I have spent some time laying the foundation for this present study. I have labored to present to you the history of your faith as championed by the Catholic Church and as inherited by the Protestant Church. You need to understand that they literally controlled and yet control what you are to believe as your faith as a Christian. They do this through both preaching of false dogmas and doctrines as well as point you to a document which is full of error and lies taken from pagan mystery religions. The Catholic Church not only had possession of the New Testament manuscripts but controlled what you heard and what you were "to believe". By the time that the books of the New Testament would be printed in the language of the people for all to read and see for themselves, hundreds and hundreds of changes had already been made in the text by monks and adept "theologians" who made sure the manuscripts carried the "current teachings" of the Catholic Church. The New Testament was to be a reflection not of truth or the original faith of Yeshua but of Catholic theology as it evolved by emperor's decisions and majority votes; from one Church Council to the next. Over time by majority vote the New Testament took upon itself a life of its own which can be shown to be quite different from the doctrines believed by the Jerusalem Church.
Perhaps one of the most pointed questions I get in my e-mails over and over is this:
"Does it make sense that God would give man His revelation and then stand by helplessly as it became garbled and corrupted? Such an idea is preposterous."
I understand the desperation of such a question but the student does not grasp the incalculable damage done to the New Testament over the centuries by the Catholic Church. He lacks the facts in the matter at hand. Once you see this for yourself then such a question needs not to be asked because you have proof as your answer.
Ironically, I totally agree with that statement! If a Divine Being, who we are told created the whole universe, transmitted His divine will into the writing of a book, then it makes no sense that He'd allow that book to become corrupt. The Creator of the universe would be perfection manifest and beyond error, whereas man is notoriously corrupt in everything he puts his hand to! This is the rule by which one should judge any human-proclaimed holy writing, and one to keep in mind as we NOW consider the facts pertaining to and the origins of the New Testament.
To get an overall picture let's start by first noting that there is no such thing as an original manuscript of the New Testament. This means that there is no known prototype from which later copies of the New Testament were made. To the contrary, there are several so-called families of Greek texts, none of which agrees with the other, that stand behind the present day New Testament.
Answer for yourself: Did you notice I said no "two" (2) New Testament manuscripts agrees with each other?
Take time to let that statement sink in.
The more important of these families of Greek texts are the Alexandrian texts, the Western texts, the Caesarean texts and the Byzantine Texts. Metzger, A Textual Commentary On The Greek New Testament, pp. XVI, XVII states that the Alexandrian texts are represented by the codex Vaticanus and the codex Sinaiticus. The Western text were those used by the church fathers Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Marcion and Tatian. The Caesarean text apparently originated in Egypt and is thought to have been brought to Caesarea where it was used by Eusebius and others.
The state of these texts can be seen in the admission of the turn-of-the-century editors of The Catholic Encyclopedia, who represented a church that even today fully believes and teaches the infallibility of the bible.
Now pay attention to the next quotation. Although admitting to thousands of conflicting scriptures in the New Testament text families, they nevertheless offer this weak excuse: "It is easy to understand how numerous would be the readings of a text transcribed as often as the Bible, and, as only one reading can represent the original, it follows that all the others are necessarily faulty. Mill estimated the variants of the New Testament at 30,000, and since the discovery of so many MSS. [i.e., manuscripts] unknown to Mill, this number has greatly increased" (Vol. IV, p. 498. The Catholic Encyclopedia, published in 1910). I need to stop here and ask you a very important question.
Answer for yourself: Did you notice that the Catholic Encyclopedia estimated 30,000 variants and contradictions in the New Testament manuscripts in 1910 and do you know that the true number is much higher because of the newer archeological discoveries in New Testament studies since 1910?
Answer for yourself: Are you aware before reading this article that the Greek "New Testament" manuscripts from which the New Testament in your Christian Bible is taken had "thousands and thousands" of conflicting scriptures?
Answer for yourself: Can you give an answer why when considering the Masoretic Text of the Old Testament as handed down by the Jewish Scribes is almost 99% accurate with just minimal discrepancies whereas the Greek Scriptures handed down from the non-Jewish Catholic Church has thousands and thousands of "conflicting scriptures"?
Answer for yourself: Remember the question posed earlier: "Does it make sense that God would give man His revelation and then stand by helplessly as it became garbled and corrupted? Now I ask you "What does it appear to you that God is preserving as His Word; the New Testament or the Old Testament?
Take time to let that statement sink in.
Concerning the New Testament Gospels the editors note: "The existence of numerous and, at times, considerable differences between the four canonical Gospels is a fact which has long been noticed and which all scholars readily admit" (Volume VI, p. 658.The Catholic Encyclopedia was published in 1910).
Regarding the lack of uniformity of these various texts, a later work, Forlong's Encyclopedia of Religion, tells us: "There are some 1,760 MSS. to be compared; and the various readings are computed at 150,000.
Answer for yourself: Now did you notice that the number of variants and conflicts are now over 150,000?
Answer for yourself: In all honesty where is the work of the Holy Spirit in this?
The revisers confess to 100,000 in 1,500 MSS" (Vol. I, p. 316.) In other words here we are being told that there are l50,000 conflicting words or verses in the so-called original Greek New Testament manuscripts from which Christianity derives its holy book.
Answer for yourself: Can you honestly say that the New Testament, according to the facts you have seen, is the work of the Holy Spirit especially in light of the facts regarding how meticulously and with such few discrepancies the Jewish Old Testament was preserved by the Jewish Scribes?
