) interprets the text their own way. The only true way to get at it is in a non-translated text.

Answer 2

Another significant factor is the sheer number of copies. Many ancient texts exist as fragments of a copy or two. Yet, we take these as standard. However, there are thousands of copies of Scripture, which can be compared for accuracy and changes. The Bible is unique in this way. What confuses me is how we take for granted many ancient works as fine (like Homer, the ancient Greek philosophers, etc.) that often have only a few, comparitively recent fragments, yet discredit the Bible, despite the overwhelming amount of material, some of it very close to the timing of the original that is available to study. The Bible is simply the best preserved ancient text in existence.

Answer 3

Yes, as the Dead Sea Scrolls prove, the Original Scrolls were faithfully copied and reproduced through the ages.

The translations change ... because it is translations into "living" languages which are constantly changing. The translations change in order to attempt to continue to convey the meanings of the original in the languages of today.

Just one example of change in the "English" language:

consider what "gay" meant in 1890 and what it meant in 1990!!!

Answer 4

One of the 10 suggestions says - thou shalt not commit adultery - Adultery as a word is 400 years old. For 300 of those years it meant do not molest children - it had nothing to do with having sex outside of marriage. About 100 years ago the religious crowd changed the meaning of the word and guess who have been molesting children with wild abandon since then. Yes the bible changes. Mary was considered a "young girl" until 1851 when they changed the meaning to a "young virgin".

Answer 5

I agree, the original texts are still the same. We just have many different translations to choose from (and some of those are not to good).

Answer 6

Yes Bible has been altered by people as per their own desire and will and is no more the message/book of God.
I recommend going through following web-site

http://www.ahya.org/amm/modules.php?name=Lectures&d_op=viewdownload&cid=22

Answer 7

Yes the Bible has changed in my lifetime. Once you could only get black ones. Now they have red, and green, and white, and gold, and brown, and

Answer 8

Ya i think its always changing if you look at different bibles they have differences when they should all be the same

Answer 9

oh well... its all lies anyways