Gideons, Psalm 119:97

Psalm 119:97a
O How I Love Thy Law (NAS)
Prepared by Dr. John E. Marshall
For Missouri Gideons Meeting, April 15-16, 2016

My first message encouraged you in the wonderful work you do as Gideons. Moses, Levites, Josiah, couriers, Laodicea/Colossae, Coptic, Latin, Gothic, etc.--yours is a breathtaking heritage. At the end of that first lesson, I spoke of the need to love Holy Writ. I want to continue this theme now.

We can become so focused on the inner daily routine workings of a task that we forget the ultimate, original reason for it. I remind us of the story of the ruler in India who built a mausoleum to honor his dead wife. After years of construction, he one day ordered a box to be taken out of his way. It was his wife's coffin. As Gideons, your distributing Bibles could become perfunctory. Rather than a loving act, it can become an act of habit.

The Bible has won a place of primacy in our theology in USA conservative, evangelical Christianity. Our minds have embraced its infallibility and inerrancy. The question is; will it win a place of primacy in our hearts? Believing it and carrying it is not the same as loving it. My goal for this message is simple: I want it to help us love the Bible more.

Love it in the private place. Carrying the Bible is not enough to bring us victory in our spiritual lives. We must weave it into the warp and woof of our innermost being. We must be in the Word for the Word to be in us.

"Do we love the Bible? Are we in the Word, reading from it daily, all of it yearly?" Beware the religious person's downfall. Many preachers and Gideons trace a spiritual failure to letting technical handling of the Bible as a textbook, or an item to be placed, substitute for being in the Word.

I made this near-fatal choice in seminary. I was attending religion classes and studying theological books. I decided I did not need daily private devotional time. As my brain filled with facts, my spirit bled dry. I was dying on the vine. I am glad I learned this painful lesson in early adulthood.

I love to read. I am addicted to it. I have high reading aspirations. I someday plan to read "War and Peace", and all the works of Shakespeare. I love to read books, newspapers, magazines, obituaries, and tombstones. Mud Island in Memphis has a one-mile scale model of the Mississippi River. Along it are placards telling of significant events that happened on the river. One day, when the temperature was over 100, I read every marker as Ruth and the children writhed in the heat. It was not one of my better days.

We later visited Dearborn Village, which has acres of vintage cars, each one having an explanatory placard. When we entered the museum, Ruth grabbed my arm and said, "You are NOT going to read every sign!" Ruth says she is going to have as my tombstone the McDonalds Golden Arches inscribed with "Here lies a bookworm being eaten by earthworms."

I love to read anything, but above it all, I try to stay in the Book. 2015 marked the fortieth consecutive year I have read the whole Bible. This custom is the most helpful single discipline in my spiritual walk before God.

Much good literature is available. Beware, dear Gideons, best's worst enemy is always second best. In the private place, love the Bible most of all.

Love the Bible in your public mission. Keep prioritizing it, continue distributing it with all your might, for it is worthy of our love. Christianity has no authority apart from the Bible. Spurgeon rightly said, "The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, is our religion."

We have no right to speak of absolute truth apart from God's written revelation. Without Scripture, a preacher or a Gideon's thoughts are merely guesswork, anyone's opinion is as valid as any other person's; swampy subjectivism muddies the water. Only the Bible is eminently trustworthy.

When Reformation fires ignited John Calvin's heart, he destroyed the idols in his cathedral, and built an elevated table to set the Bible on. Henceforth the Bible retained the highest place, the position of honor, in his building. A preacher entered the pulpit by a stairway. To discourage distractions, the preacher wore a robe, and the only sound coming across the top of the pulpit was the voice of an almost hidden preacher, whose words floated over God's Word. The Bible was love-number-one.

My boyhood church called the pulpit the sacred desk. From it God's man heralded God's truth to God's people from God's Word, the Bible.

Love it in your private place and in your public mission for the sake of our nation and churches. We all yearn for revival. Only God can bring order out of our social and political chaos. I want to speak cautiously here. I am pleased with calls to prayer I repeatedly hear and read. These encourage me.

I remind us, when Israel strayed from God, they had always strayed first from His word. When they returned to God, they returned first to His Word. I rejoice at calls to prayer for revival, but am appalled at the dearth of preaching I hear about the six great Old Testament revivals. This troubles me because by ignoring them we miss a deep truth; all six were begun, not primarily in prayer, but in response to rediscovering God's written Word.

