If the Bible Has Been Added To, Can We Trust It?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - A long time listener to the podcast writes and asks this,
00:00:08.320 | Pastor John, how can I trust the Bible
00:00:10.840 | if there have been so many add-ins,
00:00:13.460 | such as Mark chapter 16, verses nine to 20,
00:00:17.360 | and John chapter seven, verse 53, to chapter eight,
00:00:20.960 | verse 11, and of course, first John five,
00:00:24.040 | verses seven and eight.
00:00:26.200 | If these verses have been added into the Bible
00:00:28.920 | and should not have been,
00:00:30.440 | how do we know that other things
00:00:32.000 | have not been added into the Bible as well?
00:00:34.860 | - The answer precisely to the question as it's posed
00:00:40.840 | is that we use the same criteria
00:00:45.220 | to know about other passages
00:00:48.320 | that we used to know that these three texts were additions.
00:00:55.120 | In other words, if there is a science
00:00:58.980 | that can spot these three texts that he mentioned
00:01:02.440 | as not part of the original biblical manuscripts,
00:01:06.880 | then that same science, in the same way,
00:01:10.520 | can perform the same function for all the other passages.
00:01:14.060 | There's the answer.
00:01:15.680 | Now, let's step back and paint the larger picture.
00:01:20.640 | The Bible was written in Hebrew and Greek
00:01:23.640 | centuries before the printing press, right?
00:01:26.300 | Printing press invented about 1450 AD.
00:01:31.200 | First original language biblical manuscript printed 1516.
00:01:36.200 | That means that these handwritten documents
00:01:41.280 | called manuscripts were handed down
00:01:44.440 | for by human copying for centuries.
00:01:49.020 | And the question really is,
00:01:51.460 | do we have today the same Greek and Hebrew text
00:01:56.460 | in front of us to translate into English
00:02:00.100 | or whatever language or to read in Greek and Hebrew?
00:02:02.300 | Do we have the same text that corresponds
00:02:05.140 | essentially with the original documents
00:02:07.500 | that God inspired when they wrote them down?
00:02:12.460 | Now, the science of textual criticism,
00:02:15.540 | there's the phrase, textual criticism.
00:02:17.540 | That's what this branch of scholarship is called.
00:02:20.500 | That science is devoted to answer that question.
00:02:25.500 | It specializes in comparing thousands
00:02:29.400 | of Greek and Hebrew manuscripts
00:02:32.040 | and deducing from those comparisons
00:02:36.580 | where there are differences between two or more, dozens,
00:02:42.660 | and which reading, where there are differences,
00:02:46.740 | which reading is the more likely to be original,
00:02:51.740 | which one is original.
00:02:53.740 | Now, here's the reason we may have strong confidence
00:02:58.740 | that the science of textual criticism is successful
00:03:03.260 | in discerning the original wording of the manuscripts.
00:03:08.060 | There are over 5,800 Greek manuscripts.
00:03:13.060 | Just leave aside the Old Testament for a moment
00:03:15.340 | and just think Greek.
00:03:17.340 | 5,800 Greek manuscripts,
00:03:20.100 | either whole New Testament books or fragments.
00:03:23.380 | This is incredible, incredible,
00:03:26.540 | if you know your manuscript history.
00:03:29.220 | In other words, when the text critics sit down
00:03:32.260 | to do their work, they are not comparing
00:03:36.540 | three or four or 50 manuscripts
00:03:40.580 | which might leave us wondering
00:03:42.980 | what the original wording was.
00:03:44.860 | They have thousands of texts from different places
00:03:48.540 | in different times that function as confirmations
00:03:53.540 | of what the original wording was.
00:03:56.720 | So here's the way Daniel Wallace,
00:03:58.940 | who's a very prominent text critic, puts it.
00:04:02.860 | This is a quote now.
00:04:04.180 | "New Testament scholars face an embarrassment of riches
00:04:07.940 | "compared to the data of classical Greek
00:04:10.380 | "and Latin scholars have to contend with.
00:04:13.020 | "The average classical author's literary remains
00:04:18.020 | "number no more than 20 copies.
