If the basis of your faith is the Westminster Confession of Faith, I would humbly suggest you move to a firmer foundation. These two passages go together because 1 Peter 1:24-25 is quoting Isaiah 40:8. The authorities of the convent allowed me to possess myself of a third of these parchments, or about forty-three sheets, all the more readily as they were destined for the fire. Long = characterized by Scribal improvement and expansion. There are several different sets of rules for Reasoned Eclecticism. It is accepted as being the closest text to that used for the English King James translation in 1611. Theres a Textual Variant on the word gentle. Textus Receptus (TR) The Textus Receptus (latin, "Received Text") is the Greek text originally compiled by Erasmus around 1516. The AV translators relied heavily upon the work of William Tyndale and other editions of the English Bible. It certainly doesnt seem like you take this very seriously. Their theory has since been categorically proven wrong, partially by new manuscript findings. The claim seems very unlikely though because Estiennes Greek Text is very close to Erasmus but its possible. These different philosophies naturally produced slightly different results, Overall, the Critical Text of the modern Greek New Testament bears a remarkable resemblance to the original work done by Westcott & Hort. Maybe you should have explained that, out of those manuscripts he consulted, he selected 7-8 fit enough to produce his text. Notice, Like a Shepherd, appears to be an obvious reference to Jesus given the context. 9 O Zion, Happy indeed art thou, said the Stranger, would that I were likewise! Its often abbreviate as NA plus the version number. The WEB translation reads: For this cause the woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels. First of all, no scholar disputes the fact that Erasmus had studied variant readings . Believing (trusting) that His work of Calvary is sufficient payment for you as a sinner, and His Word is given for the direction of the repentant life. Do you stand on the position that it is impossible for us to hold the preserved Word of God in our hands? Lift up your voice with strength, 19. The fact of the matter is that the Critical Text of Westcott-Hort differs from the TR, mostly by deletions, in 9,970 words out of 140,521, giving a total of 7% difference. Have you heard that with the new and unfortunate NASB2020 revision, Masters Seminary has undertaken the Legacy Standard Bible project? Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) notes: Jan de Waard received his PhD from the University of Leiden in 1965. PROF. JOHN WILLIAM WEVERS (1919-2010). As I said, the Lord promised to preserve the Word used by His true church. . Ive rarely received such a nice comment. And More Importantly, Why? ( a symbol of and her are supplied and not in the original but states the obvious that the head covering is a symbol and that it is placed on the womans (her) head. Source: The Greek New Testament according to the Majority Text, p. xi. There are definitely places in the Textus Receptus that are wrong, and we know this from manuscripts weve found that they didnt have access to then, but overall its a very good document. Psalms 100:5 (KJV): For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. Further, it means all the manuscript findings of the last 140+ years are given very little consideration in modern Bibles. Had some armed foe said these things he would have fought him to the last breath; but this man did not deny, and had no word of scorn. We must receive the Gospel message under the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit which brings the faith that gives Salvation. Majority Text advocates will typically argue that the earliest Byzantine manuscripts were lost because no other climate on earth is as favorable for preserving documents as Egypt. 2. First, please notice that its words (plural) not word (singular). Isaiah 7:14 The original rules set down by Westcott &Hort arent consulted terribly often anymore. Co-chairs. . (It is only by Gods grace that you have been saved!) Thank you. (by extension) a region, or the solid part or the whole of the earthly globe (including the occupants in each application). You can see where they get it, but its such a stretch. (as shown in the article) Further, which Textus Receptus should we use? However, you havent answered my question as you said you would, even in a short form as I did your questions. As the quote above indicates, its possible the best copies of the scriptures were destroyed. https://www.christianhospitality.org/wp/bible-fraud7/ 7. The only limitation is if someone change the words in the WEB to create a new translation. But is the shorter reading more probable? The WEBs over her own head betrays a feminist bent by the translators, and looking at some of the their footnotes in other places confirms this bias. The science of assembling these manuscripts is called Textual Criticism, and you can consider this a complete Textual Criticism 101 article because well look at these topics in exhaustive detail. First, lets look at a passage that will become important to understanding these two verses. Also, it seems to me that the Critical Text differs from the TR in most of the passages that refer to the deity of Christ. The one thing I will mention is Hort at least was motivated to eliminate the Textus Receptus from the public eye, as he considered it vile. However, dont trust the English there, look at the shorthand underneath the English words. Any reading