Thursday, July 26, 2007

Baptized for the Dead?

There is a great deal of debate over whether or not the Bible has been preserved in its original state. The fact of the matter is that we don’t have a complete Bible in its original state. In fact, the Greek New Testament that is used by Bible students and scholars is known to be put together by Erasmus using many different portions of many different ancient scripts.

According to Bart Ehrman’s studies in his book, Misquoting Jesus, even Erasmus was forced to add fillers to complete the Holy text (Mark 16:9-20, for example).

The point that those who held the only copy of the Scriptures in their town and having the ability to change the texts by adding or subtracting is well-founded. Even our beloved NIV has many passages of Scripture which have been removed, placed in the footnotes, or have added explanations stating “The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have (fill in the passage).”

One particular passage of Scripture that my feeble mind has a hard time accepting as original is found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church.

To read the rest, I've saved you a seat at the Diner. http://www.flocksdiner.com/.

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