Revivals under Joshua (JS 8:32), Asa (2 CH 14:4), Jehoshaphat (2 CH 17:9), Hezekiah (2 K 18:6), Josiah (2 K 22:8), and Ezra (EZ 7:10) were "Bible revivals". God convicted people by a re-discovery of Scripture.

If revival comes in our nation and churches, it will descend on the wings of prayer and ascend from the pages of the written Word. Revival hinges on both/and not either/or. Keep praying hard about revival. At the same time, ratchet up a notch your talking about the Bible.

Gideons, please keep carrying and distributing the Bible. The spiritual health of God's people and this nation hinges on the blessed work you are doing. History has proven this to us repeatedly.

Luther, in the battle of his life, knew the world's only hope was the translation and distribution of the Bible. When kidnapped by his friends to protect him from those who wanted to kill him, Luther translated the New Testament quickly, in a remarkable 11 weeks.

This was Luther's greatest gift to the German people. It was so popular, print shops had to be created to meet the demand. Bibles were wanted everywhere. A whole industry sprang up. The copies had to be carried to the churches and the people. As the Bible spread, revival followed.

We English speakers also owe our successful spiritual roots to the translation and carrying of the Bible. William Tyndale knew the Bible needed to be in the hands of every believer in a language they understood. When chastised by a priest for wanting to translate the Bible, Tyndale replied, "If God spare my life, before very long I shall cause a plough boy to know the Scriptures better than you do!" To publish his New Testament, the first to be printed in English, he had to flee to Germany to get it done. When Tyndale's Bibles were carried into England, they were promptly pronounced heretical; the battle was engaged; as a result, only two complete copies (of 3000) survive from the 1526 printing done by Peter Schoeffer in the German city of Worms. The Bibles were smuggled into the country by laymen (sounds like Gideons to me), London merchants, in bales of cloth, boxes of food, and other goods of trade. Those discovered carrying them were in danger. At first, only the detected books were destroyed, but soon those carrying the books were punished. Some were burned as heretics, including Tyndale himself in 1536. He died, praying, "Lord, open the King of England's eyes." His prayer was answered two years later when Henry authorized the Great Bible for the Church of England.

During our Civil War, the American Bible Society was turning out about 7000 pocket New Testaments a day to soldiers in the field, but the Union embargo kept them from carrying the Bibles to the South. Lincoln, who appreciated the Bible, felt no one should be deprived of the Bible. Thus, he exempted Bibles from the North's embargo against the South. Bible were shipped to the Maryland Bible Society and the Washington City Bible Society. From there, the Scriptures were carried to southern soldiers on the front lines. My guess is; the great revival that swept though the Confederate army during the War was enhanced by this carrying of the Scriptures. By the way, during the war, the ABS passed out over 5 million Scriptures.

On a missionary trip up the Orange River in South Africa, Dr. Robert Moffatt, one of Christian history's best men, arrived at a village desperately hungry, thirsty, and exhausted. He offered to buy water or milk, but no one in the village would supply it. When darkness fell on what purported to be a miserable night, a woman came alone to find him. She brought supplies to comfort him. Moffatt asked why she had been kind to a stranger. As a tear came down her cheek, she explained, "I love Him whose servant you are; it is my duty to give you a cup of cold water in His name." Moffatt asked how she had retained faith though she was the only believer in the village. She pulled out a New Testament she had received as a school girl years before--a Bible someone would have had to carry to her hometown.

Gideons, please keep carrying those Bibles. People need them. I thank the Lord for you. God bless the Gideons.

The First Gideons

Exodus 31:18; 32:15-16

The First Gideons

Prepared by Dr. John E. Marshall

For Missouri Gideons Meeting, April 15-16, 2016

 

I want to encourage you by helping you remember the philosophical and historical roots of the Gideons. Your organization is relatively new, but its roots were buried deep in the consciousness of God's people thousands of years ago. You are doing a great work. You follow a wonderful heritage.

 

The first Gideon was Moses, who carried the Ten Commandments, which had been written by the finger of God, down from the mountain. The first Gideon chapter were the Levites who for forty years carried through the Wilderness the Ten Commandments in the Ark of the Covenant. Tenets that became the basis of Western Civilization were carried. And all the Gideons said, "Amen!"

