FLY DROPPINGS AND OTHER TYPES OF MANURE
People sometimes argue that you can’t trust the Bible because it’s been changed over the centuries so much that what the apostles wrote is no longer recognizable. I even heard a man once defiantly claim that a fly dropping deposited on a page could change a verse’s meaning – so how could we trust the Bible!
These arguments demonstrate only the ignorance of one arguing.
The New Testament is the best attested text of the ancient world, preserved in over 5,000 manuscripts – compared to fewer than ten for many of the ancient classical Greek writers! (I’ve never heard any say you can’t trust them because of fly droppings!)
More importantly, those 5,000 manuscripts agree with each other far more than they disagree, and their disagreements are nearly all trivial.
I randomly flipped through two different Greek texts and read until I came to an ‘error’ (i.e. a place the two texts differed). I translated the differing readings myself and underlined the differences.
Matthew 5.32 – different pronouns used
Reading 1: …whoever divorces…
Reading 2: …everyone who divorces…
Mark 8.1 – an additional adverb
Reading 1: In those days there was a great crowd…
Reading 2: In those days there was again a great crowd…
Acts 13.4 – different pronouns used
Reading 1: These, therefore, being sent out…
Reading 2: They, therefore, being sent out…
1 Corinthians 8.4 – an additional adjective
Reading 1: There is no God but one…
Reading 2: There is no other God but one…
Colossians 1.2 – an additional phrase
Reading 1: Grace and peace from God our Father
Reading 2: Grace and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ
James 4.1 – an additional adverb
Reading 1: What causes quarrels and fights among you?
Reading 2: What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?
1 Peter 3.5 – difference of preposition
Reading 1: This is how holy women who hoped in God…
Reading 2: This is how holy women who hoped on God…
1 John 1.4 – different pronouns used
Reading 1: …that our joy might be full
Reading 2: …that your joy might be full
Revelation 4.2 – an additional conjunction
Reading 1: Immediately I was in the Spirit…
Reading 2: And immediately I was in the Spirit…
These changes are insignificant, and this is how most copyist ‘errors’ are.
Larger alterations exist but are rare. The most notable are the various endings of Mark. Mark’s gospel screeches to a halt at Mark 16.8. Scribes, uncomfortable with the lack of resolution, composed several different endings, some short and some long, and attached them at Mark 16.8. Our Bibles usually include the longest ending and note its questionable origin. You can read it for yourself. Does it teach anything not taught elsewhere in the New Testament?
Those who tell you the Bible isn’t trustworthy because scribes changed it are shoveling a manure far more voluminous and rancid than fly droppings.
These arguments demonstrate only the ignorance of one arguing.
The New Testament is the best attested text of the ancient world, preserved in over 5,000 manuscripts – compared to fewer than ten for many of the ancient classical Greek writers! (I’ve never heard any say you can’t trust them because of fly droppings!)
More importantly, those 5,000 manuscripts agree with each other far more than they disagree, and their disagreements are nearly all trivial.
I randomly flipped through two different Greek texts and read until I came to an ‘error’ (i.e. a place the two texts differed). I translated the differing readings myself and underlined the differences.
Matthew 5.32 – different pronouns used
Reading 1: …whoever divorces…
Reading 2: …everyone who divorces…
Mark 8.1 – an additional adverb
Reading 1: In those days there was a great crowd…
Reading 2: In those days there was again a great crowd…
Acts 13.4 – different pronouns used
Reading 1: These, therefore, being sent out…
Reading 2: They, therefore, being sent out…
1 Corinthians 8.4 – an additional adjective
Reading 1: There is no God but one…
Reading 2: There is no other God but one…
Colossians 1.2 – an additional phrase
Reading 1: Grace and peace from God our Father
Reading 2: Grace and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ
James 4.1 – an additional adverb
Reading 1: What causes quarrels and fights among you?
Reading 2: What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?
1 Peter 3.5 – difference of preposition
Reading 1: This is how holy women who hoped in God…
Reading 2: This is how holy women who hoped on God…
1 John 1.4 – different pronouns used
Reading 1: …that our joy might be full
Reading 2: …that your joy might be full
Revelation 4.2 – an additional conjunction
Reading 1: Immediately I was in the Spirit…
Reading 2: And immediately I was in the Spirit…
These changes are insignificant, and this is how most copyist ‘errors’ are.
Larger alterations exist but are rare. The most notable are the various endings of Mark. Mark’s gospel screeches to a halt at Mark 16.8. Scribes, uncomfortable with the lack of resolution, composed several different endings, some short and some long, and attached them at Mark 16.8. Our Bibles usually include the longest ending and note its questionable origin. You can read it for yourself. Does it teach anything not taught elsewhere in the New Testament?
Those who tell you the Bible isn’t trustworthy because scribes changed it are shoveling a manure far more voluminous and rancid than fly droppings.