COPY MISTAKES [1914]

At some point there was an original. Copies of the original were made. Copies of Copies were made. As far as anyone knows, there are no autographs in existence.

The Hebrew scribes took great care in reproducing the Hebrew Canon. Textual scholars have determined that there have been some "changes" to the original text. These "changes" have been determined by comparing "extant" copies in the original languages. The "changes" can be categorized as follows:

Alterations

Additions

Omission

As you consider the implication from the statement above, take note of the following:

• "Not a single change has been discovered which made any difference in any significant teaching of the Old Testament." [Francisco, 71]
• Masoretic Text compare with Dead Sea Scrolls [Geisler & Nix, 261]
  • "Gleason Archer observes that the two copies of Isaiah discovered in Quram Cave I 'proved to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95% of the Text. The 5% of variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variation in spelling.'"
• "99% of the Greek text we have is like the original [must find quote]
• No major doctrine is effected by any of the variation in the original texts. [must find quote]

(Lesson adapted in part from [Francisco] and A General Introduction to the Bible by Norman Geisler and William Nix)

Last Updated 24 February, 2000