The Truth of the Bible

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Are you asking what this is? You are saying, it looks familiar, but it is hard to read. You are correct. This is what John 1:1-5, looks in the English version of the Old Greek text. Looking at it in your own language seems hard enough, but trying to translate this from it's original language and text into your native tongue is a lot harder.

That being said, we are here to discuss the cannonicity of the Biblical texts. Starting with the Old Testament, we will examine how accurate our Bible is, and whether or not, it contains the word of God. Now the first five books of the Old Testament were written by Moses; from Genesis through Deuteronomy. They are accepted as God's own words as given to Moses and passed down to His children. Basically, they entail; the history of man; man's fall from Grace; the enslavement of the children of God, and their exodus from captivity. Finally, we are also given the Law's of God; The 10 commandments, and the Torah or Talmudic Laws.

The rest of the Old Testament Books were decided with the following requirements:

• Authority- Does the book speak with authority? Mk 1:22 Thus sayeth the Lord.
  
• Prophetic- Was the book/letter written by a Man of God? 2Thes. 2:2 , Heb 1:1
  
• Authentic- Does the book/letter teach the truth about God? Acts 17:11 , 1John 4:1-6
  
• Dynamic- Does the Book/Letter come with the power of God? Heb 4:12, 2Tim 3:15-16
• Accepted by the people of God? Ex.17:14 , 1Sam10:25, Dan. 9:2. quoting from another book or letter.
  

With these basic questions, the Israelites set the cannonicity of their texts. This moved several texts into a secondary role as historical, not canonical, as some churches use them for today. Today, however, there are several variations from the original texts and even from some of the translated texts.

The oldest texts still in existence date back to only 4-600 A.D. The oldest single text available is dated to 200-250A.D. That is almost 200 years from the original writings in the New Testament alone. The Old Testament was even older, since the last of the O.T writings was 400 years before Christ. During that time, you would think that many variations could sneak into the writings. This was a major concern until recently, when the dead sea scrolls were found. When they were compared to current writings of the O.T. they were accurate to within 2%. The only variances being more modern spellings of some words. The message of the text was 100% intact. Also found was the method of transcribing the texts. When the time came there were 16 basic tenants that were followed. The skins had to be prepared by a Jew, of the same size, only certain threads used to bind them, letters the same size, rows and columns the same, even the dress they wore, and cleansing of the flesh before writing the name of the Lord. Over a period of at least 2,400 years, the variances were almost non-existent.

The same is not completely true about the New Testament. Even though the gap between the original writings and current canon is only about 400 years, there have been many alterations to the texts. Most of this is attributed to the fact of the rapidly development of languages during this time period. With the expansion of the Roman Empire, occurring at about the same time as the spread of Christianity, the church found itself unable to keep track of the various viewpoints and customs that all these new converts brought with them. The Apostolic practices and teachings faded rapidly when more and more pagan believers came to the church. The writings of the Apologists show a defense of Christianity, by equating Jesus and God as Separate entities, since the pagans of the time, had no concept of just One God. Now others, also had differing points of view on Jesus, His deity, and exactly what was written in the scriptures. The Gnostic's had a belief system of a one on one relationship with God, and that all power would be given them when they fully understood His power. Others believed Jesus to be a blessed man of God, and his physical son (ref: Zues and Hercules from mythology). Still others separated God's spirit as a third entity, all three being one God. The original Byzantine monks that found the oldest scriptures did the best they could in trying to translate what they found. However, there were numerous scratch outs and alterations. Some were left, others were omitted or changed to what they thought was correct. The variations, however, have remained stable for several hundred years,now. As for some obvious alterations: Mat.28:19, is the most glaring. Both grammatical and logical progression, show that this scripture should read like this: " Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in my name: 20.- Teaching them to observe all thing whatsoever I have commanded you:and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Grammatical diction of the time demands this be written this way. The writings of Tartillian, which date to this period also refer to Mat. 28:19 as saying in my name. However, the oldest texts available show part of that verse as being blacked out and written over in a newer ink at a later time with the words , "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost". Without proof of who changed the scriptures and why, they were left as they were. Other scriptures have also been altered, some to espouse the trinitarian point of view, others to delete Gnostic teachings which filtered into some of the texts.

The oldest of the translations is the Greek Septuagint. It was translated for the Hebrews of the time and worded for their edification. As the number of translations grew, so did the variances that would exist. All totaled, in the New Testament alone, there are 13,281 total variances. Now, even though this sounds like a lot, it actually isn't. Here is the break down of the different types of variances and what changed:

OMITS ADDS SUBSTITUTES MODIFIES TOTAL TRANSPOSES TOTAL

3704 2213 2121 1772 9810 3471 13281

These figures do not include spelling changes. They also do not break down differences purposely placed in the scripture due to a particular belief system.
If we were to examine the Gospels alone we would find this even more shocking. There are 3778 verses in the 4 Gospels. Verses, words, or entire verse changes or omissions were changed like this:

Matthew Mark Luke John Total

656 791 791 1022 3036

Since there are 3778 verses and 3036 variances (does not include spelling), we can see that most verses in the New Testament do not have and most likely, never will have full agreement. These figures are based on the original received texts or oldest texts available for review. It is the consensus, however, that the basic message of the Gospels is not compromised, even with the seemingly large number of variances. God's word is still true, and relevant today, as it was at the time of the original writings. Other historical texts, from authors such as Tartillian, Justinian, Josephus, Sylubius and others help us to see the original writings and their meanings and applications in our lives.

My the Lord bless you and keep His word forever burning in your heart.
Be Blessed. Be a Blessing.