http://apologeticspress.org/AllegedDiscrepancies.aspx?article=2093&b=2%20Samuel
Inspired Writers and Competent Copyists
by
Eric Lyons, M.Min.
If you were to open your Bible and read Mark 14:16, you would learn
that Jesus’ disciples went into Jerusalem to prepare the final Passover
meal before His crucifixion. The wording of the verse is as follows: “So
His disciples went out,
and came into the city, and
found it just as He had said to them; and they prepared the Passover”
(emp. added). The highlighted conjunction “and” (
kai in Greek)
is found in the Greek manuscripts of Mark. It also appears in most
English translations of the Bible. However, in one particular copy of
the Bible that I possess, the stem of the “d” in “and” is missing,
causing the word to be misspelled: “So His disciples went out,
ano came into the city...” (emp. added).
Most people who read Jesus’ parable of the Wedding Feast (Matthew
22:1-14) learn of the king asking one particular attendee a very
specific question: “Friend,
how did you come in here
without a wedding garment?” (vs. 12, emp. added). A colleague of mine
has a reliable translation of the Bible that words Jesus’ question as
follows: “Friend,
now did you come in here without a wedding garment?” Obviously, the “now” should be “how” (Greek
pos).
Similar to how the “d” in “and” was skewed so as to look more like an
“o”, the “h” in “how” lost its stem, causing it to look more like an
“n.” Question: Whose fault is it that “and” has been incorrectly printed
as “ano,” and “how” has been copied errantly as “now”?
Surely no one would blame such errors in a modern English copy of the
Bible on God or His inspired penmen (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21).
Almost everyone recognizes that publishing companies are responsible for
such minute mistakes. Although the accurate reproduction of books
nearly has been perfected during the past few centuries (thanks in large
part to the invention of the printing press), still, for various
reasons, slight errors can creep onto the printed page. God did not
intervene and miraculously keep the aforementioned errors from appearing
in copies of His Word. Instead, He gave humankind the ability and
resources to understand that such errors can be resolved rationally
without assuming the inspired writers erred. We know that “ano” should
be “and” in Mark 14:16 and “now” should be “how” in Matthew 22:12 partly
because millions of other copies of the Bible (in both English and
Greek) have the correct words “and” (
kai) and “how” (
pos), and also because we easily can see how a printing press might occasionally leave off the stems of certain letters.
COMMON SENSE AND COPYISTS’ ERRORS
One of the most popular books of the 21st century has been Dan Brown’s novel
The Da Vinci Code.
Since 2003, some 50 million copies of this book have been sold
worldwide (“The Official...,” n.d.). Imagine for a moment the potential
differences in the millions of copies of
The Da Vinci Code if,
instead of being printed on a press, they all were reproduced by hand.
No doubt, many copyists’ errors would have been made. Occasionally,
names would have been misspelled, numbers would have been inverted, and
there would have been the occasional duplication or omission of words or
entire lines. However, if several million copies of
The Da Vinci Code
were retrieved from all over the world, and then compared, contrasted,
and critiqued by hundreds of scholars over several decades in an effort
to recover the precise wording of Dan Brown’s original manuscript, the
text, in effect, would be restored to its original condition. Most
copyists’ errors would be weeded out. Through textual criticism, the
text of
The Da Vinci Code eventually would be restored.
Whether one is referring to secular works or the Bible, prior to the
invention of the printing press, copies of books were made by hand, and
thus were susceptible to errors. In the 19th century, respected
Christian scholar J.W. McGarvey noted: “There is not a writing of
antiquity which has come down to our age without many such changes”
(1886, 1:7-8). In fact, “[a] large part of the labor of the editors of
Greek and Latin classics consists in correcting as best they can the
erroneous readings thus introduced into these works” (McGarvey, 1:8).
Take, for instance, the comedies of Terence (c. 190-158 B.C.).
Seventeenth-century English scholar Richard Bentley noted how Terence’s
works were some of the better preserved classical texts, yet Bentley
testified that he had witnessed “twenty thousand various lections
[readings—EL] in that little author, not near so
big as the whole New Testament” (as quoted in “The Text...,” 1822,
15(37):476; see also McGarvey, 1886, 1:8). Consider also the writings of
Tacitus. They are known to contain at least one numerical error that
Tacitean and classical scholars have acknowledged as a copyist’s mistake
(Holding, 2001). Scholars recognize that, at some point in history, a
copyist accidentally changed a number (from CXXV to XXV).
