The Text of the Biblical Documents: How Do We Know What It Really Said?

Introduction: We do not have the originals of the Bible's books and letters. The purpose of this study is to show how we know the correct reading or text of the documents which make up our Bible. Why is this important?

A. No Bible (or something like it) would mean no Christianity!

1. Although it has become very popular to deny that Christianity deals with truth claims, one essential part of the Christian faith is certain propositions concerning humans beings and God.

2. At various locations, the Bible says that we must believe that God exists, we must believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, we must believe that God rewards of those who seek Him, etc.

3. In a significant, primary sense that is sometimes lost on our subjective and psychologized world, Christianity is about truth. It is knowing the truth that will set us free.

B. The Bible is our indispensable, practical connection with the truth claims of Christianity. I can think of no "version" of Christianity that could do without the Bible, though some give it a different place than others.

1. Much of the history that forms the background of the Christian faith is recounted only in the Bible. For example, it is by far the most extensive source of information concerning the life of Jesus, and events surrounding His death and resurrection.

2. We also find the very meaning of the Christian faith in the Bible. Not only do we (allegedly) learn there that Jesus died, but we learn that He died for our sins.


I. What happened to the original documents of the Bible? We have none of the original documents of the Bible. These are often called the autographs. Instead, we have copies. Why?

A. Natural considerations - - really old things tend to wear out and rot.

1. In regard to the N.T., writing material until about the fourth century (A.D.) was generally papyrus. Except for certain very unusual circumstance, papyrus cannot survive long. It is not a durable medium for writing. The O.T. documents are much older, and there are no known copies dating from before the Babylonian captivity (586 B.C.).

2. There is also good reason to think that the autographs of the N.T. were subject to extremely heavy use.

3. The point is that it should not be surprising that the original documents are no longer available.

B. Some contend that God did not want the autographs around because people might "worship" them.

1. That's possible, but we don't know it to be the case. It is just in the nature of things that papyrus and other ancient writing materials to deteriorate with time and use.

2. If God "eliminates" things which humans tend to worship, He would need, for some person at some time, to eliminate almost everything that exists in the physical world!

II. Compared to the N.T. there are relatively few copies of the O.T. or parts of it.

A. Most of the ancient Old Testament MSS extant (in existence) today are from the Massoretes. This was a group of Jewish scribes who devoted themselves to coping and preserving the O.T. They fall into the period of about A.D. 500 to 1000. We have about 700 MSS of the O.T. (usually parts of the O.T.) from this period.

B. That the Massoretic text actually reflects the textual tradition that preceded it is confirmed by two sources.

1. The Septuagint (LXX), which was completed some time before 132 B.C., is a translation of the O.T. into Greek.

2. The first of the "Dead Sea Scrolls" was found in March, 1947 in a cave near the Dead Sea at a place called Qumran. Among hundreds of MSS found in various caves there, several were of the O.T., especially large parts of Isaiah. These are dated from 100 B.C. to A.D. 100.

3. Although there are differences between the readings of these texts, they are substantially the same, indicating that the Masoretes and those who may have preceded them were very faithful copyists.  They were careful and "got it right."

III. The content or text of the N.T.

A. Greek MSS (manuscripts)

1. Papyri. All of the earliest of these are papyri. As of about 1975 there were 81.

a. A few of these are dated from the second century, such as the John Ryland fragment which contains a few verses from the 4th gospel. This could conceivably be a firsthand copy.

b. Several are from the third century. In fact, there are 3rd century copies of at least part of the text from all the books of the N.T. except I Tim., II Tim., Philemon, II John, & III John.

2. Uncial MSS (a style of writing, running caps, often without breaks of any kind). Most of the uncial MSS are written on prepared animal skins, called vellum or parchment. There are 266 extant uncials. Included in this group are the famous Sinaiticus (contains entire N.T., 4th cent.), Alexandrinus (most of the N.T., 5th century), and Vaticanus (N.T. through Heb. chapter 8, 4th cent.). Some think the latter two are among the fifty copies of the Bible Constantine commissioned Eusebius to produce.

3. Minuscule MSS. These are also usually written on "vellum" (treated animal skins) but in small running letters. There are 2,754 of these extant. They are usually grouped by text type. None is earlier than the 11th century. They are of interest especially because groups of them seem to be copied from earlier, reliable texts.

