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What is Considered best 'proof" The CT is Corrupted/tainted?

jonathan.borland

Active Member
But aren't the sheer number of TR manuscripts the result of copying and copying and copying the same text over the centuries?

No, the TR manuscripts were only 5 which sometimes agree with the consensus of all manuscripts and sometimes disagree. But if you speak of the manuscripts that are the result of an uncontrolled copying process covering more than a millennium and basically no two of which are directly related, then yes, the manuscripts reflecting the consensus text are the result of imperfect copying and copying and copying of the same original text and its copies over many centuries.

Besides, sheer numbers don't indicate correctness.

Very true, which is why the second "proof" I mentioned is so important. But sheer numbers in addition to geographic diversity do indicate a presumption in favor of authenticity that a minority of Greek manuscripts from only one location could only dream of.

Arguing that a phrase is missing from one manuscript whereas it is present in another doesn't necessarily mean it is corrupt.If so, why does the TR omit "Jesus Christ our Lord" and the CT doesn't in Jude 25? Same thing in Romans 1:4.

I never said present in one and absent in another. I said present/absent in one (or a few) and absent/present in all the rest. And the consensus in Jude 25 reflects the restraint of most copyists from inserting the doxological magnification that a minority of scribes could not restrain themselves from.
 
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jonathan.borland

Active Member
A part of the NET note on this says "This seems to be a motivated reading,due to the early church's emphasis on fasting...The most important witnesses lack it[fasting] when a good reason for the omission is difficult to find,argues strongly for the shorter reading."

Bruce Metzger thought it was a gloss added by later scribes.

Actually there are many more reasons why the phrase should have beeen deleted than added, one of which is especially since the biggest cults in Egypt at the time were highly ascetic, one or another orthodox scribe from the one location in the world (i.e. Egypt) where the cults were most problematic was influenced to remove the proof texts for the super-ascetic cults (cf. also Matt 17:21 and 1 Cor 7:5).
 

Mexdeaf

New Member
So I guess God goofed up, and somehow the Devil won and was able to corrupt His Word after all?

But then again, people get saved through the ESV, the NIV, the NKJV so maybe the Devil messed up after all?

Stop giving the Devil credit for God's work.
 

Greektim

Well-Known Member
Not useful as a basis to translate from for modern versions, according to those holding to KJVO?

What is "proof" supporting this notion?
While "corrupt" is not a word I would use for the CT, I would say that the textual philosophy behind it is flawed based on the "test-tube" nature of the text (thank you Dr. Robinson :D). There are many places in the CT that have no Ms support for their readings. At least w/ a Byzantine priority perspective, there is a transmissional stream of texts that can be followed... that is assuming that one wants a transmissional history of the text.
 

annsni

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
There are two places where the Critical Text seems to me to be just plain wrong (I posted this on another thread but can't find it):-

Eph 3:14-15, NKJV. 'For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.'

Eph 3:14-15, NIV. 'For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.'

You see the difference? The words 'of our Lord Jesus Christ' are missing in the Critical Text (though the vast majority of Greek texts contain them). Now, whom is the whole family of God. living on earth and in glory, named? After Christ of course. We're Christians (Acts 11:26), not Fatherians. So it seems to me that the CT must be wrong at this point.

Another text is Luke 4:44 & 5:1, where the C.T. seems to think that the Lake of Gennesaret is in Judea. I think there's another as well but I can't remember it right now.

Steve

Wait - you're saying that it must be wrong because we're "Christians, not Fatherians" yet the verse says that we bow our knee before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not saying to bow before Jesus. What you said makes absolutely no sense.

But bottom line, the oldest texts don't have it. It's most likely an addition made later on. Chapter 1 verse 3 has the phrase even in the NIV "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" and it could very well be that it's an addition from that common phrase there.
 

Greektim

Well-Known Member
Wait - you're saying that it must be wrong because we're "Christians, not Fatherians" yet the verse says that we bow our knee before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not saying to bow before Jesus. What you said makes absolutely no sense.

But bottom line, the oldest texts don't have it. It's most likely an addition made later on. Chapter 1 verse 3 has the phrase even in the NIV "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" and it could very well be that it's an addition from that common phrase there.
Not to mention that it was the believers in Antioch that were first called "Christians". That doesn't mean we must all be called Christians. Count the non-sequiturs in that post you responded to... there were a bunch.
 

Trotter

<img src =/6412.jpg>
The very best translation or version of all time is the one you read, study and preach by.......By far the best.

