Scribal Errors: Can the Bible be Trusted?

A Textual Critical Perspective

Presented by Clinton Baldwin

7/23/05

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The History of the New Testament Text An Overview

The Revelations of God

• Nature: Psa 19:1

• Human beings/relationships: Isa 49:15

• Personal Experience: Acts 17:27,28

• The written word: 2Tim 3:16

• The living word: Jesus Christ: John 1:18

Jesus: the Greatest Revelation of God

• Jesus is the greatest revelation of God to humanity: Heb 1:1-3

• He is the only perfect revelation of God

• All other revelations point to Jesus and are meant to glorify Him: John 5:39-40

• We should be careful not to attribute to the other revelations that which was meant to be attributed to Jesus.

The History of the NT Text

1. The Christ event 4BC - AD30

2. Oral tradition of the Christ event: AD30 – 95+

3. The written accounts:

The Pauline Letters: 1Thess - AD 49

The Gospels : 60’s

The Johannine Writings 93/95

Some Sources of Gospel Materials (Intro)

The gospel writers pulled from different sources.

Q, Matthew and Luke

M: Matthew

L : Luke

Mark : Mathew and Luke

Note: A similar phenomenon with Ellen White

The History of the New Testament Text : An Overview

• The Bible was written in different ancient languages

• The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic

• The New Testament: in Greek

The History of the NT Text : An Overview

• No autograph of the New Testament is extant

• What we have are copies of copies of copies

• They were first copied on papyrus, then on vellum or parchment

• First on scrolls, then in codices, i.e., book form

• The form of writing were first all capital letters – uncials, later cursive - minuscules (9th Cen)

The History of the New Testament Text (cont’d)

• Currently, there are approximately 5,664 mss of the Greek NT

• No two mss are exactly alike

• Why? They were copied by hand under various circumstances

• Thus thousand of errors:Approximatley 300,000

Origen (186-255 AD)

• “…It is a recognized fact that there are much diversity in our copies, whether by the carelessness of certain scribes, or by some culpable rashness in the correction of the text, or by some people making arbitrary additions or omissions in their corrections.”

Selections from the Commentaries and Homilies of Origen, trans.by R. B. Tollinton

(London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1929) 109-110.

Types of Errors

• 1. Eye sight:

• Homoeoteleuton: the scribe skips from one letter or word to

the same letter or word farther down the page. • 1 ……. . . . . . . .. autos ek tou

• 2 kosmos ……….• 3 … … … . . . . . . . . . autos ek tou• 4 ponhrou ……………. • John 17:15 : I do not pray that you should [take them from

the world, but that you should] keep them from the evil one •

Types of Errors (cont’d)

• Metathesis:– Changing the order of letters or words. Example:

– Mark 14:65, eλαβον (received), for εβαλον (struck).

– “kai. oi` u`phre,tai r`api,smasin auvto.n e;labonÅ and the guards receive him with blows.”

Types of Errors (cont’d)

• Of Hearing:

Iticism: e.g. ει for οι or o for w• Romans 5:1 ecwmen for ecomen

Therefore having been justified by faith let us have ecwmen peace with God…. instead of we have peace ecomen with God

• 1 Cor 16:54 vneikos (conflict) for nikos (victory)

death is swallowed up in “conflict,” instead of death is swallowed up in “victory”

Types of Errors (cont’d)

• Wrong division of words:

• in 1Timothy 3:16, some manuscripts read ομολογουμεν ως μεγα “we acknowledge how great,”

for ομολογουμενως μεγα “confessedly great.”

• Error of Judgment: sometimes a copyist made a judgment call as to whether or not a glossary in the margin of his text ought to be included in the main body of the text

• The troubling of the water: John 5:3-4

Troubling of the Water John 5:3,4

3b … waiting for the moving of the water,

• 4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water: whoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatever disease he had.

Types of Errors (cont’d)

• Haplography :

– writing of a letter or word once when it should have been written twice. Example: 1Thessalonians 2:7; εγενηθημεν hπιοι (“we became gentle,”) for εγενηθημεν νhπιοι, “we became infants.”

• Dittography :• The writing of a letter or word twice instead of once.

Example: Mark 12:27; o θεος θεος for θεος

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• Errors due to Diverse Theological opinions– Marcion– Anti-Judaic– As a result of these errors there emerged

1000’s of divergent and convergent mss

Codex Bezae (D-05)= 4th cen

• Mark 2:26• …. which is not lawful to eat except only

for the priests • The same day seeing someone working

on the Sabbath, he said to him, ‘man if indeed you know what you are doing then you are blessed. But if you do not know then you are accursed and a transgressor of the law.’

1John 5:7,8

• The father, the word and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth.

• Erasmus (1516 AD) – 1. Monk, (Froy or Roy) copied from Latin vulgate

about 1520 AD

• Only eight late Greek mss. • 61, (16th) 88 (12th), 110 (16th), 221 (10th),• 429 (16th) 636 (16th), 918 (16th) 2318 (18th)

Correct rendering

• As Found in , A, B, y, 33, 81, 323,et al.

• For there are three that bear record, the spirit and the water and the blood and these three agree in one.

Codex Bezae (D) & Brixianus (f)

• Mark 10:11, 12

• Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if a woman goes out from her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.

Better rendering

• As found in: , B

• Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another she commits adultery.

