Has the Bible been corrupted, altered, edited, revised, or tampered with?
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Asked July 01 2013
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Anonymous (via GotQuestions)
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S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
The books of the Old Testament were written from approximately 1400 B.C. to 400 B.C. The books of the New Testament were written from approximately A.D. 40 to A.D. 90. So, anywhere between 3400 to ...
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JOHN PERRY
less than 1% of bible is inaccurate mostly very small words that change no meaning or truth. Have studied original greek and hebrew for 30 years
mark wilkinson
It is important that Christians know the answer to this question when it comes to interacting with our Muslim friends. One of the foundations of Islam is that the Bible was changed after it had been given by God and that He subsequently send the Qur'an as His final and correct revelation. (This assumes for the sake of argument that God and Allah are the same, which they're not). A Muslim is taught to doubt the Bible and accept the Qur'an as God's truth. Having the right knowledge of the Bible's accuracy and transmission is a help in dialogue with the followers of Islam. But reason alone will not win them to Christ. Love and prayer are also needed.
Carina Hermann
A good documentary to watch on this, Is Lee Stobel's A case for Christ. he was an atheist journalist, and put in two years of unbiased study with top schoalrs and historians on this matter. he approached faith from a historical scientific stance. the doc. is very informative, and can be viewed on Vemo.
D W
Supporter
It is important to note who did the translation. For example, the whole bible translation by Joseph Smith, the Mormon, is full of errors. The Jehovah Witnesses also have their own "adjusted" bible. Catholics include books that are obviously not God-breathed. My bibles are full of inked underlines, marginal notes, textual adjustments, the placement of a comma, the division between two chapters, and much more. I just bought a new New Testament and within one week I have marked its pages from top to bottom. ONLY the Holy Spirit has the authority to adjust a word, words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters and books of the Bible! Proceed with caution ---- don't let your brain get in the way !!!!
Michael Tinsley
Steve McVey wrote a book called, '52 Lies Heard in Church Every Sunday and Why the Truth is so Much Better!'. I read it often comparing it to the Bible and its always accurate. One of the things he says in the book is, 'Diluted truth is polluted truth and polluted truth is no gospel at all', which can be expanded to mean the entire Bible. Thank the Lord for keeping the Bible accurate for such a long time and know that we are reading the same words as our early Christian brothers and sisters and the same words the OT saints read, or memorized and shared orally. We are truly blessed with the accuracy of the 66 books in the Christian Bible.
Charles Garner
My thought on this is that the bible has been handed down to us mostly complete and unaltered. The author's name though is often left out. Jesus said to his father in prayer, "I have made your name known and will make it known" John 17:6-26. When Jesus came out Of the wilderness having been tested by Satan, he went to the synagogue and was handed the scroll of Isaiah he read What we now call Isaiah 61:1 "The spirit the Lord Jehovah is upon me......" Since he was not fearful of men, and it has been proven that the scroll had God's name on it, why do most translations omit his Holy name? Strong's concordance of the Bible (King James Version) shows every word with numerical reference to Hebrew & Greek words in the scrolls used. Looking at the KJV for every time LORD in capital letters the Hebrew reference #3068 shows the word as Jehovah! Some might disagree with that name, it has been used as God's name for century's. Who is it that does not want you to know God's name, the ruler of the world, Satan! If you want a close relationship with someone you call them by there name, just as Jesus had with his father, and called by his name. I hope this helps everyone to prove to themselves the truth of God Jehovah and love he showed by giving us his word, the Bible! Charles Garner of Las Vegas NV.
Bob Johnson
Bart Ehrman would disagree with most comments here, and the main article on this subject. He is a distinguished author and lecturer but I use that term "distinguished" loosely. If you come across any of his books about the Bible and or textual criticism, RUN AWAY. They are not "full of error", as some might say, but they definitely are written with a decidedly anti-biblical bias. They are about as truthful as Dan Brown's novels. 10% truth to make it sound worthy, but 90% fish-wrap quality.
Vincent Mercado
Supporter
The Bible has been translated into Klingon, Quenya, an other fictional languages. That, to me, is corruption of a holy text. The Bible has been altered, edited and revised. Yes, for obvious reasons, to keep the language updated. These include AMP, ESV, King James Easy Reading Version, NRSV, NWT, RSVCE, TNIV, any many more. The Bible has been tampered with, by sects who want to change the words of some passages to fit their theology.
Billy P Eldred
My answer is yes. There have been many errors over the years that have happened by accident. There have been both intentional and unintentional misstranslations. The question is, does that mean what we have today is an errant version of God's intended message to us? By no Means! If the Creator of the universe inspired the original version of what we have (and He did), do we not believe that He can maintain the meaning of the text through translation after translation, version after version? In ancient times, there were sects that their very existence and purpose was to copy and maintain the integrity of the text. So much so that they would count every dot and dit of the copies to make sure there were no errors and if an error was found they would destroy the scrolls even if they had taken months to produce. Bibles were cherished and have survived throughout the ages despite the fact that at times it has been a death sentence to even possess one. There have even been crusades to destroy all Bibles. Yet they not only survived but every year it is the best selling and most read book in all history. Is that not evidence of Supernatural help from God Himself to preserve His Word? A note about the various translations. Most of the widely accepted translations were joint efforts from many people examining many documents and can be fully trusted. I believe that God inspired them to maintain the integrity of the whole. That is not to say that you might not need to compare one against the other to get the most understanding from each verse. That to me is the reason there are so many translations. Each one speaks to the reader in different ways to facilitate understanding. All this being said, the more of the Bible you get inside you, the more understanding you will have when you read it. The more you get, the more The Truth of what you are reading will convict you that it is what God wanted you to hear!
Jim Tumlinson
That is a good question and through my walk in life I have been asked the same question or told that the bible can not be completely true anymore since the time it was written. Perhaps those statements are true, though what makes it worse is when Christians argue about which translation of the bible is the most accurate. When we argue over this it would communicate to those who do not read the bible that it has errors or is in fact not full of truth. A very interesting source that many people don't consider is the Septuagint (http://ecmarsh.com/lxx/) which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament and it includes other books that can be found in the Catholic bible but not in the Christian bible. Some good information that may help serve one in their endeavor to have the most accurate information can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint I did discover something while listening to my bible that helps settle not just the question of the bibles' validity but helps settle which version is the most accurate. What I discovered can be found in Romans 1:18-20 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. As we can see here God can be seen without us reading His word be it mistranslated, wrong version or what have you. It is apparent to me that God does all He can do to reach out to us and show us His love, mercy and gr ace and Romans 1 is an indicator that without Gods word we are still able to see Him and develop relationship with Him.
Kenneth Heck
There is one area of the Bible where doubt about tampering hasn't been eliminated. That is where the numbers quoted which may include one, two, or three zeroes at the end. Adding these zeroes was easy since it merely entailed inserting one or more dots above the appropriate letters. The most obvious example is found in Rev 21:16 "And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal." If a furlong is one-eighth of a mile according to custom, then the city is 1,500 miles long, wide, and high. The top of the building would be high enough to be in danger of collision with earth satellites. This scripture does seem to contain some kind of measurement error.
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