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My theory on variant readings

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MacGyver	My theory on variant readings	Lead	[-]
Posts: 8 (02/15/2009 09:05:37) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Tags : None As I mentioned in another thread, I believe that many of the authors of the Bible wrote their accounts more than once, and some of them wrote them in more than one language. For some reason there seems to be an unwritten rule that the authors wrote their accounts only once, but I have never heard any good reasons why that must be the case. If I was to write an important account without having the luxeries of a printing press or a copy machine, I would produce more than one copy in order to publish it to as many people as possible. And if I lived in an area where most people spoke more than one language then I would write the account in those languages that I knew that was most common at the time. I believe this to do with some of the major variant readings where there are omissions and additions. Here is further comments on the subject http://litteralchristianl...ry+About+Variant+Readings
77		#1	[-]
Posts: 208 (02/15/2009 19:15:41) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	I don't doubt that could be the case, It probably is. I posit that, irrespective of whether the author wrote duplicate copies of his work, or had scribes do it - at the time, or later - that the results are much the same: almost inevitably variants of little or no consequence. I had a trick (not a good one, really) years ago where, if I really wanted to commit a lengthy text to memory; I would write it out, oftentimes repeatedly, longhand. It worked well enough, despite it being a tedious process, but here's the rub: every copy I made had at least one or more variants in it. The longer the text, the more likely the variant. My theory about textual variants is that there's not much of anything to get excited about. In an age before photocopiers, or mimeographs (I remember those well!), or carbon paper, variants were inevitable. "The one great fallacy of fundamentalism is that we actually believe that while we are confessing the sins of others that the Lord will not look as intently on our own."
Armchair Scholar		#2	[-]
Posts: 849 (02/16/2009 10:22:59) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Good point, 77. I think it is very possible. Didn't Paul give the command to pass his letters around to the various churches? I think this was done by people in the churches helping by making copies available. I believe that variants from this would not endanger any sound doctrine; I believe the people were careful to be sure the doctrine was preserved even though handwritten textual variants would be inevitable.
77		#3	[-]
Posts: 211 (02/16/2009 11:32:22) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Armchair Scholar wrote: Good point, 77. I think it is very possible. Didn't Paul give the command to pass his letters around to the various churches? I think this was done by people in the churches helping by making copies available. I believe that variants from this would not endanger any sound doctrine; I believe the people were careful to be sure the doctrine was preserved even though handwritten textual variants would be inevitable. Without citing book, chapter, and verse, if memory serves me, Paul asked this on three different occasions. Then too, to paraphrase what Paul wrote; he was a gentile to the gentiles, a Jew to the Jews, a Greek to the Greeks.... I doubt that he was much concerned about copies of his letters; either from his own hand, or others, being word for word precise. Paul probably only was concerned that the gist of his messages - letters - were accurate. This would be something like me leaving a note for my wife before going to work, and leaving a note at school for my son; I could be saying exactly the same thing - message - to both, but they need not be word for word to do so. "The one great fallacy of fundamentalism is that we actually believe that while we are confessing the sins of others that the Lord will not look as intently on our own."
SAWBONES		#4	[-]
Posts: 56 (02/16/2009 11:35:47) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	77 said: "...mimeographs (I remember those well!), or carbon paper..." I too remember such methods for producing copies, now long gone. Of course, I can now be considered the personage described in Leviticus 19:32 .
Armchair Scholar		#5	[-]
Posts: 851 (02/16/2009 15:59:15) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Yes, it is the message that matters, that needs to be preserved. And if I recall correctly, weren't most of Paul's letters dictated to someone who wrote them down for him? Something having to do with him possibly having bad eye site, requiring that someone else wrote his words for him? This makes me think of this: since Paul ministered to the Gentiles, does this mean he knew Greek? I believe he must have known both Greek and Aramaic, but I've heard people say it is unlikely he knew Greek. Is there any historical evidence that shows he knew Greek? There doesn't have to be any, of course, but I've often wondered about this.
Euthymius		#6	[-]
Posts: 1726 (02/16/2009 16:13:29) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Arm: " since Paul ministered to the Gentiles, does this mean he knew Greek?" Absolutely: Ac 21:37 proves it.
Armchair Scholar		#7	[-]
Posts: 852 (02/16/2009 17:11:59) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Thanks, Euthymius!
Tatermonkey		#8	[-]
Posts: 176 (02/17/2009 04:44:14) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Of course, Paul was educated. There were however quite a few educated men in the early church. Like Peter dictated 1st Peter, but the hand the Silas did the writing.

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