Textual criticism

It sounds like someone is complaining about the text. It's actually the process of comparing different copies in order to discover the original wording. It's very useful for everything from folios of Shakespeare, clay tablets about Gilgamesh, to parchments and codices of the Bible.

Some of  the rules a text critic follows:

• old manuscripts tend to be closer to the source
• briefer texts are more probable than longer ones because a scribe is more likely to add an explanation than subtract unless they deleted a controversial passage
• bad grammar and ugly writing are more likely to be original
• the writer's style is like their fingerprint and so critics can see interpolations by others

Text critics often compile an "eclectic edition" using a collection of various source documents and then others can use that for their own work in translation. There is an eclectic edition of Greek New Testament texts called the Nestle-Aland that many modern Bible translators consult. It contains notes on variants in the source documents and why one reading or interpretation was chosen over another.

God said it

I thought to myself last night that if I believe that Jesus can be trusted, then if He quoted from the Old Testament, that adds to those writings' reliability. Yes, I know people can argue with that. It just reminded me of that phrase, "God said it, I believe it."

Here's a Quick Way to Choose a Bible Translation

Here is a very nice visual comparison of popular English Bible versions available today. The site itself from whence this image comes has details about what the chart means. For instance, the number in parentheses is the suggested grade level for reading that translation.  I see that my NIV falls into the 8th grade category. King James is at a college level. The NRSV that the pastor uses is designated tenth grade level.

The chart also notes which translations use "gender neutral language." For example, the NRSV uses "humankind" when talking about the creation in Genesis 1. Someone pointed out that applying gender to God is an old-fashioned concept. This is yet another thing for my mind to get used to thinking after all those years of calling God "Heavenly Father."

The same website mentioned above also has a graphic showing how many people were involved and what year these modern translations were finished. For example, only one person worked on The Message, my current reading Bible, and it was complete in 2002. I know from reading the preface to The Message that Eugene Peterson, the man who translated it, took ten years to finish it.

The first version of the NIV was done in 1978 and 110 people helped make it. The NRSV was done in 1989 after 30 people worked on it. You may already know that the King James Version was done in 1611, but did you know that the New King James Version was finished in 1982 after more than twice the number of original KJV scholars worked on it?

If you are looking for a new Bible or trying to decide which one to give to someone, I can tell you these things--if you don't have a bookstore that carries a large selection, try Amazon.com or ChristianBook.com because they both have book previews.  Sometimes Google Books does also. When you are trying to choose, it can get tricky because there are so many versions. My friend on the bench the other day was dead set on having the words of Christ in red and a concordance. Most translations offer a concordance, but not all have the text attributed to Jesus in red. This may be because not everyone thinks it's exactly word-for-word what He said. As I read somewhere, ancient historians were more concerned with getting the gist correct.

A person can get caught up in the politics of which translation is aimed at more liberal readers or more conservative readers. I don't know enough to worry about that yet. I have a translation by a gay college professor and I really like it. It was the second Bible I bought. In fact, I recommend having more than one version. You can achieve that by buying a parallel Bible with two or more translations in one book. I suppose that after those decades of close-mindedness I can't help but feast on the variety out there.

In the language of the people

I sat for a while on a bench with a friend who was perusing a catalog of Bibles for sale. A Mormon colleague from my office stopped to chat. As soon as she realized what kind of catalog it was I saw her reaction of rejection. I jokingly asked if she would like to get one, perhaps a newer translation, but she quickly said no, it was too modern for her.

I understand her reaction--there but for the grace of God that would be me, distrustful of the unknown, sure in my beliefs, thinking I didn't need anything more. In fact, my first Bible purchase as I left the LDS church was a King James Version. I felt safer with that.

Now that I have spent time with other versions of the Bible, I have found there are some that I enjoy very much. I have a study bible that uses the NIV, New International Version, translation. I enjoy it because it is clearly written in modern language.  Please compare:

Joshua 6, King James Version (KJV)

Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.
2 And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.
3 And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.
4 And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.

Joshua 6, NIV (1984)

  Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.

2 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.  

3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days.  

4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets.

I keep hearing and reading that the Lord spoke in the tongue of the common people so he would be understood. The KJV was the tongue of the common person 500 years ago. My personal opinion is that if Jesus came today I wouldn't hear him talking like Shakespeare.

Magic bullet

One by one, I am revealing to my LDS friends that I am now a Christian. I told another one yesterday. There was no drama.  I'm not certain she even flinched, at least not outwardly. We discussed some key differences between Christianity and Mormonism, such as being saved by grace or saved by grace and works. It was a civil discussion, just as I'd expect from my well-educated and kind friend.

