Do we have those very words—the original Hebrew and Greek words–of the biblical authors?
![A Peculiar Glory: How the Christian Scriptures Reveal Their Complete Truthfulness by [Piper, John]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Q82%2BbUAKL._SY346_.jpg)
JESUS THOUGHT THAT WORDS MATTER
After his resurrection, Jesus rebuked Peter: “’If it is my will that [John] remains until I come, what is that to you [Peter]? You follow me.’ Because of this, the rumor spread among the brothers that [John] would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, ‘If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?'” (John 21-23).
Right words were important to Jesus and John, as the familiar passage below confirms . . .
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17,18).
PETER CARED ABOUT WORDS
Peter warns against those who distort Paul’s words . . .
“[Paul] writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position” (2 Peter 3:16,17).
Peter is saying getting the very words of Scripture right is important.
PAUL’S VIGILANCE OVER HIS WORDS
Paul used an ”amanuensis” (a kind of secretary) to write one or many of his letters. However, he often took up the pen to assure his readers the words were his . . .
“I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write” (2 Thessalonians 3:17).
“[Paul] was eager not only that his readers have his very words but that they know they have them” (Piper, p. 73).
DIVINE INSPIRATION OF THE VERY WORDS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
Not only are prophets divinely inspired, so are words . . .
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16,17).
Paul was referring to the Old Testament, since at that time there was no New.
DIVINE INSPIRATION OF THE VERY WORDS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
Paul claims his own writings—the very words–to be Holy-Spirit-inspired . . .
“We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words” (1 Corinthians 2:12,13).
THE DIVINE WILL IN THE HUMAN WILL
Sinclair Ferguson (Scottish theologian and professor at Redeemer Seminary in Dallas) writes: “Undoubtedly the human writers of Scripture were conscious that they were expressing their own thoughts as they wrote. But at the same time there were under the sovereign direction of the Spirit. Theologians call this two-dimensional reality ‘concurrence’.”
DOES IT MAKE SENSE TO AFFIRM THE INERRANCY OF MANUSCRIPTS WE DON’T HAVE?
We don’t have the original manuscripts the New Testament authors wrote. Hence, the question. Piper illustrates the answer. Suppose he writes you a letter (on paper) with directions to his house for an important meeting he wants you and others to attend. You scan his letter to make copies on two different days. But the scanner copies incorrectly on the second day. The original letter is lost. When guests compare letters they realize the error.
“Now everyone getting to the meeting depended on the firm belief that the original letter was accurate and that every effort to get back to that wording was crucial—even though the original letter no long existed. Similarly, if the wording of Scripture in the original manuscripts is not affirmed as inerrant, there would be little incentive to try to get back as close as possible in our text-critical studies, which form the basis for all of our translations” (Piper, p. 78).
ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS HAVE OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL REALITY
“Our Greek and Hebrew versions and our translations are inerrant to the degree that they faithfully render the divine meaning carried by the inspired human words of the original manuscripts” (Piper, p. 78).
This historical reality is an objective standard that we can approach through textual criticism. Without this conviction, today’s versions and translation are awash in subjectivism.
CONTROVERSY AND CONSENSUS
Recently, most attacks on the Christian faith have come in textual criticism. But Piper writes, “I am convinced that in the end none of us settles the issue of biblical authority decisively on the basis of historical arguments . . . I will argue in the coming chapters how ordinary people with little chance of following complex and obscure textual arguments may discern whether the Christian Scriptures are the word of God” (p. 79, 80).
A PERSONAL STORY FROM GRADUATE SCHOOL
Piper’s story comes from graduate school at the University of Munich where he did his doctrinal studies. I’ll skip the story for space. Conclusion: many mainline scholars are assured that text-critics have provided us with reliable Hebrew and Greek texts that we use today.
THE STATE OF THE UNION IN TEXTUAL CRITICISM
We have about 5800 Greek New Testament manuscripts (no originals—copies). You can see many at http://www.csntm.org/Manuscripts.aspx. This is far more than any other ancient documents. For example, “The average classical author’s literary remains number no more than twenty copies. We have more than 1,000 times the manuscript data for the New Testament than we do for the average Greco-Roman author. Not only this, but the extant (surviving) manuscripts of the average classical author are no earlier than 500 years after the time he wrote. For the New Testament, we are waiting mere decades for surviving copies” (Daniel Wallace, regarded as “evangelical Christianity’s premier active textual critic today; Piper, p. 81).
“No other ancient book comes close to the kind of wealth of diverse preservation that we have for the New Testament” (Piper, p.82).
DO WE HAVE ACCESS TO WHAT WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN?
Simple answer: yes.
D.A. Carson (Research Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) summarizes: “What is at stake is a purity of text of such a substantial nature that nothing we believe to be doctrinally true, and nothing we are commanded to do, is in any way jeopardized by the variants” (Piper, p. 82).
THE MUSLIM COUNTERCLAIM
Muslims claim the New Testament presents a supernatural-Son-of-God Jesus who died for our sins and was raised because Christians changed original writings. “But there is no evidence that such writings existed, which means that the Muslim claim is an inference based on Mohammed’s view of Jesus” (Piper, p 83).
WE HAVE THE WORD OF GOD
This chapter’s aim has been to show that our Greek and Hebrew Scriptures are essentially the same as the ones written by the original authors.
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Dry, I know. Congratulations for plowing through! What does it all mean? The Bible (leather ones, especially) looks holy. But we need more than that to trust it. This chapter offers one reason. A book written over 1500 years, the last “book” of it 1900 years ago. No originals remain. But the discoveries and studies Piper mentions in chapter 4 assure us we hold what the original authors wrote. That means we can say, “The Bible says . . . ” with confidence that this is the very Word of God.
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