Although such copyists’ errors are known to exist, historians around
the world cite such ancient works as Herodotus, Josephus, Pliny,
Tacitus, Suetonius, etc., and consider them trustworthy, educational,
and worthy of study.
If scholars defend the integrity of ancient authors partly by
acknowledging that many of the mistakes contained within their writings
are the result of copyists’ errors, it is only reasonable for these same
scholars (whether atheists, agnostics, skeptics, or Christians) to
recognize that alleged problems within the biblical text
may
be the result of scribal errors rather than mistakes on the part of one
or more of the original Bible writers. Just as those who copied secular
historical documents sometimes made mistakes (e.g., misspelling names,
omitting words, etc.), scribes who copied the Bible from earlier texts
also had the opportunity to err. As Gleason Archer observed: “Even the
earliest and best manuscripts that we possess are not totally free of
transmissional errors. Numbers are occasionally miscopied, the spelling
of proper names is occasionally garbled, and there are examples of the
same types of scribal error that appear in other ancient documents as
well” (1982, p. 27).
Norman Geisler and William Nix have mentioned several ways that a
scribe might accidentally change the biblical text, including: (1)
omissions or repetitions of letters, words, or lines; (2) reversals
(transpositions) of letters or words; (3) divisions of words in the
wrong places (since words in the early manuscripts were not divided by
spaces); (4) errors of hearing (such as when scribes copied the
Scriptures by listening to someone read them); (5) trusting in memory
instead of relying on exactly what the text says; (6) errors of judgment
(possibly caused by insufficient lighting or poor eyesight); (7) poor
penmanship; etc. (1986, pp. 469-475). Recently, I wrote a note asking an
assistant to send a package to a Mrs. Ward. Unfortunately, the package
got mislabeled “Mrs. Word,” either because my handwriting was too poor
to distinguish adequately between an “a” and an “o,” or the assistant
simply misread the name. This example shows how easily copyists’
mistakes can occur, even in modern times.
How many Bible students have memorized passages of Scripture and quoted
them for months or even years without realizing that at some point in
time they mistakenly changed, added, or omitted a word from the text. I
once memorized 2 Peter 3:9 (“The Lord is not slack concerning His
promise,
as some count slackness...,” emp. added), only to find, several years
later, that at some point I had incorrectly made “promise” plural, and
had quoted it that way for months. One of the occasional mistakes
copyists made was to trust too much in their own memory. Instead of
carefully noting every letter in every word on every line, some copyists
might have memorized too much at a time without looking back at the
text. Keep in mind that scribes did not have computer keys that made the
same letters every time, or that allowed them to copy and paste a
paragraph of text with the push of a few buttons. Copying the Bible in
ancient times was a painstaking, tedious job that required constant
attention and care even in the best of circumstances.
CAINAN, SON OF ARPHAXAD: A CASE STUDY IN COPYISTS’ ERRORS
Luke 3:36 is the only verse in the Bible where one can read of the
patriarch Arphaxad having a son named Cainan. Although another Cainan
(the son of Enosh) is mentioned seven times in Scripture (Genesis
5:9-10,12-14; 1 Chronicles 1:2; Luke 3:37), outside of Luke 3:36,
Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, never is mentioned. He is omitted in the
genealogies of Genesis 10 and 11, as well as in the genealogy of 1
Chronicles 1:1-28. When the son of Arphaxad is listed in these
genealogies, the name always given is Salah (or Shelah), not Cainan.
One important thing we learn from the various genealogies in Scripture
is that sometimes they contain minor gaps—gaps that are both intentional
and legitimate (see Matthew 1:1; see also Thompson, 1989, 9[5]:17-18).
