08 Why do different versions of the Holy Bible differ in some details?
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This article is from the Bible FAQ, by Michael Paul Johnson mpj@ebible.org with numerous contributions by others.
08 Why do different versions of the Holy Bible differ in some details?
This is a troubling question for some people. After all, it is
important to know exactly what God intended, isn't it?
God, in His sovereign will, chose to entrust His Holy, perfect
word to human, fallible scribes (past and present) and
translators (past and present). That means that some copies of
the Bible have minor copying errors in them. This applies both
to the original languages and to translations. Computers help
modern scribes, but errors still creep in. For example, if you
have the Bible Explorer CD-ROM, there is a whole sentence
missing from John 21:17 in the ASV. That sentence is there in my
paper copy of the ASV, but not on the CD-ROM. Scribes manually
copying manuscripts sometimes made this kind of mistake, too.
The process of trying to reconstruct what the original said from
a set of copies that all differ in some details is called
"textual criticism."
Right now, we have 3 main schools of thought as to what the
original Greek New Testament was: the "Textus Receptus," the
"Majority Text," and the "UBS" text. The "Textus Receptus"
(received text) is essentially that which underlies the KJV. The
"Majority Text" basically follows what the majority of currently
existing manuscripts say. The "UBS" text gives greater weight to
a relatively few manuscripts written on "older" media, even when
they disagree with the majority. The good news is that all 3 of
these agree VERY closely, and they don't disagree in any way
that affects any major doctrine. All 3 certainly agree with
respect to the central Good News about Jesus Christ being God's
Son in the flesh, who died for our sin, but rose again, thus
giving us hope in the promise of eternal life. In fact the
Textus Receptus and Majority Text are basically the same in most
places. The UBS text seems to have several small "dropouts" with
respect to the Majority Text, like John 5:4. (Look for it in a
footnote in the NIV). It also casts doubt on Mark 16:9-20 by
bracketing it, even though there are ONLY 2 significant
manuscripts that leave it out. Nevertheless, the UBS text seems
to have developed quite a following, today, even though the
Majority Text makes more sense to me.
Another source of differences in Bible versions come from the
fact that there is more than one way to translate the same
thing, depending on style, target vocabulary, translation
philosophy, etc. These differences are generally not difficult
to deal with though, because they mean the same thing. For
example:
But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own
selves. -- James 1:22 (WEB, RSV)
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do
what it says. -- James 1:22 (NIV)
Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.
-- James 1:22 (NAB)
But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers
who delude themselves. -- James 1:22 (NASB95)
You get the idea...
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