isaac.madsen:
ben_dy,
So what you are saying that these different versions of the bible are worded differently? I suppose then that what I really want to find is the text closest to the original as possible, in which case it would be better to read the UBS version/s. I’m glad you have studied up on this because this means that you understand better than most LDS why we believe the Bible isn’t as trustworthy as the Book of Mormon. We believe that the Book of Mormon was an actual book, and that it was translated from the an original text, that the men who wrote the original text were prophets, and also that the man who translated it did, in fact, see and do the things which he spoke of, thus making him a prophet.
Ike,
I would strongly encourage you to get the standard UBS text and the least expensive lexicon so that you can at least enjoy the opportunity of reading even single passages in the Greek NT: those that are controversial, those that are particularly inspirational, those that may not be satisfactorily clear in (especially the KJV) other translations. The difference in the 12th century texts that made up the
Textus Receptus used to hastily translate the Greek to English were nowhere near the earliest extant texts that we have today and, thanks to people like Bruce Metzger (one of my - if not my - favorite Greek NT scholars) is that where there exist alternate readings from other manuscripts, or where even fragments of even older papyri consistently use a given word for one that may have crept in over a thousand years of one copyist relying on a errant predecessors, the UBS text points out the variations and, where there is definitive proof and scholarly agreement of versed added to the original, the text is left intact but noted that it is of later origin. A case in point of the latter occurrence is in Luke 22:43-44 - completely absent from the earliest extant manuscripts, included in the KJV (and some other - most other - translations, including the “New American Bible”, the ‘official’ U.S. Catholic Bible, but excluded from the Revised Standard Version - probably the best English translation of the Greek still around (and most frequently used by the Vatican when translating documents from Latin to English) yet the verses were added back in when the
New Revised Standard Version was published, but with the explanation that they were of later origin and not to be found in the oldest known manuscripts. I personally still prefer the RSV for personal Bible reading - I keep the NAB at hand for the terrific footnotes. And, when watching Mass on television, when I am unable to attend, I am thankful that the newest hand missal uses the NAB as revised so that I can follow along with the readings as closely as possible (though I don’t take a hand missal along when I attend Mass – I’m familiar enough with the Latin and, now, mostly familiar enough with the English, when it’s used, and content to listen to the readings although I usually make it a point, when I return home after Mass, to go over the readings again). The only genuine complaint I have with the NAB is it’s use in the Liturgy of the Hours, but that’s not appropriate for discussion here.
There’s a
great deal at Amazon which includes the standard UBS text along with Bruce Metzger’s
Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament. If you are able to afford it, snatch it up - even if you never mean to take up Greek NT studies as anything but an occasional glance. Metzger may not be everyone’s favorite NT Greek scholar, but he’s very, very high on most people’s list (and tops on mine!).
I believe myself to have a somewhat complete understanding as to the LDS beliefs concerning the Bible – I take as common doctrine among LDS that when Joseph Smith proclaimed the “Book of Mormon… (to be the) most correct of any book on earth”, he meant just that, including the Bible, and that when he declared the Church to believe “the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly” that he meant that just as surely. As to what I believe about how the Bible came into being, who the various authors of certain books were, that, too, is another topic. Although I’ve read the BoM three times now, I still have trouble, when I come across the word ‘plates’, an ‘etched in memory’ idea of just which plates I am reading. Four sets of plates, some sealed, presents a variety from which to recall!
One question I do have – and perhaps I’ll begin a new thread: if there remained sealed plates that are supposed to be revealed at a later time, is this later time understood, generally, to be a pre-millennial or a post- millennial time?
…continued…
