Misquoting Jesus

Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why

By Bart D. Ehrman (2005)

The author chairs the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

This book was a real eye-opener for me. I knew that there were variations in the ancient texts upon which the New Testament was based, but I did not realize the depth and breadth of those variations.

According to the author, there are more variations among ancient texts than there are words in the New Testament.

The book analyzes many examples. Some of the examples are inadvertent copying errors. Others are deliberate alterations that reflect the biases of the copiers.

The most famous example is the story where Jesus says, “Let the one who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her.” This story is not part of the original text, but was instead added later.

The book is a fascinating account of what we know about the New Testament, and how we know what we know.

It is interesting to note that the King James Bible is not based on the oldest and best manuscripts.

It is very disheartening to consider the knowledge that was lost by the inadvertent or deliberate destruction of ancient manuscripts. We can only hope that further discoveries of ancient manuscripts will occur.