This week's show is a Jumbo Episode (60 minutes). I am joined in studio by my friend and special guest Ted Paul for a discussion of New Testament textual criticism, and the amazing preservation of the New Testament manuscripts.

Outline

Presuppositions: Distinguish between textual or “lower” criticism vs. higher criticism

Textual criticism reconstructs the original text of the autographs (manuscripts as sent from author to readers).
Inspiration and inerrancy: The original text of the autographs was inspired, word-for-word; “inerrant” doesn’t mean the text we have now is word-for-word the same, but that it is “true” (or “not in error”).

State of the Manuscripts: What are we working with? (Embarrassment of riches)

We don’t have the originals (otherwise we wouldn’t need textual criticism). That’s normal for ancient manuscripts.
Instead, we have copies - but FAR more than other ancient manuscripts.
All of the copies are slightly different, but not very - most are simple spelling mistakes or transcription errors.

How It Works: How do we work backwards to find the original reading of the autographs?

Majority Text method; mostly Byzantine; based on sheer statistics,
Critical Text method; mostly Alexandrian; based on analysis of evidence.

External evidences (date, similarity to related texts, geographical location)
Internal evidences (author’s style, scribal habits)

Sources
The Gospel According to Bart by Dan Wallace

Do We Have the Word of God in light of Textual Variation? by Dusman

The Majority Text and the Original Text by Dan Wallace

 
Recommended Reading
History of the Bible in English by F.F. Bruce

The Text of the New Testament (4th Edition) by Bruce Metzger and Bart Ehrman

The Early Versions of the New Testament by Bruce Metzger

Encountering the Manuscripts by Philip Comfort

The Journey from Texts to Translations by Paul Wegner

The Text of the New Testament by Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland

 

Credits:

“Truth of the Legend” and “Bright Wish” by Kevin MacLeod http://incompetech.com/