The Bible’s text
How the Bible came to us
Before asking what the Bible says, it helps to know how it reached us. The books were written over many centuries, copied by hand, translated and gathered into one collection. This topic follows that journey for both the Old and the New Testament, and sets out what textual scholars of every background agree on.
1The question
How was the Bible written, copied and collected, and what do scholars of all backgrounds agree about how close today’s text is to what was first written?
2What Christians believe
Christians believe the Bible is inspired by God: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16). God worked through human writers, and he also watched over the copying and collecting of the books.
Christians point to the evidence. There are more than 5,000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, some from the second and third centuries, plus early translations and quotations, so scholars can compare the copies and rebuild the wording with great confidence. The Dead Sea Scrolls include copies of Old Testament books a thousand years older than the medieval Hebrew text.
Christians also stress that most differences between copies are small: spelling, word order or an obvious slip. They hold that no central teaching depends on a disputed passage.
3What the texts say
A writer explains his method
Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.
Passages scholars agree were added later
Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.
So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
A book the Bible quotes but does not contain
And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.
Scripture’s own concern about changes
How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
4What scholars say
Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman (The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, 4th ed., 2005) set out how the New Testament was copied and how scholars compare manuscripts. Kurt and Barbara Aland’s The Text of the New Testament (1987) is a standard guide to the same evidence.
Daniel B. Wallace, a leading evangelical textual scholar, estimates that there are hundreds of thousands of differences between the manuscripts, but that the great majority are spelling and word order, and that only a small fraction both change the meaning and have a real claim to be original. Ehrman (Misquoting Jesus, 2005) agrees that most variants are minor, but stresses that there are more variants than words in the New Testament, and argues in The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture (1993) that some changes were made by scribes for theological reasons.
For the Old Testament, Emanuel Tov (Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible) shows that the Dead Sea Scrolls, found from 1947, contain more than one form of some books. The great Isaiah scroll is very close to the later Hebrew text, while the Greek translation of Jeremiah is about an eighth shorter than the Hebrew, and a shorter Hebrew form of Jeremiah was also found at Qumran.
On several points scholars agree across faiths: the ending of Mark (16:9–20) and the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53–8:11) were not part of the earliest text, the King James wording of 1 John 5:7 is a late addition, no original copy of any biblical book survives, and the list of books was settled gradually and still differs between churches. The history of 1 John 5:7 and of the list of books each has its own topic.
5The Islamic perspective
Islam teaches that God sent the Torah to Moses and the Gospel to Jesus, and that both were guidance and light. It also teaches that people later added to and twisted scripture, and that God promised to guard his final revelation himself:
And We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow in their footsteps, confirming that which was (revealed) before him in the Torah, and We bestowed on him the Gospel wherein is guidance and a light, confirming that which was (revealed) before it in the Torah - a guidance and an admonition unto those who ward off (evil).
Therefore woe be unto those who write the Scripture with their hands and then say, "This is from Allah," that they may purchase a small gain therewith. Woe unto them for that their hands have written, and woe unto them for that they earn thereby.
Lo! We, even We, reveal the Reminder, and lo! We verily are its Guardian.
Will they not then ponder on the Qur'an? If it had been from other than Allah they would have found therein much incongruity.
Muslims draw on this shared scholarship. They do not need to claim that the whole Bible is false. They read it with respect, as containing truth from God that came through the prophets, and they treat its text the way textual scholars do: as a set of copies to be weighed, not as untouched revelation. The Qur’an, preserved word for word from the Prophet ﷺ, is the standard by which Muslims judge what in the earlier books is true.
6Objections and responses
“The Dead Sea Scrolls prove that the Old Testament has not changed.”
Response: The Isaiah scroll is remarkably close to the later text, and Muslims can accept that. But the scrolls also show that some books circulated in different forms, like the shorter and longer versions of Jeremiah. They show careful copying in some cases and real variety in others.
“With thousands of manuscripts, we can rebuild the original New Testament.”
Response: Scholars can rebuild an early form of the text with much confidence. But the earliest substantial copies of most books come decades or more after they were written, so the text before that point cannot be checked; Ehrman makes this point, and many scholars accept it. Some additions, like 1 John 5:7, also stayed in the Bible for over a thousand years before they were removed.
“None of the changes affect Christian doctrine.”
Response: Most do not. But some touch doctrine directly, like 1 John 5:7 and the reading “God was manifest in the flesh” in 1 Timothy 3:16, where the oldest manuscripts read “He who”. Ehrman’s work argues that changes like these were not accidents.
7Conclusion
Both sides can agree on what the scholars agree on: the Bible was copied by hand for centuries, there are thousands of manuscripts with many small differences, a few passages were added later, there are no original copies, and the list of books took time to settle. Christians see God’s care in how well the text survived. Muslims see a scripture with a human history, and a reason to value the Qur’an as God’s preserved final word.
Read the footnotes on Mark 16 and John 8 in any modern Bible; they tell part of this story themselves.
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Related topics
Sources
- Bible, King James Version:Luke 1:1–4Mark 16:9John 8:71 John 5:7Joshua 10:13Jeremiah 8:8Revelation 22:18
- Qur’an, translated by M. Pickthall:Qur’an 5:46Qur’an 2:79Qur’an 15:9Qur’an 4:82
- Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, 4th ed. (2005)
- Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, The Text of the New Testament (1987)
- Bart D. Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus (2005)
- Bart D. Ehrman, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture (1993)
- Daniel B. Wallace (ed.), Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament (2011)
- Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
- Bruce M. Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament (1987)