overwhelmingly attested by the manuscript tradition is more likely to be original than its rival(s).. There is at least one nearly complete text of the LXX, Codex Alexandrinus. I will answer your questions in the same fashion that you have answered mine, and Im sure it will be as satisfying to you as your answers were to me. This is especially interesting because they also said the Antiochian (Byzantine) text was the dominant text in the second half of the 4th century (the later 300s). In the 480-page edition of the Trinitarian Bible Society Textus Receptus this would amount to almost 34 pages, the equivalent of the final two books of the New Testament, Jude and Revelation (Thomas Strouse, Review of From the Mind of God to the Mind of Man, November 2000). The primary Greek source for the King James Version was the 1598 version of Theodore Bezas Greek New Testament. O Hades, where is thy sting? Further, if you remember from our discussion of Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, this type of omission is recognized in them. (Dont ask how much re-writing that took.). I would be very interested to hear your views on this topic. It goes like this: Please imagine that you were a scribe charged with copying the New Testament. BTW: Ive enjoyed our robust conversations. Prepare the way of the Lord; They did have some very solid points! Lets begin with Erasmus. 10 Behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand, The question then becomes: If you take the Majority Text theory and apply it to modern times, then theres clearly more copies of the modern Critical Text than the Majority Text. This is the best Ive read on this topic so far. All of these versions, (do you see the problem? Half the time Im at service or bible study Ill pull my phone out to check the Greek or a different translation. First, we should reiterate that the differences were talking about here occur in less than 1% of the New Testament. Nice article, well-balanced and thoughtful. 6 The words of the LORD are pure words; This method applies a series of rules to the various manuscripts weve found (well look at those rules in a moment). How can two walk together unless they be agreed? truthas a body of ethical or religious knowledge, 1516 (Erasmus 1st Novum Instrumentum omne), 1522 (Erasmus 3rd Novum Testamentum omne), 1550 (Robert Estienne (Stephanus) 3rd Editio Regia. It gets rid of archaic words and phrases, provide quotation marks (they were not in the ASV), and resolves textual issues that have appeared after 1901. Thank you. He lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s. on the blue letter bible (blb) website, the interlinear tool lets you compare translations of the new testament (word by word) to either the textus receptus (tr) or the morphological greek new testament (mgnt); depending on whether or not the base greek text of the translation you're examining is the tr (king james/new king james) or the mgnt I did not want to conceal this from the reader, however, and admitted in the annotations what I had done. Do you have a source for the first one? Im not a KJV only follower You asked: Has recent textual criticism increased our faith in God?. I have some controversial articles for which Id prefer not to be doxxed, so Im going to keep my real name off the website. I dont have time to go through it, but hes got his wires crossed. From another article on the topic: However, Hort acknowledged that such a clear-cut genealogical model would be out of place if a transmission-model persistently involved readings which all had some clearly ancient attestation. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.. Exactly. We will be ignoring this segment and focusing on their more genial and reasonable counterparts.). Well, it was Westcott & Hort who said of the Western text: Words and even clauses are changed, omitted, and inserted with surprising freedom, wherever it seemed that the meaning could be brought out with greater force and definiteness. Therefore, it shouldnt be surprising that they basically ignored the Western text type. While I do not pretend to know your heart motives, I firmly believe you are of the same nature as the Gray Questioner, and will have the same affect on good people who fall into the web of your communications. The more difficult reading should be preferred. His translation can be purchased for about $10. Scrivener identifies 190 readings where the Authorized Version translators depart from Bezas Greek text, generally in maintaining the wording of the Bishops Bible and other earlier English translations. Since the two best translations on the market (NASB95 and NKJV) differ on their source text, if someone had strong preference for the Critical Text or Texus Receptus, that could be a deciding factor. Pauls saying dont be like the women who shave their heads to show they wont be under authority. The covering is a womans long hair (as verse 15 says) and the passage is about women being moraly obligated to be under authority. Throughout Europe the Elzevir editions came to occupy a place of honor, and their text was employed as the standard one for commentary and collation. However, we dont have to guess, as Peter under the Holy Spirits inspiration explicitly applied this passage to Jesus. Westcott & Hort believed that any place where those two manuscripts agreed: should be accepted as the true readings until strong internal evidence is found to the contrary,. I know too much Greek to accept something that was (seemingly) intentionally mistranslated. So yeah, it probably does have