Other minor infractions can be forgiven.

Cheers,

Jim

Not at all. I might ask the same of your highly esteemed KJV translators. God often uses unsaved people to accomplish His perfect purposes.

So I guess God goofed up, and somehow the Devil won and was able to corrupt His Word after all?

But then again, people get saved through the ESV, the NIV, the NKJV so maybe the Devil messed up after all?

Stop giving the Devil credit for God's work.

I love you guys. Seriously. Amid all the ignorance being flaunted in this thread I was able to find these gems. Thanks as I needed that.

Oh, and as for "proof", all you will ever get is conjecture and hearsay. For example the bovine excrement/red herring about Alexandria, as well as the same about Wescott & Hort. Neither have any substance other than being circumstantial evidence at best, using twisted "logic" to try and prop up the "beliefs" of a few. One cannot worship Nehushtan without finding some way to elevate it above the chunk of common metal that it actually is.
 

Rippon

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Eph 3:14-15, NKJV. 'For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.'

Eph 3:14-15, NIV. 'For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.'

You see the difference? The words 'of our Lord Jesus Christ' are missing in the Critical Text (though the vast majority of Greek texts contain them). Now, whom is the whole family of God. living on earth and in glory, named? After Christ of course. We're Christians (Acts 11:26), not Fatherians. So it seems to me that the CT must be wrong at this point.

Steve,I went over this with you back in March. Philip Comfort says:

The documentary support for the shorter reading far exceeds that for the longer reading.It was typical for scribes to expand such titles,especially in identifying the Father as being the Father "of the Lord jesus Christ" (or some such expression --see 1:3) such expanded titles enhance oral reading.
__________________________________________________________

The Net note says in part:

...but such an edifying phrase cannot explain the rise of the reading that lacks it,especially when the shorter reading is attested by early and important witnesses...(then many are cited --Rip)
 

Rippon

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Actually there are many more reasons why the phrase should have beeen deleted than added, one of which is especially since the biggest cults in Egypt at the time were highly ascetic, one or another orthodox scribe from the one location in the world (i.e. Egypt) where the cults were most problematic was influenced to remove the proof texts for the super-ascetic cults (cf. also Matt 17:21 and 1 Cor 7:5).

You are such a conspiracy theorist.
 

jonathan.borland

Active Member
Steve,I went over this with you back in March. Philip Comfort says:

The documentary support for the shorter reading far exceeds that for the longer reading.It was typical for scribes to expand such titles,especially in identifying the Father as being the Father "of the Lord jesus Christ" (or some such expression --see 1:3) such expanded titles enhance oral reading.
__________________________________________________________

The Net note says in part:

...but such an edifying phrase cannot explain the rise of the reading that lacks it,especially when the shorter reading is attested by early and important witnesses...(then many are cited --Rip)

The typical one or two sentence defense of the critical text reading of Eph 3:14 is woefully inadequate if not totally laughable. Sometime last year when studying this passage I read a very convincing and cogently-argued 15-page defense of the traditional reading in Johann Georg Reiche, Commentarius Criticus in N.T. (3 vols.; Göttingae: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1853-1862), 2:154-68. I was totally convinced and had to wonder at those who are so easily persuaded by treatments as superficial and simplistic as what one finds in Metzger's and Comfort's comments on this verse.
 

jonathan.borland

Active Member
You are such a conspiracy theorist.

Haha, you're funny. The fact is that the orthodox here and there were in a much better position to tamper with Scripture and obviously much more successful in doing so than were the heretics. Nearly all textual critics will agree, which is why the more orthodox reading found in only a few manuscripts of this location or that will almost always be rejected, and rightly so.

The real conspiracy theorist is the one who claims that all scribes from all over the world except two succeeded in forcing the doctrine of fasting on the church in Mark 9:29, without explaining or proving who started it, coordinated it, and accomplished such an amazing feat.
 
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JesusFan

Well-Known Member
While "corrupt" is not a word I would use for the CT, I would say that the textual philosophy behind it is flawed based on the "test-tube" nature of the text (thank you Dr. Robinson :D). There are many places in the CT that have no Ms support for their readings. At least w/ a Byzantine priority perspective, there is a transmissional stream of texts that can be followed... that is assuming that one wants a transmissional history of the text.

Would you agree though that much of the difference between the renderings found in the CT/MT Greek texts are indeed due to how they came to their philosophy of texts being copied/received/transmitted? That its NOT due to some "satanic" influence, some hidden agenda among scribes to "water down text?"

