How Could Textual Variants Of The New Testament Happen?

Mr. Blah

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Maybe, someone read the received manuscripts and the Christian scribes wrote down what they heard.
This method was very risky of copying error.

But, if they copied the manuscripts by reading and writing letter-by-letter, it would be 99.98% identical.
The Jewish scribes use this method to make (almost) perfect copies of the Torah until today.
 
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The gospels are like the hadith, just more concentrated.
These stories were people's recollections written down so you have some differences.

there never was an official written 'scripture' you could call the gospel. The gospel was the information/life Jesus presented.
 

Mr. Blah

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The gospels are like the hadith, just more concentrated.
These stories were people's recollections written down so you have some differences.

there never was an official written 'scripture' you could call the gospel. The gospel was the information/life Jesus presented.
No. I don't talk about that.

What I'm talking about is the copying/transmission process from copied manuscripts to the next new copies.
 

Red Sky at Morning

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Let me first say that I have not studied this in huge depth, but even with what I know, if we are talking about the 'Majority Text' of perhaps 5000 copies, differences arise my typos, spellings etc. Scholars can cross check between the variants to see by very simple statistical means what is a word is mis-spelled in 1% of the copies and the others retain the standard spelling that the 1% represent an outlier.

Have you very tried to copy out something in a rush?
 

Mr. Blah

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Let me first say that I have not studied this in huge depth, but even with what I know, if we are talking about the 'Majority Text' of perhaps 5000 copies, differences arise my typos, spellings etc. Scholars can cross check between the variants to see by very simple statistical means what is a word is mis-spelled in 1% of the copies and the others retain the standard spelling that the 1% represent an outlier.

Have you very tried to copy out something in a rush?
So, they are copying it in a rush?
Maybe, because of Christian persecutions in Dark Ages.
I understand.

Psychological tiredness could be a contributing factor.

But, Christian tradition of transmission of the manuscripts is not as strict as Jewish counterparts.
In Jewish tradition, if you err even a single letter, the entire parchment gets destroyed.
 

Red Sky at Morning

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I would be commenting out of conjecture rather than evidence, so perhaps one to research deeper yourself?
 

Mr. Blah

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I would be commenting out of conjecture rather than evidence, so perhaps one to research deeper yourself?
I've read many internet articles about textual criticism.
But, they don't talk about the methods of transmission.
Was it to be read aloud so that caused many textual variants a lot more than in the Torah?
 

Red Sky at Morning

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If it is a topic of interest, I read Cold Case Christianity by J Warner Wallace recently. If anything he bowed more to the 'higher critics' than I felt the evidence required, but even with that he makes a superb case for the integrity of the message contained in the New Testament. For more meat, try some of the books on Authenticity by Bill Cooper...
 

Mr. Blah

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If it is a topic of interest, I read Cold Case Christianity by J Warner Wallace recently. If anything he bowed more to the 'higher critics' than I felt the evidence required, but even with that he makes a superb case for the integrity of the message contained in the New Testament. For more meat, try some of the books on Authenticity by Bill Cooper...
I believe NT copies we have today is quite authentic too.
According to Bruce Metzger, 95% of all the words written in NT are authentic.
 

Thunderian

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When Christianity began to spread, copies of the New Testament books were spreading with it. Pastors would make copies for their churches, new Christians would make copies for themselves, etc.

There were bound to be copying errors, but as far as the Majority texts go, the errors are insignificant, and are along the lines of alternate spellings and things like that.

There are certainly no cases of half the manuscripts saying that Jesus was God and half saying he was just a prophet and later Christians just picking the one they agree with. The myth that the New Testament we have today was percolated from a hodge-podge of contrary ancient manuscripts is not supported by anything other than wishful thinking. There is ample evidence for the integrity of the New Testament we have today.
 

Damien50

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When Christianity began to spread, copies of the New Testament books were spreading with it. Pastors would make copies for their churches, new Christians would make copies for themselves, etc.

There were bound to be copying errors, but as far as the Majority texts go, the errors are insignificant, and are along the lines of alternate spellings and things like that.

There are certainly no cases of half the manuscripts saying that Jesus was God and half saying he was just a prophet and later Christians just picking the one they agree with. The myth that the New Testament we have today was percolated from a hodge-podge of contrary ancient manuscripts is not supported by anything other than wishful thinking. There is ample evidence for the integrity of the New Testament we have today.
Where you been?
 

Red Sky at Morning

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When Christianity began to spread, copies of the New Testament books were spreading with it. Pastors would make copies for their churches, new Christians would make copies for themselves, etc.

There were bound to be copying errors, but as far as the Majority texts go, the errors are insignificant, and are along the lines of alternate spellings and things like that.

There are certainly no cases of half the manuscripts saying that Jesus was God and half saying he was just a prophet and later Christians just picking the one they agree with. The myth that the New Testament we have today was percolated from a hodge-podge of contrary ancient manuscripts is not supported by anything other than wishful thinking. There is ample evidence for the integrity of the New Testament we have today.
Yeah - that's what I was trying to say!!!
 

Lisa

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We are all forgetting one thing...the God of the Bible wants His word to be read....He is able to preserve it and distribute it.
 
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