“So do not
throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.” – Hebrews 10:35 (EHV)
When one
version of the New Testament has a verse that is not in another version, that
is something worth looking into. When
one version of the New Testament has 40 verses
that another version doesn’t have, that’s definitely
something worth looking into.
Textual criticism involves the investigation of those differences. There are also hundreds of differences in
manuscripts that do not involve entire verses, but involve important phrases and words. (There are also hundreds of
thousands of trivial differences which involve word-order and spelling, but non-synonymous differences in the wording of the text are the
ones that tend to get the most attention.)
How can
ordinary Christians maintain confidence that the New Testament they hold in
their hands conveys the same authoritative message that was conveyed by the
original documents of the New Testament books?
To an extent, that is something taken on faith: even if there were zero variations in a
reconstruction based on all external evidence, there would still be no way to scientifically prove that the earliest archetype
does not vary from the contents of the autographs. But that does not mean that one’s position
about specific readings should be selected at random. There is evidence – external evidence, and
internal evidence – to carefully consider.
After the
evidence has been carefully analysed, though, what should one do with one’s
conclusions? You might think that after
scribal corruptions have been filtered out, the obvious thing for Christians to
do would be to treat the reconstructed text as the Word of God, a text uniquely
imbued with divine authority. However,
if one is to do something with one’s conclusions, one must first have conclusions.
And here we have a problem, because there is no sign that the Nestle-Aland
compilation of the Greek New Testament will ever be more than provisional
and tentative. As the Introduction to its
27th edition states: “It should
naturally be understood that this text is a working text (in the sense of the
century-long Nestle tradition): it is
not to be considered as definitive.”
Anyone who
wants a definitive text of the New
Testament should abandon all hope of such a thing emerging from the team of
scholars who produce the Nestle-Aland compilation.
The
built-in instability of the Nestle-Aland text is understandable. Nobody wants to say, “We are resolved to
ignore any new evidence that may be discovered in the future.” But it is also problematic: it has caused some apologists, such as James
White, to effectively nullify the authority of some parts of the New
Testament. Christians are being told
that they should not have confidence about a particular verse, or a particular
phrase, or a particular word, on the grounds that its presence in the
Nestle-Aland compilation is tenuous. The
reading is in the text today, but the compilers might change their minds about
it tomorrow, and therefore, it has been proposed, readers should not put much
weight on such readings.
For
example, James
White said this regarding the passage where Jesus says, ‘Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do.” – “In Luke 23:34, there is a major
textual variant. And, as a result, you
should be very careful about making large theological points based upon what is
truly a highly questionable text.” In another video,
White said this, referring to the
same passage:
“When you
have a serious textual variant, you should not, in an apologetic context, place
a tremendous amount of theological weight upon a text that could be properly
and fairly questioned as to its specific reading. And so, I don’t think that you should build a
theology based upon this text.”
Notice the reasoning: it’s not, “This
verse is not original, so don’t use it.”
It’s “There is a textual variant
here, so do not depend on it.” There
is a clear danger in such an approach: the danger of effectively relegating parts of
genuine Scripture to a non-authoritative status merely because they have been questioned
by textual critics.
Is James White aware of how much of
the New Testament has been questioned by textual critics? I could easily list over a hundred passages in
the Gospels where the interpretation of a passage changes, depending on which
textual variant is in the text. I will
settle for listing twenty-five:
1. In Mt. 12:47, did someone
tell Jesus His mother and brothers were outside?
2. In Mt. 13:35, did Matthew erroneously
say that Isaiah wrote Psalm 72?
3. In Mt. 17:21, did Jesus say
that prayer and fasting were needed prior to casting out a particular kind of
demon?)
4. In Mt. 19:9, is remarriage
permitted after divorce?
5. In Mt. 27:16, was the
criminal Barabbas also named Jesus?
6. In Mt. 27:49, was Jesus
pierced with a spear before He died, contradicting the account in the Gospel of
John?