 

Another important moment for Gideon-nostalgia is when King Josiah was renovating the Temple, after many years of neglect. In the remodeling, a Bible book (Deuteronomy?) was found. The decision was made to carry it to the King (2 CH 34:14-16a). The result was a time of national awakening. The Bible, when carried to people and places, always leaves a good result. And all the Gideons said, "Amen!"

 

         This is why I am grateful for the Gideons. You spread Bibles throughout the whole world. Few enterprises could ever be more important.

 

Why do you do this? Why do you spread the Bible at great expense to yourself in time and money? Because you deem the book you carry to be precious. We believe what the Bible says, God says. It possesses authority.

 

         This is no new concept among believers. From the first, Scripture has been held at a high standard. Remembering the beginnings of our New Testament evidence this. A book, to be accepted in the New Testament canon, had to meet three stringent standards. One, apostolicity; written during the Apostolic Age, in the first century, before the last of the 12 Apostles died. This was the dominant requirement. Almost all scholars now agree the 27 New Testament books were written within the first century.

 

         Two, orthodoxy. A book had to be faithful to the teachings of Jesus and the disciples. This became more valued as time passed, especially as heresies began to pop up. No book could be more than one person removed from an Apostle. Matthew and John were Apostles; Luke was connected to Paul; Mark wrote for Peter; James and Jude were Jesus' brothers.

 

         Three—and this is the one we will focus our attention on in this Gideon meeting, for soon to be obvious reasons--widespread use. To gain acceptance, a book could not be popular in only a small sect or in only one section of the Empire. Leaders everywhere were expected to be using them.

 

The early believers saw themselves as not only a local, but also a global, community. They felt a need to have worldwide impact. Thus, what happened elsewhere in the Empire mattered to them.

 

The writings had to be valued widely. This meant that before future New Testament books were included in the canon, they had to be carried. And all the Gideons said, "Amen!"

 

Paul's letters helped spread the Bible. He told the Colossians (4:16), "When this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea." When this text was read out loud in Colossae, several Gideons immediately stood up and said, "We will take care of that, at our own expense."

 

         The early believers interacted with each other a lot. Roman roads helped make this the case. To connect the 113 far-flung regions of the Empire, the Roman army built over 50,000 miles of stone-paved roads. They were built so skillfully that many are still in use 2000 years later.

 

Their purpose was to give the army quick transport to squelch rebellions anywhere in the Empire. These roads turned into highways on which Bibles were carried to the ends of the Earth. And all the Gideons said, "Amen!"

 

Rome ruled. The world was largely at peace.  Hence, there was freedom of travel from one part of the Empire to another. Such widespread open travel between nations was not experienced again until the late 20th century.

 

Information and manuscripts flowed freely among early believers, because couriers carried written materials. All the Gideons said, "Amen!"

 

New Testament books obviously spread far and wide quickly. By the last half of the 100s, the Fathers at various points of the Empire were referring often to many of what are now New Testament books as Scripture.

 

         They were read in churches every Sunday; an honor accorded only the Old Testament Scriptures. One reason so many manuscripts were saved is due to the fact early believers deemed them authoritative from the first, and wanted them for public reading in worship services.

 

Early believers had a rabid desire to read, and be read to, about Jesus. As Christianity spread across the Roman Empire, the four Gospels began to be translated almost immediately into languages other than Greek. In the 100s the New Testament was translated into several languages, including Latin (distance from Jerusalem to Rome, 1434 miles), Coptic (to Cairo, 262 miles), Syriac (to Nineveh 566 miles), Georgian (to Tbilisi, 861 miles), Gothic (to Denmark, 1991 miles), Ethiopic (to Addis Ababa, 1587 miles), and Armenian (to Yerevan, 786 miles). Talking in our parlance, the Gospels went viral.

 

Demand for the four Gospels was so great that believers helped develop a new literary form; they contributed to the world's shift from scrolls to books. Scrolls were cumbersome and could be written on only one side. Books allowed documents to be written on both sides, and made it possible for them to be stacked and bound together. This also made it easier for them to be carried from place to place. All the Gideon's said, "Amen!"

 

From the first, believers craved to have copies of the four Gospels. People wanted to know about Jesus. What I liked most about studying this was seeing how desperately early Christ-followers wanted to be in the Word, and to be near Jesus in their learning. Amen. May we be and do likewise.

 

The fourfold Gospel codex was by far the most popular book among early believers. The fourfold Gospel witness was not due to edicts enforced from above, but due to a grassroots movement among believers to have the Gospel. The people had a portable Jesus library they loved. They enjoyed the richness of having more than one vantage point to look at Jesus' life.

