Grace Institute: Bible Study Methods: Transmission

Transmission Bible Study Methods Winter 2009

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Janauary 25, 2009: Transmission

Homework due Feburary 1

"For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (Matthew 5:18 NASB)

When we state that the Bible is God's inspired word, we are referring specifically to the original texts written by the actual author. However, none of those original autographs has survived the centuries. How can we be sure that the modern English Bible we read today is an accurate representation of those original texts? Furthermore, can we consider our modern English Bibles as God's inspired Word?

The Ancient Manuscripts

While we do not possess any of the original texts written by the original authors, there are literally thousands of ancient manuscripts dating back to the just a few centuries from when those texts were originally written. The story of those manuscripts is different for the Old and the New Testament.

Old Testament Manuscrpits

There are fewer ancient Old Testament manuscripts than New Testament manuscripts. However, the consistency of the old Hebrew texts is much greater than that of the Greek manuscripts. There are three main Old Testament manuscript families: The Masoretic Text, the Septuagint, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Masoretic Text

Jewish scholars established a “standard” Hebrew text between the seventh and tenth centuries, known as the Masoretic tex t. With this consistent text established, all copies of the Jewish scripture that did not match this text were destroyed. Furthermore, the Jews had such regard for the scriptures, that when they became old and worn, they burned the scrolls. As a result we have relatively few ancient copies of the Masoretic Text.

Major Masoretic Manuscripts

The Septuagint

While there are only a few Hebrew manuscripts, there are thousands of copies of a Greek translation of the Old Testament, known as the Septuagint. This translation was completed in the second century BC in Alexandria , Egypt traditionally by 70 scholars, thus the term Septuagint, which means 70 in Greek. The most reliable Christian manuscripts from the fourth and fifth century AD include copies of the Septuagint. There are some differences between the Septuagint and the Masoretic text, but most of these can be attributed to translation differences.

The Dead Sea Scrolls

In 1947, a shepherd boy in Palestine stumbled upon a cave containing a number of ancient scrolls. This led to probably the most important archeological of the 20 th century. An investigation of some 11 caves located just south of Jericho and west of the Dead Sea revealed some 900 documents; including texts of the Hebrew Bible that date back to before 100 BC.

The Dead Sea Scrolls contain fragments of every book of the Old Testament except Esther and a complete copy of the book of Isaiah (Gaster) .

While there are differences found between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Masoretic text, given that the Masoretic text comes nearly 1,000 years after the scrolls, it is remarkable how little difference has been found between these two copies. The differences between the Dead Sea scrolls and the Masoretic text are few and relatively insignificant. For example, the text of Isaiah is 95% identical, with remainder being variations in spelling that developed over time (Geisler and Nix 144) . The Dead Sea Scrolls affirm the reliability of the Masoretic text and affirm that our Old Testament texts are reliable copies of the original.

New Testament Manuscripts

Papyrus Fragments

The earliest New Testament manuscripts were written on papyrus and date back to the 2 nd and 3 rd centuries. During these early centuries, the Christian church was under persecution by the Roman Empire, and Bibles were routinely destroyed by the empire. As a result, there are only 76 papyrus fragments from this era that have been discovered.

The earliest dated portion of the New Testament is a fragment of the gospel of John (18:31-33, 37-38), known as the Rylands Fragment (P52), which is dated to AD 125 to 130. This is earlier than some more liberal scholars thought John was even written. Other major Papyrus manuscripts include the Chester Beatty Papyri (P45, 46, 47), which dates from AD 250 and contains nearly all of the New Testament, and the Bodmer Papyri (P66, 72, 75), which contains most of the book of John, Jude, and 1 and 2 Peter and dates to AD 175 to 225.

The Uncials

After Emperor Constantine, Christianity became the state religion of Rome. As a result, there are more manuscripts and more complete manuscripts that date from 4 th to the 9 th century.

These manuscripts are mostly written on vellum and are contained in a primitive form of book known as a codex. These codices are called the “uncials” for they are written completely in upper case letters without any spaces between the words.

There are 297 uncial manuscripts. Most were discovered primarily in monasteries around the Mediterranean. The six most important and most complete uncials are in the table that follows.