Thus, just because Luke 3 contains a name that is not recorded in
Genesis 10 or 11, or in 1 Chronicles 1, does not have to mean that
someone made a mistake. The fact is, terms such as “begot,” “the son
of,” and “father”—often found in genealogies—occasionally have a much
wider connotation in the Bible than might be implied when such words are
used in modern-day English (cf. Genesis 32:9; John 8:39). Simply
because one genealogy has more (or fewer) names than another genealogy,
does not mean that the two genealogies are in disagreement.
Still, the insertion of the name Cainan in Luke 3:36 most likely has a
far different explanation—one that may be more plausible, yet at the
same time is more complicated to explain, and thus less popular. It is
very likely that the “Cainan problem” is the result of a scribal error
made when copying Luke’s gospel account.
Realizing that the New Testament originally was written in Greek
without punctuation or spaces between words, the insertion of the name
Cainan easily could have crept into Luke’s genealogy. Notice in the
following chart, what the original text (in agreement with Genesis
10:24, 11:12, and 1 Chronicles 1:18,24) might have said:
| touserouchtouragautoufalektouebertousala |
| toukainamtouarfaxadtouseemtounooetoulamech |
| toumathousalatouhenoochtouiarettoumaleleeeltoukainan |
| touenoostouseethtouadamtoutheou |
If a scribe happened to glance at the end of the third line at
toukainan,
he easily could have written it on the first line as well as the third.
Hence, instead of reading only one Cainan, what we read today is two
Cainans:
| touserouchtouragautoufalektouebertousalatoukainan |
| toukainamtouarfaxadtouseemtounooetoulamech |
| toumathousalatouhenoochtouiarettoumaleleeeltoukainan |
| touenoostouseethtouadamtoutheou |
As you can see, it would be easy for a weary scribe to copy “Cainan”
inadvertently from Luke 3:37 as he was copying 3:36 (see Sarfati, 1998,
12[1]:39-40; Morris, 1976, p. 282).
Although some apologists reject the idea that the insertion of Cainan
in Luke 3:36 is a copyist’s error, the following facts seem to add much
credence to this proposed explanation.
-
As stated earlier, this part of Luke’s genealogy also is recorded in
Genesis 10:24, 11:12, and in 1 Chronicles 1:18,24. All of these Old
Testament passages, however, omit the Cainan of Luke 3:36. In fact,
Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, is not found in any Hebrew manuscripts of
the Old Testament.
-
Cainan is omitted from all of the following ancient versions of the
Old Testament: the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Syriac, the Targum (Aramaic
translations of the Old Testament), and the Vulgate (a Latin
translation of the Bible completed between A.D. 382 and 405) (see Hasel, 1980, 7(1):23-37).
-
Cainan’s name is absent from Flavius Josephus’ patriarchal listing in
his historical work, Antiquities of the Jews (see 6:1:4-5).
-
The third-century Christian historian, Julius Africanus, also omitted
Cainan’s name from his chronology of the patriarchs, and yet he had
copies of the gospels of both Luke and Matthew (1971, 6:125-140).
-
The earliest known copy of Luke (a papyrus codex of the Bodmer Collection dated between A.D. 175 and 225) does not contain this Cainan (see Sarfati, n.d.).
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This manuscript of a portion of Matthew dates to about A.D. 350.
|
| Credit: The Schøyen Collection MS 2650 |
Some are quick to point out that the Septuagint (the Greek translation
of the Hebrew Old Testament) mentions the name Cainan, and thus verifies
that he was the son of Arphaxad, just as Luke 3:36 indicates. The
problem with this line of defense is that the
oldest Septuagint manuscripts
do not
include this reference to Cainan (Sarfati, 1998, 12[1]:40). Patrick
Fairbairn indicated in his Bible encyclopedia that this Cainan does “not
appear to have been in the copies of the Septuagint used by Theophilus
of Antioch in the second century, by Africanus in the third, or by
Eusebius in the fourth” (1957, 2:351). He further stated that this
Cainan also was left out of the Vatican copy of the Septuagint (2:351).
