I've never heard of this Eichenwald fellow, but he's far more biblically illiterate than those he castigates. His piece is chock-full of misinformation. For example:
In fact, the earliest versions of Mark stop at 16:8. It’s an awkward ending, with three women who have gone to the tomb where Jesus was laid after the Crucifixion encountering a man who tells them to let the disciples know that the resurrected Jesus will see them in Galilee. The women flee the tomb, and “neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid.’’ In early copies of the original Greek writings, that’s it.
But also in "early copies of the original Greek writings," that's not it. In fact, out of all the Greek manuscripts that have survived, only 2 Greek manuscripts do not have these verses, while 1620+ manuscripts do have them, including manuscripts from the same time period as those that don't, the 4th and 5th centuries. Also, Irenaeus in the second century had the passage in his Bible.
The 12 verses that follow in modern Bibles—Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene and the Disciples and then ascending to Heaven—are not there. A significant moment that would be hard to forget, one would think.
The same is true for other critical portions of the Bible, such as 1 John 5:7 (“For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one”); Luke 22:20 (“Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you”); and Luke 24:51 (“And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven”). These first appeared in manuscripts used by the translators who created the King James Bible, but are not in the Greek copies from hundreds of years earlier.
He groups all three passages (1 John 5:7; Luke 22:20; Luke 24:51) together and says, "
These first appeared in manuscripts used by the translators who created the King James Bible, but are not in the Greek copies from hundreds of years earlier." He seems totally ignorant that in the case of Luke 22:20 the first and apparently only Greek manuscript to omit the verse is D/05 from the 5th century, while it is present in a manuscript 200 years earlier (p75) as well as 1550 others that have survived. In the case of Luke 24:51, the passage is missing in two Greek manuscripts (ℵ/01 from the fourth century and D/05 from the fifth), but is present in all other Greek manuscripts, including p75 from around 200.
His article merely proves that biblical illiteracy, beginning with himself as the chief offender, is remarkably high. The fact that whoever vetted his piece did not or rather could not catch his incredible amount of misstatements further demonstrates his point about biblical illiteracy.
Another example: Eichenwald states regarding the passage of the woman taken in adultery (John 7:53-8:11): "Unfortunately, John didn’t write it. Scribes made it up sometime in the Middle Ages." Despite the fact that the story appears in a manuscript (D/05) dated by some (e.g. David Parker) to 400, well before "sometime in the Middle Ages," and that that scribe obviously (from his mistakes) didn't create the story himself, and that Papias in the 2d century knew of a similar if not the same story, this inaccuracy is hard to excuse. Ironically, while introducing this section, Eichenwald states, "Scribes added whole sections of the New Testament,
and removed words and sentences that contradicted emerging orthodox beliefs. Take one of the most famous tales from the New Testament, which starts in John 7:53" (emphasis mine). Does he not know that the spirit and character of the early church fathers was to make laws more rigid and well-defined rather than grayer and more ambiguous?
"So if Jesus even let
adulteresses off scot-free, certainly our policies against
long hair on men and
pants on women don't have a leg to stand on, and so the passage needn't be recited in church," and eventually certain early leaders "removed words and sentences" such as John 7:53-8:11 "that contradicted emerging orthodox beliefs."
