DOES THE BIBLE

CONTAIN ERROR?

#FairStival2018

Youth & Evangelism (E-C6)

Explain Apologetics

Source: https://bit.ly/2l7sV65

Questions to be answered

I) Why are there discrepancies in

the Bible if it is the Word of God?

II) How can we reconcile them?

Approach 1: Harmonization

Gleason L. Archer’s Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties (1982) [1]

Steven DiMattei’s website

[www.contradictionsinthebible.com]

B.J.E. Van Noort’s website

[www.contradictingbiblecontradictions.com]

Defending Inerrancy’s website

[www.defendinginerrancy.com]

Approach 2: Textual

Criticism

“The discipline that attempts to determine

the original wording of any documents ...”

[2]

Longer ending of Mark

(Mark 16:9-20)

Definitionsa) Autograph

• “The first or original copies of the biblical

documents, that is, the material that the

author actually wrote himself.” [3]

b) Manuscript

• “An old document or book written by hand in

the times before printing was invented.” [4]

Definitions

c) Variant

• “A textual variant is simply any difference

from a standard text (e.g., a printed text, a

particular manuscript, etc.) that involves

spelling, word order, omission, addition,

substitution, or a total rewrite of the text.”

[5]

Q: Do we have the

autographs of the OT and

NT?

NT Manuscripts vs Classical

Texts

A) THE NEW TESTAMENT

• Greek (5,800+ copies) [as of 28th September

2015] [6]

• Latin (10,00+ copies) [7]

• Slavic (4,000+ copies) [8]

• Armenian (2,587 copies) [9]

• Coptic (975 copies) [10]

• Syriac (350+ copies) [11]

B) CLASSICAL TEXTS

Mark 1:7-9, 16-18

Source: Egyptian Exploration Society’s website

The Great Isaiah Scroll

(1QIsaa)

Source: The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls website

“There are more variations among our manuscripts

than there are words in the New Testament.” [12]

“What good is it to say that the autographs (i.e.,

the originals) were inspired? We don’t have the

originals! We have only error-ridden copies, and

the vast majority of these are centuries removed

from the originals and different from them,

evidently, in thousands of ways.“ [13]

Is Bart Ehrman right?

TOTAL NUMBER OF WORDS IN THE NT: 138,020

“There are 138,020 words in the New Testament.” [14]

EST. NUM. OF VARIANTS: 300,000-500,000

“...with the work done on Luke’s Gospel by the International Greek New Testament Project, Tommy Wasserman’s work on Jude, and Münster’swork on James and 1-2 Peter, the estimates [of textual variants] today are closer to 400,000. Some even claim half a million.” [15]

Q: Why are there

discrepancies in the Bible

if it is the Word of God?

Scribal ErrorsA) Unintentional Changes

Types Explanation

Similar beginnings

(homeoarchy)

The scribe’s eyes skipped a letter or word to

the same letter(s) or word down the page

Similar endings

(homoeoteleuton)

Single writing

(haplogaphy)

The scribe wrote once what should have

been written twice

Double writing

(dittography)

The scribe wrote twice what should have

been written once

Change of place

(metathesis)

The scribe changed the order of the letter or

words

Scribal ErrorsB) Intentional Changes

Types Explanation

Spelling and

grammatical changes

Removal of perceived

discrepancies

Harmonization (parallel

passages)

Conflation The scribe combines two or more

variants into one reading

Doctrinal changes

F. F. Bruce: “Fortunately, if the great

number of MSS [manuscripts] increases

the number of scribal errors, it increases

proportionately the means of correcting

such errors, so that the margin of doubt

left in the process of recovering the exact

original wording is not so large as might

be feared; it is in truth, remarkably

small.” [16]

Types of Variants

a) Not meaningful and not viable

• Unlikely to be in the original, and they don’t alter the meaning of the text

• Daniel Wallace: “Spelling and nonsense readings are the vast majority, accounting for at least 75% of all variants.” [17]

• e.g. John’s name [Iōannēs (Ἰωάννης) or Iōanēs(Ἰωάνης)?]