That “Cainan” was a later addition to the Septuagint (and not a part of
it originally) also is evident from the fact that neither Josephus nor
Africanus mentioned him, and yet all indications are that they both used
the Septuagint in their writings. They repeat too many of the same
numbers of the Septuagint not to have used it. Thus, Larry Pierce
stated: “It appears that at the time of Josephus, the extra generation
of Cainan was not in the LXX [Septuagint—EL]
text or the document that Josephus used, otherwise Josephus would have
included it!” (1999, 13[2]:76). As Henry Morris concluded in his
commentary on Genesis: “[I]t is altogether possible that later copiers
of the Septuagint (who were not as meticulous as those who copied the
Hebrew text) inserted Cainan into their manuscripts on the basis of
certain copies of Luke’s Gospel to which they then had access” (1976, p.
282, parenthetical comment in orig.). Although it is possible that
“Cainan” in Luke 3:36 merely supplements the Old Testament genealogies,
when all of the evidence is gathered, a better explanation is that the
name Cainan in Luke 3:36 is the result of a copyist’s error.
MORE EXAMPLES OF POSSIBLE COPYISTS’ ERRORS
Jehoiachin’s Age When He Began to Reign
In 2 Kings 24:8, we read that Jehoiachin succeeded his father as the 19th king of Judah at the age of
eighteen. However, 2 Chronicles 36:9 informs us that he was “
eight
years old when he became king.” Fortunately, there is enough additional
information in the biblical text to prove the correct age of Jehoiachin
when he began his reign over Judah.
There is little doubt that Jehoiachin began his reign at eighteen, not
eight years of age. This conclusion is established by Ezekiel 19:5-9,
where Jehoiachin is described as going up and down among the lions,
catching the prey, devouring men, and knowing the widows of the men he
devoured and the cities he wasted. As Keil and Delitzsch observed when
commenting on this passage: “The knowing of widows cannot apply to a boy
of eight, but might well be said of a young man of eighteen” (1996).
Furthermore, it is doubtful that an eight-year-old child would be
described as one having done “evil in the sight of the Lord” (2 Kings
24:9).
The simple answer to this “problem” is that a copyist,
not an inspired writer, made a mistake. A scribe simply omitted a ten (the Hebrew numeral letter
ח [
yod], which made Jehoiachin eight (Hebrew
י) [
heth]) instead of eighteen (Hebrew
יח).
This does not mean the inspired penmen erred. Rather, it indicates that
minor scribal errors have slipped into some copies of the Bible.
Indeed, if you ever have seen the Hebrew alphabet, you doubtless
recognize that the Hebrew letters (which also were used for numbers)
could be confused quite easily.
The Spelling of Hadadezer
Should the king’s name be spelled with a “d” (2 Samuel 8:3; 1 Kings 11:23) or an “r” (2 Samuel 10:16; 1 Chronicles 18:3; KJV and ASV)?
It would appear that the difference in spelling came about through the
mistake of a scribe. Most likely Hadadezer (with a “d”) is the true form
since, “Hadad was the chief idol, or sun-god, of the Syrians” (Barnes,
1997; cf. Benhadad and Hadad of 1 Kings 15:18; 11:14; etc.). As William
Arndt stated, “D and R may be distinct enough in appearance in English,
but in Hebrew they are vexingly similar to each other” (1955, p. xv).
The Hebrew
daleth = ד, while
resh = ר. There should be little doubt in our minds that Hada
rezer simply is a corrupted form of Hada
dezer. One can see how easily a copyist could have made this mistake.
When Did Absalom Commit Treason?
When David’s son Absalom finally returned after killing his half-brother Amnon, 2 Samuel 15:7 indicates that “after
forty years”
passed, Absalom left home again and committed treason. Anyone who knows
much Israelite history quickly realizes that Absalom most certainly did
not spend 40 years at home during this time, for David’s entire reign
was only 40 years (2 Samuel 5:4). The number given in 2 Samuel 15:7
likely should be
four years, which is more in keeping
with the lifetime of Absalom, who was born in Hebron after David’s reign
as king began (2 Samuel 3:3). The number “four” also agrees with such
ancient versions as the Septuagint, the Syriac, the Arabic, and the
Vulgate. There is little question that the number “forty” represents a
copyist error.
CONSCIENTIOUS COPYISTS
Although scribes are mentioned in the Bible as far back as 1000 B.C.
(e.g., Samuel 8:17), history records three general periods of Jewish
scribal tradition: (1) the period of Sopherim (from Ezra until c. A.D. 200); (2) the Talmudic period (A.D.
