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Do We Have the Very Words of the Biblical Authors? 83 The huge number of manuscripts of the New Testament has two complementary results. First, there are many variations in wording among them because they were all copied by hand and subject to human error. Second, variations tend to be self-correcting because of the enormous number of manuscripts we have to compare. Again, F. F. Bruce comments, Fortunately, if the great number of MSS [manuscripts] increases the number of scribal errors, it increases proportionately the means of correcting such errors, so that the margin of doubt left in the process of recovering the exact original wording is not so large as might be feared; it is in truth remarkably small. 12 Do We Have Access to What Was Originally Written? What does this mean for our question Do we have access today to the words that the biblical writers wrote? Remembering that they wrote in Greek and Hebrew, not English, the answer is yes, we do, in every way that makes a difference in the truthfulness and authority of the Bible. Following are several summary statements from scholars to this effect. Paul Wegner, in his Student’s Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible, writes, It is important to keep in perspective the fact that only a very small part of the text is in question—approximately 10 percent of the Old Testament and 7 percent of the New Testament. Of these, most variants make little difference to the meaning of any passage, as Douglas Stuart explains: “It is fair to say that the verses, chapters, and books of the Bible would read largely the same, and would leave the same impressions with the reader, even if one adopted virtually every possible alternative reading to those now serving as the basis for current English translations.” 13 Daniel Wallace has debated Bart Ehrman and reports his reaffirmed persuasion: 12 Ibid., 14. 13 Paul Wegner, A Student’s Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2006), 298, citing Douglas Stuart, “Inerrancy and Textual Criticism,” in Inerrancy and Common Sense, ed. Roger R. Nicole and J. Ramsey Michaels (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1980), 98.
84 What Books and Words Make Up the Christian Scriptures? Ever since the 1700s, with Johann Albrecht Bengel who studied the meaningful and viable textual variants, scholars have embraced what is called “the orthodoxy of the variants.” For more than two centuries, most biblical scholars have declared that no essential affirmation [of Christian doctrine] has been affected by the variants. Even Ehrman has conceded this point in the three debates I have had with him. 14 Similarly D. A. Carson sums up the situation this way: “What is at stake is a purity of text of such a substantial nature that nothing we believe to be doctrinally true, and nothing we are commanded to do, is in any way jeopardized by the variants.” 15 The Muslim Counterclaim What this implies, among many other things, is that there is no historical evidence at all for a different Jesus, or a different Christianity, than the one we have in the New Testament we all use. You can disbelieve it and say that it was all somehow fabricated, but you can’t bring forward any evidences of a different Jesus or a different faith from the one found in the New Testament. They don’t exist. This is relevant in responding to Islam. One of the popular claims of Islam is that even though Allah gave a book to Jesus, that book is lost, and all the other (Christian) records of who Jesus was and what he did are corruptions of original sources. As one Muslim website puts it, “The original teachings are simply lost from this earth. Only the Glorious Quran is the original Word of Allah Almighty. Nothing else stands. All of the other books contain corruptions and lies in them.” 16 This claim is essential for Islam because the Islamic view of Jesus is radically different from the view in the New Testament: Islam affirms that Jesus was born of a virgin, that he lived a sinless life, that he performed mighty miracles, and that he will come again at the end of history. It even calls him a word from God. However, 14 “An Interview with Daniel B. Wallace on the New Testament Manuscripts,” http://www.thegospel coalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2012/03/21/an-interview-with-daniel-b-wallace-on-the-new-testament -manuscripts/; accessed February 19, 2015. 15 D. A. Carson, The King James Version Debate (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1979), 56. 16 http://www.answering-christianity.com/injil_and_gospels_according_to_islam.htm; accessed February 20, 2015.
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A Peculiar Glory: How the Christian
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In God, whose word I praise, in the
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PART 4 How Can We Know the Christia
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12 Introduction The Heavens First,
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14 Introduction Edwards. Edwards ca
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16 Introduction Scripture is not re
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18 Introduction press was invented
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Now to him who is able to keep you
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22 A Place to Stand it says is true
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24 A Place to Stand somewhere in re
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26 A Place to Stand what liberal ar
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28 A Place to Stand all. Maybe a dr
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30 A Place to Stand up. Students wo
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134 How Can We Know the Christian S
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9 What It Is Like to See the Glory
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What It Is Like to See the Glory of
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10 Pondering Pascal’s Wager As I
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Pondering Pascal’s Wager 173 conf
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Pondering Pascal’s Wager 177 In o
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Pondering Pascal’s Wager 179 word
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11 John Calvin and the Internal Tes
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Men . . . by their unrighteousness
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14 In the Fulfillment of Prophecy I
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15 In the Miracles of Jesus Continu
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In the Miracles of Jesus 241 (John
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In the Miracles of Jesus 247 Simila
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In the Miracles of Jesus 249 But wh
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Conclusion My conclusion is that
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Conclusion 283 but also forbids coe
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Conclusion 285 We have seen this in
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General Index Abel, 47, 48 Abram/Ab
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General Index 289 of, 23-24, 91-92,
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General Index 291 Jewish Bible (the
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General Index 293 Tabitha, 107 Temp
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296 Scripture Index 69:25 101 72:19
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298 Scripture Index 2:11 240, 248 2
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300 Scripture Index 15:8-9 214 15:9
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302 Scripture Index 1:8-9 40 1:10-1
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