On December 7th, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The event inspired President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to call it, “a date which will live in infamy!” What if he had chosen, “badness,” “perpetuity,” or simply “history.” His speech would not be regarded as one of the most important presidential addresses ever given. The phrase elicits timelessness, but the single word “infamy” gives it a sense of shame. What kind of man is “infamous?” A dastardly, scoundrel! Something underhanded has been done and America is right to avenge itself on a country FDR declared a disgrace to the world. One word makes a difference.
This principle becomes more important when we are dealing with the Bible. The word of God tells us, “All Scripture is breathed out by God”-II Timothy 3:16. We have an obligation to treat it with reverence. Our role is to read it and obey, not add to or take away (Deuteronomy 4:2).
So, what are we to make of a translation of the Bible which uses different words than those we are so familiar with in the King James Version? It can be a startling moment when we hear someone read the Bible and it differs from what we see on our page. Even worse, sometimes the words aren’t only different, they are missing! What is going on here? It is probably not what you think. Welcome to the world of textual criticism.
Before we go any further, allow me to say with certainty; our modern English translations contain the word of God as it was delivered to man. Sir Frederic Kenyon, the director of the British museum, summarized the historical accuracy of the Bible like this, “The Christian can take the whole Bible in his hand and say without fear or hesitation that he holds in it the true word of God, handed down without essential loss from generation to generation throughout the centuries.” If you so choose, you can stop reading this article and trust that what you hold in your hand is God’s message without a doubt.
If you are still reading, be prepared to encounter some ideas about your Bible that may shock you at first. However, every apparent problem or potential contradiction which may seem troubling at first, has a answer and will result in greater faith in the 66 books we call the Bible.
Keep in mind, nothing in the rest of this article changes the preceding statements.
Not one of the original copies of any book of the Bible is known to exist. We can not open a copy of Galatians and look at Paul’s handwriting. The Ten Commandments, written by the finger of God (Exodus 34:1), are not in a museum to be examined. So, how do we get these nicely bound volumes of leather, paper, and ink we are told contain the word of God? How can we know we are doing what God wants us to do, say, and believe?
The previous paragraph may be troubling and new to you at this point. More importantly, false teachers may use a Christian’s lack of familiarity with this kind of information to frighten and mislead believers away from their rock. Trust me, you will discover we build on solid rock. More importantly, you can trust the thousands of scholars who have dedicated their lives to preserving every jot and tittle of God’s word for us to read today.
How can Christians be so bold in our claims about the Bible when we don’t have any book written by an apostle’s hand? What detractors of the Bible hope you never learn is there are over 5,800 manuscripts of the New Testament in existence. There are complete New Testaments written just 200-years after the lives of the apostles, and we have portions of John’s gospel that take us within 30-years of its composition.
Those numbers may not impress at first, until you look at the competition. Homer’s Iliad, which comes in second place to the New Testament, doesn’t have a shred of manuscript evidence written within 400-years of his life. The unquestioned epic of history has 4,000 fewer manuscripts than the New Testament. It is common for there to be 600 to 900 years between ancient authors and their earliest manuscripts.
Is the Bible we have based on trustworthy evidence? One of the most highly regarded scholars on ancient writings, F.F. Bruce, says this, “if the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt…there is much more evidence for the New Testament than for other ancient writings of comparable date.” In fact, the proofs in favor of the Bible are so vast, it will take a second article to do it justice. Part Two next week.
[Editor’s Note: All quotes and references to manuscript evidence can be found in the following works: “How We Got the Bible” by Neil R. Lightfoot; “The New Testament Documents (are they reliable?)” and “The Books And The Parchments” by F.F. Bruce; and Mind Your Faith by Doy Moyer-JS]
https://www.north2ndcofc.org/the-importance-of-a-word-part-ii/
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