100–c. 500); and (3) the period of the Massoretes (c. 500–c. 950)
(Geisler and Nix, 1986, p. 502). Jewish copyists were aware of the
importance of their work and took it very seriously. They were not
flawless in their transcription work (as noted above), but the evidence
shows that they were very conscientious. Infinitely more important than
students copying spelling words, cooks copying recipes, or secretaries
copying a boss’s memo, scribes understood that they were copying the
Word of God. Even the important work of medical transcriptionists cannot
compare with the copyists of old. McGarvey noted how copyists in the
Talmudic period “adopted for themselves very minute regulations to
preserve the purity of the sacred text” (1886, 1:9). Later, the
Massoretes took even more stringent steps to insure top-quality
manuscripts. With a deep reverence for the Scriptures, they went above
and beyond the “call of duty,” laboring under ultra-strict rules in
order to make the most accurate copies possible. In his
Introduction to the Old Testament, Professor R.K. Harrison addressed the approach of the Massoretes to the Scriptures and their professionalism, saying:
They concerned themselves with the transmission of the consonantal text as they had received it [Hebrew has no vowels—EL], as well as with its pronunciation, on the basis that the text itself was inviolable and every consonant sacred.
The detailed statistical work that the Massoretes undertook on each
book included the counting of verses, words, and letters, establishing
the middle of the book (a procedure which was useful in the case of
bifid, or two-part, compositions) noting peculiarities of style, and
other similar matters (1969, pp. 212-213, parenthetical item in orig.).
By taking such precautions in the copying of letters, words, and verses
(by sections and books), it could be known if a word or letter had been
omitted or added. Indeed, as Eddie Hendrix affirmed: “Such minute
checks contributed to a high degree of copying accuracy” (1976,
93[14]:5). No other group of ancient copyists is more renowned than
those of the Old Testament.
Although much less is known about New Testament copyists, according to Philip Comfort, who wrote
The Quest for the Original Text of the New Testament,
paleographic evidence has revealed that “several of the early
manuscripts were copied carefully with precision and acumen...,” no
doubt “by educated and professional scribes” (1992, p. 51,50). New
Testament copyists also had grave motivation to copy the Scriptures with
care. Although not typically quoted with copyists in mind, consider the
words of Revelation 22:18-19:
For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this
book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues
that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words
of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book
of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in
this book.
In the second century A.D., Irenaeus applied
this condemnation to copyists who knowingly contribute to the initiation
and perpetuation of textual errors (5:30:1). Undoubtedly, due to the
grace of God and the conscientiousness of copyists, “[t]he New
Testament...has not only survived in more manuscripts than any other
book from antiquity, but it has survived in purer form than any other
great book” (Geisler and Nix, p. 475).
NO AUTOGRAPHS? NO PROBLEM.
Some may wonder how Christians can be confident that we have God’s Word
today, when the original manuscripts (called autographs) are no longer
available for our viewing. How can one know the Truth, if the Truth
comes from copies of copies of copies...of the autographs, many of which
contain various minute transcriptional errors? Should we simply give up
and declare that attempts at finding the Truth are futile?
It is highly unreasonable to think that truths can be learned only from
autographs. Learning and forming beliefs based on reliable copies of
various written documents, objects, etc. is a way of life. To conclude
that a driver in a particular state could not learn to drive adequately
without having in hand the
original driving manual
produced by the state years earlier is absurd. To assert that no one
could measure the length of one yard without having the standard yard in
hand from the National Institute of Standards and Technology is
ridiculous. Even if the standard yard was lost, the millions of copies
of the yard in existence today would be sufficient in finding (or
measuring) exactly what a yard is. Consider also McGarvey’s example of
an autograph, which eventually was destroyed.
