Misquoting Jesus - Ehrman (BC Dec.08)

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An agnostic biblical scholar believes that the Holy Bible is a collection of facts and myths that were distorted (accidentally or on purpose) by the people who transmitted them.

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In this book the author, Professor Bart Ehrman, discusses how easily a scribe could misinterpret the meaning of a word, phrase or even a complete text. He notes as an example that in many early texts the words were rarely divided by spaces. He then illustrates using the phrase: godisnowhere. Two very different interpretations might apply.

1. God is no where, or
2. God is now here.

The books of the Bible have always been controversial. They were collected from different locations, in different centuries, from the records of different people - and translated from one language to another - several times.

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The books that compose the Holy Bible have been interpreted by scribes and scholars who had very different religious or philosophical beliefs.
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The King James version (published during 1611a.d.) was assembled by many scholars and scribes. It was known then that the original drafts of the individual books within the Bible - had been copied and re-copied. It was well known among scholars that each book contained inevitable mistakes. The author suggests that most of the mistakes occured during the first and second centuries when unskilled scribes did the transciptions. They made mistakes of both commission and omission and these errors were amplified when copied later by skilled and better educated scribes.

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The individual books that became the Holy Bible - were selected from many. This raises the questions:
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(1) Were important texts left out?
(2) If two texts were similar, how was one chosen over the other?
(3) If contradictory, how was one chosen over the other?

Differences between versions of the Holy Bible:
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(1) On page 97 the author quotes Luke 11:2-4. Father, hallowed be your name. May your Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive our sins. for we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation.
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(2) On the same page he quotes Matthew 6:9-13. Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. May your kingdom come and your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
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Neither of these two versions is one I learned in Sunday School. I pulled several Bibles from my bookshelf and checked this particular prayer. Only in the 1611 a.d. version of the King James bible was the verse exactly as I had learned it:
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(3) Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. A-men.
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Three Bibles. Three versions of a popular prayer. The omitted and the added words make the author's point. .

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