Christians, what if the Bible that you're reading now has been distorted over the years?

Question

is there a way for you to trace the original manuscripts?

KJV? did the Bible ever mentioned that the KJV is 100% correct?

Scottgirl, where's that museum?

Answer 1

Yep, it is called the "Dead Sea Scrolls".
By comparing these scrolls which are more than 2,000 years old to current texts and manuscripts, one can easily see that the only significant changes in the reference works, are grammatical.
Side bar? As a result of the JW's inclusion in this fact into their NWT, there are several newer translations that have blatantly added words, and poorly selected English words, to support their apostate doctrines.

Answer 2

There are about 2,300 manuscripts of the New Testament in the original language that date from before the first church council (that many claim altered the Bible). These are word for word identical with each other and with the Greek texts used today.

These include things like a fragmented manuscript of all 13 of Paul's letters in a single scroll that appears to date within 25 years of the original. From the fragments, 72% of the text has been reconstructed. And where it has not yet been reconstructed, it text we use would fit perfectly in the "holes".

Same for a manuscript of John that appears to date with 17 years of the original. 802 of the 893 verse are still readable.

Besides those early manuscripts, there are over 5000 addition Greek manuscripts dating from the first council to the invention of the printing press in the 1400s. These are also word for word identical 99.7% of the time. Of the 0.3% variations, most are misspellings of the same word or word turned aroune (Christ Jesus instead of Jesus Christ). Of the over 7,000 line that compose the New Testament, fewer then 40 have any question on what the original reading was. And none of those affect a major Christian doctrine.

When you take the time to examine the early manuscripts, it becomes apparent that the text we use today for making Bible translations is accurate and reliable.


As for the King James Bible, it is a decent translation, but by no means "perfect". (After all, it when through 80 revisions during just its first century of existence). Even if it was perfect, in the 400 years since it was first printed, the English language has undergone many changes. In fact, the King James Bible had to be "updated" in the 1790s to keep it readable due to changes in spelling and the alphabet. (Such as the letter "u" was written as a "v" in the original, and the "v" as a "u". There was no letter "J" yet. And "f" and "s" were interchangeable)

The King James is a beautiful and poetic version. But the Shakespeare era language is showing its age, and often making its reading difficult. That is why so many new versions have appeared in the last generation.

Answer 3

The bible has been distorted - it has been through numerous translations.
From what I know: the old testament was mostly originally in old Hebrew; the new testament was in Greek. If you're that serious about it, you can take biblical Greek/Hebrew classes and try to go back to the original meanings. (My mother has taken biblical Greek and told me some very interesting things about translations.)
Or you can explore several different modern translations and decide what you are most comfortable with.
Good luck :)

Edit: I thought of something else because of another answer here (and a class I'm taking now that connects to everything - I hate it!): language is a limitation in and of itself. Words mean different things for different people and bring up different emotions...so even the same translation can be interpreted differently by different people (part of the reason there exist so many translations now anyway). Because of this, nothing can ever be 100% accurate.

And on a sidenote, I've found my favorite translation to be NRSV - It is the translation that I find is most readable and I can identify with the most.

I'll go now, I have a feeling I've said WAY more than you asked.

Answer 4

There actually is a way to tell. They are called the dead sea scrolls, and what most Christians ignore is that the scrolls definitively show that scripture has changed quite a bit over time, and that many of the stories found in the New Testament were actually told by the Essenes a hundred years before Jesus was to be born.

The Dead Sea Scrolls definitively show that Christianity is not at all as advertised, and that the New Testament is actually an amalgamation of past myth and story.

Christians with an open mind can actually read the dead sea scrolls for themselves, all written long before the earliest manuscripts we have for the New Testament.

Answer 5

There's a way to study and find out which manuscripts use the common language that the books would have been written in and were cared for by people who were careful to preserve the integrity of thier doctrine and work. This is why I will only condone a Bible translated from the Textus Receptus Greek New Testiment and the Mesoratic Hebrew Old Testiment. In the English language that is why I only trust the King James Bible.

Answer 6

I think that is a great question. I think the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the late 1940's tells us alot. About 800 manuscripts were found that had been in earthen jars, untouched since around 200-68 B.C. When they were compared to other texts that have been used for our current translations only insignificant differences were found. A few differences in spelling, and a couple in grammar but nothing significant. I hope that helps a little.

Answer 7

Unless you can handle the manuscripts, your best bet is a KJV and an original Strong's Concordance, which allows you to take any word in the KJV back to the original language.

Yes, there are errors in all translations. The most glaring one is "Easter", which you find one time in Acts. The manuscripts say "passover". Big difference.

Answer 8

The Bible has been traced to the original manuscripts. The obvious fact of the matter is that The God of the universe created man and everything that exists. It would defy basic logic that an all powerful Creator God could not provide and preserve His living Word for all time.

" And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."(John 1:14)

Answer 9

the bible is not guaranteed to be preserved from the original writings, the KJV is not totally 100% jewish

if you will look into apologetics, (evidence that demands a verdict) by josh mcdowell you will find the bible is very accurate

more accurate than any other document from antiquity and the error factor is basically on a single letter of a word, not the word.

so, guess what! the bible is still God's word

Answer 10

I believe that all the new translations and transliterations have done damage to the original text. I trust the KJV and always will, the NKJV uses better translations of some words and I like it OK. There are bibles that have the original Greek and Hebrew and then English translation.