7. In Mark 1:1, did Mark introduce
Jesus as the Son of God?
8. In Mk. 1:41, when Jesus was
asked to heal the leper, was Jesus angry,
or was He filled with compassion?
9. In Mk. 6:22, was the dancer at
Herod’s court the daughter of Herodias,
or the daughter of Herod?
10.
In Mk. 10:24, did Jesus say that it is hard to enter into the kingdom of
God, or that it is hard for those who
trust in riches to enter the kingdom
of God ?
11.
At the end of the Gospel of Mark, do the verses which mention Jesus’
bodily post-resurrection appearances, and His command to go into all the world
and preach the gospel, and His ascension into heaven, belong in the Bible, or
not?
12.
In Lk. 2:14, did the angels say “Peace on earth, goodwill to men,” or “Peace on earth to men who are favored by God”?
13.
In Lk. 14:5, did Jesus refer to a donkey,
or to a son, or to a sheep?
14.
In Lk. 11:13, did Jesus refer to the gift of the Holy Spirit, or to gifts in general?
15.
In Lk. 22:43-44, did Jesus’ body exude drops of sweat like blood? And did an angel appear to Him in Gethsemane , strengthening Him?
16.
In Lk. 23:34a, did Jesus ask
the Father to forgive those who were responsible for crucifying Him?
17.
In Lk. 24:6, did Luke state that the men said to the women at the tomb,
“He is not here, but is risen”?
18.
In Lk. 24:40, did the
risen Jesus show His disciples His hands and His feet?)
19.
In Lk. 24:51, did Luke
say specifically that Jesus “was carried up into heaven”?
20.
In Jn. 1:18, did John call Jesus “only begotten God” or “the only begotten
Son”?
21.
In Jn. 1:34, did John the Baptist call Jesus the Son of God, or the chosen one of God?
22.
Did Jn. 3:13 originally end with the phrase, “the Son of Man who is in
heaven”?)
23.
Does the story about the woman caught in adultery, in Jn.
7:53-8:11, belong in the New New Testament, or not?
24.
In John 9:38-39, did Jesus receive worship from the formerly blind man, or not?
25.
In John 14:14, did John depict Jesus referring to prayers offered to
Him, or not?
In these 25 passages (and many more), the decisions made on a text-critical level will decide how the text is approached at an interpretive level. And this sort of thing is not confined to the Gospels: it also occurs elsewhere, for example, in Acts 20:28, and First Corinthians 14:34-35, and First Timothy 3:16.
In these 25 passages (and many more), the decisions made on a text-critical level will decide how the text is approached at an interpretive level. And this sort of thing is not confined to the Gospels: it also occurs elsewhere, for example, in Acts 20:28, and First Corinthians 14:34-35, and First Timothy 3:16.
Does anyone
think that the Holy Spirit wants Christians to answer these questions with, “Only God knows”? All Scripture is profitable for doctrine –
but it can’t be profitable for doctrine if its authority is not recognized. And its authority
cannot be recognized as long as its content
is not recognized.
An objection
might be raised: “It is not as if those
readings have been arbitrarily declared dubious; the passages you listed have
been properly and fairly questioned.”
Who
says? A horde of seminary professors who
know only what they vaguely recall reading 30 years ago in Metzger’s Textual Commentary? Didn’t Metzger routinely house his arguments
in the now-demolished prefer-the-shorter-reading principle? Didn’t most of the editors of the Nestle-Aland compilation adhere to Hort’s defunct and untenable Lucianic recension theory? If you have
read Aland & Aland’s Text of the New
Testament, then you know: that is almost
exactly what they did, and they
almost invariably rejected Byzantine readings accordingly.
But James
White, instead of stepping back from their obsolete theories and biased
methodology – a methodology which starkly defies the “multi-focality” that he seems
to imagine that it favors – still supports their results.
