Misquoting Jesus The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible And Why

I found this book fascinating. I've always wanted to know how scholars went about sifting through Bible manuscripts to translate the Bible. I've heard descriptions of thousands of manuscripts and I've heard how all of the manuscripts were written many years after the life of Jesus. This booked explained that process to me and helped me to understand various arguments that I've heard people use...more

I found this book fascinating. I've always wanted to know how scholars went about sifting through Bible manuscripts to translate the Bible. I've heard descriptions of thousands of manuscripts and I've heard how all of the manuscripts were written many years after the life of Jesus. This booked explained that process to me and helped me to understand various arguments that I've heard people use about the reliability (or not) of the Bible. Summary: This book describes how scholars examine manuscripts of the Bible to find the most reliable version of what the writer originally wrote. This is difficult because at best we have only the copies of the copies of the copies of the copies (and so on) of the original manuscripts. The earliest surviving manuscripts date to 200 years after the events they describe. That's not when they were written but that's when they were last copied. Through the copying process, numerous changes have been made to the manuscripts. A great majority of these changes are small errors that do not modify the original intent and meaning of the passages. However, there are some changes that do change the meaning of some passages in significant ways. Ehrman describes the process by which scholars examine the manuscripts to determine which text represents the most recent changes and which text is more likely to be reliable. Through this process, Ehrman presents some passages as examples of how the text came to be changed. Some of these changes remain in our modern translations today.   hide

If you are interested in gaining a critical understanding of the Christian Scriptures, then Misquoting Jesus is a must for your library. The title is somewhat misleading, the book is not about "Who Changed the Bible And Why," but rather how modern textual criticism of of the Bible works. If you are already a student of textual criticism, there is little new information for you in this work....more

If you are interested in gaining a critical understanding of the Christian Scriptures, then Misquoting Jesus is a must for your library. The title is somewhat misleading, the book is not about "Who Changed the Bible And Why," but rather how modern textual criticism of of the Bible works. If you are already a student of textual criticism, there is little new information for you in this work. However it does serve as an excellent refresher if you are having trouble remembering which gospels are the synoptic ones. Dr. Ehrman also charts his own 'conversion' from a literalist to his more nuanced views that he holds today. I think people of faith should consider reading Misquoting Jesus as Dr. Ehrman serves as a good example of how you can gain a better understanding of how the Bible came to be, without compromising your faith in a higher power.   hide

If you want to know about the true origins of the bible this is a must read. Scholar and one-time fundamentalist Ehrman demonstrates how the bible evolved.rnrnThe one thing we know about the books of the bible is that what we have today is simply the result of a political process: from the earliest copies the books of the bible have been revised, copied and edited. Often errors have been made...more

If you want to know about the true origins of the bible this is a must read. Scholar and one-time fundamentalist Ehrman demonstrates how the bible evolved.rnrnThe one thing we know about the books of the bible is that what we have today is simply the result of a political process: from the earliest copies the books of the bible have been revised, copied and edited. Often errors have been made inadvertantly, but sometimes they have been introduced to back a certain groups viewpoint. rnrnHow do we know this? Of the thousands of surviving copies of scripture from the early church literally no two are alike. And from scribes' notes (often times in the margins) you can trace the battle of ideas as the writing change from copy to copy.rnrnWhat's original? No one knows - but what we can say is that what we have is simply the msg the powers that were wanted promulgated at the time.    hide

My favorite part of this book was the introduction, where Ehrman describes his journey from Episcopal altar boy to Youth for Christ convert to student at Moody, Wheaton, and Princeton in turn. I agree with his argument that the Bible that we have today varies in many ways from the long lost original manuscripts, but I disagree that this means all that much. I think that Ehrman's problem was that...more

My favorite part of this book was the introduction, where Ehrman describes his journey from Episcopal altar boy to Youth for Christ convert to student at Moody, Wheaton, and Princeton in turn. I agree with his argument that the Bible that we have today varies in many ways from the long lost original manuscripts, but I disagree that this means all that much. I think that Ehrman's problem was that he was given an unrealistic view of the Bible to begin with.   hide