![]() The Westminster Assembly spoke for the consensus of the Reformed churches when they confessed: The Bible in the language of the people is one of the many benefits of the Reformation. These are all worthy translations for which we should be thankful. Behind them were the Revised Standard Version and before that was the American Standard Version (1901), and before that the Revised Version (1881), and the King James Bible (1611), and before that the Geneva Bible. In some quarters the New King James Version (1982) has been a popular replacement for the King James Version. In some circles some version of the New American Standard Version (e.g., 1995) remains popular. Before that it was the New International Version. Among more conservative evangelicals in the last couple of decades the English Standard Version has been very popular. Probabilities are, dear reader, that you have an English Bible to hand, in print and perhaps on your phone (or tablet), and that it is one of several translations. What are we discussing? First, we are discussing English translations of the Bible. Recently I have been getting questions about the text criticism of the New Testament, about the so-called “King James Only” movement, and related questions about the text of the Greek New Testament. ![]() Nevertheless, there are some notable places in the New Testament where different manuscripts, papyri, and the like differ. Second, none of the differences between the ancient copies of the New Testament touches any biblical truth or any cardinal Christian doctrine nor even Christian practice. Faithful Christians have long done textual criticism. The Lord truly has preserved his Word but not perhaps in the way that some think.įirst, text criticism is not to be confused with higher criticism, where unbelieving scholars sit in judgment over the Word of God. From the study of textual criticism I gained confidence about the number and quality of the textual witnesses to the New Testament. Far from creating doubt, the study of the history of the text of the New Testament and learning about how scholars evaluate texts, and about how to evaluate the claims of the various schools of thought helped me to resolve doubts and thus was most helpful to my faith. This is a marvelous work, which continues to be updated and revised. Metzger, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration. I understood that there were different manuscripts and papyri of the New Testament which contained discrepancies but it was not until I began to read about textual criticism that I began to be able to sort these things out. ![]() As a young Christian, as I was beginning to study Greek and to learn the Reformed theology, piety, and practice, I could see the textual apparatus in the footnotes of my copy of the Greek New Testament but I could not decipher it. ![]()
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