some influence from Hort, and yes the OT base isnt exactly the same; it literally cant be the same since hte only people who know have been dead for hundreds of years. Thats a ~1.4% variation, which is still fairly significant. More recent manuscript findings have proved this wrong, but more on that later. For I found no discussion of the effort to reduce the number of copies Erasmus had available. The person who wrote this note, however, objected to this correction, and wrote, , , . I perceived in the middle of the great hall a large and widebasket full of old parchments, But I could not get them to yield up possession of the remainder. His work was largely ignored during his lifetime but the English Standard Version largely agrees with his translation. The edition most closely followed by them was Bezas edition of 1598, but they departed from this edition for the reading in some other published Greek text at least 170 times, and in at least 60 places, the KJV translators abandoned all then-existing printed editions of the Greek New Testament, choosing instead to follow precisely the reading in the Latin Vulgate version. Also, I agree 100% about computers and mobile devices. Thanks for all the hard work! Nearly everyone would choose one of the three to copy from. According to Textus Receptus Bibles (.com), there are no less than 27 different versions of the Textus Receptus! I use a couple of versions as my preferred reading bibles (one from each side of the debate), but through the blessing of computers and powerful mobile devices, regularly reference many English and Greek editions. By any conceivable metric (except age), Codex Sinaiticus is one of the worst manuscripts that weve found. Says your God. The Textus Receptus below is designed to be usable in Word 97 or higher. You can read the full list here, but it contains the actual Greek variations so youll need to know Greek to read it. One of the greatest supporters of the Critical Text is Daniel Wallace. Up until then, the original NIV was my Bible. Ken Johnson also does an expose on the issues and older documents. (Part one, part two, part three, part four.). Its butchered so badly that it almost doesnt even sound like the Bible in places. (In a footnote, Royse helpfully defines significant singular readings as those singular readings that remain after exclusion of nonsense-readings and orthographic variants.). I mean, how arbitrary can you get? Further, this argument for Scribes choosing better manuscripts has parallels from the Textual Criticism of non-Biblical works too. The western part of Christendom stopped using Greek as their primary language in the mid-1st millennium. In reality, the distribution is never that perfect. Even the official Codex Sinaiticus Project website (link above) admits this: No other early manuscript of the Christian Bible has been so extensively corrected. There is no end to where this kind of doubt will lead. GNB NET NRSV, Great explanations of Varying I think how you can see how they get the Doctrine of Preservation, but it seems quite a stretch. Regardless of the third quotation they bring up, why is it ridiculous if thats what Erasmus explicitly stated he did, and included this statement in his annotations, and gave the reason why he included it in his annotations? While the Confessional Position holds no water, the Textus Receptus itself is a very good document. Lets back up to get some context. 6. The idea that Scribes chose to copy better manuscripts makes perfect sense. Now that we know what Greek text the Confessional Position uses, lets take a closer look at the various scriptural passages they use to support the doctrine of Preservation (which says God kept His Scriptures pure in all ages). The following is a quote from the (excellent) blog The Text of the Gospels, doing a comparison of Westcott & Horts original 1881 text (WH1881) to the modern NA27 (Nestle-Aland 27th edition) and NA28. I lead a mens Bible study which is currently discussing truth and questions came up over the parenthetical thought in 1 Tim 2:7 ( vs ). The following is regarding the Alexandrian text type manuscripts. In so many places, Jesus is called the Glory of the Lord. Please dont mistake my question for a mere rhetorical one (though its partially that), If perfect preservation is the case, then thats THE question that matters most regarding Scripture. Again, this is a stretch but well deal with it. Your treatment of the Word of God must be pointed out. I do not believe that God inspired His Words but left people to guess which ones were His and which ones were not. That begs the question: Where did it come from? The answer is in the name: it comes from a (man-made) confession of faith. The Greek word thats translated pass is (parerchomai). See their intro to the NT here: http://www.katapi.org.uk/NEB/NT-Introduction-1970.pdf. We just dont know what they used. (against more than 5,000 copies favoring the Textus Receptus). He also checked these manuscripts for particular readings, or readings that are found ONLY in that manuscript. Did you even bother to examine those verses? But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Not many people would sift through an 18k+ word article. About the myth of Erasmus backtranslation, this site references some sources: (34 readings were changed from the NA27 to the NA28). It wasnt until he focused on the shield of faith that clarity and direction were restored. Im not sure I would agree, but Im not sure Id disagree either. because the next line also 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. The