29 October 2017
Two-Minute Features | 05 November 2017 | 22 October 2017

Transcription Errors in Our Bibles? Part 4 (TMF:770)

Friday, November 03, 2017
Peace to Live By: Transcription Errors in Our Bibles? Part 4 (TMF:770) - Daniel Litton
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       Richard E. Simmons III, in his book titled ‘Reliable Truth,’ has stated the following regarding the Bible manuscripts available to us today: “The greater the number of manuscripts would indicate a greater accuracy of the writings in question…. Take Plato for instance…. all we have is 7 manuscripts. And take Aristotle for example. We only have 49 of his manuscripts…. But when you consider the New Testament, just the New Testament alone, we have 5,300 manuscripts written in the original Greek” (p. 58, 2013). Bear in mind, of these 5,300 manuscripts, almost all the differences between them are spelling errors, and about one percent has any possibility of significantly changing what the original text stated (see Strobel, 2007, pp. 85-87). So, that goes to show the extreme accuracy of the Bibles we have today. Of all secular writings, none even comes close to matching this many manuscripts. Most don’t question the validity of secular works, so why are they challenging the validly of the Bible’s accuracy?

References:
Simmons III, Richard E. (2013). Reliable Truth. Union Hill Publishing: United States of America.
Strobel, Lee. (2007). The Case for the Real Jesus. Zondervan: Grand Rapids, MI.

Transcription Errors in Our Bibles? Part 3 (TMF:769)

Thursday, November 02, 2017
Peace to Live By: Transcription Errors in Our Bibles? Part 3 (TMF:769) - Daniel Litton
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       Now it is true that we don’t have the original copies of the New Testament or even the Old Testament. But this does not mean that the manuscripts we have today are not accurate. For many old secular works as well, we do not have the original manuscripts. Richard E. Simmons III, in his book titled ‘Reliable Truth,’ has stated the following regarding the Bible manuscripts available to us today: “Scholars who study ancient history will tell you that in order to test the validity of any ancient literary work you have to consider… how many manuscripts exist…. The greater the number of manuscripts would indicate a greater accuracy of the writings in question…. Take Plato for instance…. all we have is 7 manuscripts. And take Aristotle for example. We only have 49 of his manuscripts. And Homer’s Illiad. We have 643 copes of his manuscripts. But when you consider the New Testament, just the New Testament alone, we have 5,300 manuscripts written in the original Greek” (p. 58, 2013).

Reference:
Simmons III, Richard E. (2013). Reliable Truth. Union Hill Publishing: United States of America.

Transcription Errors in Our Bibles? Part 2 (TMF:768)

Wednesday, November 01, 2017
Peace to Live By: Transcription Errors in Our Bibles? Part 2 (TMF:768) - Daniel Litton
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       Even if a person were to write out a copy of a text today, and try his or her best, odds are the person would transcribe the text very accurately. There might be a very minor mistake every so often, but likely it would be insignificant and would not affect the overall message of what was being transcribed. But even trying your best, you likely would not be as accurate as the transcribers back then. Not only was their transcribing accurate back then, but they didn’t use the last copy to make the transcription. Rather, they would use the ‘original’ copies to transcribe each new copy (see Strobel, 2007, pg. 81). This point is very important. This means that copies down the line would not continue to get more and more weak, but rather each newly produced copy would be strong. It’s no different from publishing today. A publisher doesn’t make a copy of a book and then take that copy to make the next copy, but rather the publishers uses the original copy to make new copies.

Reference:
Strobel, Lee. (2007). The Case for the Real Jesus. Zondervan: Grand Rapids, MI.

Transcription Errors in Our Bibles? Part 1 (TMF:767)

Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Peace to Live By: Transcription Errors in Our Bibles? Part 1 (TMF:767) - Daniel Litton
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       Contention Two: The books of the Bible likely have changed over thousands of years as they were transcribed and recopied over and over. This argument is also made from time to time, though, really, if one analyzes it, it is not a very strong argument. The argument goes that the original writings of the Bible must have been different than what we have today. People say that as the Scriptures were copied over and over, that they must have obtained errors or even have been changed. This is a common argument against the Old Testament (specifically, The Torah) from Muslims, for instance. You have to understand, though, at the times in the early centuries of which the Bible would have been copied and recopied, that the copiers had great precision as it was a tedious process to copy a text word from word (see Strobel, 2007, pg. 81). Even if a person were to write out a copy of a text today, and try his or her best, odds are the person would transcribe the text very accurately. There might be a very minor mistake every so often, but likely it would be insignificant and would not affect the overall message of what was being transcribed.

Reference:
Strobel, Lee. (2007). The Case for the Real Jesus. Zondervan: Grand Rapids, MI.

Is the Bible Inspired by God or Not? Part 4 (TMF:766)

Monday, October 30, 2017
Peace to Live By: Is the Bible Inspired by God or Not? Part 4 (TMF:766) - Daniel Litton
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       Jesus clearly believed that the Bible is the Word of God; certainly, every part of it. Remember, he said in Matthew 5:18: “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (ESV). He emphasized the very strokes of the pen in the Hebrew language as significant. And, also recall that he told Satan in the wildness that ““‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4, ESV). This is why we cannot pick and chose what we want to believe from the Bible, but, in order to be correct in our view, must accept all of it as from God. Every word matters.