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To: wmfights; Marysecretary
The written word doesn't change from person to person

Oh please get real! There is no variety like the biblical veriaty. There are literally thousands of different manuscripts that don't agree. Unfortunately the churches do not teach that. Everyone is given a copy of a Bible and told this is the "word of God" just as the apostles wrote it...baloney.

The closest to any original apostolic writings are shreds ("fragments"), copies of copies of copies of the originals, containing several verses at a time, not of the same period, copied by different authors. The oldest one is dated about 105 AD,

Papyrus 52

and it's a copy of a copy of John's Gospel and contains but a few verses.

Then you have different text-types which don't agree; then you have missing or erased sections; then you have additions that were not present in earlier copies; then you have highly harmonized and polished versions; then you have copies or copies of copies of copies that have scribal errors; then you have erroneous translations; then you have unreliable translations, and dozens of editions that do not agree or say the same thing, and so on.

We have no clue what was written in the originals (which are not extant as far as we know). The oldest complete bible dates to the 4th century. The rest of the manuscripts come in fragments, a few verses here and a few there.

Based on that, we cannot claim certainty or veracity of anything written by the Apostles (even whether it was written by the Apostles because all the Gospels are written anonymously and the names were added later).

What you have in your hands that you call "the Bible" is a man-made book, translated by men, edited by men, rearranged by men, concocted from everything and anything that suited the authors. And you put all your trust in a man-made book and call it the "unchanging word of God?" Amazing.

1,300 posted on 02/05/2008 8:47:32 AM PST by kosta50 (Eastern Orthodoxy is pure Christianity)
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To: kosta50
the "unchanging word of God?"

It's the "unchanging word of God" WITH the textual apparatus and a supplement listing the more than 500 variant texts. And that's just for the NT.

Some put their trust in books, others in the promise of God.
Some speak for God. Others listen for Him and to Him.
Some think the "word of God" is some books bound together. Others think the Word of God is God the Incarnate Son of God.

1,302 posted on 02/05/2008 8:56:31 AM PST by Mad Dawg (Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.)
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To: kosta50

That

ASSUMES

That Almighty God had no capacity, interest or will

to insure through such a messy process

that

HE

ended up with, essentially, what HE WANTED.


1,305 posted on 02/05/2008 9:19:45 AM PST by Quix (GOD ALONE IS GOD; WORTHY; PAID THE PRICE; IS COMING AGAIN; KNOWS ALL; IS LOVING; IS ALTOGETHER GOOD)
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