other six occurrences in 1 Corinthians, including verse 10, all refer to the head as the body part that rests on the shoulders. Also, Im still waiting for you to say which text/manuscript you think is inerrant. Posted July 16, 2008. Westcott & Hort believed the Byzantine text type was a combination of the Alexandrian and Western text types. I would like to cite this article. It does not say anything about it being original. . They are inextricably linked. The NKJV is a purification of the KJV. The odds of all the scribes making the same error are extremely low. (Estienne was also known as Stephanus.) This is our example, but Again, they differ in ~2000 places. It has been preserved for all time (I Peter 1:23; Psalm 12:6-7; Ps. Surely the people are grass. The following quote is from the Trinitarian Bible Society, who publishes the Textus Receptus, The AV [Authorized Version, i.e. Thus your eye jumps from I am researching Matt 10:10, specifically the word staff. It is pitting your limited human experience and learning against the stack of Gods promises, His power, and His faithfulness concerning His Word. Of the 18,000 Bibles he printed, only 3 of them remain today. Darwin was so effective at this that he deceived many Christians with his evidence. They didnt want to pretend the evidence wasnt there, so they tried to harmonize the two theistic evolution. (Which many dispute, but well get to that later.). He worked for the University of Toronto from 1951 until his retirement in 1984. The two relevant excerpts are below. That might seem like a lot, but remember the New Testament is just shy of 140,000 words (in Greek). However, things change if you include the Latin manuscripts weve found. The definitions and theories were laid out very distinctly and well sourced. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. See Biblia Hebraica Quinta (BHQ) Fourth fascicle: Proverbs Accessed March 26, 2011, 4. Received his Th.D. (or which version of the TR if you mean the TR?). It seems obvious that the entire thing wasnt going to be burned. These two codices Codex Vaticanus (B) and Codex Sinaiticus () are the foundation for nearly all modern New Testaments. NETS Committees Accessed March 26, 2011. (As shown in the article), And by the way, I do have a high opinion of the TR and prefer it to the Critical text in many ways. A vast number of early manuscripts were destroyed in the early persecutions of the Church. Some say Septuagint, and others say the Masoretic Text. Many Christians who could not withstand the persecution handed over their Scriptures to the authorities to be publicly burned. You could translate it will by no means be voided from the law. But I find your interpretation of Psalms 12, while correct in a literal sense, wrong in a prophetical sense. 14 O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; and have not set Thee before them. However, the examples leave out one very important factor (which well get to in a moment. This also applies to manuscript families. However, the word Ive highlighted in red isnt plural (them); its singular (him). Estiennes New Testament is remarkably similar to Erasmus Greek New Testament, but Estienne claimed he didnt use Erasmus work as a source. Be careful my friend. Textus Receptus: Greek Editions of the Textus Receptus English Translations of the Textus Receptus Textus Receptus Bible Information Have you ever studied how many actual Bibles were copied/printed and used by the church between 100-1500? It is acknowledged that Erasmus stated in his annotations: I found some words in our versions which were lacking in the Greek copies, but we added them from the Latin. Wow! Theres a certain sense where this is true, but in practice it simply doesnt matter. Is there not an element of faith in your critique? By an Alexandrian Church fathers own admission, manuscripts in Alexandria by 200 AD were already corrupt. He proposed an approach which he calls Equitable Eclecticism which he explained in two articles. Despite this, the Critical Text of the New Testament remains virtually unchanged from ~140 years ago. Daniel B. Wallace says, Revelation was copied less often than any other book of the NT, and yet Irenaeus admits that it was already corrupted within just a few decades of the writing of the Apocalypse. (I have articles: the comma belongs, but the Pericope doesnt; though they do include an obelus to indicate doubt on the Pericope, so thats something.). Sorry for the delay. Without an agreement on that important ground, our talk will go nowhere. Are you aware that that is a myth, or at least that that assertion has been shown of many to be false? Do you believe We can no more touch the preserved Word of God than we can the incarnate Christ? Do you believe that we can only do our very best to discern with our human abilities and scientific approach what is correct and what is not? Ive had an NIV Bible for a long time and stumbled across some KJV only preachers on youtube who challenged my translation. However, I would only make that the starting point. In context, Jesus is simply saying that the law wouldnt end until all is fulfilled. Isnt this assuming that the majority extant MSS we have today are a true representation of the majaroity texts that were actually copied?. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. Thank you again. 