Ep.108 – Truth In A Culture Of Doubt – Are The Biblical Manuscripts Corrupt?

Covering the first three claims Bart Ehrman makes about the corruption & untrustworthiness of the New Testament, we see that nuance is needed. Not having the original manuscripts, loss of original readings, and textual variants are claims that play well to a particular audience. Yet, when we look at the details we actually see a benefit to many of the alleged “issues”.

Timeline Breakdown:

00:00 – Introduction
01:33 – Claim #1 – We Don’t Have The Original NT – Only Copies
02:36 – Number Of Manuscripts Of Antiquity Compared To The Bible
11:08 – NT Would Be Difficult To Change Because Of How It Went Out
12:37 – Ehrman Claims The Changes Were Complete & Without Trace
14:28 – We Do Have The Original Text Of The NT Preserved In The Copies
14:47 – Textual Variants (Criticism) Helps Establish NT Confidence
17:23 – Calim #2 – Many Original Readings Are Lost Due To Too Many Textual Variants That Affect Core Theological Beliefs.
19:33 – How Can One Know A Reading Wasn’t In The Original Without Knowing What The Original Read?
20:07 – There Are Some Disputed Verses – That Christians Have Known & Pointed Out For A While
22:14 – Some Just Aren’t Theologically Important
22:50 – The Transmission Process Of The Bible Is One Of The Best Ways It Could Happen To Be Confident
24:36 – Bart Ehrman Exaggerats The Significance Of NT Textual Variants
30:02 – Claim #3 – There Are More Variants In The New Testament Manuscripts Than Words In The New Testament
31:49 – Thre Are A Lot Of Manuscripts So The Numbers Don’t Mean Much
33:15 – The Copying Of The New Testament By Scribes
37:10 – Conclusion

The episode link is cavetothecross.com/ep108