00:04:21.420 | "We have more than 1,000 times the manuscript data
00:04:27.280 | "for the New Testament than we do
00:04:31.120 | "for the average Graeco-Roman author.
00:04:34.500 | "Not only this, but the extant manuscripts
00:04:38.300 | "of the average classical author
00:04:40.660 | "are no earlier than 500 years after the time he wrote,
00:04:44.820 | "but for the New Testament, we wait a mere decades
00:04:49.380 | "for surviving copies."
00:04:52.620 | But here's the real clincher,
00:04:54.620 | and this I think is the bottom line answer to the question.
00:04:58.580 | Even where there remains some uncertainty
00:05:03.580 | about which wording in a particular text,
00:05:07.100 | which wording is original and which is not,
00:05:10.820 | those places don't have, and they're very few,
00:05:15.300 | they don't have any effect on the essential truths
00:05:20.180 | of the Christian message.
00:05:22.120 | So listen to Paul Wegner, and I would recommend his book.
00:05:25.660 | It's called "A Student's Guide
00:05:27.620 | "to Textual Criticism of the Bible,"
00:05:29.660 | and here's what he said.
00:05:31.100 | "It is important to keep in perspective
00:05:33.700 | "the fact that only a very small part of the text
00:05:38.700 | "is in question, approximately 10% of the Old Testament,
00:05:42.340 | "7% of the New Testament, and of these,
00:05:46.900 | "most variants make little difference
00:05:50.140 | "to the meaning of any passage."
00:05:53.020 | And Daniel Wallace, who has debated Bart Ehrman,
00:05:56.460 | who is quite skeptical about the reliability
00:05:59.420 | of the New Testament, he's debated him,
00:06:02.220 | and here's what he says.
00:06:03.640 | "For more than two centuries,
00:06:06.600 | "biblical scholars have declared
00:06:09.060 | "that no essential affirmation of Christian doctrine
00:06:14.060 | "has been affected by the variants.
00:06:17.120 | "Even Ehrman," he says, "has conceded this point
00:06:21.520 | "in three debates that I have had with him."
00:06:25.500 | And so Don Carson sums it up like this.
00:06:29.260 | "What is at stake is a purity of text
00:06:33.300 | "of such a substantial nature
00:06:37.120 | "that nothing we believe to be doctrinally true
00:06:41.060 | "and nothing we are commanded to do
00:06:43.720 | "is in any way jeopardized by the variants."
00:06:48.720 | So the real question becomes then,
00:06:52.700 | and here's where I would leave us,
00:06:54.820 | the real question becomes not do we have
00:06:58.160 | the original words of the biblical authors.
00:07:00.660 | Virtually all of us agree that we do
00:07:05.220 | with the variants that we're not sure about
00:07:07.780 | affecting no manner of doctrine or ethics.
00:07:11.600 | The question now is do you see
00:07:15.660 | the peculiar glory of God shining through those words
00:07:20.660 | and confirming to your own mind and heart
00:07:25.020 | that these are the very words of God?
00:07:28.020 | That's the crucial question.
00:07:30.320 | - Yeah, that is crucial, the most pressing question
00:07:32.960 | for every Bible reader.
00:07:34.000 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:07:35.320 | And speaking of peculiar glory,
00:07:37.320 | Pastor John recently published a book by that title,
00:07:40.100 | and the quotes referenced in this episode
00:07:42.160 | are all taken from chapter four of that book,
00:07:44.660 | a chapter titled,
00:07:45.500 | "Do We Have the Very Words of the Biblical Authors?"
00:07:49.720 | And to get that chapter, download the entire book,
00:07:52.200 | "A Peculiar Glory," in full, free of charge,
00:07:55.280 | at desiringgod.org/books.
00:07:58.480 | Well, how can we not waste our lives?
00:08:02.880 | Tomorrow, Pastor John is gonna point our attention
00:08:04.800 | to Proverbs chapter three, verses five and six,
00:08:07.680 | in search of the answer to that vital question
00:08:10.220 | that we cannot ignore.
00:08:11.560 | How do we not waste our lives?
00:08:14.660 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke, and I'll see you tomorrow.
00:08:17.320 | (upbeat music)
00:08:19.900 | (upbeat music)
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