b) Viable but not meaningful

• Could be part of the original text but make no meaningful change to the text

• e.g. Luke 2:16

Types of Variantsc) Meaningful but not viable

• Do change the meaning of the text, but they are unlikely to be in the original

• e.g. Luke 6:22

d) Viable & meaningful

• Good chance of being in the original and they change the meaning of the text

• J. Ed Komoszewski: “These comprise less than 1% of all textual variants.” [18]

• e.g. 1 John 1:4, Romans 5:1, 1 John 5:7*, Mark 16:9-20*, John 7:53-John 8:11*

Article X of the Chicago

Statement on Biblical

Inerrancy“We affirm that inspiration, strictly speaking,

applies only to the autographic text of Scripture,

which in the providence of God can be ascertained

from available manuscripts with great accuracy.

We further affirm that copies and translations of

Scripture are the Word of God to the extent that

they faithfully represent the original.” [23]

Impact on Core Doctrines?D A. Carson: “What is at stake is a purity of text of such a

substantial nature that nothing we believe to be

doctrinally true, and nothing we are commanded to do, is

in any way jeopardized by the variants.” [19]

Philip W. Comfort: "Finally, it must be said that, although

there are certainly differences in many of the New

Testament manuscripts, not one fundamental doctrine of

the Christian faith rests on a disputed reading. Frederic

Kenyon, a renowned paleographer and textual critic,

affirmed this when he said, '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.'” [20]

Bart Ehrman: “Essential Christian beliefs are not

affected by textual variants in the manuscript tradition of

the New Testament.” [21]

Paul Wegner: “The verbal agreement between various

New Testament manuscripts is closer than between many

English translations of the New Testament and the

percentage of variants in the New Testament is small …

and no matter of doctrine hinges on a variant reading.”

[22]

Q: How can we reconcile

them?

Text Reconstruction (Example)

Manuscript #1: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the

earth.

Manuscript #2: In the beginning, God created the earth and the

heavens.

Manuscript #3: At the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth.

Manuscript #4: In the beginning, Jesus created the heavens and the

earth.

Manuscript #5: In the beginning, God created the sky and the earth.

ORIGINAL: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Center for Study and Preservation of the

Majority Text [http://www.cspmt.org]

H. Milton Haggard Center for New Testament

Textual Studies [http://www.nobts.edu/CNTTS/]

The Centre for Septuagint Studies and Textual

Criticism

[https://theo.kuleuven.be/en/research/centres/ce

ntr_sept]

Institutions

The Center for the Study of New Testament

Manuscripts [http://www.csntm.org]

Institute for New Testament Textual Research

[http://egora.uni-

muenster.de/intf/index_en.shtml]

Critical Editions of the OT

The Society of Biblical Literature’s The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition

Robert Hanhart and Alfred Rahlfs’s Greek Old Testament-Septuaginta: Id Est VetusTestamentum Graece Iuxta Lxx Interpretes

American Bible Society’s Biblia Hebraica

Critical Editions of the NT

Nestle Aland’s Novum Testamentum Graece(NA28)

United Bible Societies’s The Greek New Testament, 5th Edition (UBS5)

Tyndale House, Cambridge’s The Greek New Testament

German Bible Society’s Greek New Testament-FL

Wayne Grudem: “For most practical purposes, then, the current published

scholarly texts of the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament are

the same as the original manuscripts.” [24]

Additional question:

What happens if we do not have any

manuscripts?

Answer:

We have quotations of the early Church

Fathers which would allow us to

virtually reconstruct [25] / reproduce the

contents of [26] the New Testament

Metzger & Ehrman: “Besides textual evidence derived from New Testament Greek

manuscripts and from early versions, the textual critic compares numerous scriptural quotations used in commentaries, sermons, and other treatises written by early church

fathers. Indeed, so extensive are these citations that if all other sources for our

knowledge of the text of the New Testament were destroyed, they would be sufficient alone for the reconstruction of practically the entire

New Testament.” [27]

