Apocrypha and bible revisions?

Question

the original Hebrew bible is mostly lost, the bible we have today differes significantly from the original Greek of, approx' 300ce. The bible has benn revised, re-written, re-translated, re-structured several times throughout the last 1700 yrs.
the bible, we know, has dozens of chapters missing that were in the original; So how do we know the bible is the word of God? and; what gave man the right to edit it?

please don't say " God edited it throught he hands of man" for why would God have to edit his word?

this is more about the NT

The Cricket...; Your answer is informative and good, but you are wanting on the subject of translation. The translation from Greek to English caused problems, this is apparent inthe translation of the Greek word 'optanomai', this word is translated to English as 'see'. The word 'Optanomai' according to the Expository Dictionary of the NT - By W.E.Vine defines the word as; Too "see" used (a) objectively, with reverance to a person or a thing seen; OR (b) Subjectively , with reference to an inward impression or spiritual experience or mental occupation.
This dual meaning can change the text comletely when not used in the right context. The bible uses both meanings at different times, but if you look these verses and their interpretation would change; Matthew 24:30-31, Revelation 1:17 , Luke 3:6, John 1:51. how do you translate; Literally or Symbolic? for each verse would have a different meaning.depending whether it is Objectively or Subjectively written

Johnkamfailee; hiya! you still have not removed your statement about my Tongue from your profile, c'mon buddy take it off lol

Answer 1

How do we know the original was the word of god, let alone the copies?

You want facts then the Aleppo Codex - produced and edited by the influential masorete Aaron ben Asher in the 10th Century CE. It (or was at one time) the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible, however approximately one-third of it, including nearly all of the Torah, has been missing since 1947.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are the Jewish portion of ancient manuscripts that were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves near Khirbet Qumran, on the northwestern shores of the Dead Sea. They are approximately two thousand years old, dating from the third century BCE to the first century CE. Most of the scrolls were written in Hebrew, with a smaller number in Aramaic or Greek. In general, they were written on parchment, with the exception of a few written on papyrus. The vast majority of the scrolls survived as fragments - only a handful were found intact. Nevertheless, scholars have managed to reconstruct from these fragments approximately eight hundred and fifty different manuscripts of various lengths.

The manuscripts fall into three major categories: biblical, apocryphal, and sectarian. The biblical manuscripts comprise some two hundred copies of biblical books, representing the earliest evidence for the biblical text in the world. Among the apocryphal manuscripts (works that were not included in the biblical canon) are works that had previously been known only in translation, or that had not been known at all.

Jordanian Archaeological Museum has exhibits of Dead Sea Scrolls as well, including some cooper scrolls.

The Nash Papyrus from Egypt, containing a copy of the Ten Commandments, is the only other Hebrew document of comparable antiquity.

The worlds oldest Bible is the The 4th-century Codex Sinaiticus, It is so old and fragile that only four scholars have been given full access to it in the past 20 years.

Greek Orthodox monks of St Catherine’s have long believed that the manuscript was wrongfully taken from them in the 19th century by a German scholar, Constantine Tischendorf, who was apparently acting as an agent for Tsar Aleksandr II of Russia.

He took 43 leaves to Germany, which are in the University of Leipzig, and another 347, which he gave to the Tsar. They remained in the Imperial Library until 1933, when the Soviet Government sold them to raise money. The manuscript was bought by the British Museum Library, now the British Library, for £100,000, then a record sum for a manuscript or book. A public appeal raised the money to purchase it.

Written in Greek on vellum around the time of Constantine the Great. It contained the entire Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha, but half of the Old Testament has been lost. The surviving manuscript concludes with two early Christian texts, an epistle ascribed to the Apostle Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas

No complete christian text survives from before 300 CE - no complete jewish text from before 300 BCE, indeed the torah was lost for a while and only survived in Greek translations of the old testament.

The oldest Koran - the Othman, was written in 651, only 19 years after Mohhamads death, and is kept in the Mui-Mubarak Madrassa in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. about 1/3 of the original survives to this day, 250 pages written in Hadjazi Arabic script on deerskin.

Othman was murdered by a rioting mob whilst he was reading this book, and the blood stain can still be seen on the pages, an event that caused the Shi-a - Sunni divide.

Answer 2

God surely must have power over his own word, inspiring it and protecting it. If anything didn't make it into what we have today, the essential fact is that it was not inspired.

