i am sparticus: Misquoting Jesus
Misquoting Jesus
While I was in San Francisco I went into Borders to see if I could pick up some Douglas Coupland books on the cheap and while browsing through the books on prominent display I came across Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman. What struck me though was not the title of the book as much as the hook quotes on the back.
In Misquoting Jesus Ehrman reveals that:The King James Bible was based on corrupted and inferior manuscripts that in many cases do not accurately represent the meaning of the original text. The favorite Bible story of Jesus’s forgiving the woman caught in adultery (John 8:3-11) doesn’t belong in the Bible. Scribal errors were so common in antiquity that the author of the Book of Revelation threatened damnation to anyone who “adds to” or “takes away” words from the text.
Note to the publishers, when making the statement 'Erhman reveals that the favourite bible story....' you should probably check that the top selling, "most widely accepted contemporary bible translation" in the world doesn't reveal this fact in the main text of the bible. What? It Does? Gosh, and every other contemporary bible translation notes this as well? Who'd believe it!
Similarly, it's not that revealing to say the King James Bible is based on corrupted and inferior translations (for an arbitrary definition of corrupted and inferior at least) when the international bible society notes this on their publicly available website about bible translations.
As for the last fact, what exactly is he revealing? The content of Revelation 22:18-19 that's been around for 1900 years old? That scribal errors were common? That John didn't want anyone altering what he wrote? Hardly new facts.
The only thing revealing about the quotes on the back of the book is that it shows that the publishers have been to a seminar called "The 'is the bible true?' fad and how to cash in on it".
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Things I Found Interesting
- New Free Coldplay Single With extensive rigmarole to actually download what is just a plain mp3 file.
- Want to know what's going to appear in youth work magazine for the next year? In releasing info for advertisers, they've released info for all of us. If you're intrigued by the articles in a Christian youth work magazine that might be good for advertising too, this is a must read.
- Johnny Foreigner are on iTunes AWESOME. Fact.
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