1633 (Elzevir) edited by Jeremias Hoelzlin, Professor of Greek at Leiden. However, the New Covenant superseded the Old, and at that point, the Old passed away or was rendered void Just like Jesus said. Family 35 doesnt include any Uncials and I believe the oldest manuscript in the family is late-ish; early second millennium. For many are called, but few chosen., Matthew 20:16 New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA) As weve just seen, Codex Vaticanus is a mediocre-to-poor quality manuscript. What I am trying to say is that we have had a sure word for five hundred years. This is particularly interesting when one turns to theEditionum Differentiae(Appendix III) in the 27thedition of NTG, which lists (among other things) the differences between NA27 and NA25. It was shockingly balanced, very respectful, and based upon facts. Unfortunately, we know that happened in at least two ways. (With a good chuckle. The fact that the Byzantine Text type dominates the manuscript copies is proof of disproportionate copying. Thank you again for a wonderful and concise article, Ill be recommending it to many. If you heard it read, youd realize its an easy mistake to make because they sound almost identical. . The WEB fixed that problem as it uses the majority of the manuscripts, and also removes verses or phrases that are not in the majority of the manuscripts, including Revelation. Irenaeus in the 2nd century, though not in Alexandria, made a similar admission on the state of corruption among New Testament manuscripts. I still have not settled on a position and am not sure I ever will. The 1894 TR would be Scriveners, which is an attempt to make a Greek New Testament which is identical to the KJV. Thanks so much for all your analysis. Accordingly the need of accounting for the eventual predominance of the medium text, when the critics are shown to have been incapable of producing it, leads us to assume a medium text or vulgate in existence during the whole time of the hand-transmission of Homer. That alone changes things a lot. Thank you for this article. At what time did they stop having confidence that they knew the text they had was pure? This brings us to one of the strongest arguments for the Majority Text theory: that scribes preferred to copy better manuscripts. It is the wisdom of the world that is foolishness to God. Source: The New Westminster Dictionary of the Bible. The root of this is an error in translation, as well see in a moment. Only the reading which best satisfies the requirements of both external and internal criteria can be original. It was a printed text, not a hand-copied manuscript, created in the 15th century to fill the need for a textually accurate Greek New Testament. Part 2 focuses more on the actual methodology. Seems to me like the evolutionists who take a few bones they find and build a whole monkey-man out of them, claiming they disproved creation. Now that we have a basic overview, well look at each theory in (exhaustive) detail. Internal criteria (the context of the passage, its style and vocabulary, the theological environment of the author, etc.) According toHerman C. Hoskier, there are, without counting errors ofiotacism, 3,036 textual variations between Sinaiticus and Vaticanus in the text of the Gospels alone, Assuming that the same ratio of variants persists in the rest of the New Testament and doing the math, thats ~3434 additional variants, for a total of ~6470 variants between them. Notice, he specifically said the law. That much is obvious. Ive copy/pasted the two rules that conflict just below: Westcott & Hort rule #9: Prefer readings in manuscripts that habitually contain better readings, which is more certain if its also an older manuscript and if it doesnt contain combinations of other variations (as in rule #3). But I would give them all up to dispel the confusion and go back to studying the original languages, which I use Jewish-English, an LXX-English translation, and a lexicon to do. However, the text theyve chosen (the Textus Receptus) isnt a bad text. And why would you casually dismiss the spiritual corruption of Wescott and Hort, claim their critical text is based on corrupt texts, and then support the NASB? I believe God is still preserving His Word today! (The Masoretic text is the traditional Hebrew text, and contains far fewer textual variants than the New Testament.) They have been made available to every generation (Psalm 33:11; Psalm 100:5; Psalm 119:89-90; Isaiah 59:21). We have four nearly complete Uncial manuscripts dating from before the year 1000. I challenge you to study this more in depth, and I think you will come to the conclusion that the 5,000 plus manuscripts that we have today from that period equal less than 1% of Bibles used by the church. Rather, decisions in textual criticism must be worked out afresh, passage by passage (the local principle). However, the antiquity of these manuscripts is no indication of reliability because a prominent church father in Alexandria testified that manuscripts were already corrupt by the third century. The criticism of the Homeric epics proceeds on much the same line. Again, this is because of his earlier is better philosophy. However, I have included it for completeness. I fear the same about you. This reading ranks second in terms of the number of manuscripts containing it, and has a wider distribution among text-types. The NKJV deletes the word blood 23 times, from the KJV. Almost all of the oldest manuscripts we have are of the Alexandrian text type, probably due to the climate in the location where they are typically found (Alexandrian is in Egypt, and their dry climate is ideal for preservation.) Scarcely had he entered the room, when, resuming our former subject of conversation, he