Textual Criticism

- Textual Criticism

- Chicago Hope Academy – Senior Bible

- Tuesday, January 12, 2010

- Wednesday, January 13, 2010

- We will seek to answer:

- Has the Bible been corrupted over time?

- What if the version of the New Testament we read today is totally different than what the authors originally wrote?

- Textual Criticism

- comparison of a particular text with related materials in order to establish authenticity

- How does the NT measure up?

We have copies from 350 AD.

Compare this with other works

- Aristotle’s Poetics: 1,350 years from original date.

Another work: 1,000 years

Plato: 1,250-1,300 years

Aristophenes: 1,300 years

The New Testament: 250 years
And we have portions from even earlier.

Gospel of John: 125 AD!

Letters of Paul from before 350 AD!

How do we reconstruct the NT?

As of 1998, we have 5,600 manuscripts –in the original Greek!

Scholars devote their lives

Writers scrunched everything together to save papyrus—a costly item

Other sources

We have other versions too: Coptic, Syrian, Latin.

From these we can reconstruct what they translated.

We also have quotations from the Church fathers.

E.g. Clement of Rome (96 AD) quotes extensively from Hebrews

Does the NT pass the test?

Interestingly, this manuscript evidence far surpasses the manuscript reliability of other ancient writings that we trust as authentic every day.

If you think the NT is not reliable, think again.

What conclusions can we draw?

A Miracle?

when the Bible manuscripts are compared to other ancient writings, they stand alone as the best-preserved literary works of all antiquity.

I will now take your questions.