 

Once Christianity had carried the day in the Roman world, the Emperor Constantine commissioned Eusebius to copy and send 50 copies of the Bible throughout the Empire. Immediately, Gideons who wanted to have the honor of fulfilling this mission mobbed Eusebius.

 

In the midst of this fun excursion through the "early Gideons", allow me to tell a sad story of when not carrying the Bible changed the course of history. When Islam made its militant march through the nations, its spread was made easier by the fact there were very few copies of the Bible in that part of the world. Where there are no Bibles, people languish. You are doing a good work, Gideons, please keep it up.

 

Any time Gideons gather to meet, the emphasis is what they do with their hands. They carry. May we take a few moments to look at our hearts also? Is our love for the Bible waning? Has the immutable infallible inerrant Book become less important to us personally? If you begin loving it less, you will carry it less.

 

The theologian Emil Brunner well said, "The fate of the Bible is the fate of Christianity." My Grandpa Marshall called the Bible "The Book," as if no other book deserved to be ranked with it. When he lay a corpse, my grandma said he did not look right. After she had his Bible brought and placed under his hands, she said, "Now he looks like himself." "God, help me love the Bible like that. Let no discernable distinction separate Holy Writ from holy life."

 

         Love the Book. It will carry us when nothing else will, all the way through the valley of the shadow of death. And then, once we have passed into the light casting the shadow, the Bible will remain behind to comfort our loved ones left here in the dark valley. At my wake, I want people to hear in the background my recorded voice preaching the Bible.

 

On my tombstone, I want an electric eye that will activate my voice preaching the Bible. Late some night, I hope a drunk will stagger past my grave, trigger the preaching, and get saved from hearing the Bible preached.

 

Never take it for granted. In persecuted lands, visitors see handwritten copies of the entire Bible. In the Middle Ages, Bibles were chained to poles to keep them from being stolen. It is the most amazing book ever, worthy of our saying, "We love this book." And all the Gideons said, "Amen!"

 

The Hoary Head

"Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head" (Lev. 19:32).

Prepared by Dr. John E. Marshall

Greene County Dynamic Pastors Conference

April 14, 2016

 

Three circumstances recently happened in my life that caused me to start thinking differently about people, including me, being effectively used in older life in God's service. This lesson grows out of these 3 events.

 

First, my health improved. I had two heart attacks and a stroke at age 51. I have not obsessed over this through the years, but it has kept me from thinking freely about my distant future. An ablation did not cure my heart, but did make it stronger. For the first time, I now think about old age, about what I want to do in my 70s and 80s. It was a new world of thought to me.

 

Second, I read an article that stunned me. It was about the shocking improvement in the health of older USA adults. Medicare rates have been reduced in deaths, hospitalization, and medical costs. At first, I thought the article was comparing percentages from the past with percentages from the present. I was wrong. The article was about sheer, straightforward numbers. The aging population increased in size, but its medical problems decreased.

 

The tallies from 1999 to 2013 are jaw dropping. Deaths fell 16%; that's 300,000 fewer deaths a year. Hospitalizations fell 24%; this is 3,000,000 fewer hospitalizations a year; 45% are less likely to die during their stay; 24% are less likely to die within a month of admission; 22% are less likely to die within a year. Cost for hospitalization patients fell 15%. Hospitals improved service, and public health advances helped. The bottom line is; people are living longer than they used to. In fact, people today will on average live 20 years longer than ones born in the 1920s. In less than a century, more years have been added to life expectancy than in all millennia before. The oldest generation did not learn how to die. They missed school that day. We have a whole different generation we were not expecting.

 

The generation now turning 60 is the healthiest, best-educated generation to reach this plateau. The church seems woefully unprepared for this onslaught of older people. We have emphasized reaching youth throughout the years of my ministry. We must continue to do this, but we must also do a better job of reaching and training older people. For the first time in USA history, the number of people over age 60 exceeds those under age 15. We are losing an older generation due to not being prepared for them. Other parts of our culture are getting ready for the influx. Condo builders are preparing for it, as are fancier nursing home buildings, and restaurants with their senior discounts. I notice more places are using music from my era for background music. They know where the money is.

 

In my youth, we thought of life as birth, education, jobs, retirement, and death. Now we have to accept a changing reality. The current paradigm is birth, education, jobs, retirement, live 20 or more years, and death.