There are only two passages of scripture that show any major differences between these codices. Mark 16:9-20 and John 7:53-8:11 do not appear in the Codex Sinaiticus or the Codex Vaticanus, and most scholars today do not believe these passages to have been part of the original text.

Minuscules

After the 9 th century, the writing of Greek came to include lower case letters. Manuscripts from this era, therefore, came to be called the Minuscules. There are 4,643 known miniscule manuscripts. These manuscripts have more variation than the uncials. The variations, however, have specific patterns that allow scholars to show relationships between the various manuscripts. As a result, scholars are able to classify the texts into three different manuscript families: Alexandrian, Western and Byzantine.

The Vulgate

In AD 382, Pope Damasus I commissioned a translation of the Bible into Latin, the predominate language of the Roman Empire. The scholar Jerome undertook this effort, consulting primarily the available Greek uncials of the day.

The translation was called the “vulgate” because it was written in the common or “vulgar” Latin of the day rather than the classical Latin of earlier centuries.

The Latin vulgate became the dominate Bible of western Christianity, eventually becoming the official Bible of the Catholic Church.

Evaluation of Ancient Manuscripts

There are four primary tests when determining the reliability of an ancient document:

1. How many copies of the document are available?
2. Where were the copies found?
3. What is the length of time between the original and the earliest copies?
4. What differences are there between the copies?

The number of ancient biblical manuscripts compared to other ancient texts is unprecedented, with nearly 5,000 manuscripts. Furthermore, the early 2 nd century dating of biblical papyri is not found in any other ancient texts.

Comparison of Ancient Texts

The result is, if one is to doubt the textual reliability of the New Testament, then one cannot state with any confidence that we know the original of any of the ancient text.

Development of the English Bible

Early Influences on the English Bible

Wycliffe

From the 5 th to the 15 th century, the Latin vulgate was virtually the only Bible to be found in Western Europe. The church used it exclusively in its liturgy and practice. Most common persons were not able to understand Latin, and so the Bible was accessible only to the clergy who could read Latin.

There were a number of movements within the church that sought to translate the Bible into the common languages of the people. However, the church did not sanction such efforts, believing that since only the church had the authority to interpret the scripture, there was no need for the common person to have a copy of the Bible in their language.

In the 14 th century, John Wycliffe, an English biblical scholar, began questioning certain doctrines of the church, including the sale of indulgences and transubstantiation.

In addition, he believed that every person should have access to the Bible. As a result, Wycliffe began translating the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into the common English of the day. Wycliffe's work continued up to his death, after which, his pupil John Purvey continued work on the first English Bible.

Wycliffe was declared a heretic by the church, and even though he died of natural causes, the church had his remains exhumed and burned along with his books 12 years after his death.

Guttenberg

While Wycliffe and others were seeking to place the Bible into the hands of every person, it was the invention of the printing press which made it possible. Around 1455, Johann Gutenberg from Mainz, Germany, mass printed the first book using the new technology of moveable type. This book was a copy of the Latin Vulgate Bible.

Before this point, copies of the Bible had to be painstakingly handwritten. The process took much time and produced many errors. Now with the printing press, thousands of copies could be made in a very short period of time. With the invention of the printing press, more books were published in the last half of the 14 th century than had been produced in all of human history to that point.

Martin Luther

The Guttenberg Bible ensured that scholars throughout Christendom could easily obtain a copy of the scriptures. This would include a scholar and monk by the name of Martin Luther, whose access to the Bible would revolutionize Christianity.

As a priest and University professor in Germany, Luther began questioning the excesses of the church, and especially the sale of indulgences. As he searched the newly available scriptures, he discovered that there were many established doctrines of the church which did not line up with the Bible. Because Luther dared to question the authority of the church, and more specifically, the authority of the Pope, Luther was excommunicated from the church.

However, by that time, Luther's teaching and Luther's translation of the Bible into German had been printed and widely circulated. With the beginning of this reformation, Luther's ideas that scripture alone should set our doctrine and that every person should have access to the scripture in their own language began permeating throughout Europe.

