Christian Publishing House Blog
Apologetic Defense of the faith, the Bible, and Christianity
Karl Konrad Friedrich Wilhelm Lachmann (German: [ˈlaxman]; 1793 –1851) was a German philologist and textual scholar. He is particularly noted for his foundational contributions to the field of New Testament Textual Studies.
The reason that this text is considered difficult is that one is compelled to think contrary to the leading internal textual principle: Which reading is it that the other reading(s) most likely came from? It is easy to see how “moved with anger” would have been changed to “moved with pity.” In that case, the scribe would have been softening the reading. It is very difficult to understand why a scribe would be tempted to change “moved with pity” to “moved with anger.”
The papyri are documents written on papyrus, a material prepared in Ancient Egypt from the pithy stem of a water plant, used in sheets throughout the ancient Mediterranean world for writing. The early papyri of about 100+ manuscripts that date from 110-390 C.E. are said to be the most important for establishing the original.
The Greek-English New Testament Interlinear (GENTI), Produced by Christian Publishing House, Cambridge, Ohio
Before delving into whether Westcott and Hort were Occultists or unbelievers, let us look at their work first. Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901) and Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828–1892) were nineteenth-century theologians and Bible and textual scholars. Together, they produced The New Testament in the Original Greek of 1881, the pinnacle of textual studies by dozens of textual scholars... Continue Reading →
New Testament Textual Studies is the process of attempting to ascertain the original wording of the Greek New Testament text by way of internal and external evidence.
Alexandrian Text: the Greek text was produced in Alexandria, Egypt, where there was a high degree of scholarship due to the famous library and museum. This was undoubtedly responsible in large part for the more meticulous care taken in the copying of manuscripts. The chief manuscripts representing the Alexandrian text are Codex Vaticanus, also designated... Continue Reading →
As Luke, Paul, Peter, Matthew, James, or Jude handed their authorized text off to be copied by others, i.e., published, what would it have looked like? What is the process that the New Testament writers would have followed to get their book ready to be published, that is copied by others? Once they were ready for publication, how would they be copied throughout the centuries, up until the time of the printing press of 1455 C.E.? Why was it so hard to be a secretary in the first century C.E.? How was such work done? What writing materials were then in use? How were the NT books made?
The Greek New Testament was copied and recopied by hand for 1,500 years. Regardless of those scribes who had worked very hard to be faithful in their copying, errors crept into the text. How can we be confident that what we have today is the Word of God?
Agnostic early Christianity and textual scholar Dr. Bart D. Ehrman, writes, "For me, though, this was a compelling problem. It was the words of Scripture themselves that God had inspired. Surely we have to know what those words were if we want to know how he had communicated to us, since the very words were his words, and having some other words (those inadvertently or intentionally created by scribes) didn’t help us much if we wanted to know His words." Misquoting Jesus (p. 5)