How many Christians or Atheists know whats wrong with this statement?

Question

I was sent an Email by a very angry Christian who did not agree with me about a comment I made about the New Testament. she attempted to refute what I was saying with what she believes is the truth. This is what she said...who here can see where she is wrong? **Remember we were having a discussion about the New Testament
"Copies of copies? 95% of it is exactly the same as dead sea scrolls...as old as dirt. Of the 5% that is different...3% istransposing words like Jesus Christ to Christ Jesus and other similar changes. 1% are misspellings of street names or names of people or slips of the pen.... and the remaining 1% that are true changes do not affect a SINGLE christian doctrin or tenet"

The dead sea scrolls are Strictly hebrew related! I knew most of you wouldn't know this. The Old testament makes absolutely no mention of Jesus at all...so its not a matter of Translation its a matter of Fact and reality. How is it possible that Atheists know this and Christians dont. pretended that the Dead Sea Scrolls confirm the New testament is a huge Mistake! And it proves my points exactly.

You are also correct about the street names part! I never wanted to fight with her but shouldn't you know more about the true history of where your books come from instead of acting like you know to fight with an Atheist?

No angelz I did not make this up! I will send you the email if you want. If anyone who wants the Actual email feel free to email me at [e-mail]

Answer 1

well, first of all her percentages are laughable.
Secondly, the Dead Sea Scrolls have no reference to Jesus whatsoever.
Btw, any Hebrew document that has a mistake such as a misspelling, slip of the pen, et al, means that the document must be destroyed. Their scribes had (and still do today) to copy everything perfectly.
There's no historical jewish evidence (or secular for that matter) that this Jesus ever existed.
So, tell us what YOU think is wrong with this statement.

Answer 2

First of all, this person does not list a source. Second of all, I'm not sure of the accuracy of the percentages. BUT, the "slip of the pen" inclusion lends itself to the INaccuracy of the New Testament.
It sounds like you are on the side of the INaccuracy. And, I'm guessing that the question was something like, "How do we know that the Bible we have today has not been changed from the original?" or "How do we know that someone did not change the Bible to fit their beliefswhile making a copy of a copy?"
Both are good questions. But both can be answered.
If you think about the game to where everyone is in a circle and someone starts with a message and then you pass it on, and on, and on until the last person has the message but it's completely different from the original, then apply that concept to the Bible, I can see how one would accuse the Bible of being inaccurate.
BUT, if you start the circle with a peice of paper and a message written on it, tell them to re-write the message on another sheet of paper and then pass the new paper,re-write and pass on, re-write and pass on, I think you will find the message to be the same. (I've tried many times, so I know the outcome.)
BEFORE the dead Sea scrolls there were very many questions on whether King James SEVERELY altered the Old Testament and the Bible as a whole. Reason being that we did not have anything close to the original texts to check to. The King James was translated from a copy of many copies. Now that we have the Dead Sea Scrolls, and even though a good bit of them are fragments, then we can have something that pre-dates anything we currently have to use as our source. But, if there are SEVERE changes, then the scrolls and even the fragments will show it. Quite the opposite was discovered. Now, through the Dead Sea Scrolls we can validate the Bible in it's entirety as accurate.
In another words, the message that started the circle is the same message we have today.

As far as the New Testament, can you prove it wrong?

GOOD BOOK - "The Case For Christ" by Lee Strobel.
I think you will find several examples of Christian AND (i believe) secular recordings of a man named Jesus. He did exist. Saying that he did not exist is pathetic.

Answer 3

Dead Sea Scrolls are the Old Testament.

Answer 4

Dead sea scrolls are OT.
The same statement can be said of the NT. There are two prime Greek copies that exist, each from different sources. The Codex Vaticanus, and the Codex Siniaticus. In the Vatican and the British museum. These two independent texts agree, and contain the same things verse for verse. They both date from about 350 AD and are complete. Thanks to the early Christian writers,(and the 60,000) references still extant, of the New Testament, even if the complete text did not exist, It could be reconstructed. As the person has told you, the only differences in the texts are minor as she describes. Street names should be place names, there are references to places everywhere in the Bible.

Answer 5

I hear what you are saying about the NT (maybe they felt the need to share something).

I can understand how the 5% works except that I might be confused about this "and the remaining 1% that are true changes do not affect a SINGLE christian doctrin or tenet."

But the changes could be things like changes that you see from the KJV or the ASV.

They still have the same meaning, though, and would not affect a single Christian doctrine.

The OT does mention Jesus.

Answer 6

1. no streets back then
2. 1% true changes lol
3. 95% is exactly the same as the dead sea scrolls

a good example is the word almah in the original hebrew which meant "young woman" but was translated into the greek parthenos which means "virgin". this counts for about 15% at least, considering the virgin birth is such a huge part of christian doctrine, so it can't be 95% the same.

edit: well i didn't know the dead sea scrolls were only OT. but still changes have been made from the original texts.

Answer 7

I personally would never attempt to defend the New Testament based on the Dead Sea Scrolls which are Old Testament Documents.

Now, if we were talking OT, she is correct that almost nothing has changed between those texts and modern OT texts, but that is another story.

Answer 8

Yeah, they're right, it's the fact that the New Testament did not come from the Dead Sea Scrolls

Do you feel better now?

Answer 9

Well anyone who knows anything about the Dead Sea Scrolls will tell you that they are Strictly the Hebrew bible which only Contains the old testament along with a few books that are not included in the Old testament. She is wrong in Saying that Jesus is even mentioned in the Old testament. it doesn't really surprise me...I mean simple fact checking always helps in a debate. hahaha Sad...very sad indeed.

Answer 10

Well, the dead sea scrolls don't really refer to Jesus. I thought they were more copies of the Old Testament books. Also...I don't remember too many "street names" in the New Testament, but I could be wrong.

Thankfully there is a way to validate the teachings of the New Testament: The Book of Mormon.