The Textus Receptus

Erasmus's Greek New Testament

By the early 16 th century, scholars began demanding a printed copy of the New Testament in its original Greek. While there were numerous Latin manuscripts, and Guttenberg's Bible had made a Latin Bible easily accessible, there was not wide access to the original Greek texts.

In 1515, Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam began seeking out original Greek manuscripts, which he edited into the first printed edition of the Greek New Testament. Erasmus did not have access to very many Greek manuscripts and actually translated parts of the book of Revelation from Latin back into Greek to complete his New Testament! Nonetheless, the publication of the Erasmus' Greek New Testament gave scholars the ready access to the original language of the New Testament for the first time.

Later Greek New Testaments

In 1550, Robert Stephanus built on the work of Erasmus. He used additional Greek manuscripts to produce a better quality text. The most lasting impact of Stephanus' text was his addition of the modern chapter and verse structure that we take for granted today.

Theodore Bezea continued the development of the Greek New Testament, using newly found 4 th century codices from a monastery in southern France to create an even more accurate Greek text. Finally by 1624, two enterprising printers, the Elzevir brothers, printed a Greek text based largely on Bezea's work and marketed the Bible as the Textus Receptus , meaning the “text received by all.” This is the standard text used by the translators of the King James Version and was the standard Greek text until well into the 19 th century.

Early English Bibles

Tyndale

With publication of a printed Greek text, scholars could now begin the work of translating the Bible from the original language. The first and most influential English translator was William Tyndale. Using Erasumus' Greek text, Tyndale's translation became the first printed English Bible.

William Tyndale's translation is the basis for nearly every other English translation, and his wording can be found even in modern English translations today.

However, England was still a Catholic country at the time, and it was illegal to print or even own a copy of the Tyndale Bible in England. Tyndale had to have his English Bible published in Protestant Holland and smuggled into England. Tyndale himself was arrested and convicted of heresy for his Bible. As Tyndale was burned at the stake in 1536, his final words were “ Lord , open the King of England's eyes.”

From Coverdale to the Great Bible

The Coverdale Bible

Tyndale's dying prayer would be answered within a few short years. The popularity of Tyndale's Bible convinced the Church of England that an authorized English Bible was needed. However, because of the animosity between Tyndale and the church, the archbishop authorized an English translation completed by Miles Coverdale. Coverdale had traveled to Germany to study under Luther, where he completed work on his English Bible. Coverdale did not know Greek or Hebrew, so he relied heavily upon Luther's German translation. As a result, Coverdale's translation is not as accurate to the original. It does, however, have a smoother style in English compared to Tyndale's translation that is more literal.

The Matthew's Bible

In 1537, the Matthew's Bible was published under the pseudonym of Thomas Matthew. This Bible was a combination of Tyndale and Coverdale's Bible created by John Rogers. Rogers used a pseudonym to avoid the controversy of using Tyndale's work. The Matthews Bible received a royal sanction for the printing, and printed in London in 1551. However, Rogers was burned at the stake by Queen Mary I as part of her attempt to reinstate Catholicism in England.

The Great Bible

Prior to Mary's reign, King Henry VIII had broken away from Rome and established himself as the head of the Church of England. To help establish the English church, Henry VIII commissioned a new translation of the Bible of which each church in England would have a copy. Working under the authority of Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, Miles Coverdale edited the Great Bible, which was almost entirely the same text as Matthew's Bible, except for a few changes to make it more consistent with the Latin Vulgate.

The Geneva Bible

When Queen Mary took the throne and attempted to return England to Catholicism, a number of leading Protestant scholars fled to Geneva, Switzerland, which was a center for Protestantism under John Calvin and Theodore Bezea. There the scholars, led by William Whittingham, embarked on a new translation based on the latest Greek text of Stephanus and a new Hebrew text created in 1528 by Pagninus.

While much of the New Testament reads very similar to Tyndale and Coverdale's work, the Old Testament was notably different due to its improved accuracy from the original Hebrew.

