Originally posted by Askjo:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Ziggy:
Askjo: "2. Who invented four families of manuscripts?"
No one "invented" the families.
No one? </font>[/QUOTE]Askjo, Didn't you understand Ziggy's post? The manuscripts fall into different "text-types". You yourself name different manuscript families. Nobody "invented" those. You talk about the "Alexandrian" family, who invented it?
Now, if you are saying, who wrote the Alexandrian manuscripts, then that would be a legitimate answer to research. If the data is available.
Nobody invented the fact that you were "born" to your mother and father and that they were each born to their parents. Your family is a group.
The same with the documents. In early centuries A.D. the books were spread around to different countries and scribes made copies in each of those countries. Each group had a specific way of writing. For instance, the Greek written by a Helenistic Jew was very different from the Greek written by a Jew that Greek was a second language. Many of the documents were written by diaspora Jews who left Israel under pressure of the Roman empire and other reasons. A lot of the documents that you claim are bad (such as the Alexandrian) were often written by these Jews who had just as much MORE reason to save the documents intact. These were Christians living in evil places, but this does not make the manuscript bad, simply because Alexandria was a generally wicked place.
Finally, look at some common sense.
Most all of the scribes who would spend their lives copying these manuscripts were totally committed to what they copied. It was hard, arduous work.
It was much more likely for a well-meaning scribe to add a word or sentence here and there to help harmonize the scripture than it would be for a scribe to (horrors) take away God's word. For this reason, we find more additions in manuscripts than we find subtractions. Most subtractions are copyist MISTAKES that are caught by comparing documents.
Additions; however, keep getting added when the new manuscripts are copied. These people didn't commit their lives to handwriting manuscripts for the "fun" of it. They were sincere about the work they were doing and some had no problem with either harmonizing scripture with their own words, or just adding a little more explanation to make sure the manuscript fit their belief system.
The amazing thing about all of this is that the "Word of God" shines right through and HAS been maintained accurately. No other book (or group of books) in the world has been copied so many times, in so many places and maintained its doctrine 2000 years later.
