The Book of Ages, which is known as The Bible, has been Christianity’s handbook since the early days of the Church. It is a book that has guided many souls through perilous storms of life and has given priceless instructions concerning every facet of life, and like its author, it is no respecter of persons. Anyone who ventures therein can be helped and encouraged immensely by what they find, or they may be cut deeply and killed by its law. It has been attested that this book is THE INERRANT WORD OF GOD. However, many have not realized that this "inerrant word of God" has also guided large numbers of people down the road to spurious beliefs and grave deceptions. Therefore, the question might be, WHICH BIBLE is THE INERRANT WORD OF GOD? Is it …show more content…
Whether it was deliberate or planned, we do not know; but it seems that the greatest of infractions began with the Latin Vulgates. (Vulgate: from the Latin, vulgus, relating to the common people or the speech of common people. From which comes the English word, vulgar.) This was before Jerome wrote his Latin version. Their inception was during the 2nd century by the Latin speaking churches of North Africa, and they drifted a great deal from the Greek and Hebrew texts. Nevertheless, they used these inferior translations until the 4th century. A critical ecclesiastical revision was made in Northern Italy, which was by then also using Latin Vulgates. This was of little help, for they were also very poorly translated, and by the end of the 4th century the Latin texts of the Bible in the Western Church had fallen into the highest degree of …show more content…
His several versions were adopted by the church as well as the other Latin versions that were available, and by the 8th century the corruption had arrived to such a height, that Charlemagne instructed Alcuin to revise the Latin text, which was considered one of the more accurate Vulgates. However, by the 15th century many others were being used as well, and the invention of the printing press increased the flood of unreliable texts. When the Council of Trent declared the Vulgate to be the authoritative text of scripture, the need of a standard text became more urgent than ever. An edition was then published in 1590 under the supervision of the Pope Sixtus V, with the famous constitution prefixed, in which Sixtus affirmed the total authority of the edition for all future time. It was soon found, however, that this edition also was defective; and accordingly another edition was prepared under papal authority. It appeared in 1592 in the Pontificate of Clement VIII. This version helped some but not a great deal. All in all, the Old Testament had suffered the most at the hands of the Latin translators. In the New Testament far more has been done for the correction of the Vulgate, but even here no critical edition has yet been published. Nonetheless, the vast power which the Vulgate has had in determining the theological terms of Western Christendom can hardly be overrated.
A controversy of immense silliness has recently broken out among Evangelicals regarding the validity of modern, conservative translations of the Bible like the New American Standard, the New International, and the New King James. The controversy was ignited by a book written by Gail Riplinger entitled New Age Bible Versions.
The study of textual criticism is important when talking about any historical manuscript or text. In particular, when talking about something with as much impact and influence as the bible, textual criticism is a necessary part of scholarship. Brad Ehrman does an excellent job in explaining the basics of textual criticism and how it can be used to determine the accuracy of biblical texts and manuscripts. His book, Misquoting Jesus, serves as a primer to the study of historical biblical manuscripts. As Ehrman states in his introduction, the thesis explained in the text is that biblical manuscripts have been changed throughout history, both intentionally and non-intentionally, and that those changes were affected by the attitudes and beliefs of the scribes.
A ban on the reading or possessing the Bible by the common people was placed from AD 500 to 1500 for about a thousand years. However, it was at the council of Valencia, the Bible was placed on “The Index of Forbidden Books.”