The Geneva Bible had a few other unique features. From the beginning, the editors of the Geneva Bible wanted to make it accessible to the common man. Therefore, unlike the Great Bible, which was so named for its large size, the Geneva Bible was 8.5”x5.5” in size, making it easy to carry. It was also the first English Bible to use easier to read Roman font as opposed to the Gothic fonts used before. The Geneva Bible was also the first to use our modern chapter and verse system, originated in the Stephanus Greek text.

Finally, the Geneva Bible included study notes maps, and cross references, as might be seen in a modern study Bible. These notes were largely based on Calvinist theology, and for that reason, the Geneva Bible was largely rejected by the more conservative Church of England.

Nonetheless, the Geneva Bible was very popular, and was by far the best selling printed Bible in England. The Geneva Bible was the favorite Bible of the pilgrims who emigrated to America, and was the Bible which Shakespeare most often quoted.

The Bishop's Bible

In response to the popularity of the Geneva Bible, Queen Elizabeth I commissioned an update of the Great Bible. This Bishop's Bible improved upon some of the translation issues found in the Great Bible, but was still merely a revision and did not use the original languages.

The Kings James Bible

History of the King James Bible

The King James Version of the Bible came out of the dispute between the Geneva Bible and the Bishop's Bible. The Geneva Bible was a more accurate translation but was saddled by its Calvinist notes and theology. The Bishop's Bible was acceptable theologically to the Church, but had a number of translation difficulties.

In 1604, the newly crowned King James had convened a conference between Puritan leaders who had petitioned to see reforms take place within the Church. At this Hampton Court Conference , the puritans John suggested a new official translation of the Bible. The goal of the translation would be to create a accurate translation which would be acceptable to all in the church.

Method of Translation

This translation would also benefit from the best scholarship available. Most English translations up to this point had been the work of an individual or a small group of scholars. The King James Version would be translated through a committee of 54 scholars. Those 54 were divided into 6 groups, each of which was assigned certain books of the Bible to translate. Two individuals from each of the 6 groups then convened in the “committee of the twelve” who made the final revisions and edits to the entire work.

The translators followed a specific set of principles laid down by the Bishop of London. This translation was to be based on the Bishop's Bible. However, other translations were to be used when they were more accurate to the original Greek and Hebrew. As a result, the King James Version retained much of the language found in Tyndale, Coverdale and the Geneva Bible.

Impact of the Kings James Bible

Translation work began in 1607 and the first printing was dated 1611. It was not immediately popular. It took 30 years for the KJV to displace the Geneva Bible as the best selling Bible.

While it was off to a slow start, the KJV became the standard translation, a title it held for centuries. The King James Bible stood alone without any competition for 270 years.

The version's unique combination of beautiful language and accuracy to the original makes it arguable the most important literary work in all of the English language. The influence of the King James Version on the English-speaking world and on English speaking Christianity cannot be understated.

Modern English Bibles

Over the centuries, the King James Version began showing its age. First, the translation was based on the Textus Receptus , meaning it was translated from an older, less reliable version of the Greek text. Secondly, the language of 17 th century England is not the language of today. In fact, the translators of the KJV used much of Tyndale's translation, which was 100 years old and the language was already archaic even when first published.

As a result, by the end of the 19 th century, the need for a new translation using a more modern form of English and using the new science of textual criticism was needed.

Textual Criticism

When we state that the scriptures are inspired and inerrant, we are speaking of the original autographs (i.e. the original documents written by the original authors). Unfortunately, we do not have any of the original autographs. Instead all we have are copies of copies of copies. However, because we have such an abundance of copies, and because some of those copies are dated to within decades from when the original, scholars have been able to create, through painstaking study, editions of the original Hebrew and Greek scriptures which are as close as to the original as we can determine. The science of comparing ancient manuscripts to determine a probable original text is known as tex tual criticism.

The Process of Tex tual Criticism

Interpreting the Uncials

The earliest manuscripts look much different than modern writing. First, the chapters divisions were not added to the text until the 13 th century, which verses not added until the 16 th century. The earliest Greek manuscripts are in uncials, meaning they used all capital letters, and did not provide any spaces in between the words. So for example, if we used uncials in English, John 3:16 would look like this:

FORGODSOLOVEDTHEWORLDTHATHEGAVEHISONLYBEGOTTENSONTHATWHOSOEVERBELIEVEDINHIMWOULDNOTPERISHBUTHAVEETERNALLIFE.

