In Depth Analysis — Full Article

Which Bible? And Does It Really Matter?

YES IT DOES AND HERES WHY

Dean Burgon expressed it eloquently:

The Bible is none other than the voice of Him that sitteth upon the Throne! Every Book of it -- every Chapter of it, -- every Verse of it, -- every Word of it, -- every Syllable of it, -- every Letter of it, -- is the direct utterance of the Most High! Well spake the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of' the many blessed men who wrote it -- The Bible is none other than the Word of God; not some part of it, more, some part of it, less; but all alike, the utterance of Him Who sitteth upon the Throne; -- ABSOLUTE -- FAULTLESS -- UNERRING -- SUPREME!

How you treat the Bible will, of course, depend upon how you regard it. If the Bible is merely a human book, you will treat it like any other book. You will think that the text can be altered to fit human theories of its origin. But if you believe that the Bible was divinely inspired and providentially preserved, you will have a different attitude to the text of the Bible.

We'd better face it, however: Since 1881, there has arisen doubt concerning 10 percent of the New Testament text in over 5,000 different places. And, in effect, since then there have been in existence two different New Testaments. Two? That's right... the Authorised (King James) Version, and the Revised Version (and its successors).

HOW CAN WE KNOW THE GENUINE?

With so many different versions, how can we know which Bible version is the genuine article? (or doesn't it matter?) First, may I say, there is a HUGE difference between the two Bibles.

The broad evidence of history will tell us which early text is correct. It then becomes easy to know which Bible we can trust. Firstly, please bear in mind that through history there have been two streams of Bible manuscripts.

1. ANTIOCHIAN

This manuscript family comes straight from the Apostles and the early Christians of Antioch. To date, this line has 5,641 manuscripts in support of it. Also, it has the broad evidence of history to support it. (a) (b) (c) It includes some of our oldest manuscripts. It includes the majority of manuscripts. These texts are in agreement with the copies held by the millions of persecuted believers who died to uphold their faith. (d) These manuscripts continued to be passed down by faithful Christians from generation to generation, in most of the Christian world. (e) (f) These manuscripts influenced one of the greatest events in Christian history - the Protestant Reformation. They are represented today by the Reina-Valera (Spanish), Diodati (Italian), and all the other Protestant Bibles published between the 1530s and 1600s. In English they are the Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew's, Great Bible, Bishops Bible, Geneva and King James.

2. ALEXANDRIAN:

This stream comes from questionable sources. (a) It is represented by a mere handful of semi-complete "Bibles" from Alexandria, Egypt - a grand total of only 45. (b) It is rare that these manuscripts ever agree with each other. (c) These Alexandrian manuscripts fell into disuse, and many were relegated to a desert trash can. (d) After 1,000 years they were revived -- and their history 12 points straight to the Roman Catholic institution. (e) These manuscripts became the Bible of the persecutors. (f) This Bible is represented by the modern versions, such as the NIV, NASV, ASV, RV, TEV, GNB, Living, NCV, RSV, NRSV, and the various Roman Catholic Bibles. A fierce battle rages between these two streams, the Alexandrian and the Antiochian...

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