 

Our older generation is "alive"! Fewer than 5% over age 65 are in a care facility. More than 80% carry out the normal activities of daily life.

 

Third, my Christmas messages focused on Simeon and Anna. After seeing baby Jesus, Simeon "said: Now, Master, You can dismiss Your slave in peace, according to Your word" (Luke 2:28b-29). Since these words imply he would not live much longer, we assume Simeon was elderly.

 

Anna was an 84-year-old widow or had been a widow 84 years (Luke 2:36b-37a). In the latter case, if she married at the usual age for marriage, 12 or so, and was widowed at age 19, she would have been 103 years old.

 

I like the fact that the temple welcoming committee consisted of two older saints. I had all four of my grandparents till I was 28 years old. I have always felt a close affinity for the elderly. I feel at home with older folks.

I was taught to respect my elders. I was not allowed to address an adult by only their first name. I always said, "Mr., Mrs., Brother, Sister, Uncle, Aunt, Grandpa, Grandma, etc." We have lost much of this respect for the elderly.

 

Youth is the new altar of fawning adoration. Some fear looking old. Don't misunderstand me; it never hurts to varnish an old barn. I caution us; don't try to look a lot younger than we are. People are more insightful than we think. I hurt for morticians who must be shocked when they see a corpse that has a 30-year-old face, but an 80-year-old body. Don't dread aging. Prepare to embrace it for God. Focus on, and master, spiritual things.

 

Christian greatness manifests itself through a lifetime of faithfulness in three vital areas. One, it says to pain, "I will not quit believing." The Christian not only endures pain, but also lets God use our hurts to make us better. Blows the devil hopes will discourage us often improve us instead.

 

Two, Christian greatness says to death, "I will not fear you." When at our best, Christians not only do not fear death, but actually celebrate what is beyond it. We go through the valley of the shadow of death, knowing that wherever there is a shadow, there has to be light on the other side casting it.

 

John Wesley told his brother, "Charles, our people die well." Judson said, "When Christ calls me, I shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school." Dean Alford, to describe his view of the grave, had inscribed on his tombstone, "The inn of a traveller on the way to Jerusalem!"

 

All believers have as the option to die in joy like this. We can all have God's peace at the end. It is not the privilege of an elite few. Are we nearing the end well? Do we have peace about dying? If not, we need to find it.

 

Three, Christian greatness tells aging, "I will not slack off spiritually." The best of us not only don't slack off, but plan to let their last years be their best spiritual years ever. Older believers, never say you are past serving. Retirement is our chance to serve God at government expense. Paul did this when he took his missionary journey to Rome. He let Caesar pick up the tab.

 

Good writers fine-tune their craft by saving the best punch for the end. God wants to write His best chapter about us at the end of our book. "Let my life song sing to you," the songwriter said. May its best chords be at the end.

 

Let God make our last days our best days. Pray and read the Bible more than ever. Go on more mission trips. Volunteer in more ministries. We always said this is what we would do when we had more time. Let's do it.

 

The capstone matters. When Ruth and I arrived at New Orleans Baptist Seminary in August 1972, its beautiful chapel was stunted, having a steeple platform, but no steeple. While we were there, the steeple was added; the transformation to the building was remarkable. It looked fulfilled, like what it was supposed to look like.

 

I intend to use three Venn diagrams to encourage my people in how to best serve God in their mature years. They need to do well in three areas.

 

One, finances. Many of our folks will have to continue working after formal retirement. We need to consult financial advisors as early as possible.

 

Two, fitness. Physical health: right foods and exercise. Emotional health: are we bringing baggage with us into retirement? Do we have spiritual issues unresolved that bog down our service for God? Make peace with our past. Heal relationships. Ask God to forgive. Spiritual health. Bible reading. Read in Bible daily, all of Bible yearly. Pray a lot. Attend church.

 

Three, fun. It is ok to enjoy and own stuff. We are not necessarily called to a life of deprivation. You worked hard. It's ok to enjoy the fruit of your labors. Use flexibility to travel. Enjoy discretionary time. Spend time with family, especially grandchildren. Have leisure and hobbies such as woodworking, painting, camping, fishing, hunting, quilting, golfing. I love to read. I plan to read "War and Peace" and all the works of Shakespeare.

 

Where these three overlap, people can find fulfillment. Help them find what they can afford to do, what they're able to do, and what they like to do.