As if that weren't difficult enough, ancient Hebrew writing did not include any vowels. Psalm 23:1-1 would look like this:

THLRDSMSHPHRDSHLLWNTHMKSMLDWNNGRNPSTRSHLDMBSDQTWTRS.

You can imagine the difficulty modern scholars have in trying to determine the original. Sometimes this leads to some ambiguity.

THEREAPERSONTHEFIELD

Does this say, “the reapers on the field,” or “there a person on the field?” Most of these ambiguities can be determined by context, and in only rare occasions has the interpretation of the uncials lead to disagreement among scholars.

Comparing the Copies

In the children's game called telephone, one person whispers a phrase into the ear of another. Then that phrase is whispered to the next person, and so forth until the final person hears the message. The fun of the game comes when the last person says what they heard and compares that to the original message. Invariably the message has become corrupted through the transmission process.

This same problem arises in the hand written copies of the scriptures over the centuries. As scribes copied the scriptures over and over, small mistakes were made in the copying process. Part of the process of tex tual criticism involves comparing all the various copies we have the scriptures and looking for the mistakes made by scribes.

If you have numerous copies spread over a large geographic area, you may have numerous errors, but not all the errors will be the same. So, for example, all the manuscripts found in Egypt may have one error, but those found in Asia Minor might have a different error. By tracing back these errors to their sources, and then comparing these, scholars have been able to piece together a text today which is as close to the original as possible.

The best estimates today suggest that 97% of our New Testament and 90% of the Old Testament is beyond doubt (Klein, Bloomberg and Hubbard 69-74) . Furthermore, none of the passages in question contain critical doctrinal teaching which would put our faith in doubt.

The Greek Text Today

In the 19 th century there were a tremendous number of new manuscripts being discovered, not the least of which was the Codex Sinaiticus. This led to development of textual criticism and more reliable versions of the Greek New Testament. Count Tischendorf was an early German scholar in the field of textual criticism. However, the first well-received Greek New Testament based on the critical text was edited by Westcott and Hort in 1881.

Eberhard Nestle completed his Novum Testamentum Graece in 1898. His son Erwin Nestle continued his work, and with Kurt Alande continued to revise editions of the text. The standard Nestle-Alande text now is the 27 th edition (NA27).

The NA27 was prepared primarily for scholars involved in textual criticism. The United Bible Society republished the NA27 with helpful notes for students and translators and without much of the scholarly apparatus. The UBS Greek Testament is the standard critical text today.

Translations Today

Today, there are more translations of the Bible into English than into any other language. As such, by comparing and contrasting the better of these translations, the modern English reader can have confidence that they understand the original text as well as can be possible without actually learning the original Hebrew and Greek.

Which translation, however, is the best? That is a difficult question to answer, because each translation was written for a different purpose. To understand which is “best” you have to understand the different philosophies of translations:

Translation Philosophy

Literal translations

Some translators attempt to follow the original languages as literally as possible. That is, each word is translated directly and consistently. There is less importance placed on readability in English and more importance placed on the original word order and grammar. Such translations are more consistent with the original text, but are much more difficult to read in English. Examples of literal translations are the King James Version (KJV), New American Standard Bible (NASB), and English Standard Version (ESV).

Dynamic Equivalence translations

Other translations attempt to translate not each word, but each thought. These translations are much easier to read in English and capture the significant point of each passage. These translations are not as consistent in the translation of the words nor do they follow the original word order. This requires that the translator make some interpretative decisions in the process of translation. Examples of dynamic equivalence translations are New International Version (NIV) and the New Living Translation (NLT).

Paraphrases

Like a dynamic equivalent translation, the focus of the paraphrase is to make the text easier to read in English and to capture the impact of each passage. The author will take broad liberties, often amplifying and expanding from the original text. Paraphrases are useful for gaining an understanding the original feeling of the passage. However, the paraphrase has significant interpretation done for the reader. Examples of paraphrases include the Message, the JB Philips translation and the Living Bible (LB).