However since the above reference works were first published the discovery of ancient New Testament manuscripts have more than doubled in numbers. By 1989 the Munster Institute for New Testament Textual Research had catalogued 5,488 Greek New Testament manuscripts. Only 59 of these contain the entire New Testament, while roughly 1500 contain only the Gospels. The present count of New Testament MSS. include 96 papyri, 299 uncials, 2,812 minuscule and 2,281 lectionaries, or works containing selected passages for use in church services (The Oxford Companion to the Bible, p. 488). The relevant information that you need to know about these 5,488 manuscripts is that virtually all of them differ in some mayor or minor degrees one from the other!
Answer for yourself: Did you notice that now, out of 5,488 New Testament manuscripts that no 2 agree?
After noting that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John alone are preserved in some 3,500 different and often conflicting manuscripts, the editors of a contemporary work entitled, The Complete Gospels, bluntly admit that, "The Greek texts behind our English translation [of the New Testament] is a reconstruction produced by patient and exacting comparison of thousands of differences in wording among the numerous copies" (The Complete Gospels, p. 2).
By way of defending such damaging information, Christian apologist and fundamentalist Eric V. Snow first acknowledges that there are 200,000 estimated variations in the New Testament, but then excuses this fact with the following remark: "Scholars Geisler and Nix, building upon the work of F.J.A. Hort, said only about 1/8 [of the 200,000] have weight, with 1/60 [of the 200,000] being 'substantial variation."'
Answer for yourself: Can you feel secure knowing that your religious belief system whereby you are trusting New Testament dogmas and doctrines for your salvation can be shown to have "substantial variations"?
Eric V. Snow adds to his so-called defense by also quoting the well-known NT scholars C.F. Sitterly and J.H. Greenlee as saying: "Such a wealth of evidence makes it all the more certain that the original words of the NT have been preserved somewhere within the MSS."
What Christian scholars like Eric's two experts are saying is that somewhere in all the jumble of the surviving disagreeing New Testament manuscripts there must be some originality...but where!)
Answer for yourself: As a typical New Testament believer, have you when reading the New Testament, the ability to pick out from these "jumbled and disagreeing New Testament Scriptures" what is originally true from what is false since the Christian scholars attest that "truth" is jumbled somewhere within it?
Answer for yourself: Are you qualified to read the New Testament and have the ability to discern "truth" from "error" on every page?
Answer for yourself: Have you invested years of scholarly research in order to equip yourself with necessary skills that ensure you can pick out the lies from the truth when reading the New Testament?
I never was real good with math but let's get out our handy pocket calculators. Take the 200,000 NT variations admitted by Christian scholars and divide by 8; we have 25,000 NT variations which quoted scholars like Geisler and Nix said have weight. Now, let's divide 200,000 by 60. We come up with 3,333 New Testament variations which these two Christians scholars said were substantial! Taking the low number of 3,333 substantial variations, we still have a major headache for those who uphold the infallibility of the New Testament!"
Answer for yourself: Have you ever thought that you should ask your Pastor how many of these 3,333 substantial New Testament variations conflict in matters of salvation let alone in doctrines where your life-style is either pleasing or displeasing to God?
Speaking of Doctors Westcott and Hort, fundamentalist minister, educator and author Dr. D.A. Waite criticizes their work by charging that Hort deliberately understates the number of variances between his reconstructed Greek New Testament translation and the "original" Textus Receptus, or the "received" Greek text behind the King James Version of the New Testament. Waite notes that he counted some 5,604 places where Westcott and Hort "rejected the Textus Receptus", which includes 9,970 Greek words that were either added, subtracted or changed from what he terms the original Textus Receptus.
Answer for yourself: Did you hear that? At least 9,970 words were either added or subtracted or changed from the earlier translation of the Bible; the Textus Receptus?
Answer for yourself: Do you recall the following verses from the Old Testament?
Deut. 4:2
2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
Deut 12:32
32 What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
Answer for yourself: Did any of these 9,970 words which were either "added, subtracted, or changed" in the New Testament affect, influence, or change Biblical doctrines or dogmas from what the Old Testament once said?
You better listen to what I just asked. The horrible fact is that many do! Over the years my research, as well as the research conducted by many others have revealed the same results. The tragic fact is that the typical believer in the Church pew has not the slightest idea to the corruption which has occurred to the New Testament. The typical New Testament believer would literally die if he knew the horrible and severe violations does to the Masoretic text by the writers of the New Testament and their subsequent translations which are filled with gross distortions of the Old Testament for purposes of indoctrination. In their never-ending quest for religious legitimacy and status, the writers of the New Testament have not hesitated to twist, distort, pervert, and concoct Old Testament verses as expediency dictated, and subsequent translations of the New Testament followed suit in the steps of their predecessors.
Waite calculated that these changes came to 45.9 pages of differences within the whole of the New Testament (The Four-Fold Superiority of the King James Version, Collingswood, New Jersey, 1992, pp. 5-6. This reference is taken from Waite's book Defending the King James Bible: The Four-Fold Superiority of the King James Version). The next time you go to church and read from the New Testament I want you to count 45 pages and hold them between your thumb and realize that this much "verbiage" in the New Testament is considered by scholars to be substantial variations !
Again, such statistics are not very reassuring to "infallible New Testament" advocates. However, as I will endeavor to show, the above figures are the least of the problems inherent with the New Testament. On with the next study.