Wednesday, January 24, 2018

I Can't Tell How Many Times "Jesus" is Mentioned in the Bible

"Then did he charge his disciples that they may say to no one that he is Jesus the Christ." Young's Literal Version

"Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Messiah." New American Bible

When researching divine titles in various Bibles, it is actually difficult to determine how many times "Jesus" was mentioned. Take note:

NIV   Jesus = 1226  Christ = 499
KJV   Jesus =  943  Christ = 522
NASB  Jesus =  881  Christ = 493
NRSV  Jesus = 1088  Christ = 45
RSV Jesus = 926 Christ = 534
Darby Bible Jesus = 904 Christ = 507
Young's Literal Version  Jesus = 932  Christ 529
Wesley N.T.  Jesus = 951  Christ  = 497
God's Word  Jesus = 1504  Christ  = 516
New Living Translation  Jesus = 1404  Christ  = 536
Douay  Jesus = 932 Christ = 534
ASV  Jesus = 883 Christ = 501
Bible in Basic English  Jesus = 905 Christ = 496
Good News Bible/TEV  Jesus = 1543 Christ 502
New Century Version  Jesus = 1846 Christ 604
NKJV  Jesus = 941 Christ = 530

In fact it is hard to determine even in the KJV using differing software helps.
<Jesus>
983 (in 942 vrs)    QuickVerse 4.0
973 (in 935 vrs)    BibleWorks 3.5
983 (in 942 vrs)    Logos Research Systems

Why the difference? It was common to inflate the position and deity of Christ by adding to the text, and this is something that happened quite early on. When researching Textual Criticism (and reading books like The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture by Ehrman), it becomes clear that corruption in favor of the theology of the mainstream theology of the time happened almost immediately.

Here are a few examples from ancient manuscripts:

John 19:40, "They took the body of Christ" to "they took the body of God"
Luke 2:26 changed to "Christ, namely God." Old Latin ff
Luke 9:20 "the Christ of God" changed to "Christ, God" Coptic
Mark 3:11 "You are the Son of God" changed to "You are God, the Son of God." MS69
Luke 7:9 "when Jesus heard this" changed to "when God heard this" 124
Luke 8:28 "Jesus, Son of the highest God" changed to "Jesus, the highest God" 2766
Luke 20:42 "the lord said to my lord" changed to "God said to my God" Persian Diatesseron
2 Peter 1:2 changed to "in the knowledge of God, our Lord Jesus" P72
Jude 5 changed to "Jesus" or "the God Christ" who saved the people from Egypt P72
Gal 2:2 "Son of God" changed to "God the Son" MS1985
Acts 20:28 "church of God" changed to "church of the Lord" or "church of the Lord and God" various
1 Cor 10:5, "God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness" changed to "Christ" MS81
Rom 14:10, "we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of God." changed to "judgment-seat of
Christ" 048, 0209 Byz etc
Matt 24:36, "But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only." The Byx mss omit "neither the Son." Interestingly, the Codex Siniaticus originally had "neither the Son", but was removed by a later scribe...and then was restored by yet another scribe.

    "In the second or third centuries, there were, of course, Christians who believed in only One God; others, however, claimed that there were two Gods; yet others subscribed to 30, or 365, or more. Some Christians accepted the Hebrew Scriptures as a revelation of the one true God, the sacred possession of all believers; others claimed that the Scriptures had been inspired by an evil deity. Some Christians believed that God created the world and was soon going to redeem it; others said that God neither had created the world nor had ever had any dealings with it/ Some Christians beleived that Christ was somehow both a man and God; others said that he was a man; but not God; others claimes that he was God, but not a man....the controversies that ensued impacted the surviving literature on virtually every level. ...The New Testament manuscripts were not produced impersonally by machines capable of flawless production. They were copied by hand, by living, breathing human beings who were deeply rooted in the conditions and controversies of their day. Did the scribes' polemical context influence the way they transcribed sacred Scriptures? The burden of the present study is that they did....."
    The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture by B. Ehrman, p. 3

These changes did not stop early on:

    "When an intentional change affects the meaning of the passage, there is a demonstrable tendency to move the meaning in the direction of the orthodoxy of the time, not away from it. By 'demonstrable' I mean the even within the Byzantine tradition, the later witnesses are inclined to change things in favor of giving more titles to Christ, not fewer" D.A. Carson, The King James Version Debate, p. 62

It must be remembered that these intentional scribal changes were made by those in the orthodox position, not by fringe "heretical" groups.

No comments:

Post a Comment