How many Christians would admit that the bible has likely been edited and mistranslated over it's at least 2300 years as a written document?

Question

And many hundreds of years more as an oral tradition?

Imagine those monks illuminating books in poor light, translating from languages they didn't grow up speaking like Greek, Latin, Semitic, and Arabic, copying from other, older books that had been compiled by monks who had also translated them from other language and may have been poor printers, etc. The list goes on.

Also, look at things like the First Council of Nicaea (AD 325), which was specifically meant to determine which parts of the bible were canon and which were not.

Even if you insist on leaving out Church corruption (although I don't know why you would, there is plenty of evidence to suggest Church corruption both in modern and medieval times), can you ignore human error? Large portions of Christian scripture are dedicated to talking about how imperfect humans are, so it makes sense even within the Christian mindset that the people copying down the bible would have made many mistakes.

Answer 1

The books of the Old Testament were written from approximately 1400 B.C. to 400 B.C. The books of the New Testament were written from approximately A.D. 40 to A.D. 90. So, anywhere between 3400 to 1900 years have passed since a book of the Bible was written. In this time, the original manuscripts have been lost. They very likely no longer exist. Also during this time, the books of the Bible have been copied again and again. Copies of copies of copies have been made. In view of this, can we still trust the Bible?



When God originally inspired men to write His Word, it was God-breathed and inerrant (2 Timothy 3:16-17; John 17:17). The Bible nowhere applies this to copies of the original manuscripts. As meticulous as scribes were with the replication of the Scriptures, no one is perfect. As a result, minor differences arose in the various copies of the Scriptures. Of all of the thousands of Greek and Hebrew manuscripts that are in existence, no two were identical until the printing press was invented in the A.D. 1500s.



However, any unbiased document scholar will agree that the Bible has been remarkably well-preserved over the centuries. Copies of the Bible dating to the 14th century A.D. are nearly identical in content to copies from the 3rd century A.D. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, scholars were shocked to see how similar they were to other ancient copies of the Old Testament, even though the Dead Sea Scrolls were hundreds of years older than anything previously discovered. Even many hardened skeptics and critics of the Bible admit that the Bible has been transmitted over the centuries far more accurately than any other ancient document.



There is absolutely no evidence that the Bible has been revised, edited, or tampered with in any systematic manner. The sheer volume of biblical manuscripts makes it simple to recognize any attempts to distort God’s Word. There is no major doctrine of the Bible that is put in doubt as a result of the minor differences that exist between manuscripts.



Again, the question, can we trust the Bible? Absolutely! God has preserved His Word despite the unintentional failings and intentional attacks of human beings. We can have utmost confidence that the Bible we have today is the same Bible that was originally written. The Bible is God’s Word, and we can trust it (2 Timothy 3:16; Matthew 5:18).

Answer 2

1) The First Council of Nicaea did not determine what was to be in the Bible. They did not have that as a part of their business there.



2) The ancient manuscripts of the Bible are protected these days, and if there was any inscription added to them the scholars know where to look for them. This is to say that there have been additions, and because of the handwriting, what was said in the writing, and what year the writing was made were found out and typically are treated as spurious or regrettable additions which are not a part of the canon. Thanks for being concerned.



3) "Yew don' know nothin' Jon Snow."



edit: As a bisexual Christian I use the scriptures as they are, including anything thought to be added, in order to defend the Gospel from other Christians who pervert it. So, the Bible isn't perfect, but it is sufficient to defend what is defensible. I am so glad that I am able to use it in that way.

Answer 3

Absolutely! I get down votes for pointing it out, but:



The Word Of God is not some texts on some pages....only a certain version....a particular version of text that has been translated, edited, sometimes affected by the biases of the people that worked on the translation, etc.....



But there is such as thing as The Word of God....



It is what is there....behind....the Bible. It's the.....real Bible....if you like. It *shines through* the imperfect texts we have. It shines through "the glass darkly" and illuminates us in spite of men's fallible attempts to represent it.

Answer 4

Any honest Christian would research where the Bible came from, when it was modified and interpolated, when it was canonized, what it really says, and would thus renounce Christianity. We see that happen once in a while (Dan Barker, Matt Dilahunty, David Smalley, Bart Ehrman) but not that often.

Answer 5

Isn't it funny how that works out? Religion is this ability to trim out what you don't like and believe whatever you want from some holy book. The book is somehow infallible, except the parts you don't agree with, right? C'mon….lol

Answer 6

I don't really care about that... God has showed me that the Bible is definitely the Word of God. If you develop an intimate relationship with God, you will realize that everything God tells you, you can find it somewhere in the Bible.

Answer 7

Of course it has not only Bible but Quran and all other religious holy book has been editing and stealing scientific discoveries and claiming God did because religion is man made!

Answer 8

Most Christians I know accept "minor" translation errors, in fact many will downright use translation errors as an argument when certain passages are brought up (Such as those which use the word "unicorn"). The belief isn't that there isn't translation errors, is that there isn't any significant ones that undermine the meaning of the text.



Most also believe the Council of Nicaea was divinely inspired.



I am not trying to justify belief in Christianity, but rather my point is that this is an unconvincing argument. Most class textbooks have content in them that was assigned by a bureaucratic political machine, and quite a few even have major factual errors. That doesn't undermine the field of science or even the education system. This isn't to mention that many works throughout history have been translated and possibly mistranslated, such as the Odyssey. Despite those errors, I can still read an English translation of the Odyssey and have a fairly accurate understanding of it's content.

Answer 9

I wouldn't

Answer 10

I wouldn't

Answer 11

There is something at the beginning of MOST HOLY BIBLES it is called an PREFACE.... Take some time to READ IT.

Answer 12

There is something at the beginning of MOST HOLY BIBLES it is called an PREFACE.... Take some time to READ IT.

Answer 13

How many? A few hundred, maybe.

Answer 14

I HATE YOU ALL