The first of these was the KJV, initially created in 1611. Since the KJV is the earliest translation, it is commonly known as the most accurat...
no doubt that it was written to please King James 1, who at the time
Even though humans wrote the text, translating it and passing it down from generations to generations, God’s truth is unchanging. Debates of the inerrancy of the bible cannot usurp God as the King of grace. Instead of focusing on the inerrancy of the Bible, individuals who wish to seek a life of faith should focus on the inspiration God is showing them in his word. These revelations should move them into applicable, daily life changing implications from what they have learned. God shows revelations of himself through the Bible, and his character is revealed time and time again throughout scripture. Any faulty facts or discrepancies in grammar or data, should not take away from the value that scripture holds. When we read scripture we bring new meaning of interpretations of the truths God shows us, since new eras and environmental factors will be influential on how we process information. The bible is not just a fact book, telling humans stories of the past, but instead the bible is inspired instructions for how we can deal with spiritual and ethical encounters we
In this work he makes mention of the fact that during his lifetime, James, Jude, 2 and 3 John, as well as 2 Peter were among the disputed writings. However, while there was some degree of confusion over the authorship, he is quick to mention that they were nevertheless recognized by many within the church. While some detractors might wish to discredit the canon over this issue of confusion, Köstenberger is quick to point out that what is more telling in this letter is that there was a discussion about which books were to be considered canonical in the first place. Athanasius, in his AD 367 Easter letter to the churches in Egypt, for the first time declared that the books of the Old and New Testament, as we have them today, were to be considered canonical. As he wrote, they are to be considered fountains of salvation. Notably, he also wrote that the apocryphal books, such as The Wisdom of Solomon and Tobit, serve as mere reading material, as they are only the inventions of heretics. His recommendations were then accepted at the Council of Hippo Regius in AD 393 when 27 books of the New Testament were affirmed. Of note is the fact that these lists were in no sense the result of debate. The church simply "recognized as scripture...those writings that had guided its
earliest copy was found in 400 BC. This is compared to the New Testament that
Many claimed the King James was a bitter enemy of the Catholic religion. He always tried to extend his protestant religion to the entire island. It is also said that the Roman clerics tried to kill him more then once since was born at the time of the reformation. Because of the changing conditions, another official revision of the Protestant Bible in English was needed. The reign of Queen Elizabeth imposed the uniformity upon the church. In a conference of churchmen it was requested that the Bible be revised because existing translation were corrupt and not answerable to the truth.
With almost six thousand cataloged manuscripts of the New Testament, it makes it harder to mis-translate than it would be to translate correctly.... ... middle of paper ... ... Therefore, the denial of the integrity of the New Testament texts would be a decision that would bring to question the researchers ability to examine evidence in a scholarly manner, then proceed to a logical and sound conclusion.
As a result of many contradictions and repeated stories, when reading the modern Old Testament it can be at times confusing. An opinion shared by many is that this confusion is a consequence of the Old Testament being written in different languages and then later translated into Latin as well as the several English versions by authors who sometimes it seems had their own specific agenda.
The Holy Bible: giant print ; containing the Old and New Testaments translated out of the original tongues ; and with the former translations diligently compared and revised, by His Majesty's special command, authorized King James version ; words of Chri. Giant print reference ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Pub. House, 1994.
Guttenberg provided with the church’s blessing, the first of many identical bibles texts. Only a few which were printed on vellum the remaining he used the Chinese’s version of
This week our studies concluded with offering students opportunity for reflection on continuing debates over biblical inerrancy and authority of Scripture. Our objectives included understanding the continuing debate of the doctrine of inerrancy and N. T. Wright’s bibliology in relation to some of his dialogue partners. Our final reading came from Denis Farkasfalvy’s book, Inspiration and Interpretation: A Theological Introduction to Sacred Scripture. This paper’s focus is my reflections of the material presented.
In this Modern age, there has been a stigma that the Old Testament is “Old” which derives from it being defined in relation to the “New” Testament, this has led as far back as Marcion of the 2nd Century, to advocate for its non-binding authority over the NT Christian and removal from the Christian Canon. The Old Testament and New Testament is a complete composition of the Bible. The Old Testament has authority since “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). In 2 Timothy, there is a clear allusion that the Old Testament is a letter to the New Testament, “what is true of the Old Testament must also be so of the New Testament as indivisible parts of divine revelation”.