Gender Neutrality

A more recent debate amongst translators has risen around the use of gender-neutral terms. Gender-neutral language arose amongst feminist scholars in the 1970s and 1980s, and restricts the use of sexist terms, such as “man” for the human race and the use of gender specific pronouns when referring to persons of unspecified gender.

The first translation to specifically use gender-neutral terms was the New Revised Standard Version in 1990. The New Living Translation used gender-neutral terms in 1996, and the TNIV followed suit in 2002, with much controversy amongst evangelical scholars.

All but the most extreme gender-neutral translations still refer to God in the masculine, but have modified the text so as to avoid masculine pronouns and other gender specific terms. This is usually done by changing the singular pronoun “he” to the plural pronoun “they.” Below is an example of gender-neutral wording in the NLT compared to the NASB.

"If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.

(Matthew 18:15 NASB)

"If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the fault. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back.

(Matthew 18:15 NLT)

If a brother or sister sins, go and point out the fault, just between the two of you alone. If they listen to you, you have won them over.

(Matthew 18:15 TNIV)

The desire to communicate that the Bible is equally relevant to men and women is admirable. However, this often results in awkward wording, and moves away from the literal understanding of the original Greek or Hebrew texts. Furthermore, in some cases such changes can influence our interpretation of the text [1].

Which is Best?

There is a place for all various translation methods and philosophies. A paraphrase is useful for understanding the feel or emotional impact of a passage, something that is frequently lost in a literal translation. However, for a detail verse-by-verse study or exegesis, a literal translation is best as it leaves most of the interpretative decisions to the reader. For general use, the dynamic equivalence makes a good compromise of readability and accuracy.

• When evaluating a translation, one should consider the following:
• What is the text from which the version is translated? Do they use the original Greek and Hebrew? Are they using the less reliable Textus Receptus or a trustworthy critical text?
• What is the translation philosophy? Is it a paraphrase? Dynamic equivalence? Literal?
• Do the translators have a specific theological bias, such as that found in gender neutral translations?
• Is the text easy to understand?

New translations are always welcome, because language continually changes. While the language of the King James Version is beautiful and poetic and has had significant impact on the English language, one must re-translate from the Elizabethan style of language to understand it today. Even the NIV and NASB are no longer contemporary, having been translated now three decades ago.

In the last few years there have been a number of new translations, including:

• The English Standard Version (ESV, 2001); A more conservative update of the Revised Standard Version.
• Today's New International Version (TNIV, 2005); An updated, gender neutral version of the popular NIV.
• The NET Bible (NET, 2005); Originally created for a copyright free internet Bible, this literal translation has extensive notes which explain translation choices.
• Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB, 2004); A completely new “optimal equivalent” translation published by the Southern Baptist publishing house.

Translations into other Languages

The Bible is the most translated book in the world. As of 2005, according to Wycliffe Bible Translators, there are 422 languages that have the entire Bible. Over 1,000 have a translation of the entire New Testament. Another 2,500 languages are in the process of having the Bible translated. However, there are still over 2,500 languages on which no translation work has even started. This, however, represents a small percentage of people who do not have the Bible in their native tongue.

Continuum of Modern English Bibles

Conclusion: Are Translations Inspired?

Often the multitude of translations causes people to doubt whether or not they can actually trust their English Bibles. However, it is actually the great number of translations which provide us with an assurance that indeed we can trust and understand our Bibles today. While there is no substitute for learning Greek or Hebrew, the layman can approach his English Bible with confidence, knowing that the best scholarship available has created the best translations available. By comparing and contrasting the various English translations, we are able to gain and understanding nearly as good as reading the original. While we say that inspiration applies only to the original autographs, to the extent that copies of those autographs and translations from the original represent the original autograph, our Bibles today are also inspired. While we continue to grow in our understanding of what the original autographs might say, modern textual criticism and translation work has provided us with scriptures as close to the original as can be had. Therefore, trust your Bibles, study your Bibles, and consider them as inspired!

Additional Resources

• Comparison of English Translations
• Development of the English Bible

Footnotes

1. For one such example, compare 1 Corinthians 14:34-39 in the NLT with the NIV.