A gentleman left a large estate entailed to his descendants of the
third generation, and it was not to be divided until a majority of them
should be of age. During the interval many copies of the will were
circulated among parties interested, many of these being copies of
copies. In the meantime the office of record in which the original was
filed was burned with all its contents. When the time for division drew
near, a prying attorney gave out among the heirs the report that no two
existing copies were alike. This alarmed them all and set them busily at
work to ascertain the truth of the report. On comparing copy with copy
they found the report true, but on close inspection it was discovered
that the differences consisted in errors in spelling or grammatical
construction; some mistakes in figures corrected by the written numbers;
and some other differences not easily accounted for; but that in none
of the copies did these mistakes affect the rights of the heirs. In the
essential matters for which the will was written the representations of
all the copies were precisely the same. The result was that they divided
the estate with perfect satisfaction to all, and they were more certain
that they had executed the will of their grandfather than if the
original copy had been alone preserved; for it might have been tampered
with in the interest of a single heir; but the copies, defective though
they were, could not have been (1:17).
Everyday, all around the world, individuals, groups, businesses,
schools, etc. operate with the conviction that autographs are
unnecessary to learn the truths within them. Copies of wills, articles,
books, etc., can be gathered, inspected, and scrutinized until new
copies are published that virtually are identical to the original.
“[A]ccurate communication is possible despite technical mistakes in
copying” (Archer, 1982, p. 29). So it is with the Bible. Even though
copyists were imperfect in their transcription work, more than enough
copies of the Scriptures have survived so that, as Sir Fredric Kenyon
remarked, “it is practically certain that the true reading of every
doubtful passage is preserved in some one or other of these ancient
authorities. This can be said of no other ancient book in the world!”
(as quoted in Lightfoot, 2003, p. 204).
EVIDENCE OF RELIABLE BIBLE TRANSMISSION
The Old Testament
The Dead Sea Scrolls make up one of the greatest archaeological
discoveries of all times. In 1947, a number of ancient documents were
found by accident in a cave on the northwest side of the Dead Sea. This
collection of documents, which has become known as the Dead Sea Scrolls,
was comprised of old leather and papyrus scrolls and fragments that had
been rolled up in earthen jars for centuries. From 1949 to 1956,
hundreds of Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts and a few Greek fragments
were found in surrounding caves, and are believed by scholars to have
been written between 200 B.C. and the first half of the first century A.D.
Some of the manuscripts were of Jewish apocryphal and pseudepigraphal
writings (e.g., 1 Enoch, Tobit, and Jubilees); others often are grouped
together as “ascetic” writings (miscellaneous books of rules, poetry,
commentary, etc.). The most notable and pertinent group of documents
found in the caves of Qumran near the Dead Sea is the collection of Old
Testament books. Every book from the Hebrew Bible was accounted for
among the scrolls except the book of Esther.
 |
One of the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered
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The Dead Sea Scrolls serve as strong evidence for the integrity of the
Old Testament text. Prior to 1947, the earliest known Old Testament
manuscripts went back only to about A.D. 1000.
With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Bible scholars have been
able to compare the present day text with the text from more than 2,000
years ago. Textual critics have found that these ancient copies of Old
Testament books are amazingly similar to the Massoretic text. Indeed,
they serve as proof that the Old Testament text has been transmitted
faithfully through the centuries. As Rene Paché concluded: “Since it can
be demonstrated that the text of the Old Testament was accurately
transmitted for the last 2,000 years, one may reasonably suppose that it
had been so transmitted from the beginning” (1971, p. 191). What’s
more, if copies of the Old Testament in the first century were
sufficiently accurate for Jesus and the apostles to quote them and teach
from them, and we possess Old Testament manuscripts that date back to
(or before) the time of Christ, then Christians should feel extremely
confident about the condition of the Old Testament in the 21st
century—at least as confident as was Jesus (cf. Matthew 22:31).
The New Testament
How confident can Christians be that the text of the New Testament is
essentially the same today as it was in the first century? Could it be
that one of the central tenets of Christianity (e.g., Jesus’ deity) is
the result of a person’s manipulation of the New Testament text
centuries ago, as is alleged in Dan Brown’s novel
The Da Vinci Code
(2003, pp. 233-234)? Did someone come along in the Middle Ages and
drastically change the text of the New Testament? Just what evidence do
we have for the reliability of the New Testament?
