Errors of Transcribers.
If the Bible were a divine revelation, as claimed, it would have been divinely preserved. Not only the original writers, but the transcribers, translators, and printers, also, would have been divinely inspired. It is admitted that divine inspiration was confined to the original writers. Consequently the Bible, as we have it, cannot be an infallible revelation. If it be not an infallible revelation it cannot be a divine revelation.
It is popularly supposed that the books of the Bible, as originally written, have been preserved free from corruptions. That they are full of textual errors—that the books as they were originally written no longer exist and cannot be restored—is conceded even by the most orthodox of the Lower Critics. The principal causes of these corruptions are the following:
1. Clerical errors. The invention of printing made it possible to preserve the original text of a writer comparatively free from errors. With the works of ancient writers this was impossible. For a period of from 1,200 to 2,200 years preceding the invention of printing the only means of preserving the books of the Bible was the pen of the scribe. However careful the copyist might be, errors would creep into the text. But instead of being careful these copyists, many of them, were notoriously careless. This is especially evident in the case of numbers. Hundreds of errors were made in the transcription of these alone. Probably one-half of the numbers given in the Old Testament, and many in the New, are not those given in the original text, but are errors due to the carelessness of transcribers and a want of divine supervision.
2. Interpolations. There are thousands of interpolations in the Bible. A considerable portion of the words printed in Italics in our version are acknowledged interpolations. Many of them appeared first in the shape of marginal notes intended to explain or correct a statement in the text. Later scribes incorporated these into the text. And thus, while God was engaged in watching sparrows and numbering the hairs in his children’s heads, additions in this and various other ways were made to his word. In many instances whole chapters were added to the original documents.
3. Omissions. Much matter was carelessly omitted. To quote the Bible for Learners, “not only letters and words, but whole verses have fallen out.” Objectionable matter was intentionally omitted. Chrysostom tells us that entire books were destroyed by the Jews. They were on such familiar terms with the Deity that they could obtain other and more desirable ones for the asking.
4. Textual changes. In innumerable places the text has been wilfully changed to suit the religious and other notions of the priests. Let me cite an example. In early copies, and probably in the original text, Genesis xviii, 22, reads as follows: “The Lord yet stood before Abraham.” They thought it detracted from God’s dignity to stand before one of his creatures, and so they changed it to its present form, “Abraham stood yet before the Lord.”
Concerning the corruptions of the scribes, Dr. Davidson says: “They did not refrain from changing what had been written, or inserting fresh matter” (Canon, p. 34).
The facts that I have mentioned apply not merely to the Old Testament, but to the New Testament as well. Westcott, a very high authority on the canon, says: “It does not appear that any special care was taken in the first age to preserve the books of the New Testament from the various injuries of time or to insure perfect accuracy of transcription.... The original copies seem to have soon perished.”