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Post by Admin on Jan 16, 2015 5:59:46 GMT -5
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Post by Admin on Oct 28, 2015 12:08:39 GMT -5
While there are a number of scribal errors and alterations which crept into the text, these are insignificant and have no bearing on the Bible’s general integrity. They have been detected and corrected by critical comparison of the many extant manuscripts.
As Sir Frederic Kenyon said: "The general result of all...this study is to strengthen the proof of the authenticity of the Scriptures, and our conviction that we have in our hands, in substantial integrity, the veritable Word of God."-The Story of the Bible
The fact is that regardless of which variant reading is chosen, the meaning of the passage is not usually affected.
Kenyon stated: “The first and most important conclusion derived ...is the satisfactory one that they confirm the essential soundness of the existing texts. No striking or fundamental variation is shown either in the Old or the New Testament. There are no important omissions or additions of passages, and no variations which affect vital facts or doctrines. The variations of text affect minor matters, such as the order of words or the precise words used.... But their essential importance is their confirmation...of the integrity of our existing texts.”—Fasciculus I, p. 15.”
So the evidence demonstrates that the Scriptures have come down to us in essentially the same form as that of the original inspired writings. The variations of reading are of no consequence as to Bible teachings in general. And scholastic collations have corrected errors of any importance, so that today we enjoy an authentic and reliable text.
Scholar Richard Lloyd Anderson, Ph.D., stated: "all manuscripts agree on the essential correctness of 99% of the verses in the New Testament. The events and the great truths contained there are agreed upon by all major manuscripts of the New Testament.”
Scholar W. H. Green observed: “It may be safely said that no other work of antiquity has been so accurately transmitted.” (Archaeology and Bible History, by J. P. Free, 1964, p. 5)
Care in copying was effective in practically eliminating errors as evidenced by the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah, which is dated around 100 B.C.E. Though it was a thousand years older than previous manuscripts there are few differences, causing Professor Millar Burrows to observe in his book The Dead Sea Scrolls: “It is a matter for wonder that through something like a thousand years the text underwent so little alteration.”
Kenyon also stated: “The interval then between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.”—The Bible and Archaeology, 1940, pp. 288, 289.
The claim sometimes made that portions of the New Testament were removed in the early centuries of Christianity fails to bear up under scrutiny.
So, while Witnesses know that there are no perfect translations available we can be assured that God has preserved His Word to an exceptional degree and that “all Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial” (2Tim. 3:16, 17).
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Post by Admin on Jul 25, 2019 7:22:15 GMT -5
By comparing ancient manuscripts (such as the famous dead sea scrolls) with what we have today, errors and changes can be eliminated and we can have confidence that what we are reading is in essence the same as what was penned all those thousands of years ago.
According to one calculation there are over 5000 manuscripts in the original Greek, in addition there are 8000 in various other languages of the 27 books in the Greek canon, toalling over
13,000 dating from the 2nd Century to the 16th.
The oldest of which to date is P/25 in the John Rylands Library (Manchester England) fragment of Gospel of John dating from approx 125CE (about 25 years after the original). These along with others, such as the remarkable Chester Beaty collection enable us to have full confidence in the integrity of transmission of the Christian Greek scriptures.
Commenting on the history of the text of the Christian Greek Scriptures and the results of modern textual research, Professor Kurt Aland wrote: “It can be determined, on the basis of 40 years of experience and with the results which have come to light in examining . . . manuscripts at 1,200 test places: The text of the New Testament has been excellently transmitted, better than any other writing from ancient times; the possibility that manuscripts might yet be found that would change its text decisively is zero.”—Das Neue Testament—zuverlässig überliefert (The New Testament—Reliably Transmitted), Stuttgart, 1986, pp. 27, 28.
We can have more confidence in the integrity of the bible than probably any other ancient manuscript in existence
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