1 Clement

Chapter 2 – quotes Acts 20:35, Titus 3:1

Chapter 9 – loosely quotes Hebrews 11:5

Chapter 10 – quotes Genesis 15:5-6

Chapter 13 – compositely quotes Luke 6:36-38

and Matthew 5:7; 7:2

Chapter 21 – quotes 1 Timothy 5:21

Chapter 23 – compositely quotes James 1:8 and 2

Peter 3:3-4

1 Clement

Chapter 32 – quotes Romans 9:5 or 1:3

Chapter 34 – quotes 1 Corinthians 2:9

Chapter 35 – quotes Romans 1:32

Chapter 36 – quotes Hebrews 1:3-5, 7, 13

Chapter 46 – compositely quotes Luke 17:1-2 and

Matthew 26:24

– quotes Romans 12:5, James 4:1,

Chapter 49 – quotes 1 Corinthians 13:4

ConclusionWe can take heart knowing the following things:

a) The Bible we have today is well attested to (i.e. we

have plenty of manuscript evidence)

b) There is an entire field of study dedicated to

discovering the wordings of the original text

c) There is no conspiracy to hide the variants

d) The viable & meaningful variants have no impact on

core Christian doctrine

Explain Apologetics

Source: https://bit.ly/2l7sV65

[1] “Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties.” Archive.org. Accessed June 6, 2018. https://archive.org/details/B-001-014-054

[2] Justin Taylor, “An Interview with Daniel B Wallace on the New Testament Manuscripts.” TheGospelCoalition.org. Accessed October 6, 2017. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/an-interview-with-daniel-b-wallace-on-the-new-testament-manuscripts/

[3] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (1994), p.9

[4] “Manuscript.” Dictionary.cambridge.org. Accessed October 6, 2017. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/manuscript

[5] Daniel B Wallace, “The Number of Textual Variants: An Evangelical Miscalculation.” Danielbwallace.com. Accessed October 6, 2017. http://danielbwallace.com/2013/09/09/the-number-of-textual-variants-an -evangelical-miscalculation/

[6] Robert D Marcello, “National Library of Greece Summer Recap.” CSNTM.org. Accessed October 6, 2017. http://www.csntm.org/News/Archive/2015/9/28/NationalLibraryofGreeceSummerReca

[7] J. K. Elliott, “The Translations of the New Testament into Latin: The Old Latin and the Vulgate,” Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt, Widmen Dieses, et., al., eds. (1992), p.224

[8] Henry R. Cooper, Slavic Scriptures: The Formation of the Church Slavonic Version of the Holy Bible (2003), p. 170, fn61

[9] Bruce Metzger and Bart Ehrman, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration,

4th Edition (2005), p.117

[10] Karlheinz Schüssler, Biblia Coptica: Die KoptischenBibeltexte Band 3 (2004)

[11] Bruce Metzger and Bart Ehrman, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration,

4th Edition (2005), p.98

[12] Bart Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus (2005), p.90

[13] Bart Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus (2005), p.7

[14] Edward D. Andrews and Don Wilkins, The Text of the New Testament: The Science and Art of Textual Criticism(2017), p.335

[15] Daniel B Wallace, “The Number of Textual Variants: An Evangelical Miscalculation.” Danielbwallace.com. Accessed October 6, 2017. https://danielbwallace.com/2013/09/09/the-number-of-textual-variants-an-evangelical-miscalculation/

[16] F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are they Reliable? (1943), Chapter 2

[17] Justin Taylor, “An Interview with Daniel B Wallace on the New Testament Manuscripts” TheGospelCoalition.org. Accessed October 6, 2017. https://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/justintaylor/2012/03/21/an-interview-with-daniel-b-wallace-on-the-new-testament-manuscripts/

[18] J. Ed Komoszewski, et al, Reinventing Jesus (2006), p.63

[19] D A. Carson, The King James Version Debate (1979), p.56

[20] Philip W. Comfort, The Complete Guide to Bible Versions(1991)]

[21] Bart Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus (2005), p.252

[22] Paul Wegner, A Student's Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible (2006)

[23] “The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.”

Etsjets.org. Accessed June 7, 2018.

http://www.etsjets.org/files/documents/Chicago_Statement.pdf

[24] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (1994)

[25] Harold Greenlee, Introduction To New Testament Textual Criticism (1993), p.54

[26] Bruce Metzger and Bart Ehrman, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration,

4th Edition (2005), p.126

[27] Ibid.