THOU SHALT NOT ADD NOR SUBTRACT: Revelation 22:18-19 (Part I)

Some time back brother Reuben asked me why Mathew 17:21 is missing in some Bible versions and he wondered whether it was a controversy about the rite of fasting or not. I gave a response which addressed why some verses are missing in some Bible versions and said a few things about the ritual of fasting. Recently another brother (Denis) on one of our Bible forums asked why some verses are not in some versions and here is his

Question: Have always wondered why some Bible translations omit certain verses completely. Pastor Isaiah properly explained why we have different Bible versions and how they approach translation. However, I’m still curious why some translations omit some verses altogether. It is such omissions that some factions wanted to burn some bibles. Does theology have an explanation for these variations?

Response: Of course this is not a question about ‘TRANSLATION and INTERPRETATION’ (word meaning, grammar and loss in the process), but one that concerns ‘TEXTUAL RECORDING and CRITICISM’ (Recording and Formation of the text). It is a question of what I call a Textual Phylogeny (an evolution of scripture). The Bible, unlike the Quran, did not fall from Heaven. The Bible is an inspiration which is a combination of God and Man. The Bible is God’s word of his revelation channelled through human language, acts and experiences. The Bible is God’s word. Man is his secretary and the Church is the secretariat.

God, the owner of the message, is infallible. However, his secretary, the Man, is fallible and therefore, man might not have recorded ipsissma verbatim (word per word, intonations and expressions) and neither is the record error free. The Biblical textual maladies are a human touch which eventually is a divine opportunity to teach us God’s communion (Koinonia) with man.

Still, the Bible is the inspired word of God. Samson Kasumba always said; ‘Even the gap in the word of God is inspired.’ In the ancient world, people recorded the oracles of God on rocks; doorposts, skins (leather), papyruses and these were produced in form of codices and scrolls. The ancient world from which our Bible is born was not hi-tech like our world where we have typewriters, audio-visual recorders, and computers. The process of documentation was a painstaking one. God, instinctually, through events and often orally, spoke to individuals and these individuals were inspired to record the word of God.

Jeremiah 36:4 states:

Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book.

The scriptures that we have today underwent periods and centuries of hand-copying, that resulted into what we know as ‘Manuscripts’. The term Manuscript is derived from the Latin phrase Manu Scriptures which means “Written by Hand”. The recorders of these manuscripts were not writing the Bible (as we know it), though an omniscient God had foreseen the modern canon to them, it was recording down their history, experiences and interventions with their God in their daily life.

These original manuscripts (known as Autographs) were products of their thought inspiration, the voices they heard speak to them, and the events that shaped their experiences in their day to day living (2Peter 1:21). The custodians of these manuscripts were Scribes, Prophets, Priests, individuals and Kings. These manuscripts were stored in Temples and Palaces.

That is how these precious items were preserved from one generation to another (2Kings 22:8-10). Originally, these autographs had no copies (known as Apographs) and they were only read during a church service and left at church after reading (Luke 4:16-17, 20).

In the Old Testament times, people copied from Moses’ book of the law (Deuteronomy 31:9, 24, Joshua 24:26) and wrote some laws on their doorposts and other materials (Deuteronomy 11:20, 6:9), and that was more of having a reference copy of the Bible (of then) at one’s home. Later, in the interest of publicizing the word and making it available to distant audiences, these manuscripts went through a reproduction by hand-copying (in reference to the original manuscripts-autographs) and sometimes a transcription (transcribing a reader/speaker).

The 66 canonical books of the Bible and the Bible versions are a product of two sources:

1. The autographs (original manuscripts) and
2. The apographs (manuscripts copied from the autographs).

While it is true that the original manuscripts do not exist today, to conclude which versions have committed the crime forbidden in Revelation 22:18-19, a few things must be said about the discipline known as Biblical Criticism.

Recently, I shared with the people at the fellowship that while the nation of Israel never invented the idea of a Deity (God), it was Israel that popularized the worship of one God at the expense of all others. Art was before there was Rome. However; the Romans promoted Art to its significance today. Wisdom, Knowledge and Civility existed in other cultures, but the Greeks officialised it as the way of life. German did not only give to the world a world war, but it also contributed to Biblical scholarship by emphasizing what we know as ‘Biblical Criticism’.

Biblical criticism is a critical look at the Phylogeny (evolution) of the text. While many scholars insist this is dangerous to the word of God, Biblical evangelical theologians insist that the word of God should be subjected to this scientific procedure (Biblical Criticism), to retain its pedigree as the word of God. The scholarly world of German placed Biblical criticism on the same footing with Bible study.

Under Biblical criticism, there are eight types of criticism but for now, let’s restrict its role-definition to the context of the question of why are some texts are missing. Biblical Criticism analyses the debate of textual variations by asking four important questions:

1. Source Language: A few Bible owners and readers actually know they have translations and if you asked those who know they hold translations, they will tell you that it was translated from the language of their colonialists. We are advised, however, that before we conclude that a text is missing or was added, to investigate whether it appears in the original languages of the Bible which are Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.
2. Source Materials: Again, a few readers (trained and untrained), do understand that the 66 Books of the Bible are a product of various Source Materials known as Manuscripts. For the New Testament source materials, it was J. A. Bengel in the 18^th century who sorted out the wealth of Biblical source materials and grouped them into what he called ‘nations’ and ‘families’. The two major families of the New Testament text are: a) the Byzantine (Textus Receptus) majorly considered to be latter manuscripts and b) the Alexandrian manuscripts that are considered to be the Oldest. Bible variation, therefore, could be an issue of the source manuscript of that particular version. It must be investigated to find out whether the text/passage at hand was sourced from oldest manuscripts (Autographs), or from the Apographs (latter manuscripts)
3. Theological Coherence: Original or copies of manuscripts might not be the ultimate Judge of a variation as focusing on what exactly the text/passage is saying in relation to the entire thematic-teaching of all the 66 books of the Bible. The question to ask here is; How theologically coherent and corresponding is the particular verse in perspective to the entire Canon?

Look out for the continuation in part 2.

God bless you I invoke TRUTH, REASON and FAITH (2Tim 2:7)

Pr. T.I.M WHITE

The Gospel Hawker

iTiS Well of Worship Ministries (John 4:24)