Before you read this post, Please answer these two Survey questions:

(1) Have you ever read the Bible? _____

(2) Can you trust the Bible? _____


If you are a typical "fundamentalist" "conservative" Christian in America today, your answers should be:

1. "NO"
2. "NO"

If you answered "YES" to either of them, then you probably were not telling the truth.

Now before you get mad at that statement, give me a second to explain.

#1 Have you ever read the "Bible"?

Well, what exactly do we mean by "Bible"? Most of us agree that the Bible is another way of saying the holy "scriptures". But if that is true, then the "Bible" must have the same character traits as "the holy scriptures" - such as: it cannot be broken, it is perfect and without error, and it is the very words of God.

Now those that answer "Yes" to having read the Bible, mistakenly cal! l one of their English translations of the Greek New Testament and the Hebrew Old Testament the "Bible."

Yet, they do not accept regarding a translation the characteristics of infallibility or inspiration - only the "originals" are inspired. Various English translations sometimes actually contradict one another, therefore how can they be "scripture"?

Therefore, most Christians do not really think their English Bible is the "scripture". Therefore, the true answer for most of these people is "No" - they have not read the Bible.

However, many Christian scholars have read one of the Greek and Hebrew Bibles put out by a Bible society or available through a library or other scholarly resource.

However, note that there is actually no such thing as "THE" Greek manuscript or "THE" Hebrew manuscr! ipt on which these various underlying text are comprised. They are "eclectic" texts that  are actually compositions of many available Greek manuscript copies, most of which show some difference from one another. A scholar may refer to and compare 20 or more different complete Greek texts that have been published over time that were made up and compiled from tens of thousands of various Greek manuscripts, - from which sources editorial decisions were made as to which manuscript copy to follow in any particular text.

The same is true of the various Hebrew Old Testaments in publication, some of which are derived from texts without vowel pointers, giving the scholars wide editorial descretion on chosing the correct readings for any particular passage.

These scholars will all admit that they do not really know which published text or which manuscript copy is really "the Bible" - but they do give various opinions about which ones they think are "th! e best" at representing the "original autographs" - (what the scholars call the actual original writings of the Bible writers). The scholars have never located any such "original manuscript," therefore they have to use their best guesses at which manuscript reading might be "closest" to what was written on the lost originals. They call only the "original autograph" the scripture - but they have never located any original autograph.

Therefore, these scholars also admit that they have never read the "Bible" (as in the "scriptures") because they have never ever seen any original manuscript of any passage in either the Old or New Testament.

#2 Can you trust the Bible? _____

If you answered "Yes" to #1, then you must think that an English translation is a "Bible," ye! t we have just explained that such a book is not really the original autographs that the scholars call "scripture" - therefore according to the scholars you cannot trust such a "Bible" - is not the original.

A scholar might answer "yes" to this question, and then define the "Bible" to mean the original autographs. He would say something like this:

 "Yes, you can 100% trust the original autographs. They are the Word of God. They are without any errors, and can be completely trusted."

But that is foolish when we think about it. Since original autographs do not exist, it is telling us to trust something that does not exist - that is without reason.

In fact, sinc! e not one of these scholars has ever seen an original autograph, they have no standard by which to judge the manuscript copies they do have. Any one of them, or all of them, could be filled with "scribal errors" and additions and deletions - but they would never really know the truth, since they do not have any originals.

Therefore all the people who rely on Bible scholars must answer "NO" - they cannot trust the Bible.

DO YOU WANT TO HEAR AN ALTERNATIVE TO THIS PROBLEM?

See, Part 2.


Matt