What is breaking my heart since then is that she said she is totally content with her beliefs and content to let others believe as they want. Key word: content. Synonym: at ease, comfortable, complacent.

God gets to us when we are not content. My eyes were wedged open because of the controversy over marriage equality. When I watched the Youtube video conversion stories of the members of the Adams Road band, one pointed out that he read the Bible as a missionary to prove a Christian minister wrong and then saw the doctrinal conflicts with LDS scriptures. Another friend of mine was offended by cultural differences between the members from his home state and the ones in Utah. Each person that left Mormonism can probably tell you what took them out of the drone zone, made them consider what they'd always accepted as being unacceptable.

If you are waiting to help a Mormon open their eyes, don't be afraid if they have a trial.  Get ready to support them. It could be the magic bullet to wound them with the truth so they can heal in God's grace and love.

God has nothing to hide (The Bible is Reliable, part 3)

I mentioned before that I read, and yes, enjoyed, the Book of Mormon.  I knew all the stories, I memorized verses.  Like every good Mormon, I prayed to know if it was true. I admit I never had the "burning in the bosom" I hoped for, but I still told everyone how great the book was because I really believed it and wanted, some day, to feel it. I thought something was wrong with me, that I just didn't have enough faith yet.

LDS missionaries and members tell everyone to pray about the Book of Mormon to know if it's true.  They do not tell people to compare it to the Bible (although they do highlight the part where Jesus supposedly visits the Americas, perhaps because it copies the Sermon on the Mount and sounds Biblical).  They avoid discussions of archaeological support.  They do not advocate deep research into details. And there are no manuscripts from ancient times to use for translation comparison.

So for decades I believed God worked on the principle of blind faith.  WRONG.  God has nothing to hide.  He is perfect. He understands us, His creations.  He provides lots of evidence and His work can withstand scrutiny.

Archaeological evidence for the Book of Mormon: ZERO.

Archaeological evidence for the Bible: peruse the local library, the Internet, scholarly journals, and expect to spend a long time absorbing it all.

Manuscript evidence for the Book of Mormon: only the documents Joseph Smith and his scribes wrote, along with various editions and corrections of the Book of Mormon, from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Manuscript evidence for the Bible: I've only touched on the Old Testament so far in prior posts; wait till I get to the New Testament.  LOTS.

God invites us all to research His work for ourselves.  He provides confirmation for our minds and hearts.

Acts 17:11, New Living Translation (italics mine)
And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.

Three decades dedicated

I read an article today about a man in Israel who spent thirty years correcting 1500 errors in the Old Testament. Here's what one part of the article said:

The errors have no bearing on the Bible's stories and alter nothing in its meaning. Instead, for example, in some places the markers used to denote vowels in Hebrew are incorrect; or a letter in a word may be wrong, often the result of a centuries old transcription error. Some of the fixes are in the notations used for cantillation, the text's ritual chants.

I found that encouraging since I've been writing about the reliability of the Bible.

 

The Bible is Reliable (part 2)

In the previous post you may have seen the words "Septuagint" and "Masoretic."  The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Old Testament writings.  Jewish scholars finished it more than 100 years before Jesus was born.  There are existing fragments of Septuagint manuscripts dating back to that time.

The Masoretic text is the Old Testament in Hebrew.  Its oldest manuscripts still around today date to the 800s and 900s AD.  There aren't earlier ones because worn-out copies were destroyed.

Then there's the Dead Sea Scrolls, which date to around 100BC, around a thousand years before the extant copies of the Masoretic text. Interestingly, there are few variations between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Masoretic and most are differences in spelling or word order.  This fact defeated my fear that Bible books were transmitted like the old party game of telephone.

Okay, just looking at Old Testament manuscripts, let's see what's available and then compare that to other ancient literature:

Version	Examples	Language	Date of Composition	Oldest Copy
Dead Sea Scrolls	Tanakh at Qumran	Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek(Septuagint)	c. 150 BCE – 70 CE	c. 150 BCE – 70 CE
Septuagint	Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus and other earlier papyri	Greek	300–100 BCE	2nd century BCE (fragments) 4th century CE (complete)
Peshitta		Syriac		early 5th century CE
Vulgate	Codex Amiatinus	Latin		early 5th century CE early 8th century CE (complete)
Masoretic	Aleppo Codex, Leningrad Codex and other incomplete MSS	Hebrew	ca. 100 CE	10th century CE
Samaritan Pentateuch		Samaritan alphabet	200–100 BCE	Oldest extant MSS, c. 11th century CE; oldest MSS available to scholars, 16th century CE
Targum		Aramaic	500–1000 CE	5th century CE
Coptic	Crosby-Schøyen Codex, British Library MS. Oriental 7594	Coptic		3rd or 4th century CE

and let's compare to other ancient literature: 

