RE: Does the Bible Contradict Itself?
July 18, 2012 at 1:00 pm
(This post was last modified: July 18, 2012 at 1:01 pm by spockrates.)
(July 18, 2012 at 12:35 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: So there are mistakes within the bible that you admit to. Now given that there are these errors that are obvious it raises the possibility that there are errors that are not so obvious. This could extend to doctrine and there is no way of knowing what was truth. In inverted commas.
Blessed are the cheese makers you say.
There are errors in translation, yes. One should be wary of these and take steps to avoid being misinformed by them. Comparing different versions (as was done in the example) is one way. The question to ask is how prevalent are these? Are they rare, or are they found everywhere throughout the text?
The argument biblical scholars make for the reliability of the text is that there are thousands of extant manuscripts (MSS), so the errors are easier for them to spot and weed out, than they are for other ancient texts. An error found in 20 MSS might not be present in 2,000 others.
Not sure what you mean by errors that are not obvious. Do you mean errors that are unknown, or errors that are known only by a few, or errors that are believed to be errors by some but rejected by many?
"If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains (no matter how improbable) must be the truth."
--Spock
--Spock