As for the differences between what we have today and what was originally written down, there are only minor gramatical differences. This is shown by comparing the dead sea scrolls with our modern translations.

The Bible has been the victim of much abuse through the centuries, with attempts to hide it in languages which the common people didn't know, or to ban the people from reading it or to destroy it all together. This is again evidence that it is God's word since he would protect it from whatever might potentially befall it in this world so that we can still benefit from it today.

In comparing the different translations we have today, we see that there is really no difference at all, except in the use of different words and grammar to mean the same thing. This is actually quite helpful, since all the different words provide a deeper understanding of what the original text meant. There are perhaps one or two translations which have at most one or two major differences, but these can be explained since not all early translations contain certain passages, but some do, so they are kept in but with explanatory notes saying so. There is one particular man-made addition somewhere in the Greek text that has been put in to try to prove the trinity. However, the rest of the Bible disproves it and this addition sticks out like a sore thumb.

The overall evidence suggests that God has protected his own word, just as any modern auther would. If John Grisham had read a book he had written and discovered even one line in it that he knew he hadn't written, would he not do everything in his power to get it changed? God would do no less with his own word.

You might enjoy visiting this website, it's well worth checking out.

Answer 3

I will agree that the original Bible has been "lost." We no longer have the original manuscript. But the truth is, we don't have ANY of the originals of manuscripts of that time (Old Testament OR New Testament), yet THOSE manuscripts aren't in question.

So here's my take:
Yes, the Bible has been re-translated, but it has NEVER been "changed." Fact is, if it had been, people who speak/read Latin, Greek, or Hebrew could tell you.

Also, the New Testament was written more than two hundred years prior to the oldest complete copy of the manuscript that's in possession right now. There are fragments that date back to the early second century, as well as a few that might date back to the first century that are in question. Scholars are trying to determine whether or not this is true.

The problem with translating one language to another is that something is ALWAYS lost in translation. Try translating a German poem into English if you don't believe me.

However, I am currently learning Hebrew, and I've got books coming to help me learn Latin as well. From the little I've learned, the Bible was translated VERY accurately.

If you're talking about the Apocrypha...it's available. Read it. I've read many of the books that are included in the Apocryphal writings, and I TOTALLY understand why they weren't included in the Bible. More importantly, I read the history behind them, and how no one knew who wrote them. They didn't even have an idea of who wrote them. Earliest traditions at least named the authors of the books that were accepted as canonical in the New Testament.

Who gave the various Councils the "authority" to "edit" the Bible? No one, technically. But it had to be done. There were too many heretical teachings going around, and the Church needed one standard. I don't think ANYONE was prepared for how quickly people would convert to Christianity in the first two hundred years of its existence. Remember, it started with eleven men (apart from Jesus Himself), and exploded to several thousand within the first few decades.

As a sidenote, some Jewish apologetics insist that the Old Testament in the Christian Bible differs greatly from the Tanakh...so I bought the Tanakh. I haven't seen a difference yet.

I didn't mean for this answer to kind of jump from one point to another, and I also didn't mean for it to be so long...so I'm sorry. But I think you deserve a thorough answer, so I did my best to give you one.

I would like to add one final point though: Do you think the scribes were inaccurate in copying one text to another? If so, I'd recommend reading up on the process of how they copied. It was so strict, that I can't see there being any variation other than a couple of letters.

Answer 4

The Bible used by around 80% of Christians is that decided by the Council of Nicaea in the 4th century. The Old Testament is those books which had been translated into Greek and known as the Septuagint. The Protestant reformers, in particular Luther, decided that some of the Old Testament books were bogus because they didn't form part of the Hebrew version finalised by Jewish scholars in the second century. These are omitted from Protestant bibles. Earlier Hebrew versions of these books have since been identified. The Anglican Communion, claiming to be both catholic and reformed, sits on the fence. Their Bible contains all the books but puts the bits Luther didn't like in an appendix called the Apocrypha. God speaks to man in many ways. As Christians, we believe that God's message is revealed through the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. These are contained in the Gospels and amplified in the Epistles and the traditions of the Church. The Old Testament contains much that is of moral and theological value. Followers of Calvin reject the teaching authority of the Church and believe that the whole Bible is literally true and the means by which God is revealed. They account for about 5% of world Christianity, but unfortunately they make most of the noise.

