Resources for learning about Bible Manuscripts

How has God preserved His word? How has the enemy tried to pervert the word of God?
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jimbaum
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Resources for learning about Bible Manuscripts

Post by jimbaum »

Use this topic to list and discuss resources to learn about Bible manuscripts.

Try this wikipedia article for an intro to Textus Receptus.

The authors of wikipedia articles are usually not followers of the Lord Jesus, so keep that in mind as you look for the facts.
jimbaum
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Septuagint

Post by jimbaum »

The Septuagint From Wikipedia

"The Septuagint /'sɛptuədʒɪnt/, or simply "LXX", is the name commonly given in the West to the ancient, Koine Greek version of the Old Testament translated in stages between the 3rd to 1st century BC in Alexandria. It is the oldest of several ancient translations of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. The name means "seventy" in Latin and derives from a tradition that seventy-two Jewish scholars (LXX being the nearest round number) translated the Pentateuch (or Torah) from Hebrew into Greek for one of the Ptolemaic kings, Ptolemy Philadelphus 285-247. "

See the entire article (not that the article is entirely correct, compare with other sources):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint
wackzingo
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Post by wackzingo »

Although it's not exactly suppose to be a place for learning about manuscripts, http://www.bible.org or http://www.netbible.org has some of the best and most complete translators notes(I think over 40k). They claim that many other versions rely on their translators notes. Many are very good to read if you want to find out why modern translations have changed the way they translate certain words and phrases from old translations.
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Emergent & Contemplative

Post by jimbaum »

Zach, I'm sorry to have to be a bummer, but please realize the following about http://www.bible.org or http://www.netbible.org. They promote the concepts of "Spiritual Formation" and other Contemplative, Emergent views and techniques which, I believe, are unbiblical. See the following on the Lighthouse Trailse site:

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com ... 071706.htm
Popular Bible Website Begins
Spiritual Formation Project


Bible.org is a popular and well-visited website that began in 1995 to "leverage the Internet as a powerful new force in Christian ministry." According to the website, Bible.org "has grown to serve millions of individuals around the world through providing thousands of trustworthy resources for Bible study." However, the ministry's newly launched Spiritual Formation project has concerned many who use the site to find resources. The new project's motto is "Journeying together along a path of spiritual transformation," and is currently featuring the materials of Bill Hull.

Hull's most recent book, Choosing Life: Exploring a Faith That Embraces Discipleship, has a foreword written by Dallas Willard and a back cover endorsement by Brian McLaren. In addition, Hull tells readers to "study and practice the Spiritual Disciplines, listing Eugene Peterson, Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, Soren Kierkegaard and Francis de Sales as beneficial authors to read. Hull instructs readers to practice lectio divina and says to "explore new vistas of the devotional life that we as evangelical's have missed (p. 218)." The book is filled with quotes by and favorable references to Henri Nouwen, Richard Foster, John Ortberg and other contemplatives.
On Hull's website, he says we must "redefine what it means to be a Christian," quoting Brian McLaren as saying we should "spend the next 15-20 years asking the question, 'what is the gospel?'" Hull's two-year Choose the Life program offers resources which include Brian McLaren's, A New Kind of Christian and Dallas Willard's Spirit of the Disciplines.

In a Bible.org article, written by Ken Boa and titled "An Introduction to Sacred Reading, Boa gives a detailed and lengthy discourse in the use of lectio divina, explaining that it was introduced to the West by a desert father named John Cassian. Boa says that while the practice of lectio divina died out over the centuries it was restored by people like Thomas Merton and Thomas Keating. Boa refers favorably to a number of mystics (i.e., contemplatives) in his article and quotes Merton as saying, "It is much better to desire God without being able to think clearly of Him, than to have marvelous thoughts about Him without desiring to enter into union with His will." This is similar to Brennan Manning, who exhorts readers to stop thinking about God during the time of prayer.

On Bible.org, Bill Hull states:

Something is happening, there is a new movement emerging in the land.... There is a call going out, "Dive, Dive, lets go deep with God." The academy calls it spiritual formation, others spiritual direction, practitioners refer to it as discipleship. Leaders are traveling to and fro in order to conduct summitry about it.

Unfortunately, this "traveling to and fro" is resulting in a complete New Age infiltration of Christendom. It appears that Bible.org has jumped on board and is doing their part to help multitudes of people "dive in."
wackzingo
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Post by wackzingo »

Jim,

I have been going to bible.org almost since it's beginning and I agree that it has been moving toward "the concepts of "Spiritual Formation" and other Contemplative, Emergent views and techniques" which I also agree is unbiblical.

But, this is a recent trend, so I stay away from their articles, bible studies, etc. But as for their bible translation and their notes, they were written years ago, way before they began to make the shift. With over 40k notes I haven't read everything, but I also know that some of their notes are very helpful in understanding why certain passages are translated a certain way. A lot of times it has to do with the differences in manuscripts.
wackzingo
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Post by wackzingo »

Here are a bunch of resources for learning about bible manuscripts:
(I have no idea as to how reliable any of these sources are. Most are however from various university website run by professors rather than personal sites.)


CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS
http://www.csntm.org/

The Encyclopedia of New Testament Textual Criticism
http://www.skypoint.com/~waltzmn/

A Student's Guide to New Testament Textual Variants
http://bible.ovc.edu/tc/index.htm

Interpreting Ancient Manuscripts Web
http://www.earlham.edu/~seidti/iam/

Textual Criticism and Manuscript Interpretation
http://members.aol.com/dvdmoore/html/txtcrt.htm

Biblical Manuscripts Project
http://alpha.reltech.org/BibleMSS.html

An Online Textual Commentary on the Greek Gospels
http://www-user.uni-bremen.de/~wie/TCG/index.html

TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism
http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/03-01/TCside.html

Resource Pages for Biblical Studies, Volda University, Norway
http://torreys.org/bible/

Duke Papyrus Archive
http://odyssey.lib.duke.edu/papyrus/texts/homepage.html

The New Testament Gateway
http://www.ntgateway.com/

Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center
http://www.abmc.org/

Evangelical Textual Criticism
http://evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com/

# The Majority Text and the Original Text: Are they Identical? (Daniel B. Wallace)
http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=677

Greek Manuscript Research Center
http://www.andrews.edu/SEM/GMRC/index.htm

THE CONTROVERSY OVER THE ALEXANDRIAN TEXT
http://faculty.bbc.edu/mstallard/Biblic ... ission.htm
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