The fact of the matter is there are no "original" manuscripts of the N.T. left. The way we can know that the Lord has "preserved" His word is because there are over 5,000 hand written copies and copies of copies that say the exact same thing in various languages of the world. The Bible was very meticulously copied and preserved by various groups all over the world. The Catholic church only "canonized" the N.T. to make the books the "official" N.T. They did NOT control all of the loose copies that were everywhere in the world. They only controlled a small portion of them and "modified" them before and during the reformation. These are know as the "Latin Vulgate". They are not used as part of the "received text"(5000 plus copies) that was used to give us our KJV of the bible in 1611. The KJV was simple the 1st "legal" English language version to emerge from the reformation.
What I am saying is that the Lord has "preserved" his word to nearly all languages in the world with over 5000 "witnesses" (before the printing press). You and I can trust this "cloud" of witnesses with our very lives.
For the most part, I agree. However, "translations" have been errant. For example:
Genesis 49:6 (KJV)
O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall.
Most don't realize what is really being said here because it was translated incorrectly by the translators of the King James Bible. It actually reads:
Genesis 49:6 (ESV)
6 Let my soul come not into their council;
O my glory, be not joined to their company.
For in their anger they killed men,
and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.
There are passages that are even more difficult to translate.
There is no reason to give up the Bible as a rule book or instruction manual. There are plenty of misspellings in the written laws of the land, do we throw away the law because some of its books have misspellings (errors) I do not think so.
It is precisely because God knows how infallible, imperfect and easily led astray that he gave us the Bible as channel to keep us within the truth.
I don't believe the Bible was designed to be a rule book or instruction manual. Again, nearly everyone who approaches the Bible with this idea walks away with a different list of rules. Consider all the denominations of Christianity in the world. Consider the varying theologies and Christologies. Consider the differences of standards simply from church to church.
Yes, the Bible is inspired. Yes it guides us and offers examples to us in varying contexts. However, the translations we have today are not completely without error. The Scripture's purpose was ultimately to testify of Christ's identity as Savior, not to be a rule book on how to attain eternal life:
John 5:39
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
Once you've received the revelation of Christ as Savior and been born again... your relationship with God should become deeply personal. I'm not saying that we should throw out the Bible. What I'm saying is that a living and real relationship with God is far more valuable than gleaning from the dusty history of a people who lived thousands of years ago. These stories are examples of the substance. They are not the substance.
For example, I had a riveting talk with God some time back. Now, up until then... it seemed like I couldn't hear God for myself. So I kept reading the Bible and trying to "decode" (for lack of a better term) it to find out what God was saying to me. Then, one day while deep in contemplation and prayer... God actually spoke to me. I posted it on this forum at the following link:
Yes there are over 5,000 manuscripts, but every single one of them has human errors of transmission, and that is the beauty of it, for by looking at the overall text, we can pretty much figure out where the scribes fell asleep and made mistakes.
If one text says
Zechariah son of Barachiah
and another says
Zechariah son of Jehoiada
which text are we going to believe?
There are people that have dealt with that issue. The thing to do when you find a "questionable" passage is GOOGLE it. Im serious.....there is an explanation that people I call "specialists" that deal with this issue. I called Daniel Seagraves once and Paul Dugas once when I struggled with so called "contradictions"....When I got a computer finally, I found a wealth of info that can save me alot of homework. I dont need to call these poor men anymore!
There are people that have dealt with that issue. The thing to do when you find a "questionable" passage is GOOGLE it. Im serious.....there is an explanation that people I call "specialists" that deal with this issue. I called Daniel Seagraves once and Paul Dugas once when I struggled with so called "contradictions"....When I got a computer finally, I found a wealth of info that can save me alot of homework. I dont need to call these poor men anymore!
This raises an interesting point. There are many people over the years that have spent a great deal of time digging through and studying scriptures, manuscripts, greek, etc. However, in some of our circles we are essentially taught to ignore what the smart people have said and to rely on a revelation. Some Apostolics/Pentecostals take pride in finding some truth that the educated have missed. I find that a dangerous place when people will ignore scholarly studies and eat up a catch phrase that some fly by night preacher came up with.
Don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that you need to be something in the world for God to show you something. God will reveal himself to anyone seeking. What I'm saying is that it's a shame that we're so paranoid of being mislead that we'll easily discard what people have spent years studying. That seems to be a proud stance... proud of ignorance?
Truth will stand and we have to be more open to true professionals who devote their life to studying scripture. We don't have to reinvent the wheel everytime we get up to teach or preach.
I understand completely what you are saying bro. I use to follow "blindly" but after 35 years...im all ears.....However,there are some that are "against" the Bible and publish things that have their bias as we all know too well. When I read that stuff, I find the opposing view before I come to my own conclusion. If not, I would have left my faith in the rear view mirror years ago. I want answers too, but not wrong answers.
I will not let some stranger "steal' my faith without a fight.
Why not? Would have saved us humans a lot of trouble!
Exodus 34.
Seems god did give penmanship (or chiselship?) a worthy try, but those stone tablets are so brittle, and Moses tends to get so angry after climbing down from mountains. So god gave it a second try with new improved commandments, such as not to boil baby goats in their mother's milk, (the 10th commandment) which was maybe a new hot issue in the Desert News.
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