 

A drastic change is not necessarily required. Help our people to use these fun interests as ministry. For instance, RV groups do disaster relief. Encourage doing these things with unbelievers.

 

They want flexible schedules. Short-term commitments. Short-term mission trips are excellent experimental grounds. Shared responsibilities.

 

Simeon and Anna had white hair, wrinkled faces, and trembling hands, but also had inner beauty that could not be hidden, a loveliness that wore well. Our sun is a good illustration here. Sometimes when the sun is setting it seems to suddenly linger, and hover on the horizon for a while.

 

Since the day is essentially done, the sun's only purpose at this point seems to be to show off how pretty it can be, and how beautiful its rays can make Nature. Its loveliness makes things in the path of its rays beautiful.

 

Similarly, as the sun occasionally lingers on the horizon to show off its beauty, God sometimes lets beautiful lives be extended. Most of their years of labor are finished, but God lets them linger in order that people may continue to look on their beautiful lives. I pray this will be the case for us.

 

Credible Bible Lesson 3

Our Credible Bible (Lesson 3)

Inerrancy and Textual Variants

Prepared by Dr. John E. Marshall

 

Throughout church history, believers have considered the Scriptures to be accurate and reliable, both historically and theologically. Many words have been used to try to express this belief in concise, precise form. The two most common terms of late have been "infallible" and "inerrant".

 

Infallible refers to the unfailing nature of Scripture. It will not let us down. If we are sad, it comforts us. When tempted, it strengthens us. When lost, it saves us. If doubting, it assures us. When we stray, it rebukes us. When discouraged, it encourages us. When worried, it brings us peace.

 

The Bible is a reliable, sufficient, trustworthy guide for us in our daily lives. It will never misdirect us. It will accomplish the purposes God meant for it to achieve; it won't return to Him void (Isaiah 55:11).

 

"Inerrant" means without error, wholly true. The Bible verses being considered are deemed to be true, not false. We will never be led into error by anything it teaches. Baptist confessions have often conveyed this concept by saying the Bible has "truth for its matter, with no mixture of error."

 

The word inerrant refers only to the original documents, never to copies. Since we do not, as best we know, have originals, some people do not like the term inerrant, but belief in inerrancy of the autographs is what fuels our drive to find ever-older manuscripts. As more manuscripts are found, we feel confident we are getting ever closer to what the originals said.

 

We want to know what the originals said, for we believe they contain the very words of God. Our embracing inerrancy means we believe the authors gave a true and accurate statement regarding what God wanted said.

 

Some people are very uncomfortable with inerrancy. When they see in their versions of the Bible footnotes that point out variants, discrepancies, and seeming contradictions, they cannot understand how there can be any inerrant originals if there are so many differing interpretation-alternatives. I personally think much of this discomfort today stems from the fact the KJV had no footnotes. I think this may have left the impression with most readers that there were no issues regarding the actual wording of any texts.

 

 

The variants should not crush our faith. The Bible is a God-book; it is also a man-book. God condescended to use human beings to write, preserve, and transmit Scripture. Thus we should expect to see human touches in it.

 

Also, is there any other Christian doctrine that we require all difficulties to be resolved before we believe it? What about the Trinity, the Incarnation, Predestination, Creation, etc.? Do we feel we must have 100% understanding of these doctrines in order to believe them? Questions about Bible doctrines often perplex us, but we usually let this drive us to adoration, not skepticism. To resolve all difficulties, we would have to be living by sight, rather than by faith. Do not be surprised if belief in inerrancy leaves us with unresolved questions. We are not going to understand it totally.

 

All Bible doctrines have to end in some measure of mystery because they are dealing with God, whose innermost being and unfathomable ways are beyond our full comprehension. In this life, we see in a mirror dimly, and know in part (1 C 13:12). Therefore, we will never have all the answers regarding any Bible doctrine, including the inerrancy of Scripture.

 

When we come to textual variations, what we cannot fully explain, we leave unresolved, believing the problem is our limited knowledge, not the Bible. If there are seeming discrepancies we cannot solve, we leave it with the Lord. He knows all. Fortunately, we do not have to know everything.

 

Having said this, we still have to face the pesky question, what about all those textual variants? Skeptics smugly use this to ridicule our claim the Bible is the Word of God, and believers are sometimes aghast at their own inability to answer these cynicisms. Fortunately, the issue becomes less disheartening when we are willing to ask the pertinent questions, and to take time to delve into what the variants actually entail.

