vs.
"in the name of our Lord Christ Jesus"
These two statements are variations, however, the essential meaning is
preserved. Your post grossly misrepresents the actual variations of the N.T.
How abou
Helen:
This is a week old post. I was hoping someone else would catch it, because
you e-mail gives my e-mail fits. Walt are you saying that 5% of the
variations were serious variations? If so:
0.05 X 30,000 = 1,500 serious variations in texts in 1707
100 X 1,500 =150,000 serious variations in texts by 1997
Please varify that these are the figures you accept.
Helen Willis
hhiwater@bright.net
> ----------
> From: E. Otha Wingo[SMTP:wingo2@juno.com]
> Sent: 06 April 1997 23:15
> To: errancy@infidels.org
> Subject: "Variations" in NT Mss.
>
> WINGO re: Article by Bart Ehrman mentioned by Steven Carr on 4/5 and sent
> to me by request (Thanks, Steven!) has this interesting observation
> (emphasis added):
>
> ..."IN 1707, when an Oxford scholar named John Mill published an edition
> of the Greek New Testament that contained a critical apparatus
> systematically and graphically detailing the differences among the
> surviving witnesses of the NT. Mill had devoted some THIRTY YEARS of his
> life to examining a hundred or so Greek MSS, the early versions of the
> NT, and the citations of the NT in the writings of the church fathers.
> His apparatus did not include all of the differences that he had
> uncovered in his investigation, but only the ones that he considered
> significant for the purposes of exegesis or textual reconstruction.
> These, however, were enough. To the shock and dismay of many of his
> contemporaries, Mill's apparatus indicated SOME 30,000 PLACES OF
> VARIATION, 30,000 places where the available witnesses to the NT text
> differed from one another. * * *
>
> "We have nearly 50 times the number of MSS that John Mill had at his
> disposal in 1707, and we know of possibly 100 TIMES AS MANY TEXTUAL
> VARIANTS--far more variants among our manuscripts than there are words in
> the New Testament...."
>
> Ehrman gives a cogent example from the Mss. of Luke 22:17-21 ("last
> supper"), showing that the references to "drink my blood" and "new
> covenant" were later additions.