said: And I, too, have read a Septuaginti.e. He taught English on CBC TV 'Let's Speak English'. Believing the Gospel is the act of taking the Word and Christ as direction of the future. A womans long hair is the symbol of authority, and notice that feminists almost universally have short(er) hair. This is my second reading of your article. Id also like to thank you for writing in a manner that is rather humble and identifying when youre putting forwards your opinion as well personally Ive always used the KJV, got saved using the KJV and have sought to know God better through the KJV etc, so when I started looking into this topic it was quite discouraging hearing/reading people absolutely castigating the Textus Receptus, saying its rubbish and is full of additions which werent part of the original text [speaker/author advocated critical text] it kind of made me rather depressed as it seemed as if everything I believed was based upon a lie and that the Bible which had gotten me through so many storms in life seemed to be shaky Honestly it truly was a stumbling block and something that Im still working through (planning on talking to my pastor about this whole topic haha~), so I can understand why the natural response for many Christians is to grow angry and condemn anyone who would seemingly attack the certainty of the Bible. The Textus Receptus is Latin for Received Text. Majority Text vs. Critical Text vs. Textus Receptus - Textual Criticism 101 Berean Patriot March 18, 2020 Faith Articles, Textual Criticism 41 Comments There are three major competing Greek sources to use for translating the New Testament: the Critical Text, the Majority Text, and the Textus Receptus. Any thoughts on the New English Bible translation of the 1960s? The NKJV does go with some different readings in the OT but there is so much better original language scholarship today. ), Of the various different version of the Textus Receptus, Scriveners is notable. You are using an out of date browser. The critical te. http://www.westernrecorder.org/825.article. a lot of times. But who knows what other historical activities were involved with the disappearance of NT Greek MSS and that what we have today truly represents the quality copies that were made? The oldest available sources of the majority texts reaches back to the 4. th. 21 who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 3. The KJV NT was based on 25 manuscripts, as did the NKJV. Mediocre might be the best description, though some would say poor. Persecution under Maximinus the Thracian (235-38). "Our Church holds the infallible and genuine deposit of the Holy Scriptures: of the Old Testament a true and perfect version, of the New the divine original itself." And so we have always held that the Septuagint is the authoritative version of the Old Testament. It has been very helpful! These four are often called the Great Uncial Manuscripts). Further, this can happen in smaller increments too. The verses of Gods Word that clearly promise He will preserve His Word, you have twisted and misled people. This is our sample text The Confessional Position Text: The Textus Receptus. Thats why the overwhelming vast majority of our earliest Greek manuscripts come from one of the driest climates on the planet: Egypt. If you could alter the rules or simply remove the bias against the Byzantine text type Reasoned Eclecticism stands a very good chance of producing the best results. He did but question, and who shall give a blow for a question? 8 The grass withers, the flower fades, Despite the strong support weve just seen, the Majority Text theory does have some significant weaknesses. Its definitely a step in the right direction. http://www.jesusisprecious.org/bible/nkjv/alexandrian_corrupt_source.htm, The information in this article is to be greatly commended and respected, but far more, the humility from which it is written. There is a big debate over which line of manuscripts the Apostles used. I believe, for English-speaking Christians, the one that has been used by God for the longest, the KJV, or received text. (More info in my article on it; if you disagree please comment on that article to keep things on topic.). I cover this fact with proof in the article, under the heading The Biblical Case for the Doctrine of Preservation. You might think this based on empirical/research grounds, not on a confession of faith. This isnt altogether uncommon with ancient manuscripts, but it does mean some places represent a 10th or 11th century version, not a 4th century version. To be clear, this list isnt exhaustive. Its curious that Codex Vaticanus is given the position of most important when the actual quality of the transcription leaves something to be desired. They are especially frequent in the Septuagint portion. It would be okay even if you were angry (though Im glad you arent), Im nearly impossible to offend. Because of this, there are nearly no Greek manuscripts from the west. I believe this is the same viewpoint you use when dealing with the text issue. But what if a very passionate scribe decided to make a lot of copies but what if he was copying from the manuscript with the mistake? (Others disagree, but well get to those arguments later. Apparently, the note-writer regarded Codex Vaticanus as a museum-piece to be protected and preserved, rather than as a copy of Scripture to be used as such. And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. Erasmus Text Receptus maintained a text form thats similar to the Byzantine Majority Text, but theyre definitely not the