Misquoting Jesus
by
Dr.Bart Ehrman
These pages will be used to review and critique different books concerning archaeology and other topics which relate to the Bible and christianity. The first book to be looked at is titled above and we will only be dealing with the introduction of that work for within its 15 pages there is enough information to analyze and review. We will look at 3 points made in those pages and point out why this book cannot be accepted by the christian community.
In the introduction to his work, Dr. Ehrman provides an annotated life history which hits upon the major events in his life and traces these events to give us an idea of his evolution of faith. It lays a foundation for his beliefs and for his subsequent changes of mind and acceptance of scripture. The first point we will look at is found on pg. 5 and is as follows:
"Moreover, none of these copies is completely accurate since the scribes who produced them inadvertently and/or intentionally changed them in places. ALL scribes did this. So rather than actually having the inspired words of the autographs of the Bible, wwhat we have are the error-ridden copies of the autographs." {capitals mine}
First off, this passage of the introduction is full of gross assumptions and they are many. Throughout the introduction, Dr. Ehrman keeps repeating the sentences refering to the fact that we do not have the originals thus how can he be so sure ALL the copies are 'error-ridden'? This idea is very hard to prove since we do not have anything to compare with and see where the mistakes take place or if ALL the mss. are error filled.
Then, he makes the asumption that all the scribes copied poorly whether accidently or on purpose. This to is impossible to prove since these scribes were long dead when the author was studying their work. It is highly presumptuous to make such a statement without any proof or written record to support such a contention. We have theory or conjecture but i know of no documents which describe these errors being made or if such errors did take place in ALL the copying being done.
Another assumption made in these few lines is that Dr. Ehrman thinks God's inspiration is limited to only the original autographs and that God is incapable of guiding the copist's hands to preserve His word throughout time. It is this type of unbelief in God that allows the devil to lead believers down the wrong path and to the wrong conclusions. The desire to find the original words is a waste of time and effort as we do not know what those are and any decision on that aspect would merely be subjective and only opinion, not fact. It is safe to say we have the original words of God in our present copies and they are just as inspired.
the next point we need to look at and refute is found on page 11 and reads:
"In short, my study of the Greek New Testament, and my investigations into the mss. that contain it, led to a radical rethinking of my understanding of what the Bible is...my faith had been based completely on a certain view of the Bible as the fully inspired, inerrant word of God. Now i no longer saw the Bible that way. The Bible began to appear to me as a very human book. Just as human scribes had copied, and changed, the texts of scripture, so too had human authors originally written the texts of scriptures. This was a human book frombeginning to end."
The assumptions from the first point have led Dr. Ehrman to this next step. If the scribes were allowed to put in errors then God could not have written it or been involved at all. His own words state that he did not not see any Divine influence as he declares the Bible a human book. He does not take into account the working of the devil who can, and does, motivate people to write bad copies of God's words {the jehovah;s witnesses' Bible comes to mind here} and immediately assumes the authors of the book wrote on their own without Divine aid despite the confirmation in scripture. Or that God did not actually write the Bible. He forgets that the devil worked back in ancient times as he does now and assumes that if the mss. is ancient and about the Bible then it must be immune from such evil influences. This is just not so as we cannot be lazy in our scholarship or less demanding in our discernment and blindly accept all ancient documents as written by believers.
We must realize that as in the days of Moses, the devil can produce copies but only with weaknesses that do not stand up to the authority and power of God. We need the Spirit's help in determining which ancient mss. are from God and which are not. The last point we shall look at is found on page 15 and states:
"...that is, for those who know nothing about it, who don't have the Greek and other labguages necessary for the in-depth study of it, who do not realize there is even a 'problem' with the text, but who would be intrigued to learn what the problems are and how scholars have set about dealing with them."
There really isn't a problem with the text, the problem lies with the reader and his understanding of the words written in the Bible. An unbeliever, a decieved person will not have the regenerated mind needed to grasp what God is saying throughout His pages. This lackof understanding leads many to the wrong conclusions and it makes it evident to all believers that we need help from the Spirit to know the meanings behind all the words. If one is like Dr. Ehrmanwho now regards the Bible as ahumanbook, thenthey cannot hope to understand what God is saying. Their disbelief clouds their minds and doesn't allow them to see the words properly.
This is quite evident, not only in Dr. Ehrman's work, but also in the writings of those who openly deny the Bible as the word of God, whether they write for a credible magazine or on unbelieving websites.
