Johnny Skeptic

I am referring to the Bible.

ZX432

God didn't preserve the originals. What we have are thousands of copies, with a 99% accuracy of knowing what was in the originals through textual-critical examination.

funinspace

Maybe we should talk about the later addition of Mark 16:9-20 or John 7:53--8:11. Or the dozens of others…

http://www.bible-researcher.com/adult.html
Biblical scholars are nearly all agreed that the Story of the Adulteress (also known as the Pericope Adulterae or the Pericope de Adultera) usually printed in Bibles as John 7:53-8:11 is a later addition to the Gospel. On this page I present some extended quotations from scholarly works that explain the reasons for this judgment. On another page I give an extract from one of the few scholarly defenders of the passage. To give my own opinion, it seems clear to me that the story does not belong in the Bible

http://faith.propadeutic.com/analysis2.html
Scribes would also sometimes make additions to the text in order to explain or clarify it, or else to balance out a thought.
• Romans 11:6
o Alex.: If [it is] by grace, then it is no longer from work; otherwise grace becomes no longer grace.
o Byz.: If [it is] by grace, then it is no longer from work; otherwise grace becomes no longer grace. But if from work, it is no longer grace; then work is no longer work.
• Romans 14:6
o Alex.: The one who regards a day regards [it] for the Lord.
o Byz.: The one who regards a day regards [it] for the Lord, and the one who disregards a day disregards [it] for the Lord.
• 1 Corinthians 7:39
o Alex.: A woman is bound as long as her husband lives.
o Byz.: A woman is bound by law as long as her husband lives.
• 1 John 4:19
o Alex.: We love because He first loved us.
o Byz.: We love Him because He first loved us.

Psalms 151: in or out?
Mark 16:9-20: in or out?
John 7.53-8.11: in or out?
Luke 24:12: in or out?
John 5:4: in or out?

Exciter

Why the hell not?

ZX432

What difference does it make, given that we know what the message is?

First of all, you don't know squat about me. Second, the Bible doesn't say anything about people that are "um." "Um," isn't even a word. What you might want to do, though, is taking a writing course and learn how to form parenthetical clauses and phrases, so that you don't come off sounding like a dope.

CreamFilledGiraffe

Worship and obey me or be tortured forever. Great message! So who sent this message?

Johnny Skeptic

It makes a lot of difference because we cannot be reasonably certain where the message came from, from God, or the Bible writers of their own accord. How do you propose that people find out where the Bible writers got their information from?

Johnny Skeptic

That will not do because you cannot produce historical evidence that the texts that today's copies were copied from were accurate representations of the originals. Even if today's copies, lets call them Item D, were copied 99% accurate from Item C, there is no telling how accurately Item C was copied from Item B, and how accurately Item B was copied from Item A. We cannot be reasonably certain how many times Bible writings were copied before the most recent copies were copied.

Kelly

You are confusing the gospel of Paul and fundamental Christianity with the gospel of Y'shua. They are two entirely different things.

Johnny Skeptic

There are numerous provable errors in the Bible regarding numerical claims. Since copyists made numerous errors regarding numerical claims, there are not any good reasons to assume that they did not make lots of other errors. If God preserved the Bible free of any major errors, then it would have been easy for him to preserve the Bible free of any minor errors, which obviously is not the case.