The Bible
From a Dynamic to a Static Bible
If a person were to pick up a current edition of a Bible and compare it with one of approximately fifty years prior, they will notice some differences in the text that they were reading. Some examples from the end of Luke's Gospel will highlight this phenomenon.
Revised Standard Versions
The 1946 edition of the Revised Standard Version (RSV) would have a shorter text of the Last Supper in Luke 22:19-20 to that of the 1972 edition of the RSV and the 1990 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). The same can be said of Luke 24:51.
Both the 1946 and 1972 editions of the RSV will have a shorter text of Luke 24:3, 6, 36, and 52 to that of the 1990 NRSV. Furthermore, verses 12 and 40 of Luke 24 would not appear in the earlier RSV editions, though are found in the latter NRSV edition.
The obvious question is why the change?
The Early Church and the Bible
There is an uncertainty of the text in certain parts of the Bible, Luke 24 being no exception. Much of this is due to the influence of scribes of the early church. The surviving manuscripts show the diversity of the Biblical tradition. In fact, the problem of altering the text was so widespread that the author of the Book of Revelation had to put a warning against it (see Revelation 22:18-19).
Constantine attempted to stabilise the tradition and he did succeed to some degree. The authoritative control of the Christian faith with the forceful removal of groups considered heretical allowed for greater stabilisation. However, the publishing of the Bible was still left to scribes prone to errors.
The Printing Press' Affect on the Bible
The development of the printing press in the 15th century gave the Bible a text that was exactly the same in every publication. The long dynamic history of the Bible came to a holt. The Bible was now a static document. But even this was conditional.
Criticism of Changes to Bible Text
In the later part of the 18th century the German scholar Johann Jakob Griesbach laid the foundations for the recovery of the earliest words of the Bible. Building upon the foundations of Griesbach, subsequent scholars broke away from a text considered inferior as a number of the words came from what was found to be unreliable manuscripts. As the years progressed, new manuscripts were discovered challenging certain Biblical passages, such as those found at the end of Luke's Gospel.
As some scholars have noted recently, some of these changes do have theological consequences. The example of Luke 24 reveals that the longer texts of the 1990 edition of the NRSV accent the bodily resurrection of Jesus. The shorter reading as found in the 1946 edition of the RSV can at times leave the bodily resurrection a little ambiguous in Luke's gospel. In fact, there were Christians in the early church that did not believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus and they may have found support in the shorter readings as found in the RSV of 1946?
While the original Bible was a dynamic one, today's Bible is more static, but not entirely. Certain changes may appear, but unlike days of old, these changes will undergo great scrutiny for they have the potential of altering certain Christian doctrines.
Sources:
- Martin, M. W. "Defending the 'Western Non-Interpolations': The Case for an Anti-Separationist Tendenz in the Longer Alexandrian Readings" in Journal of Biblical Literature Vol. 124.2 (Summer, 2005), 269-294.
- NRSV Bible.
- RSV Bible.
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