02-25-2007, 03:57 AM
Bismillah:
Assalamo ALikum everyone...
In response to FHC who once said:
Quote:Re: Bible manuscripts - No disrespect to Bat Ehman but he's a former "Born-Again Christian". No disrespect to Protestants, <b>but various sects have their own version of the Bible -</b> tailored <b>to suit their personal needs</b>. The ancient Bibles I mentioned are identical (although they're not all written in the same language), & are openly displayed in the Vatican Library for all to see, touch, read, examine, photograph, etc.
One thing you must remember is that Catholics aren't "Evangelical Bible Christians"; Catholics evangelize the word of God (Bible), however, we honour Sacred Tradition & Sacred Scripture equally. "Where Peter is there is the Church, and where the Church is, there is everlasting life" (I can't remember which Saint said that - shame on me)!
So basically you are referring to <b>the Catholic version of the Bible</b> to be the accurate word of God which is identical word for word with those Ancient manuscripts!!! Other versions of the Bible such as the KJV, the NIV, Living Bible, NKJV, and many others are <b>NOT</b> accurate and so you do not believe that they are the pure word of God.
First of all, you have to really understand the fact that <b>the original manuscripts of the Bible do NOT exist anymore</b>, so we can't compare modern Bible versions directly to the originals, simply because <b>the manuscripts which you have in the Vatican or whatever, are not exactly what was originally written</b>… and you can go to the Vatican to check by yourself, <b>you do not have any original copies which were penned by the Bible writers anymore</b>, you simply do not, because the <b>REAL</b> manuscripts <b>were normally written on papyri or animal skins which over time, these materials would perish and no longer be readable.</b> The only reason you have some manuscripts from as far back as 250 BC is that they were found in desert areas with very low humidity. Also, during Wars the manuscripts were sometimes <b>destroyed</b> and so the earliest copies of those <i>REAL</i> ancient scriptures were missing.
What is left are <b>SOME</b> copies of the original Bible manuscripts, and these do not all match each other perfectly. <b>This fact has led many people to doubt the accuracy of the Bible's transmission and one of them, whom I always remember because he was the latest to discover this fact, is Bart Ehramn. </b>
Again, I do respect whatever you believe, but do not always <b>insist</b> (at least in front of me
:D ) that the Bible which you are reading now was 100% preserved.
Salam
Wael.