Does anyone know a reference that claims that the Bible has been changed many times throughout time?

Question

It is clear that it has been changed because of the Old and New Testament. Although the New Testament is essentially the Torah.

Anyway i need a reference from an academic who claims it has and need it for an essay in a few days. Am I the only person to write an essay by getting answers from Yahoo?! I think not!

Didn't mean to cause any offence. I have never bothered to research it but always thought that the Old Testament was the Bible and Judaism updated it with the Torah, which Christians believe was the New Testament. Though obviously Christians don't believe that otherwise it would be the same religion.

I'm not particularly saying that it has been changed, not a debate. I am doing an essay about how women are seen as negative in the Bible. But I believe it was not originally so, Jesus and Muhammad both tried to make men and women equal, but my theory is patriarchy allowed for the Bible to be changed to keep women in their place. In the Quran there are far less quotes in the actual book to say that women are bad like the Bible does. Although again patriarchy has allowed culture of Musliom countries to ignore the religious aspect in order to keep women in their place. I wanted any academic to back this up regardless of the fact that I or anyone here believes this theory is wrong.

Answer 1

I'm a theologian, does that help? Actually, the Bible has not changed at all. And, by the way, the Torah is the first five books of the O.T. The language in old is Hebrew and corresponds perfectly with manuscripts that are thousands of years old (dead sea scrolls). The new testament has over 25,000 manuscripts without (without getting too technical) one change in contextual meaning, NOT one! The span between the earliest held manuscripts and the originals are only 25 years (and that's a liberal estimate!). The next closest historical book is Plato's republic... earliest manuscript? 500 years AFTER the original and only 200 (all partial) copies with over 2000 contextual meaning changes! And that's the CLOSEST we have out of any historical book. To say that the NT is untrustworthy by textual criticisms standards is saying that you can not trust ANY historical books at all, since the NT is by far the standard of historical data.

The error of believing there are "changes" in the Bible because of many different "versions" is a straw man. Literal translations only differ in the aspect of verb tenses which are very slight and do not change the contextual meaning. Paraphrases on the other hand are not considered to be true to the text. But there has NEVER been any changes in the originals (greek or hebrew)

The role of woman in Christianity is that they are equal with men. They have different roles. The corrupt church through history has plagued what true Christianity espouses for woman. It wasn't until Christianity came to the pagan world to free woman from being nothing than elevated sex slaves. In Rome a woman was nothing but a slave to men. Christianity elevated the role of woman as being equal to men in image.

Answer 2

I think your essay is going to get you a failing grade if you say, "the New Testament is essentially the Torah."

The first five books of the Old Testament are based on the Torah.

It is an fact that the Bible has changed many times. The very fact that there are English versions translated from the original Hebrew and Greek should tell you that it has changed. Language has drifted, mistakes made. There were many, many spiritual books written some of these books were gathered up into the Bible that Catholics and Protestants use today. Other books (or different versions) were used for the Gnostic's Bible and the Bible used by the Cathars or other sects.

Start broad...read what wikipedia has to say and then follow through with more detailed research. You might want to check out the book, "Who Wrote the Bible" that will help you see how it has changed over time also.

Answer 3

no because it hasnt.

and its the old testament that is essentially the Torah not the new seeing as the torah is the jhewish book and jews dont believe Jesus is the messiah which is what the new testament claims.

and this more proves that the BIble hasnt been changed doesnt it if it's the same? it's MEANT to be the same. Christianity came from judaism, but some jews remained jewish because they didn't believe Jesus was the Christ they had been waiting for.. whilst others.. the christians.. did.

and the many "revisions" throughout time have actually been attempts to get closer to the original whicw as written in like.. greek and hebrew etc.

although today there are loads of versions of the Bible which have been not changed i meaning... jus made easier to understand by the new younger generations.

sorry if its annoying ive not given you an answer but this is a bit of a kind of... obsession topic with me.. cudnt leave it without making comment. sorry!

Answer 4

I'd like to see that as well. The Bible has not been changed. And the New Testament is NOT the Torah.
Torah = first 5 books of the Old Testament.
The only variations I know of are the 6 books deleted by the Protestants from the original Catholic Bible. But the individual books are intact. Ask any archaeologist or professional historian.

And no. transcription errors and mistranslations do not affect the actual Scriptures. While it's true that we cannot seem to come up with an accurate TRANSLATION, the Bible itself is unchanged and correct. IF properly understood.

Answer 5

1 John 5 : 7
The Latin has added the words "father son and holy ghost, and these three are one". Though most christians seem to take the view that its the older bible that took these words out.

Mark 16:9 + is also added to the book of Mark.

Daniel chapter 13 -14 (Does not appear in our bibles)

The Old Testament was printed for the first time in 1488

"It is now admitted by the most learned in the Hebrew language that in our present English version of the Old Testament there are at least one hundred thousand errors. Of course the believers in inspiration assert that these errors are not sufficient in number to cast the least suspicious upon any passages upholding what are called the fundamentals.""

Answer 6

"Am I the only person to write an essay by getting answers from Yahoo?! I think not!"
er, no, but it depends if you actually want to get a decent mark or be laughed at by whoever is marking your essay. Why don;t you just do some web searches on the topic on yahoo or google? You'll find a lot of different sources, it strikes me that you can't be bothered to do a bit of work yourself. And since when did going to a reference library and doing some in-depth research yourself prove so difficult?

Answer 7

actually there are books of the old bible that have been taken out of the new one for the fact that the people that were righting the bible at the time didnt like those books such as the books of judas, mary and about 2 or 3 more, also known as the nostics (might be spelled wrong)

Answer 8

I can't quote them all. However, being a Pagan, I am often told I am going to hell for practicing magick (witchcraft). Often times, I am quoted with Exodus 22:18, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." That is a direct alteration. Here's the proof:

http://www.hollowhill.com/fun/halloween/witch-bible.htm

Answer 9

Go to bible.com. It has all of the different versions. That should be proof enough that even the different christians can't even get it right between themselves. For instance, there is KJV, NIV, etc...

A quick google search turned up this:
http://www.bible-researcher.com/kingjames.html

Now for the reasons that christians disbelieve other religions, and other religions believe that christians are incorrect: the one common denominator is that all religions are incorrect.

Answer 10

The Bible is always being reinterpreted whenever there is new information about the old text and languages. I suggest you begin your research here:

http://www.newadvent.org/