Instability is built into their results in hundreds of passages. Over and over and over, the advocates of the Nestle-Aland text are obligated to say, “Maybe the original reading is this, and maybe it is that, and so we cannot confidently use either one as authoritative Scripture.” Furthermore, the direction that the Nestle-Aland compilers (and, by extension, James White) are taking the text is not toward stability; it is toward perpetual instability, and more of it.
Instability is built into their results in hundreds of passages. Over and over and over, the advocates of the Nestle-Aland text are obligated to say, “Maybe the original reading is this, and maybe it is that, and so we cannot confidently use either one as authoritative Scripture.” Furthermore, the direction that the Nestle-Aland compilers (and, by extension, James White) are taking the text is not toward stability; it is toward perpetual instability, and more of it.
In the
approach that James White currently endorses, whether he realizes it or not,
the authority of a passage can be nullified if a particular group of
researchers declares that they
are not confident about what the original reading was. More and more of the text will inevitably be
declared unstable – and thus, unsafe to use for theological purposes – as long
as this approach is used.
Of course it seems reasonable to say, “Don’t build
theology on disputed passages.” But it is an invitation to chaos when no one establishes
parameters to answer the question, “What is the proper basis on which to
dispute a passage?”. Is a suspicion of corruption all it
takes? Is the testimony of a single manuscript, or two manuscripts, a sufficient basis to
throw a reading onto James White’s Disputed-And-Thus-Not-To-Be-Used
pile? Shouldn’t researchers resolve textual contests instead of merely observe them?
We may
think that indecision is merited when Bible-footnotes tell us that “Some”
manuscripts say one thing, and “Others” say something else. But what would we think if the evidence were brought
into focus, and we saw that behind the “Some” are a few witnesses, all
representing the same transmission-line, and that behind the “Others” are
thousands of witnesses, including the most ancient testimony, representing a
wide variety of locales and transmission-lines?
We might
conclude that it is preposterous, or even immoral, to continue to regard
readings with excellent and abundant attestation as unstable. But as long as the Nestle-Aland editors are
the ones who get to answer the question, “Should
this reading be disputed?” and as long as individuals such as James White say the equivalent of, “If it’s disputed, do not treat it like Scripture,” the door will inevitably
open wider and wider for more and more passages to be disputed. And that will result in having less and less
Scripture on which to build theology – that is, less and less Scripture to treat at Scripture.
As far as the tasks of interpreting and applying the Scriptures are concerned, the situation will be no different than if
those disputed passages were not there at all.
So I feel justified when saying, in conclusion that James White’s
approach to these passages, while less shocking than erasing them, will have
the same effect in the long run. If you
don’t want more and more of the Bible to be thrown onto the Do-Not-Use-for-Theology pile in the
future, maybe you should stop using the new Nestle-Aland compilation, and stop supporting
James White’s Alpha and Omega “Ministry.”
You make a strong point. I've often felt the footnote approach undermines the reader's ability to put faith in the text. At that point, we become double-minded and unable to expect to receive anything from God.
ReplyDeleteIs there a specific text/translation you are comparing to? A few of these I couldn't find in the four translations I looked in (KJV, NKJV, ESV, NIV). For example, Matt 27:49 says the crowd was waiting for Elijah to come save him. None of my translations mention him being stabbed with a spear before dying.
ReplyDeleteThere were a few other passages you listed that I couldn't find any discrepancies or even the claim you made. Thanks.
To Irongod 1640:
ReplyDeleteI know this is an old post but like to help clarify and answer for those who might have been confused.
He is not comparing it to any English translations. The ones you have listed and many others like that are the result of the textual criticism of the actual texts and the critics deciding what the author or scribe intended to copy and write. Some have been resolved somewhat reasonably, while others as Snapp has pointed out have been left alone unresolved. This can and as lead to error and mockery from atheists (not an inerranist myself but I believe most errors in the New Testament are a result more from the copyists over time than the authors themselves).
Even the interlinear Greek Bibles are the result of textual criticisms and are composed from many different texts.