Twenty-first-century Christians can be confident that the New Testament
has been transmitted faithfully through the centuries in large part
because of the vast amount of manuscript evidence in existence today,
some of which goes back to the early second century A.D. When F.F. Bruce published the sixth edition of his classic book
The New Testament Documents—Are They Reliable?
in 1981, he noted that “there are in existence over 5,000 Greek
manuscripts of the New Testament in whole or in part” (p. 10). Nearly 25
years later, Michael Welte of the Institute for New Testament Textual
Research in Munster, Germany, indicated that the number of Greek
manuscripts stood at 5,748 (2005). This number represents a far greater
body of manuscripts than is known to exist for any other ancient volume
(cf. Westcott and Hort, 1964, p. 565; Ewert, 1983, p. 139; Kenyon, 1951,
p. 5). For example,
The Histories of Herodotus, Caesar’s
Gallic Wars, and the
Annals
of Tacitus, three well-known and oft’-quoted ancient historical works,
are backed by a combined total of 38 manuscripts (Geisler and Nix, p.
408). The most documented book of antiquity next to the New Testament is
Homer’s
Iliad. Some 643 manuscripts of the
Iliad are in existence today (p. 475), which is still 5,000 less than the number of extant copies of the New Testament.
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Old, worn page of a papyrus document
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Equally impressive as the
number of manuscripts of the New Testament in existence is the
age
of the manuscripts. Whereas the extant copies of Plato, Thucydides,
Herodotus, Tacitus, and many others are separated from the time these
men wrote by 1,000 years, manuscript evidence for the New Testament
reaches as far back as the early second century, and possibly earlier.
In
The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts, a
700-page volume edited by Philip Comfort and David Barrett, more than 60
of the earliest Greek New Testament manuscripts are transcribed (2001).
Many photographs of these early manuscripts (the originals of which are
housed in museums throughout the world) also are contained in the book.
In the introduction, Comfort and Barrett state: “All of the manuscripts
[contained in the book—EL] are dated from the early second century to the beginning of the fourth (A.D.
100-300)” (p. 17). In fact, “[s]everal of the most significant papyri
date from the middle of the second century” and thus “provide the
earliest direct witness to the New Testament autographs” (p. 18). They
even suggest that “it is possible that some of the manuscripts thought
to be of the early second century are actually manuscripts of the late
first” (p. 23). Thus, we can have great confidence in the transmission
of the New Testament, not only because of the great number of extant
copies, but because of how closely these manuscripts date to the time
when the autographs were written.
But, that’s not all. To the manuscript evidence, one also can add the
ancient versions of the New Testament (e.g., Old Syriac, Old Latin,
Coptic, etc.), as well as the “more than 36,000 patristic citations
containing almost every verse of the New Testament” (Geisler and Nix, p.
467). Non-inspired Christian writings from the first few centuries (by
men such as Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr,
Irenaeus, and many others) are saturated with quotations from the New
Testament apostles and prophets. “Indeed, so extensive are these
citations,” wrote the eminent New Testament scholar Bruce Metzger, “that
if all other sources for our knowledge of the text of the New Testament
were destroyed, they would be sufficient alone in reconstructing
practically the entire New Testament” (1968, p. 86). These witnesses,
along with the ancient versions, speak voluminously on behalf of the
integrity of the Bible’s transmission.
Is there ample evidence from surviving manuscripts, versions, and early
quotations of the New Testament documents that indicates the New
Testament is essentially the same today as it was in the first century?
Most certainly. The former director of the British Museum, Sir Frederic
Kenyon, summed up the matter: “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” (as quoted in Lightfoot, 2003, p.
126).
CONCLUSION
Considering the potential over the past 1,900 years for the text of the
Bible to be grossly corrupted, and the fact that such did not occur,
Christians can be confident that God, though not inspiring the copyists
in their transmission of His Word, used them in His providential
preservation of it. Isaiah assured his listeners 2,700 years ago of the
permanence of God’s Word, saying, “The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:6). Then, after more
than seven centuries of transmission, the apostle Peter echoed Isaiah’s
sentiments, describing the Word of God as “incorruptible,” and that
which “lives and abides forever” (1 Peter 1:23-25).
REFERENCES
Africanus, Julius (1971 reprint), “The Extant Writings of Julius Africanus,”
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans).
Archer, Gleason L. (198
2), Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan).