And isn't is still true that NO major doctrinal differences occur when comparing the CT/MT texts , and that both can be still held as 'essentially" bringing to us the original documents of the NT?
 

Martin Marprelate

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Wait - you're saying that it must be wrong because we're "Christians, not Fatherians" yet the verse says that we bow our knee before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not saying to bow before Jesus. What you said makes absolutely no sense.
I can't think why you don't find this perfectly clear. Yes, Paul bows his knees to the Father, but the family of Christians is, obviously, named after Christ. Therefore the phrase 'From whom the whole family.....is named' refers to Christ qed. Therefore to leave out the phrase 'Of our Lord Jesus Christ' makes the whole verse something of a nonsense.
But bottom line, the oldest texts don't have it. It's most likely an addition made later on. Chapter 1 verse 3 has the phrase even in the NIV "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" and it could very well be that it's an addition from that common phrase there.
Bottom line, 95% of all extant texts do have it. Also, to my mind it is a ridiculous and irreverent teaching that the most unlikely and unfeasible reading of a text is probably the correct one. It comes straight from secular textual criticism. Well, we're not talking about Homer or Tacitus here, who may well have written silly things or non sequiturs; we're talking about the word of the Living God which word we are to follow to the letter. He does not make mistakes.

Steve
 

annsni

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
I can't think why you don't find this perfectly clear. Yes, Paul bows his knees to the Father, but the family of Christians is, obviously, named after Christ. Therefore the phrase 'From whom the whole family.....is named' refers to Christ qed. Therefore to leave out the phrase 'Of our Lord Jesus Christ' makes the whole verse something of a nonsense.

Not really because we're still speaking of the Father - NOT the Son.

Bottom line, 95% of all extant texts do have it. Also, to my mind it is a ridiculous and irreverent teaching that the most unlikely and unfeasible reading of a text is probably the correct one. It comes straight from secular textual criticism. Well, we're not talking about Homer or Tacitus here, who may well have written silly things or non sequiturs; we're talking about the word of the Living God which word we are to follow to the letter. He does not make mistakes.

Steve

Is it 95% of the texts? How reliable are these texts? What if they are all very much newer texts and less trustworthy? If the line of older texts don't have them and then suddenly hundreds of years later we see the addition, don't you think that maybe it was added?
 

John of Japan

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
is it possible for we who believe in the infallibility of the sacred texts in the Bible agree that though we might hold that the CT is better than MT, or visa versa, that NO major doctrines are affected regardless of preferred greek text used, and that BOTh accurately reflect the original manuscripts?
Sorry I didn't get to answering this. Lost track!

I believe I can prove that the NT is inerrant whether you use a CT or MT Greek NT. And the only doctrine, major or minor, that I know of that might be affected depending on which NT you use is snake handling. :laugh:

Having said that, I would say about your last statement that I believe the MT/Byzantine tradition reflects the original mss much better than the CT.
 

Martin Marprelate

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Not really because we're still speaking of the Father - NOT the Son.
Perhaps I'm explaining this really badly. Let me try again. Here's the NIV reading of Eph 3:14-15 again.

'For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.'

Now the point I'm trying to make is that the whole family in heven and on earth does not derive its name from the Father. Once again, we are Christians, not Fatherians. If that is the genuine reading, then there is a mistake in the Bible.

But when we come to the KJV or NKJV, the verses make perfect sense:-

'For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.'

Paul is praying to the Father, but the whole family is named after the Lord Jesus Christ. The verse makes perfect sense.

Now to say, as Rippon and his man Philip Comfort do, that the extra words were a later emendation by a scribe, means that The Holy Spirit made a mistake originally which a man had to correct. I do not find that acceptable as a point of view.

Is it 95% of the texts?
Approximately. Call it 92% if it makes you feel happier.
How reliable are these texts? What if they are all very much newer texts and less trustworthy? If the line of older texts don't have them and then suddenly hundreds of years later we see the addition, don't you think that maybe it was added?
No. I think it is much more likely that the error occurred very early on and has been corrected a little later and so the reading in the huge majority of manuscripts is the true one.

Let me just add that this text makes no theological difference to the reading of Eph 3. Paul is praying to the Father. I was responding to the original question. To me these verses are a proof that the C.T. is erroneous because to think otherwise requires you to believe that God made a mistake in the original which a man had to correct later on.

Steve
 
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