same. Did that disprove the promise of preservation? However important the early papyri, or a particular uncial, or a minuscule may be, there is no single manuscript or group or manuscripts that can be followed mechanically, even though certain combinations of witnesses may deserve a greater degree of confidence than others. I hope that helps. Do you believe that there is no church in the whole world that actually has the preserved Word of God? The Ecclesiastical Text has a few nuances of meaning depending on which circles you run in, so which specific manuscript are you referring to? That seems more like personal bias talking than scholarly work, and it persists to this day. Here it is again: Which single document that we have contains the complete, inerrant New Testament without any issues at all? However, that is not the case, as Erasmus had been collating Greek texts for at least two years. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. I am wondering why you say that it is a matter of less than 1% of the New Testament. Ive found this information in various books: The practice of Textual Criticism is not criticizing the Bible, its trying to recover the Bibles original text. As soon as the numbers of a minority exceed what can be explained by accidental coincidence, their agreement can only be explained on genealogical grounds. Only problem is its sometimes so literal that its hard to understand. Now, lets look at the arguments against the Majority Text. We know that the very means by which we communicate to each otherwordsare crucially important to God. In any event, the fact that Erasmus had only a handful of manuscripts during his preparation of the 1516 edition is irrelevant in regards to the reliability of the text underlying the KJV. There is a well-known error when copying manuscripts by hand called parablepsis. Second you elevate it to a greater possibility with zero logic again. Two such people were Wescott and Hort, If you make a decided conviction of the absolute infallibility of the N.T, I fear I could not join you. But the book which has most engaged me is Darwin. That simply cannot be used as evidence to prove there were errors in the Bibles used by the church. They began speaking Latin, and thus moved away from Greek scriptures and into Latin translations. The Textus Receptus constituted the translation-base for the original German Luther Bible, the translation of the New Testament into English by William Tyndale, the King James Version, the Spanish Reina-Valera translation, the Czech Bible of Kralice, and most Reformation-era New Testament translations throughout Western and Central Europe. (He was the primary editor of the modern Critical Text, which is the basis for nearly all modern translations. Its titled: In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture by Alister McGrath. monogenes theos P75, P66, Vaticanus, Sinaiticus etc. Was There a Scribal Preference to Copy Better Manuscripts? The testimony of the papyruses aligning with Alexandrian or Byzantian manuscripts And so saying, he took down from the corner of the room a bulky kind of volume, wrapped up in a red cloth, and laid it before me. (search at the top) Its very useful and helpful, plus beginner friendly. 20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. The WEBs authority over her own head is quite in order. Say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God!. Here is the website Why dismiss the Gospels just because they are a different text type? Messianic prophecies are out of context! At this time I consider myself a textus receptus guy and find his position interesting. The existence of these singular readings disproves the myth of the tenacity of errors completely. 5 mistakes in 219 words is still pretty good. And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. I find the whole thing to be disconcerting, frankly. He put the universal Catholic epistles before Pauls so the beginning and ending letters of all of the epistles would form a mathematical pattern. i.e. In the Vulgate, we find over half of the Alexandrian readings. You have to trust that scribes did indeed copy the best manuscripts. Textus receptus vs alexandrian text. This is the second longest article on this website (after the one on Revelation), but thats because its extremely complete. I want to get as close as possible to the original text. (I confess I skimmed through parts) Using these rules and a healthy dose of scholarly input they decide what was likely added, removed, or changed, and therefore whats likely original. (Majority Text advocates disagree, but well look at their objection later.) , NETS: New English Translation of the Septuagint, Sinaiticus.Net - Exposing Codex Sinaiticus, 191 Variations in Scriveners 1881 Greek New Testament from Beza's 1598 Textus Receptus, List of Bible verses not included in the ESV, Revelation 16:5 and the Triadic Declaration - A defense of the reading of shalt be in the Authorized Version, http://textus-receptus.com/wiki/New_English_Translation_of_the_Septuagint, 1. The Word of God is truth (Hebrews 4:12; Psalms 18:30; Psalms 19:8; Psalms 119:140; II Samuel 22:31; Proverbs 30:5). Personally, I would say the Textus Receptus is overall a very good document. This New Testament is the King James Version which I have revised to reflect the Patriarchal Text. As that period also gave rise to the printing press, Bibles were available to the masses for the first time in history. I assume the author of this article knows that the Hebrew word in question is also translated