Answer 5

The NT are written by christ followers or diciples definately. The OT are written by Moss or his followers in the name of god.
There are so many history written in China by someone unknown but in the name of a famous people to written down. These are before of karmas who name is not famous so none will trust and believe it but in the name of a famous people then so many people will follow. The written by who is not the issue, the meaning in the statement is more important. What is the rules or what is the sense we are? The religious was set up the rules to leading their people but now none care of the content but only see the chemical reaction of the subject. Such as ; we give up to find out how to make a diamond but concentre on how the diamond beautiful is. This time the beatiful level the diamond can fit you, certain years later it cannot fit you any more. What is the beautiful standpoint?
Forget your bible text which cannot leading you to happiness find other religious sutra espeacially in India. Open your heart and open your eyes then you know what is a religious.

Answer 6

As salaamu 'alaikym, my friend.

Insha'Allah, both the Torah and other Hebrew scriptures and the Christian verision of the same accompanied by the New Testament have, as you have correctly pointed out been altered, edited and , some would say, corrupted throughout the years.

Insha'Allah, it is now very difficult, if not impossible to see what remains of the revealed Word of God as opposed to what men have added, etc.

Insha'Allah, Muslims are taught that the scriptures of the Jews and the Christians are revelaed works while understadning that they have been corrupted.

Insha'Allah, we have been blessed by how rigorously the Holy Qur'an has been maintained from the time of its revelation to the Prophet Muhammad (sallaahu 'alaihi wasallaam) to the present day. Even non-Muslims scholars all agree on this point. Alhumdulillah!

Insha'Allah, you are also correct that these works were not "edited by God through the hands of man". Such a statement and premiss is ridiculous, to say the least as such would imply the Word of God is not eternal and changes over the years. Truth is truth and to meet this crieria, must be true at all times, in all places, for all situation and for all persons, whether said persons accept it or not. As God, whether we address Him as YHWH, Trinity Father or Allah, Subhanna wa Ta'ala, is Truth, His word is eternal and does not chanage. Such leads one to the choice of accepting the revelation that has been correctly maintained or following those that they know have been repeatedly altered to suit man and not so as to serve God.

Insha'Allah, I pray that all persons will make wise choices.

Ma'a salaam.

Answer 7

The original Latin Vulgate edition of the Holy Bible was completed in the 4th century by St. Jerome, using a great collection of original and authentic manuscripts and papyri ... many of which no longer exist today.

There remains in the world, enough various ancient texts to allow almost a complete extra-biblical reconstruction of the bible, should that ever become necessary.

And with the discovery of the dead sea scrolls, it was found that the authentic scriptures had actually changed very little over the ages ... and any amateur biblical scholar ... worth his salt ... can see it in a minute.

In short ... you have no idea what you're writing about.

Answer 8

To the best of my knowledge, we still have many of those missing parts, they're just not included in the Bible. Many Bibles out there will mark portions as "questionable," such as the last 12 verses of Mark 16 or the first few verses in John 8 (I just had to answer a question about this earlier tonight on Acts 8:37, actually).

If we use the earliest transcripts that we have available (as we do now, versus how we did it a few hundred years ago) we can get a reasonably accurate reconstruction--and in turn transliteration--of the original text.

Answer 9

Surely if the Bible is from God, we would have it in its whole form.

If you have a copy of the Bible, you are far from alone. In whole or in part, the Bible has been published in more than 2,300 languages and thus is available to more than 90 percent of the world’s population. On the average, more than a million Bibles are distributed each week! Billions of copies of either the whole Bible or part of it have been produced. Surely, there is no other book like the Bible.

Furthermore, the Bible “is inspired of God.” (2 Timothy 3:16) In what way? The Bible itself answers: “Men spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21) To illustrate: A businessman might have a secretary write a letter. That letter contains the businessman’s thoughts and instructions. Hence, it is really his letter, not the secretary’s. In a similar way, the Bible contains God’s message, not that of the men who wrote it down. Thus, the entire Bible truthfully is “the word of God.”—1 Thessalonians 2:13.

Answer 10

Well you would have to edit it because the way we communicate or talk now is not the same way we communicated back then. So to better understand the Bible in modern times it would have to be edited. But the Word of God is still present and live throughout the Scriptures. Makes sense doesn't it?