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“Then woe to those who write the book with their own hands and
then say: ‘This is from God’, to traffic with it for a miserable price. Woe to
them for what their hands do write and for the gain they make thereby.” (Quran
2:79)
“And when there came to them a messenger from God, Confirming
what was with them, a party of the people of the book threw away the book of God
behind their backs as if (it had been something) they did not know.” (Quran
2:101)
“Ye shall not add unto the word which I (God)
command you, neither shall ye diminish [ought] from it, that ye may keep the
commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” (Deuteronomy 4:2)
 Let us start from the beginning. No Biblical scholar on
this earth will claim that the Bible was written by Jesus himself. They all
agree that the Bible was written after the departure of Jesus peace be upon him
by his followers. Dr. W Graham Scroggie of the Moody Bible Institute, Chicago,
a prestigious Christian evangelical mission, says:
“..Yes, the
Bible is human, although some out of zeal which is not according to knowledge,
have denied this. Those books have passed through the minds of men, are
written in the language of men, were penned by the hands of men and bear in
their style the characteristics of men….It is Human, Yet Divine,”
Another Christian scholar, Kenneth Cragg, the Anglican
Bishop of Jerusalem, says:
“...Not so
the New Testament...There is condensation and editing; there is choice
reproduction and witness. The Gospels have come through the mind of the church
behind the authors. They represent experience and history...”
“It is well
known that the primitive Christian Gospel was initially transmitted by word of
mouth and that this oral tradition resulted in variant reporting of word and
deed. It is equally true that when the Christian record was committed to
writing it continued to be the subject of verbal variation. Involuntary and
intentional, at the hands of scribes and editors.”
“Yet, as a
matter of fact, every book of the New Testament with the exception of the four
great Epistles of St. Paul is at present more or less the subject of
controversy, and interpolations are asserted even in these.”
Dr. Lobegott Friedrich Konstantin Von Tischendorf, one
of the most adamant conservative Christian defenders of the Trinity was himself
driven to admit that:
“[the New
Testament had] in many passages undergone such serious modification of meaning
as to leave us in painful uncertainty as to what the Apostles had actually
written”
After listing many examples of contradictory statements
in the Bible, Dr. Frederic Kenyon says:
“Besides the
larger discrepancies, such as these, there is scarcely a verse in which there
is not some variation of phrase in some copies [of the ancient manuscripts from
which the Bible has been collected]. No one can say that these additions or
omissions or alterations are matters of mere indifference”
Throughout this book you will find countless other
similar quotations from some of Christendom’s leading scholars. Let us suffice
with these for now.
Christians are, in general, good and decent people, and
the stronger their convictions the more decent they are. This is attested to
in the noble Quran:
“...and nearest among them (men) in love to the believers will
you find those who say ‘we are Christians’: because amongst these are men
devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not
arrogant. And when they listen to the revelation received by the messenger
(Muhammad), you will see their eyes overflowing with tears for they recognize
the truth: They pray: ‘Our Lord! we believe; write us down among the
witnesses.’” (Quran 5:82-83)
All biblical “versions” of the Bible prior to the
revised version of 1881 were dependent upon the “Ancient Copies” (those dating
between five to six hundred years after Jesus). The revisers of the Revised
Standard Version (RSV) 1952 were the first biblical scholars to have access to
the “MOST ancient copies” which date fully three to four hundred years after
Christ. It is only logical for us to concur that the closer a document is to
the source the more authentic it is. Let us see what is the opinion of
Christendom with regard to the most revised version of the Bible (revised in
1952 and then again in 1971):
“The finest
version which has been produced in the present century” - (Church of England
newspaper)
“A completely
fresh translation by scholars of the highest eminence” - (Times literary
supplement)
“The well
loved characteristics of the authorized version combined with a new accuracy of
translation” - (Life and Work)
“The most
accurate and close rendering of the original” - (The Times)
The publishers themselves (Collins) mention on page 10
of their notes:
“This Bible
(RSV) is the product of thirty two scholars assisted by an advisory committee
representing fifty cooperating denominations”
Let us see what these thirty two Christian scholars of
the highest eminence backed by fifty cooperating Christian denominations have
to say about the Authorized Version (AV), or as it is better known, the King
James Version (KJV). In the preface of the RSV 1971 we find the following:
“...Yet the
King James Version has GRAVE DEFECTS..”
They go on to caution us that:
“...That
these defects are SO MANY AND SO SERIOUS as to call for revision”
The Jehovah’s Witnesses in their “AWAKE” Magazine dated
8th September 1957 published the following headline: “50,000 Errors in the
Bible” wherein they say “..there are probably 50,000 errors in the
Bible...errors which have crept into the Bible text...50,000 such serious
errors...” After all of this, however, they go on to say: “...as a whole the
Bible is accurate.” Let us have a look at only a very few of these errors.
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