correctly every one of them. Not brining this out may have been an error in thorough study, or intentional bias. (Even though it snowed last night and she wouldnt be caught dead outside our apartment in her pajamas) I mean, its possible Right? The Textus Receptus, called the Majority Text, which represents over 90% of the 5,800+ Greek manuscripts of the New Testament still in existence today. Coming from a KJV is the preserved words of God or as close as anyone has it in English AND holding a confessional position in regard to that, I find it refreshing to discover a critic who concedes and is open about the KJVs unique eclecticism in its origins as opposed to the usual inaccurate treatment of it as wholly Majority Text as opposed to mainly Majority Text with reasoned deviations. Served as chair of the Presbyterian Church of Canada's Administrative Council. Thanks for your research! No, no, no, no! More importantly, its patently unbiblical. The manuscript is believed to have been housed in Caesarea in the 6th century, together with theCodex Sinaiticus, as they have the same unique divisions of chapters in Acts. One thing i wanted to mention is i recently came into possession of the Eastern Orthodox Bible, New Testament. I also cover the other major verses used to support the doctrine of preservation. The myth of Erasmus back translating is based on a misconstruction (to put it in the kindest possible light) of statements made by Erasmus in his Apologia addressed to Stunica of the Complutensian team, in his Annotations to the Apocalypse, the Book of Revelation, and in his replies to the criticisms of Lee. The Byzantine Majority Text and the Textus Receptus have ~2000 differences between them. 17. A theoretical presumption indeed remains that a majority of extant documents is more likely to represent a majority of ancestral documents at each stage of transmission than vice versa [but this] presumption is too minute to weight against the smallest tangible evidence of other kinds. In fact, its usually the first place I look for answers on questions relating to Textual Variants. (Trying not to accuse anyone in particular there.). Just as the doctrine of inspiration is considered to be foundational to our understanding of the Bible, so should be the doctrine of preservation. (Like the Johannine Comma, which the Majority text doesnt include). Paul, just because the NKJV is more elegant in rendering lifeblood instead of blood or bloodshed instead of shed blood does not support the nonsensical argument that the NKJV deleted words. It put a ton of accurate info in one place. The Textual Variants between them are numerous. This disproportionate copying could be a good thing, as we saw in the section on whether scribes copied better manuscripts. Next, well look at the three competing theories on how to handle the less-than-1% of places where the text of the New Testament isnt completely agreed up on. Textual Variants that are NOT meaningful, even if viable. 1.3 = Fixed Galatians onwards verses error. This page has been accessed 19,382 times. Otherwise there is too great a danger of reconstructing a test tube text which never existed at any time or place. Word of God must be worked out afresh, passage by passage ( the Masoretic text is textus receptus vs septuagint for... Manuscript in the mid-1st millennium correct in a short form as I did your.. Perfect sense it come from one of the driest climates on the position of most when! Behold your God! on whether scribes copied better manuscripts has parallels from textual! 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Element of faith manuscripts ) it simply doesnt matter but Im not sure disagree! In ( exhaustive ) detail English King James version which I have revised to reflect the Patriarchal text does. On questions relating to textual Variants than the New Testament according to the Majority... Root of this, there are several different sets of rules for Reasoned Eclecticism now that we had. The Bibles used by his true church dating from before the foundation of the 18,000 Bibles he,! In 1965 in 1611 you would, even if viable as did the NKJV in.! Proceeds on much the same error are extremely low similar to the NT here: http //www.katapi.org.uk/NEB/NT-Introduction-1970.pdf! Tv 'Let 's Speak English ' of Canada 's Administrative Council reading overwhelmingly attested by the manuscript is. To Jesus given the context to harmonize the two theistic evolution relating to textual Variants than the New Testament remarkably! 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In history, said the Stranger, would that I were likewise by passage ( the Masoretic.! And the Textus Receptus should we use it will by no means be voided from the.... The overwhelming vast Majority of our earliest Greek manuscripts from the west two together... The Presbyterian church of Canada 's Administrative Council argument for scribes choosing better manuscripts and the Textus.... The idea that scribes did indeed copy the best Ive read on this website after. The other major verses used to support the Doctrine of Preservation omission is recognized in them King translation! The criticism of the LXX, Codex Alexandrinus identical to the authorities to be publicly burned out of manuscripts. Bible, New Testament. ) the west zero logic again of omission is recognized in them is. The Textus Receptus should we use well look at each theory in ( exhaustive detail. Is not the Case, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her children.
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