I was recently asked a question about the reliability of scripture, and I provided a simple answer.
Hi Steve,
I have someone who has questioned how we can believe that what is written in the Bible today (obviously Catholic Bible), is the true copy of the sacred scriptures that was written 2,000 years ago? How do we know that after 2,000 years, we don’t have something now that is unreliable and is not what was actually written by the original writers of the New Testament (and even the Old Testament).
I explained how Christ gave His word that basically the Church would never lead anyone into error or false teachings/beliefs and that Church (the Catholic Church) declares to the word that it is the Word of God and nothing less, because Christ said so.
But I need some historical evidence that shows that the Douay – Rheims or Revised RSV is as close to the original Greek as possible and show how we can know that the Bible didn’t get changed at all.
Do you have any sources or books that shows any of this? I know the actual original copies that the original writers wrote are lost.
Thank you very much and may God Bless!
Happy Advent!!
Dear Friend. Steve Ray here …
Yes, the Holy Spirit has protected scripture through the ages. But we do not need to depend upon that only because the translation and copying and preservation of scripture is also very scientific.
Once at my Bible study, we put a poem up on the wall and we made the group copy the poem, but they had to make at least two mistakes. We had a translating committee at five people in another room, who never saw the original poem. We gave them the 45 flawed copies, and after they studied and analyzed them, they did their best to reconstruct what the original Palm said from all of the 45 flawed copies.
When they came out with the poem and showed it to the group, it was 100% accurate.
This is how Scripture has been handed down. We do not have the original manuscripts of Matthew, Mark Luke, but we do have thousands of fragments and copies in our possession. The documents of scripture, all the New Testament and the Old, are better arrested to than any other ancient writings.
When the translators look at all of those ancient documents from the first centuries, and compare them all, just like a poem that was flawed, they can restructure what the new testament was with 99.99% accuracy.
Anyone who doubts the accuracy of the New Testament, and that includes the old as well, has never studied the issue and is just parroting things they’ve heard from others.. very foolish and ignorant indeed.
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However, we do find places where there is a deliberate misleading translation. There are sites that list various significantly different translations of the same texts. I choose just one here. In listing the apostles, I have seen the Greek original “Jude of James” translated as “son of James..” In Jude’s letter he indicates that he is the “brother of James” without further clarification because James the “brother of the Lord” was famous as the bishop of Jerusalem. His mother is the “other Mary” as we see in Matthew 27:56 and Matthew 27: 61. This other Mary is the aunt of Jesus and thus her son James and Joseph (and Jude) are the “brothers of Jesus” which is a point of obfuscation. Sadly, even Catholic translators are culpable in this case. The fourth “:brother of Jesus” was the next bishop of Jerusalem (Simon). I do not think this confusion is an innocent mistake by the translators. This is just one example..
Another one is where Jesus forbids the Apostles (before Pentecost) to use the title “father” though Paul after Pentecost applies it to himself. Inconveniently for our Protestant brothers, Jesus also forbids the use of teacher, but after Pentecost, this is a ministry in the Church (1 Cor 12:28). No problem for unscrupulous translators. The forbidden title is “instructor” though the Greek words for teacher and instructor are one and the same. These are just some examples of how “sola scripltura” leads to manipulation of the translation to hide rather than reveal the word of God.
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