Woman Caught in Adultery: John 7:53-8:11

• First appeared in the 9th Cen. • Appeared in different places:

– after John 7:52 ( D & Byzantine text)– after John 7:36 (225 )– after John 21:25 (f1)– after Luke 21:38 (f13)– after Luke 24: 53 (1353)– Many different renderings– omitted by earliest mss e.g., P66, P75, , B,

Miscellaneous

• There are six different endings to Mark’s gospel

• The benediction of the Lord’s prayer

Text-types

• Eventually manuscripts in certain localities began to have similar patterns of errors

• Text-types = The largest identifiable group of manuscripts

Text- Types

•

Western Alexandrian

ByzantineCaesarean ?

Text-Types• Western : North Africa, Italy, and S.

France

• Alexandrian: Alexandria, Egypt

• Byzantine : Byzantine Empire (80% of all mss)

Caesarean ? : Probably originate in Caesarea or Egypt

Dates/Characteristics

• Western : 2nd Cen. • Alexandrian : late 3rd early 4th Cen. • Byzantine : 4th – 9th Cen.• Caesarean ?•• Characteristic of Text-types• Western : Paraphrase, harmonizations, assimilation• Alexandrian: Shorter more difficult, non-harmonious

readings • Byzantine: Smoother, easier, more harmonious,

more straight-forward readings

Determining the “Original”or the Earliest Original

• The shorter reading • The harder reading • The older reading• The more widespread reading• The reading from the better mss• The reading more in keeping with the author’s

style• The reading that explains the rise of the other

reading, and which cannot itself be explained by the other readings

•

Choosing a Translation

• Those done by a committee, e.g., RSV, NIV, NARSB, etc.,

• ‘Avoid’ individual translations, e.g., The Living Bible, The Clear Word.

• The KJV not the best for in-depth bible study

KJV-Brief Background

• 1) Erasmus: (1469-1536 AD) • i) The first printed text to be published, that

of Erasmus in 1516 AD• ii) Based on 4 or 5 – 12th century mss, has

readings found in no Greek ms • iii) His only ms of Revelation lacked the last six

verses therefore he translated it from the Vulgate • iv) 1John 5: 7, 8 - the Trinitarian text• v) Acts 9:6 “And he Trembling and astonished said,

Lord what wilt thou have me to do.” found in no Greek manuscripts (Assimilation to Act

22:10).

Background (cont’d)

• 2) Robert Stephanus

• i) 1550 based on Erasmus’ edition

ii) Became the standard text of England

iii) First to divide the Bible into chapters and verses (i.e., 3rd

edition,1551)

iv) Basis for the KJV of 1611

Background (cont’d)

3) Theodore Beza i) 1565 – 1604 published nine editions, based on

Erasmus ii) 1588-89, and 1598- editions also used as by

KJV translators4) Abraham Elzevir & Bonaventure (1633) i) “You therefore have the text which is now

received by all in which we give nothing altered or corrupted ”

• ii) The Received text or Textus Receptus -- TR• iii) TR reigned for 200 years until 1881

Background (cont’d)

• The KJV is based on these editions which are all based on the Byzantine text.

• The Byzantine text is the poorest of all the text-types.

Background (cont’d)

• Is a comparatively late text, 350 AD

• Conflate readings: combinations of readings of

the earlier text types

• Inability of their readings to explain the other readings

• Tend to smooth out difficult passages

Discoveries of Ancient Manuscripts

Oxyrhynchus Papyri : Egypt a) Discovered by Grenfell & Hunt in 1897b) Dated 200- 400 ADc) 36 New Testament Papyri

d) The Shepherd of Hermase) The Didache f) The Gospel of Thomas h) The Acts of Paul i)The Acts of Peter j) The Acts of John

k) The Gospel of Mary

• Oxyrhynchus Papyri : 1897

• Chester Beatty Papyri, 1931 :P45, P46, P47

The Chester Beatty Papyri

• Discovered in 1931

• Eight OT mss

• Three NT mss i.e., P45, P46, P47

• Enoch

• These mss were purchased by Chester Beatty from a Cairo dealer in 1931

The Dead Sea Scrolls

• Founded in 1947 at Qumran in the Dead Sea region

• Portions of 200 scrolls in 11 caves

• These finds were mainly of OT books

• Date from 200 BC

The Bodmer Papyri

• Found in 1952 at Jabal Abu Mana –Egypt • Purchased by Martin Bodmer, in 1950 &

60’s from a Cairo dealer

• Manuscripts include P66, P72, P75

• Date: 200 AD

Implications

• A determination of what is written must precede interpretation of what is written

• The original languages must be considered

• Consult various Modern Translations

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Implications• Jesus said: “And I will ask the father and He will give you

another counselor to be with you forever- the Spirit of truth … and when comes he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.”

John 14:15;16:8

• The Christian’s guide is more than a book, it is a person.

• God has not only given us a road map- the Bible, He has also given us a personal guide- Jesus/the Holy Spirit.

• The Bible points to Jesus, John 5:39-40

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The End

Gregory Number

• In 1908 Casper Rene Gregory developed a system of recording the Greek mss.

• Papyri : P ---- P1; P2; P3 – P98 etc

• Uncials with an initial 0 ----- a = 01, A = 02; B= 03 etc.• Minuscules : 1, 2, 3 etc.

• Lectionaries : l --- l 1 l2; l3 etc.

Rated Value of Readings : UBS4

• {A} == The Reading is certain

• {B} == Almost Certain

• {C} == Not as certain as B, enclosed [ ]

• {D} == Great difficulty at arriving at a decision