B. Early Versions (Translations) of the N.T. These are important because some of them were made very early, so they were made from early copies of the N.T. They also show that the N.T. was considered important enough to be translated into many languages.

1. Syriac versions - (four or five major varieties) One of these, the Old Syriac, seems to be a translation of a 2nd century text.

2. Latin versions - N.T. seems to have been translated into Latin by the end of the 2nd century. The famous Latin Vulgate is from the late 4th century.

3. Coptic (Egyptian) versions - the earliest extant of these is from the early 4th century, but it seems to be a copy of this translation which was completed much earlier.

4. Gothic version - dates from mid-4th century.

5. There are many other early versions not mentioned here. You can see that very early in its history, the N.T. became a "public" document, even to the point of transcending cultural and linguistic barriers. This general availability would make it harder for intentional or unintentional corruption of its contents to go unnoticed.

C. Patristic Quotations

1. The extent of these quotations: "Indeed, so extensive are these citations that if all other sources for our knowledge of the text of the N.T. were destroyed, they would be sufficient alone for the reconstruction of practically the entire N.T." (from Bruce Metzger, famous N.T. scholar.)

2. These quotations are especially valuable because the writer often cites and compares the various readings available in his time.

D. Lectionaries (books of readings for the church tied to the ecclesiastical calendar, which include scripture quotations) 2,135 of these have been catalogued, but few have been critically studied.

E. Ostraca - pieces of broken pottery with portions of the N.T. written upon them. 25 have been catalogued.

III. Variant Readings in the N.T. Text

A. This multitude of copies of the text of the N.T. are not all exactly alike. This has led many to sensationalize the "thousands of errors in the Bible" approach that often comes up in this discussion. However, most of these can be accounted for by:

1. Errors of eyesight in the production of copies. These are common things such as skipping lines, misreading words, etc.

2. Errors of hearing which might result when one person would read a mss and several would listen and make copies (closest thing the had to a copy machine. Remember the commercials with the Xerox copier and the little monk who said "Another miracle!")

3. Errors of mind which can occur when a phrase is retained momentarily in the mind before copying, such as substituting synonyms, varying the word sequence, etc.

4. Errors of judgement, such as the inclusion of a marginal note in the text of a copy, or copying a two-column section by reading the lines straight across.

B. However, because of the multitude of copies of the text, these changes are, for the most part, easily detected.

1. There are about 200,000 variants in the N.T. text. But remember that this count includes a single word that is altered in the same way in a thousand MSS as one thousand differences. There are 10,000 locations in the text of the N.T. where the terms (the content of what is stated) are in doubt.

2. But many of these variants do not substantially effect the understanding of what is said in the text. For example, many variations of articles and word order do not effect the sense of the text at all. Only 1/8 of all variants have any weight as to be significant differences. And it is generally agreed that even these have little effect on understand what the N.T. says.

3. Main points of doubt

Mark 16:9ff

John 7:53 - 8:11

I John 5:8 (In GNT etc. the first words of this verse are taken as forming v. 7. Between there are three witnesses and the Spirit, the water, and the blood, the Textus Receptus inserts, "in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one. And there are three witnesses on earth." This objection agrees with the textual fact that the words in question are not found in a single one of the old Greek manuscripts. They occur only in some Latin versions, and have been adopted in the Vulgate (although they were not in the oldest manuscripts of that version).

Acts 8:37 [And Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."]

These are the significant locations in the NT where differences in MSS make any real difference. Notice that even if you omit these, nothing is changed in Christian teaching.

C. N.T. Text Compared to other ancient documents

1. Caesar's Gallic War (c. 58-50 B.C.) is attested to by only ten good MSS, the latest of which is 900 years older than the original.

2. The History of Thucydides (c. 460-400 B.C.) is known from eight MSS, the earliest from c. A.D. 900 and a few first century A.D. papyri fragments.

3. The History of Herodotus - similar to '2' above

4. The Iliad is an especially good item for comparison to the N.T., since both are "religious" in origin. The Iliad is runner-up to the N.T. for best MSS attestation.

N.T. has 20,000 lines, 40 are in doubt

The Iliad has 15,600 lines, 764 are in doubt

D. Whether you believe it to be true or not, there is good evidence that we have the correct reading for the vast majority of the Biblical text.