How the Bible Came to Us

1. How the Bible Came to Us Transmission of the NT

2. History of the NT Text • The autographs and earliest copies of NT books were probably written on papyrus. • Shorter letters were on a single sheet, longer works on scrolls. • Vellum came into wider use about the 3rd century. • The letters would have been delivered to the churches by scribes, friends, or other travelers. • All NT books were written by A.D. 100.

3. History of the NT Text • Constantine’s edict in 313 reduced persecution, permitted freedom of worship, and increased copies of the NT. • From about the 4th century, monks took up the task of copying and studying scripture.

4. History of the NT Text • Styles of writing changed through the years and are an aid in dating mss: • Uncial – all capital letters, no spaces or punctuation, used in the earliest mss and continuing through the fourteenth century. • Cursive – followed uncials, comparable to our cursive writing, used from third to ninth centuries, was faster. • Minuscule – followed cursive and very similar to it, though smaller letters. Used from ninth to fifteenth centuries. Made for faster and more compact copying. • As the books were collected into a canon, divisions were made to mark off books and sections. Verse divisions were added about 1551. • Colophons at the end of a book often include the name of the scribe, the date, and other information that the scribe wanted to include.

6. NT Textual Criticism • Textual criticism seeks to find the original reading among variants. • Variants are not errors, but differences in wording among the various mss. • The actual number of variants among NT mss is around 10%. • The greatest number of these are differences in spelling; others include the omission of short Greek words or variations in word order. • The two major editions in use today are the UBS The Greek New Testament (4th edition revised, 1994) and Novum Testamentum Graece (27th revised edition, 1993).

7. NT Textual Criticism • A key question for any textual critic: eclectic text or single text? • Those who choose a single text type believe that type has most accurately preserved the text. • The eclectic approach determines the original reading by looking at all text types. • This issue is vital for the King James only debate. • Proponents for the KJV argue that it is based on a superior text type called the Byzantine text. • But the KJV was originally translated from only six or seven medieval mss, whereas today we have thousands of mss, some dating to the 2nd century.

8. Procedure for NT Textual Criticism • Collect and evaluate the external mss evidence. • Mss are listed in the critical apparatus. • Evaluation is based on standard copyists errors, both intentional and unintentional, and the rules of textual criticism. • Examine the internal evidence of grammar, context, and author’s style. • Determine the most plausible reading among the variants.

9. Examples of Copyist Errors in the NT – Intentional Corrections • Linguistic corrections • This would include alternate spellings of words and grammatical corrections, for example, correcting a case from nominative to accusative in Rev 2:20. • Historical corrections • Mark 8:31 was corrected from Jesus rising “after three days” to “the third day.” • Harmonistic corrections • These arose from the temptation to make discordant parallel passages agree. For example, some mss introduced the words “It was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek,” at Luke 23:38 to make it harmonize with John 19:20.

10. Examples of Copyist Errors in the NT – Intentional Corrections • Doctrinal corrections • Some scribes had difficulty in reconciling the statement of Matt. 24:36 with the deity of Christ, so they omitted “nor the Son.” • Natural corrections • This involved rounding off phrases in a way that seemed natural to the scribes, e.g. some did not like writing “the chief priests” without adding “the scribes” (Matt. 26:3).

11. Examples of Copyist Errors in the NT – Unintentional Errors • Errors of the eye • Faulty eyesight could cause a scribe to mistake one letter for another, or omit a line from two that ended the same way. • Errors of the ear • When scribes made copies from dictation, certain sounds would be indistinguishable and result in different spellings. • Errors of memory • Between the glance at the exemplar and the writing of what a scribe saw could account for some differences, especially in word order (Mark 1:5 has three different sequences of the same three words).

12. Examples of Copyist Errors in the NT – Unintentional Errors • Errors of the pen • This could result in faulty spelling and a serious change in meaning, e.g., in John 5:39 Jesus said that the Scriptures: • ai` marturou/sai peri. evmou/\ “are bearing witness concerning me” • a`marta,nousai peri. evmou/\ “are sinning concerning me” • Errors of judgment • In one case, a scribe was copying the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3:23-28, apparently using an exemplar of two columns and twenty-eight lines to the column...but he followed the lines all the way across the columns, with the result that practically every name is assigned to the wrong father.

13. Canons of Textual Criticism • Manuscripts must be weighed, not just counted. • Strictly by number, most mss have “in Ephesus” in Eph. 1:1, but the earliest ones omit the phrase. The letter was likely encyclical. • Determine which reading would most likely give rise to the others. • By comparing two different readings, it will often be evident which came first and how the other(s) developed from it. • The “harder” reading is usually preferable. • Peri. de. th/j h`me,raj evkei,nhj kai. w[raj ouvdei.j oi=den( ouvde. oi` a;ggeloi tw/n ouvranw/n ouvde. o` ui`o,j( eiv mh. o` path.r mo,noj (Matt. 24:36).

14. Canons of Textual Criticism • The shorter reading is generally preferred. • 'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen’ (Matt. 6:13). • The last sentence is not in the earliest mss and may have been added by a scribe for use in public scripture reading. • Determine which reading is more appropriate to the context. • Careful! This one can be very subjective.

15. A Fitting Conclusion • “[I]t is reassuring at the end to find that the general result of all these discoveries and 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” (Sir Frederick Kenyon, as quoted by Wegner, p. 234).

16. Next Time: Early Translations of the Bible