Textual Studies of the Bible The task of reconstructing the original text of the Bible with as great a degree of accuracy as the available materials permit.
NEW TESTAMENT TEXTUAL STUDIES: Accuracy of Transmission
OLD TESTAMENT TEXTUAL STUDIES: Accuracy of Transmission
Respecting the text of the Hebrew Scriptures, 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) This statement is even more true today.
FROM SPOKEN WORDS TO SACRED TEXTS
Many good Christian biblical apologists spend a lifetime defending the trustworthiness of God’s Word. Many modern-day textual scholars seem to be apologists of another sort. They seem to be apologists for uncertainty and ambiguity as Daniel Wallace in the Foreword of MYTHS AND MISTAKES in New Testament Textual Criticism (2019) writes, “The new generation of evangelical scholars is far more comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty than previous generations.” (Page xii)
PAPYRUS 108 (P108) A GREEK NEW TESTAMENT FRAGMENT (JOHN 17:23-24; 18:1-5) DATING TO C. 200 C.E.
Papyrus 108 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by P108, is a copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Gospel of John, containing verses 17:23-24 & 18:1-5 in a fragmentary condition. The manuscript has been paleographically assigned to “late second/early third century (ca. 200).”
NTTC ROMANS 10:17: “word of Christ” or “word of God”?
The NA28 apparatus has P46vid א* B C D* 6. 81. 629. 1506. 1739 lat co. We notice that they have P46 listed as a “vid,” which is short for Latin videtur, “apparent reading” “not certain”). It means that ...
List of Major Textual Variants In the Greek New Testament In English Translation
It should be noted that this is merely a handful of major variants. Less serious variants are in the hundreds of thousands. However, many Christians make the mistake of saying that the textual variants are all insignificant and change nothing. This is not true.
1 John 5:7-8: The Story of an Interpolation
MODERN textual scholars do not hesitate to omit from the Bible the spurious passage found at 1 John 5:7-8. It is omitted by the translations ERV, ASV, RSV, ESV, NASB, LEB, CSB, UASV, etc.) Commenting on these words, the greatest textual scholar of the 20th century Bruce M. Metzger said, "these words are spurious and have no right to stand in the New Testament is certain ..." - Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (1994), 647.
NTTC MATTHEW 14:16, 27: Is “Jesus” in the Text Here, or Not?
Matthew 14:16, 27 16 But Jesus said to them, ... 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, ... Was Jesus mentioned here the Gospel of Matthew or not?
NTTC MARK 1:41: Was Jesus “Moved with Pity” or “Moved With Anger”?
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.”
NTTC ACTS 20:28b: Is It “which he [God] purchased with the blood of his own [Son]” OR “which he [God] purchased with his own blood”?
Be honest in all things Follow the truth regardless Obey God not man If textual scholars and translators obey all three of those principles; then, if the text, translation, or interpretation supports our specific doctrinal view, fine, if it does not, fine. A so-called major doctrine does not hang in the balance based on one Bible verse.
