The Corruptions Of The New Testament

Shahada Mission

8 min readJul 3, 2024

The New Testament, which is the later part of the Christian Bible wasn’t Maintained or Preserved properly which led to its Corruption rendering it Unreliable

We’ll present the evidence in four stages

1- Manuscripts

2- Church Fathers

3- Early Critics

4- Scholarly opinions

Definitions

corruption: a departure from the original or from what is pure or correct Interpolation: the introduction or insertion of something spurious or foreign

Manuscript: a hand-written document

1) Manuscripts

We have no manuscripts of the first century, and the oldest complete manuscripts we have of the NT are dated to the fourth century

THE TEXT of the NEW TESTAMENT. An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism by Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland

We have many variant readings which makes it impossible to know the original text

THE TEXT of the NEW TESTAMENT. An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism by Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland

The variants exceed the number of words in the whole new testament

Misquoting Jesus by Bart Ehrman

There are 300–400 thousands differences between the manuscripts

Bart Ehrman & Daniel B. Wallace in dialogue, The Reliability of the New Testament edited by Robert B. Stewart

The manuscripts aren’t uniform

The interpreter’s dictionary of the Bible : an illustrated encyclopedia volume 4 by George Arthur Buttrick

Translations & variants makes it impossible to find the original text

The Multivalence of the Term “Original Text” in New Testament Textual Criticism* by Eldon Jay Epp

Map of the earliest manuscripts of the NT

the four gospels by B.H. Streeter

Sources of the synoptic gospels

The oldest NT manuscript, dated back from early to late second century, it’s the size of a credit card

Codex Vaticanus, a 4th century manuscript, includes a note by a scribe that says “Don’t change the reading” which indicates that this was a common occurrence

2) Church Fathers

Origen

Origen’s (an important 3rd century church father) readings/variants of the gospels aren’t found in manuscripts of his time.

Hunting For The Word of God by Sami Ameri

Origen himself corrupting old testament texts in relation to Matthew’s gospel

EXPLICIT REFERENCES TO NEW TESTAMENT VARIANT READINGS AMONG GREEK AND LATIN CHURCH FATHERS VOLUME I by Amy M. Donaldson

Origen admitting the scribal corruption of manuscripts of his time

Historical and Literary Studies Pagan Jewish and Christian P88 By Bruce M. Metzger

St. Jerome

St. Jerome admitting and confirming the scribal corruption of manuscripts

New Testament Studies (Philological, Versional, and Patristic) P199 by Bruce Metzger

Multiple Church fathers

Early church fathers including (Polycarp, Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus) relying on different distinct readings and not showing a sense of preservation of the text of the New Testament

Patristic and text-critical studies the collected essays of William L. Petersen

3) Early Critics

Celsus

Celsus, a 2nd century Pagan Greek philosopher criticized Christian scribes for corrupted their scripture

Against Celsus Book II, chapter 27 by Origen

Trypho the Jew

Trypho, a 2nd century Jew, criticized Christians for not following the scripture & altering the commandments

Dialogue with Trypho, chapter 10 by Justin Martyr

Trypho criticizes Christian interpretations of the OT regarding the Messiah

Dialogue with Trypho, chapter 32 by Justin Martyr

Porphyry

Porphyry, 3rd century Greek philosopher, criticized the gospels for contradictions and inconsistencies

Porphyry’s Against the Christians by Joseph Hoffman (from Apocriticus of Macarius Magnes, an early Christian apologist)

Hierocles

Hierocles, an early 4th century Roman governor referred to the bible as self-contradictory

Constantine and Eusebius by Timothy David Barnes

Julian the Apostate

The 4th century Roman emperor Julian says Paul’s statements (his letters/epistles) are contradictory to the teachings of Jesus, he also says the teachings of the apostles (gospels) are corrupted

AGAINST THE GALILAEANS, Book I by Julian the Apostate

4) Scholarly Opinions

John Barton

John Barton, an Anglican priest and biblical scholar says that Matthew & Luke gospels are meant to be an updated version of Mark’s, people aren’t meant to read Mark

A history of the bible P202 by John Barton

“The author of Matthew seemed dishonest & didn’t view Mark’s gospel as religious authority (the infallible word of god), otherwise he wouldn’t change it”

Blogging Theology

The original documents of the NT are now lost

How the Bible Came to be by John Barton

Bart Ehrman

Bart Ehrman, one of the most influential biblical scholars of the 21st century says: scribes made changes/alterations to the text of the NT

The Orthodox corruption of scripture by Bart Ehrman

Scribes altered the text they copied

Forged by Bart Ehrman

We don’t have the original manuscripts and the manuscripts we have possess too many differences

Misquoting Jesus by Bart Ehrman

Bruce Metzger

A Christian and the most important biblical scholar of the 20th century, talks about corruption of the NT mentioning Origen’s previous comments about scribes

the text of the new testament by Bruce Metzger

Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland

Two of the most prominent 20th century biblical scholars who played the biggest part in creating the standard Greek New testament of today, discuss the level of corruption of the NT

THE TEXT of the NEW TESTAMENT. An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism by Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland