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| Metzger's autobiography reminded me of Eighty Eventful Years, by Fuerbringer - but so dry. Young Calvinist, old Unitarian. |
The bedrock of all modern English New Testaments is Vaticanus (B), kept under wraps by the Church of Rome until recently. My textual criticism library has almost nothing on Vaticanus, but quite a bit on Sinaiticus, Aleph. The two Tischendorf miracle codices - Aleph and B - do not agree with each other, so they are childless orphans. They are associated with Egypt.
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| Aleph in Wonderland. I wonder how this parchment (skin) manuscript lasted 1400 years. |
The situation today is something like 100 historians discussing the beginning date of the USA. Ninety-five of them agree that the Constitution in 1789 marks the beginning of our nation. Five deny the 1789 fact and quarrel among themselves about the original date.
That 95 to 5 ratio in Greek New Testaments means the traditional text was reproduced, published, and known by everyone - not hidden and cloaked with secrecy. Erasmus edited the GNT from Majority Text (the 95%) manuscripts.
The Latin Vulgate, attributed to Jerome, has been edited again and again by Rome, because certain popes wanted their edition to be the official Bible. They also hated the idea of people reading the Bible in their own language. Latin remained the only Roman Catholic language for Bibles until the Reformation forced their hand.
In modern terms, the 95% ratio is a hindrance to accepting the Majority Text. Rationalists assume that those passages contrary to traditional Christian faith are the earliest and best (Aleph and B). Because a later church council used the new term Trinity to define the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, there is no Trinity in the Bible and Jesus is just a man - a boatload of prejudice among these scholars, eh?
The ecumenical scholars own the Greek New Testament now, and Roman Catholics are part of every modern Biblical effort - American Bible Society, United Bible Societies, etc.
Bruce Metzger, the leading and longest lasting text critic in America, left us an autobiography, which could be considered a series of crime scenes. The first edition of the RSV New Testament dropped the ending of Mark (16:9ff) into a footnote. The next edition lifted it back with a space between 16:8 and 16:9-20. If I recall correctly, that is the same point made by the neo-Seminex Gospel of Mark commentary - published by Concordia Publishing House. ("Tastes great, less doctrine!")
Note this - a sure sign for most modern Bibles, though they all participate in the deception - footnotes below often reverse the meaning of the passage above. Many verses are simply omitted from the English text without comment.
Here is a simple Bible translation test. Look up Isaiah 7:10 - Behold a virgin will conceive...
The footnote will say "verse 10 - or a young woman." That is the great miracle from God Himself, and somehow Matthew and Luke continued the idea that a virgin gave birth to our Savior.
The same frauds who do this to the text cannot find the Virgin Birth in John's Gospel (the Word became flesh and dwelt among us) or Paul
Romans 1:3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
