Is it possible that the Bible is similar to a game of Telephone?

Question

Apparently I don't know how to click today. I accidentally posted this in the Marriage and Divorce section.

You know . . . the game where the first person was given a card with a saying on it, and that person whispered in the ear of the person next to them, and so on and so on. And by the end of the circle, the last person told everyone what was whispered to them, and it wasn't even close to the original saying on the card?

If the Bible is the word of God, and several different men transcribed the word of God, and the message passed through different means before it was even transcribed, isn't it possible that the composers of the Bible got some of God's word wrong?

Note: I'm not saying the Bible is "wrong." I'm asking is it possible that the Bible lacks accuracy?

Answer 1

Not only possible, but definitely yes.

I'm reading "Misquoting Jesus" right now, and one point author Bart Ehrman (former fundie and now Ph.D/Prof @ UNC) made was that the scribes who coppied the Bible were often illiterate. How can you proof read when you're illiterate?

They could reproduce the symbols, but had no idea what the words meant or even where the syllables ended because scripto continua (continuous script) was often used. What does this sentence say:

isawabundaceonthetable

Was this a normal or super normal event?

Now think of whole books written in such ambiguous form. With spelling/grammar erros to boot.

Answer 2

If you take the time to study the origin of the New Testament, for example, you will find that there are over 2,300 copies of the New Testament books still in existence today which date from the earliest years of the Christian faith. (Compare that to about 17 copies of Homer's Illiad, or 9 copies of Julius Caesar's autobiography.)

The earliest of those date to less then 20 years after the originals were written. Such as a copy of all the letters of Paul, in fragments, from which they have (so far) reconstructed 72% of the manuscript. Yet it is word for word indentical to the text used today to translates Bibles. Or a manuscript of John that appears to come from 17 years after the original. They have been able to reconstruct 809 of the 899 verses of the gospel. If the text we use for Bible translates today was interposted into the missing spots, they would fit perfectly. The manuscript is word for word identical to what we use today for translating Bibles.

If every copy of the New Testament were to disappear, it would be possible to completely reconstruct it using quotes from other books, church leaders, letters, inscriptions, prayer books and hymnals. All product during the first century of the Christian faith.

All together, there are nearly 8000 manuscripts of the New Testament. When compared, they agree word for word with each other 99.7% of the time. Of the 0.3% difference, the majority are either different spellings of the same word, or the reversal of the word "Jesus Christ" and "Christ Jesus". There are places in some of the manuscripts (which are all hand copied) where the scribe made a mistake such as missed a word or a line, or used a word with similar sound but different spelling like "there" rather than "their" - as often one person would read, and twenty or thirty scribes would write down what he said. If you compare the 8000 manuscripts, and 7,999 of them say "there" and 1 of them says "their", it is pretty easy to guess the correct wording.

Of the over 7,000 line of the New Testament, there are less than 40 lines about which there is a question on the original reading. (Compare that to the Illiad were of the 6,700 lines nearly 1,000 lines are debated, or the writing of Shakespeare were editors have had to recreate entire speeches or scenes because the originals do not survive) Often the questions involve one or two words. None have an effect on any major church doctrine.

When you take the time to examine the historical evidence, there is valid reason to believe that the New Testament books as we have them today are accurate and reliable copies of the original writings.

Answer 3

i would tend to agree that the translation is very different from the meaning of the original document

Answer 4

excellent question......

and you are very possible correct. i have often wondered that myself. and what is up with the thousands of different translations.....