Arndt, William (1955),
Does the Bible Contradict Itself? (St. Louis, MO: Concordia).
Barnes, Albert (1997),
Barnes’ Notes (Electronic Database: Biblesoft).
Brown, Dan (2003),
The Da Vinci Code (New York: Doubleday).
Bruce, F.F. (1981),
The New Testament Documents—Are They Reliable? (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans), sixth edition.
Comfort, Philip (1992),
The Quest for the Original Text of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker).
Comfort, Philip W. and David P. Barrett (2001),
The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House).
Ewert, David (1983),
From Ancient Tablets to Modern Translations (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan).
Fairbairn, Patrick (1957 reprint), “Genealogies,”
Fairbairn’s Imperial Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan).
Geisler, Norman L. and William E. Nix (1986),
A General Introduction to the Bible (Chicago, IL: Moody), revised edition.
Hasel, Gerhard F. (1980), “Genesis 5 and 11: Chronologies in the Biblical History of Beginnings,”
Origins, 7[1]:23-37, [On-line], URL: http://www.ldolphin.org/haselgeneal.html.
Harrison, R.K. (1969),
Introduction to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans).
Hendrix, Eddie (1976), “What About Those Copyist Errors?”
Firm Foundation, 93[14]:5, April 6.
Holding, James Patrick (2001), “Copyist Errors,” [On-line], URL: http://www.tektonics.org/copyisterrors.html.
Irenaeus (1973 reprint), “Irenaeus Against Heresies,”
The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans).
Josephus, Flavius (1987 edition),
The Life and Works of Flavius Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews, trans. William Whiston (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson).
Keil, C.F. and F. Delitzsch (1996),
Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament (Electronic Database: Biblesoft).
Kenyon, Sir Frederic (1951 reprint),
Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans), second edition.
Lightfoot, Neil (2003),
How We Got the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker), third edition.
McGarvey, J.W. (1886),
Evidences of Christianity (Cincinnati, OH: Guide Printing).
Metzger, Bruce (1968),
The Text of the New Testament (New York, NY: Oxford University Press).
Morris, Henry M. (1976),
The Genesis Record (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker).
“The Official Website of #1 National Bestselling Author Dan Brown” (no date), [On-line], URL: http://www.danbrown.com/meet_dan/index.html.
Paché, Rene (1971),
The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans).
Pierce, Larry (1999), “Cainan in Luke 3:36: Insight from Josephus,”
CEN Technical Journal, 13[2]:75-76.
Sarfati, Jonathan D. (1998), “Cainan of Luke 3:36,”
CEN Technical Journal, 12[1]:39-40.
Sarfati, Jonathan D. (no date), “How do You Explain the Difference between Luke 3:36 and Genesis 11:12?” [On-line], URL: http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/3748.asp.
“The Text of the New Testament” (1822),
The North American Review, 15(37):460-487, October, [On-line], URL: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ncps:@field(DOCID+@lit (ABQ7578-0015-27)).
Thompson, Bert (1989), “Are the Genealogies of the Bible Useful Chronologies?”
Reason and Revelation, 9[5]:17-18, May.
Welte, Michael (2005), personal e-mail to Dave Miller, Institute for
New Testament Textual Research (Munster, Germany), [On-line], URL: http://www.uni-muenster.de/NTTextforschung/.
Westcott, B.A. and F.J.A. Hort (1964 reprint),
The New Testament in the Original Greek (New York: MacMillan).
In
April 2015, Bruce Jenner, the gold medal men’s decathlon winner at the
1976 Montreal Olympic games, participated in a nationally televised
interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer in which he explained
that he had struggled with his gender identity since childhood. In his
words, “My brain is much more female than it is male. It’s hard for
people to understand that, but that’s what my soul is.... That female
side is part of me. That’s who I am.”1 A few months later, in July 2015, Jenner appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine dressed as a woman and announcing that he had changed his name to Caitlyn.2
In the same month, he received ESPN’s prestigious Arthur Ashe Award for
Courage, largely because of his very public “transition” from Bruce to
Caitlyn.3 In December 2015, he was featured once again, this time in an extensive article in TIME Magazine.4
