To the present, there are a great many different versions of the Bible that differ significantly both in text and in meaning, because a change in just one word can lead to a completely different understanding of the essence.
But is the text of the Bible known to us really genuine, and which of its variants is the closest to the original original?
3 days ago 1.6 thousand views 1.3 thousand reads 3 minutes 1.6 thousand views. Unique visitors to the page. 1.3 thousand reads, 84%. Users who have read to the end. 3 min. Average time to read a publication. Is the modern text of the Bible really genuine? By now, there are a great many different versions of the Bible, which differ significantly both in text and in meaning, because a change in just one word can lead to a completely different understanding of the essence. We will not argue about the truth of faith, but only consider the issue from a historical point of view. But is the text of the Bible known to us really genuine, and which of its variants is the closest to the original original? Manuscript of the New Testament with a fragment of the text of II John. End of V - beginning of VI century. Manuscript of the New Testament with a fragment of the text of II John. End of V - beginning of VI century. Manuscript of the New Testament with a fragment of the text of II John. End of V - beginning of VI century.
It should be noted, however, that in addition to various more or less modern versions, it is known about the existence of more than 300 ancient manuscripts of the Gospel with the texts of only the New Testament (with the Old Testament, their number is much more impressive), but most of them are only fragments consisting of only from several sheets.
One of the most valuable and historically authentic manuscripts is the Codex of Sinai, created only about 300 years after the birth of Jesus Christ.
Among other things, it is also the only one of the four extant ancient Greek manuscripts that contains the complete text of the New Testament.
Page of the Codex Sinai with the text of the Gospel of Matthew 2: 5-3: 7.
It is not at all surprising that many scholars consider the Sinai Code to be more accurate than most subsequent copies of the Bible.
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Since it is not possible to comprehensively compare the text of the Codex Sinai with all possible texts of the Bible, we will take only a few lines for comparison, but even from them you can see the differences.
John the Evangelist. Stamp of the Royal Doors, early 19th century.
The comparison is made with the Synodal translation (of the Russian Orthodox Church) of the books of the Holy Scriptures from Church Slavonic into Russian.
Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 34:
Gospel of John, chapter 6, verse 10:
Acts of the Apostles, chapter 11, verse 20:
The example with the Evangelists is also notable for the fact that in Greek they are written as εὐαγγελιστάς, and the Greeks as ἑλληνιστάς, and it is quite possible to assume that the difference in several letters was simply not noticed by later scribes.
It can be argued for a long time about whether the modern text of the Bible is really authentic and how close it is to the original, but the differences between the most authoritative and ancient Greek versions are noticeable even to the naked eye.