As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh;
What do the differences between Bible manuscripts reveal? This paper is divided into the following sections:
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1. They require you to produce evidence on: WHEN, HOW and WHY was the Bible corrupted
2. Once upon a time, there was a myth about Bible manuscripts
3. Evidence: more than 50 verses either omitted or added, hundreds of others changed
4. Evidences from second and third century about Bible corruption
5. Do the changes and corruptions of manuscripts affect doctrine?
6. ?=”For God so loved the world”?
1.They require you to produce evidence on: WHEN, HOW and WHY was the Bible corrupted
My fellow countryman, Hilki Berisha, in an article published in ?The Live Paper? with the aim of evangelizing Kosovar Albanian Muslims, writes:
- Many Muslims wrongly presume that the Qur?an was revealed to replace Hebraic and Christian Holy Writ because of the alleged reason that these last scriptures were corrupted, changed and lost?
Questions that are raised now are:
1. When and where did the change happen?
2. How did the change happen???[1]
And so on and so forth, continuing with Christian prominent logic of ?tell me how the original uncorrupted specific scripture read?. His brother in Christ from one anti-Islamic website makes two more specific questions:
- 3. What changes were made?
4. Where is the “original” Bible that we can compare it with to prove the change happened?[2]
We were asked these questions and we will now answer them.
“A layman in New Zealand, Evan Saddler, concerned about the formation of modern Bible versions which he believed to have been prepared from corrupted manuscripts, was challenged by a pastor concerning his competence to make such a judgment. “How many languages do you know?” asked the pastor. Mr. Saddler, a man of good humor, promptly replied, “Two! New Zealand and Australian.”
Unfazed by this humorous rejoinder, the pastor pressed his point. “How can you make yourself an expert on Bible translation if you do not know Greek or Hebrew?” Mr. Saddler replied by asking a question himself. “Do you understand Greek?” When assured that the pastor did, Mr. Saddler requested an analysis of the Greek wording upon which the New International Version translation of Matthew 18:11 was based. The pastor diligently set about his assigned task, but soon discovered that it was not easily fulfilled. Looking up from his Bible in confusion and amazement, the minister exploded, “But there is no Matthew 18:11!” His observation was correct. The tenth verse is present, and the twelfth, but the eleventh is entirely omitted. Quietly, Mr. Saddler replied, “Now what use is your knowledge of Greek when the text is missing?”[3]
A lot of noise has been raised, pro and contra on Bible corruption. You may have heard that the corruption issue is all about hearsay, prejudices and nothing else. The above-cited fragment from the book ?Modern Bible Translations Unmasked? by Dr. Russell R. Standish tells us a lot. It shows gently the ongoing war between ?King James Version Only? supporters and the rest of Christendom on the issue of which Bible version[4] to use, since the discovery of different Bible manuscripts faced us with a lot of problems and cleaned out the mythology of One Unchanged Bible. A missing verse tells us about textual corruption; it either shows that once the verse was there and than somebody removed it or opposite, the verse was never there but somebody added. But is it only a verse? If that would be the case, there would be no need to lose so much energy on that. However, what if the number is being multiplied badly and that several other changes in manuscript readings arise beside the omission/additions that may put faith in the Bible as an unchanged scripture in a real mess? You are then advised to prepare yourself in dealing with such chaos when reading what follows, for it may shatter whatever previous beliefs you may hold about the Bible.
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