 

We have 25,000 partial and/or complete New Testament manuscripts from Greek and other languages, containing about 400,000 or so textual variants. This means we have an average of only 16 variants per manuscript. The United Bible Society fourth edition of the Greek New Testament contains 1,438 of the most significant variations in its footnotes and presents manuscript info for them. Less than one percent of variants are significant enough to make it into the footnotes of our English translations.

 

The evidence for a trustworthy transmission of what the Bible originally said is overwhelming. Our manuscript evidence holds up well against other writings of antiquity (See Blomberg, p. 35). In addition to the manuscripts, we have over 30,000 scriptural quotations in sermons and commentaries of early church fathers. Even with no manuscripts, the latter would reconstruct the vast majority of the New Testament.

 

Our earliest manuscripts offer convincing help for us. We have 12 manuscripts from the 100s, 64 from the 200s, 48 from the 300s. By the way, each of these early manuscripts is written with the careful handwriting of an experienced scribe. None of them is "scrawled".

 

Most are of these early manuscripts are fragmentary, but taken together, the entire New Testament is found in them multiple times. Later manuscripts add less than 2% more material to the text--that's 2% over 1600 years. This indicates a very stable transmission history. We have so many manuscripts that few new variants will ever be found. We can safely assume the first writing of any given text is in one of the variations.

 

Studies of ancient libraries of antiquity have shown that manuscripts were used anywhere from 150 to 500 years before being discarded. For instance, the fourth-century Codex Vaticanus was read and used for at least 600 years after it was produced. Facts like this show there may not have been various time-gapped generations of texts between the originals and the earliest manuscripts we now have.

 

Greek is not the only language we draw confidence from. In the 100s the New Testament was translated into several languages, including Latin, Coptic, Syriac, Georgian, Gothic, Ethiopic, and Armenian.

 

Having many manuscripts with variations actually helps textual analysts. Varying streams of thought from different languages can provide confirming evidence of what the original said. For instance, 20 manuscripts would be more helpful than one in trying to find precise original wording. Thus, thousands of manuscripts is better than having few. A preponderance of similar texts helps confirm what the original said, and in the New Testament manuscripts there is almost always overwhelming agreement.

 

For one thing, a proliferation of manuscripts proves no one tried to manipulate the text. No hierarchy was trying to promote their own agenda.

 

The variant problem diminishes substantially if we look at it closely. For starters, 70% of all variations are spelling variants. Ancient scribes had no standardized spelling guidelines. Thus, in the 25,000 manuscripts with 400,000 variants, 280,000 of the latter are spelling variations. This means we have 120,000 other types of variations spread across 25,000 manuscripts, which reduces the number of variants per manuscript from 16 down to 5.

 

Other variants involved confusing similar letters, substituting similar sounding letters or words, omitting a letter or word, writing a letter or word twice, reversing order of two letters or words, incorrect word division, changes in spelling due to archaic language or grammar, and replacing rare words. Today's textual critic has to work as a private detective in trying to find original words (For types of errors, see Cowan and Wilder, pp.127ff).

 

Of these variants, only two disputed passages in the United Bible Society Greek text are longer than two verses: the end of Mark (16:9-20), and the woman taken in adultery (John 7:53-8:11). In over 25,000 manuscripts, no other passages are anywhere nearly as long as these two.

 

When considering the variations, our chief concern should be, do they affect any major Bible doctrines? The answer is no. Let's consider a few samples (For more cases, see Blomberg, pp. 21ff, or footnotes in a Bible).

 

         Should Matthew 5:22 contain "without a cause"? Does the Doxology belong at the end of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:13? Does Mark 1:41 say compassionate or indignant? Many manuscripts omit Luke 22:43-44 and Acts 8:37. Does Romans 5:1 say we have peace, or let us have peace? Is 1 Corinthians 13:3 saying burn or boast? In Philippians 1:14 is the message "of God"? The three testifying in 1 John 5:7-8 is hard to unravel.

 

An interesting footnote: The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (www.csntm.org) seeks to preserve Scripture by taking digital photos of all known Greek New Testament manuscripts. 5800 documents are known to exist (about 5000 after AD 1000; about 800 before). Some are fragments, especially older ones, but the average Greek NT manuscript is over 450 pages long. There are a total of 2.6 million pages of text.