PURPOSE
The purpose of this document, a follow up of an earlier one (1), is to further disarm the enemies of the Divine Word who may even manifests themselves as friends of the Word. As with the AntiChrist and the False Christ - the enemies of the Biblical Texts are easy to spot and disarm when they present themselves as such; the problem arises when they present themselves as Scholars, Authors, Researchers, Archeologists and, worse of all, Shepherds.
The best way to defend anything and/or anyone from slander is to lay
the truth on the table - the naked truth, for no one can fight the
truth and win. That is precisely what we plan to do in this Phase II
regarding the origins of the New Testament.
INTRODUCTION
We have had the opportunity as of late to review several allegedly educational documentaries prepared by BBC, Discovery Channel, History Channel, etc. Two that made a very negative impression were:
(a) The Family of Jesus; and
(b) Witnesses of the Resurrection.
In those educational documentaries poetic license soared to unknown heights. Considering how unfamiliar the Faithful is with the New Testament, after being “educated” by those documentaries they would be left worse than before. Before, they knew little about the Word of God; after viewing them, whatever little they knew about the New Testament would now be hopelessly confused.
By rewinding Time all the way back to the origins of the New Testament we shall put on the table how the New Testament got from “There”, in the First Century, to “Here” in the Twenty-first Century.
One may hear that the best New Testament is, for example, the Douay-Rheims version (2) which was translated from the Latin Vulgate by St. Jerome and diligently compared with the original Greek Text; or the version published by Mons. Juan Straubinger (3) also directly translated from the original Greek Text.
In reality, those two versions are the best renditions of the Word of God that we have ever encountered in five languages but, under no circumstances, they are the Last Word. The only Last Word is the true Word of God, spoken softly to the hearts of those who are in communion with Him, thus, truly believe that he/she will do
“…greater works than these…” because “…I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My Name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My Name, I will do it.” [John 14:12-14]
The only possible problem with those two excellent renditions of the New Testament is their source: The alleged original Greek text.
But before you continue reading… we assure you, that, in spite of the initial appearances, when you go through this entire document your confidence in the Holy Scriptures will have been increased many fold because you will be in the Light and not enwrapped in the darkness of ignorance. In this case, as always is, ignorance is not bliss; actually, ignorance in this area and, at this particular time in the history of humanity, spells great suffering.
Assuming that we have lost fifty percent of the readers by now -
since the shaky foundation (4) of their
Faith
caused them to panic and flee - we shall proceed and discuss those
alleged original Greek texts with the readers left.
DETAILS
Logically if everyone was praising the reliability of said Greek texts, we wanted to review those texts too; thus we acquired them. In the introduction of the New Testament in the alleged original Greek texts we read (our highlighting and underscoring):
The text of the Greek New Testament has come down to us in various manuscripts, since printing was not invented until the fifteenth century and Erasmus did not publish his Greek New Testament until 1516.
Some of these manuscripts are more important than others (age not necessarily being indicative of importance). The study of the various manuscript copies, and the assessment of their individual value in attempting to reconstruct the original as nearly as possible, constitutes the science of textual criticism.
For those who wish to study this seriously there are many books available; it is sufficient to say here that, after Erasmus, a great number of scholars have, over a long period, applied themselves the task of constructing a reliable text out of a mass of various readings that have arisen from copying and making copies from copies of the old manuscripts.
There you have it! Some of those Greek “originals” may seem as unreliable as the intelligence about the weapons of mass destruction the U.S. based its occupation of Iraq on… yet, they are not!
They are reliable and we cannot spend enough time reading and rereading the Holy Word of God as presented in the Holy Scriptures - it is refreshing; it is renewing; it is the Truth!
But why? It would seem that with the above transcribed introduction to our New Testament in Greek, the New Testament has been reduced to the category of “a collection of stories told in accordance to the whim of those who were paying the copyists to justify whatever they wanted to justify with ‘Holy’ texts.”
Yes; that is true if you believe in man and not in God and
if you believe that evil is stronger than God. But when you know, not
believe but know, that God is truly above all, that He IS Omnipotent,
that He can take a lump of coal and turn it into a magnificent diamond,
and that you are one of His precious children, then we have the key to
His Word - regardless of the twists and turns it made before reaching
your hands.
CONCLUSION
Now, as you review the Part I (1) of this Biblical Literalism Sequence, all will become clearer and clearer and your Faith and trust in His Word will increase further. The key to draw the Truth from the overly manhandled texts Is the Holy Spirit of God. No man, nor spirit can ever manipulate God.
We have also published a brief known history (5)
of each of the four Gospels. With that as an overall background, these
already
published two
documents on Biblical Literalism (Part I and Part II) and the
information
from the appropriate links appearing in them, you will be ready to hear
and understand His voice as He whispers in your heart the keys
that open the gates of the immense treasures stored in the Holy Word of
God, known to Christians as the Bible.
Related Documents
A history of the four Gospels - Written: by whom, when, where and under what circumstances
The Demise
of the Faith
- How
It Has Manifested Itself - Its Consequences - Religious
and
Political
The Demise of the Faith - Its Greatest Contributors - The Administration of the Christian Churches
God
Spoke Frequently to
Us Through the Dates of World Wars I and II. See For Yourself
Do you have "Eyes to See"? If you do not, we suggest that you do a thing or two about it
