Textual Criticism of accepted ancient documents Author Since these indicators pertain to any ancient writing we can proceed to apply them to both the Bible as well as other works of antiquity, as done in the tables below (1). So now we know two indicators used to determine the textual reliability of ancient documents: 1) measuring the time between original composition and earliest existing manuscript copies, and 2) counting the number of existing manuscript copies. This simple example illustrates a second principle we can use to verify manuscript integrity – The more existing manuscripts that are available, the easier it is to detect & correct errors and to ascertain the content of the original. It is more likely that the error is made once, rather than the same error repeated three times, so it is likely that MSS #2 has the copy error, and the author was writing about Joan, not John. Now it is easier to deduce which manuscript probably has the error. The more manuscripts the greater the textual base Now suppose we found two more manuscript copies of the same work, as shown below: The question is -Which one has the error? From the available evidence it is very difficult to determine. The original author had either been writing about Joan OR about John, and the other of these manuscripts contains a copy error. With few manuscipts (MSS) the textual base is small Suppose we have two such manuscript copies and in the same section of each of them we find the following translated phrase: Of course, usually more that one manuscript copy of a document is in existence today. The shorter this interval (labelled ‘ x’ in the diagram) the more confidence we can place in the accurate preservation of the document to our modern day, since the period of uncertainty is reduced. Consequently, a principle used help answer questions about textual reliability is to look at the length of this time span. This time period predating the origin of currently existing copies (the period x) is thus the interval of textual uncertainty. For example, if copying errors (intentional or otherwise) were made when the 2 nd copy was made from the 1 st copy, we would not be able to detect them as neither of these documents are available to compare against each other.
Consequently the period from 500 BC to 500 AD (labeled x in the diagram) is the period where we cannot make any copy verifications since all manuscripts from this period have disappeared. This means that the earliest that we can know of the state of the document is only from 500 AD onwards. In our example diagram this extant copy was made in 500 AD. At some point a copy is preserved so that it is in existence (extant) today ( 3 rd copy). As the years advance, copies are made of the copy ( 2 nd copy & 3 rd copy).
VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE PROFESSIONAL
A professional class of people called scribes did the copying work. This original however does not last indefinitely, so before it decays, is lost, or destroyed, a manuscript (MSS) copy of it is made ( 1 st copy). This simplified diagram shows an example of an ancient document written at 500 BC. This figure illustrates the process by which any such writing has been preserved over time.Įxample of Stages in life of a hypothetical ancient document Naturally this question is true of any ancient writing. Can this game be comparable to the passing of the Bible through time, so that what we read today may be substantially different from the original writings? Principles of Textual Criticism Then the last person says the message out loud and all participants note how it has changed so much from its start at the beginning of the human chain.
Since the original manuscripts have long been lost, how do we know that what we read today in the Bible is what the original authors actually wrote long ago? As my resolute friend pointed out to me, many young kids often play a game called telephone, wherein a message is whispered into someone’s ear, and (s)he in turn whispers this message into the next person’s ear until the message has traversed all participants in the game. So the original manuscripts were copied by hand, generation after generation, as languages died out and new ones arose, as empires crumbled and new powers ascended.
For most of these millennia there has been no printing press, photocopy machines or publishing companies.
VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE PLUS
After all, it was written two thousand plus years ago. The question my inquirer was asking is fairly straightforward – many of us ask it, and rightly so! It stems from what we know about the Bible. “Why should I even consider the Bible? It was written so long ago, has had so many translations and revisions done to it – it is most likely that its original message has been altered and misunderstood over the course of time.” The young man who asked me this question was intent, wondering if there was any reasonable answer to his skeptical outlook about the Bible.
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