AUTHOR	DATE written	EARLIEST manuscript available	TIME SPAN since original events/writing	NUMBER of copies available	ACCURACY between copies
Homer	ca. 850 B.C.			643	95%

Plato	ca. 380 B.C.	ca. A.D. 900	About 1,300 years	7	reconstruct
Aristotle	ca. 350 B.C.	ca. A.D. 1100	About 1,400 years	5	reconstruct
Caesar	ca. 60 B.C.	ca. A.D. 900	About 950 years	10	reconstruct

So far you may be noticing that there is a considerable variety and number of Old Testament manuscripts that date back in time fairly close to Old Testament events compared to some of the ancient literature we take for granted.

The Bible is Reliable (part 1)

One of my first worries after I realized that the Book of Mormon and the other Mormon scriptures were false was whether the Bible was something I could depend upon. I decided I did not want to be deceived again and would research it thoroughly. As a Mormon I was taught that the Bible was only believable "inasmuch as it was translated correctly." My first order of business was to obtain as many translations as possible and compare. Since I don't remember much Greek or Hebrew from school (yes, I really studied those, along with Latin, but don't ask me for lessons), I stuck to English and one Spanish version.

I read sections that were reportedly in dispute, such as Psalm 22, verse 16. The King James Version reads, "For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet." A Jewish Bible reads "Dogs are all around me, a pack of villains closes in on me like a lion [at] my hands and feet."  It sounds much more Messianic in the King James Version.  But which is correct and why is there even a difference?

In written Hebrew there are no written vowels unless someone has taken the time to place marks on the text, kind of like we dot i's in English.  If I showed you this word, "rd"," you could say it was "red" or "rod" or reed," or, well, you get it.  So the difference between pierced and lion in Hebrew is a letter.  A page from the Jews for Jesus website explains it:

In Hebrew, the phrase "they have pierced" is kaaru while "like a lion" is kaari. The words are identical except that "pierced" ends with the Hebrew letter vav and "lion" with yod. Vav and yod are similar in form, and a scribe might easily have changed the text by inscribing a yod and failing to attach a vertical descending line so that it would become a vav. The evidence suggests that this may be what happened, since the Greek version of the Scriptures, known as the Septuagint, rendered in Egypt before the time of Jesus, preserves the reading of "pierced."
Unfortunately we don't have the "original text" to check whether that was a vav or a yod. What we have is the Septuagint translation which translated the Hebrew text as "pierced" and the Masoretic or standard text which has it as "like a lion."
Notice that the translation of the Hebrew is "pierced" in the Greek Septuagint which was completed in the centuries before Jesus was crucified. Therefore the charges made by some counter-missionaries, that fundamentalist Christian interpreters "twist" the meaning of the Hebrew Bible, rings hollow.

Somewhere I read that this one word doesn't change the meaning of the Psalm and I agree.  In the end, what does a lion do?  It pierces with its sharp teeth.

For the director of music. To the tune of “The Doe of the Morning.” A psalm of David.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me,
    so far from the words of my groaning?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
    by night, but I find no rest.

Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
    you are the praise of Israel.
In you our ancestors put their trust;
    they trusted and you delivered them.
They cried to you and were saved;
    in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

But I am a worm, not a human being;
    I am scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
    they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
“He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
    “let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
    since he delights in him.”

Yet you brought me out of the womb;
    you made me feel secure on my mother’s breast.
From birth I was cast on you;
    from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Do not be far from me,
    for trouble is near
    and there is no one to help.

Many bulls surround me;
    strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
Roaring lions that tear their prey
    open their mouths wide against me.
I am poured out like water,
    and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
    it has melted within me.
My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
    and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
    you lay me in the dust of death.
Dogs surround me,
    a pack of villains encircles me;
    they pierce my hands and my feet.
All my bones are on display;
    people stare and gloat over me.
They divide my clothes among them
    and cast lots for my garment.

But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
    You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
Deliver me from the sword,
    my precious life from the power of the dogs.
Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
    save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

I will declare your name to my people;
    in the assembly I will praise you.
You who fear the Lord, praise him!
    All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him,
    all you descendants of Israel!
For he has not despised or scorned
    the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
    but has listened to his cry for help.

From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
    before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.
The poor will eat and be satisfied;
    those who seek the Lord will praise him—
    may your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth
    will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
    will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the Lord
    and he rules over the nations.

All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
    all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
    those who cannot keep themselves alive.
Posterity will serve him;
    future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness,
    declaring to a people yet unborn:
    He has done it!

Today's New International Version (TNIV) © Copyright 2001, 2005 by Biblica