Can We Trust the New Testament?
Continuation of Chapter 2: FACTS AND FALLACIES
To be continued...
Continuation of Chapter 2: FACTS AND FALLACIES
MANUSCRIPTS AND MISTAKES
This does not, of course, mean that we know precisely what the New Testament writers penned. The very wealth of evidence makes the sifting and sorting out of it a most complex task. But two things can be said. When everything has been taken into account, the number of variants that make any difference (let alone any important difference) to the meaning is extremely small. The English reader may test this for himself by looking at the marginal readings at the foot of the page in the NEB. (They were unfortunately omitted in the popular, in contrast to the library, edition of the New Testament when that was first published separately, but now they are there in the standard edition of the whole Bible.) There are two kinds of marginal readings, which represent possible, though not in the opinion of the majority probable, alternatives. One is introduced by a simple 'Or' and that indicates a different way of translating the same Greek text. The other is introduced by a phrase like 'Some witnesses read (or add or omit)' This indicates an alternative manuscript reading, and is alone relevant for assessing the difference which textual uncertainty introduces. Going through these latter will show how relatively rarely the meaning is affected. Thus in the book of Revelation (which no scholar, incidentally, would ever call 'Revelations': where does this popular image come from?) these can be counted on the fingers of two hands, and none seriously alters the sense.
To be continued...
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