How much of God's word was lost in translation or deliberately changed?

Question

For example, the prophesy of the virgin birth was due to a 3rd century conflation of the Hebrew word for "virgin" and "young girl".

Because of early marriages, a young girl would not have been automatically considered a virgin.

Answer 1

Great question. I believe that the bible, as a man made product, is inherently flawed.

I think that modern interpretation of the bible is mostly on an "As it suits our purpose" basis.

I try to remember: Judge not lest ye be judged.

That's working out pretty well for me.....

Answer 2

As no document can be perfectly translated from one language to another without some lose of meaning, it is a good thing that we have so many versions available today. By comparing three or four, you can usually recover anything lost in the translations.

As far as changes....
Considering that we have over 2,300 manuscripts still in existence today of the New Testament which date back to before the time of the Nicene Council, where the NT was "supposedly" altered, that are word-for-word the same as the over 7000 manuscripts from after that time to the inventing of the printing press, it is difficult to find a basis to claim that the text has been altered. When all the manuscipts are placed side by side, they agree 99.5% of the time. Most of the 0.5% differences are the spelling of a word in one of the 7000 hand written manuscripts.

And on your "virgin" issue, please note that every text BEFORE the 3rd century uses the same Hebrew and Greek words as every text AFTER the third century. It has not changed. It is still the Hebrew word "alamh" in Isaiah and the Greek word "panthos" in the Matthew. I defy you to show me a single Hebrew or Greek text that does not have those words in the scriptures. They were not changed in the 3rd century. That is a false statement.

Answer 3

I'm no scholar on the subject, but it doesn't take a brain surgeon to see that "God's Word" has changed, both accidentally and deliberately, since the beginning of time. Centuries, changing cultures, changing values, science have all played roles in the "evolution" of "God's Word". For me (and I am more agnostic than anything) prayer and humility will show me God's Word.

Answer 4

See, now I heard the Virgin Mary showed up in the 3rd century to convert the French. They weren't budging without a madonna figure, which was so important in their religion at that time.

Peace!

Answer 5

The Bible has been unchanged since it was penned. We have over 5000 mauscript copies of the NT with only a 1% variance, most of which are spelling errors.

The Bible can be trusted because God can be trusted. He is not a liar even though mankind IS.

Answer 6

We've already done away with your silly "virgin/girl" mistranslation Brendan.
Ever hear of the Dead Sea Scrolls? They prove that what we have now is what they had then.

Answer 7

It was never Gods word to begin with

Answer 8

From what I see just about every thing in the bible has be changed or was just "lost in translation"

Makes one think what was lost or changed in the very frist bible...

Answer 9

some, for sure, i have a hard time with the names of the four Gospels, matt, mark, luke,john, can you get any more british? but i'm not sure it matters, the charactor of the bible and message remain intact

Answer 10

If we knew, that it would no longer be lost. All we can do today is speculate.