Christian scholar Rt. Rev. George Arthur Butterick, in The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, a book written by to prove the validity of the New Testament, states:
"A study of 150 Greek [manuscripts] of the Gospel of Luke has revealed more than 30,000 different readings.... It is safe to say that there is not one sentence in the New Testament in which the [manuscript] is wholly uniform."
http://www.messiahtruth.com/response.html
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2007-09-24 07:09:04 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The NT, not the OT...
2007-09-24 07:19:26 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The books of the Old Testament were written from approximately 1400 B.C. to 400 B.C. The books of the New Testament were written from approximately A.D. 40 to A.D. 90. So, anywhere between 3400 to 1900 years have passed since a book of the Bible was written. In this time, the original manuscripts have been lost. They very likely no longer exist. Also during this time, the books of the Bible have been copied again and again. Copies of copies of copies have been made. In view of all of this, can we still trust the Bible?
When God originally inspired men to write His Word, it was God-breathed and inerrant (2 Timothy 3:16-17; John 17:17). The Bible nowhere applies this to copies of the original manuscripts. As meticulous as scribes were with the replication of the Scriptures, no one is perfect. As a result, minor differences arose in the various copies of the Scriptures. Of all of the thousands of Greek and Hebrew manuscripts that are in existence, no two were identical until the printing press was invented in the 1500s A.D.
However, any unbiased document scholar will agree that the Bible has been remarkably preserved over the centuries. Copies of the Bible dating to the 14th century A.D. are nearly identical in content to copies from the 3rd century A.D. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, scholars were shocked to see how similar they were to other ancient copies of the Old Testament, even though the Dead Sea Scrolls were hundreds of years older than anything previously discovered. Even many hardened skeptics and critics of the Bible admit that the Bible has been transmitted over the centuries far more accurately than any other ancient document.
There is absolutely no evidence that the Bible has been revised, edited, or tampered with in any systematic manner. The sheer volume of Biblical manuscripts makes it simple to recognize any attempts to distort God’s Word. There is no major doctrine of the Bible that is put in doubt as a result of the minor differences that exist between manuscripts.
Again, the question, can we trust the Bible? Absolutely! God has preserved His Word despite the unintentional failings and intentional attacks of human beings. We can have utmost confidence that the Bible we have today is the same Bible that was originally written. The Bible is God’s Word, and we can trust it (2 Timothy 3:16; Matthew 5:18).
2007-09-24 19:35:31 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Now go back to your source, and find out how many individual words exist in which the majority of those manuscripts *agree*. In other words, it is not surprising that 30,000 copy errors (not to mention the known verse additions) have crept in over 1500 years of the hand copying of Luke. However, if you compare these 150 manuscripts word by word, you will be able to determine (for the most part, if not completely) which particular words are in error and which are accurately copied. In other words, this statistic is, practically speaking, meaningless concerning the validity of the text we have. All it demonstrates is that, over 1500 years of hand copying, a lot of mistakes get made. Fortunately, it is *extremely* unlikely that the same exact mistakes were made 150 times, or even 15 times. We can tell, with a *very* high degree of accuracy, where the mistakes have been made.
Now, *that's* the *pertinent* truth!
Jim, http://www.jimpettis.com/wheel/
2007-09-27 03:11:33 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why do so many Bible Scholars admit that the Bible has been altered and changed ?
Because they read the bible, where as they should learn the bible. Big difference. No where will you ever find, where God used a smart wise able bodied person to accomplish his task, as a matter of fact, God typically laughs at mans "learning"
2007-09-24 14:28:21 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The "Holy Ghost" must have been on vacation when they wrote that. Anybody who has the Holy Ghost in him/her will deny that, call Butterick an a s s, and will challenge Muslims to prove that the Bible has been altered.
2007-09-24 14:18:16 · answer #5 · answered by Sincere-Advisor 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Umm,
Because the bible has been altered and changed.
Sorry, was there some sort of trick to this question?
2007-09-24 14:16:44 · answer #6 · answered by Simon T 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Because they are honest. The facts are obvious and educated people are encouraged to tell the truth.
It is the uneducated pastors and believers who claim that it hasn't.
2007-09-24 14:14:26 · answer #7 · answered by ɹɐǝɟsuɐs Blessed Cheese Maker 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
That doesn't mean it couldn't have different readings because alterations are occurring to make it more like the original.
Plus well over 90% of these "alterations" are minor and non coincidental.
2007-09-24 14:15:06 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 4⤋
Because it has been.
2007-09-24 14:17:18 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