Blog #1 Dillon Warren

The epilogue in the Ehrman’s The New Testament provided new insights into the Bible that I had never heard before prior to reading. I grew up moving a lot when I was younger so I spent a lot of time with my parents trying to find the best-fit church with each move. The point of bringing up how many times I moved is that I never once heard of any changes to the original manuscripts, despite traveling and seeing many different churches. Which leads me to ask the question how many individuals actually know what is being changed and read in the first place?

Ehrman’s begins to talk about the different types of changes that have been made. The first type of change he brings up is the accidental changes. Accidental changes are something that should be assumed for the simple reason that individuals did not have printing presses. Ehrman writes, “This could obviously lead to some problems of interpretation, as can be see even by a modern illustration: lastnightatdinnerisawabundanceonthetable”.¹ Accidental mistakes are common and has happened to me before as well when copying something down. The idea that whole pages could be missing is fanscating because there could be many untold stories.

The second kind of change Ehrman brings up in this dialogue is the Intentional Changes. Ehrman has a list of different types of intentional changes and describes why these changes were most likely made. The type of change that stuck out to me the most was, “To insert cherished theological beliefs.”² The idea that an individual decided to insert his or her own beliefs into the task is interesting and daunting. The fact that someone copying the text is putting his or her own theological beliefs makes me question the validity of the text. Ehrman writes, “Sometimes scribes took the occasion to insert their own beliefs into texts that, in their judgment, did not already promote them sufficiently.”² Ehrman talks about establishing a lens on how the bible is read. What if the individuals lens leads him to believe something that should not have been written down or altered?

The epilogue was very interesting and provided a good base on how to continue with the class over the course of the semester. I am still attempting to develop a lens that is most relevant to my own understanding of the bible, but I hope that will come with time.

1) B. D. Ehrman, The New Testament (4; New York; Oxford; 2008), 492.

2) B. D. Ehrman, The New Testament (4; New York; Oxford; 2008), 494.

Bibliography

Ehrman, Bart D. The New Testament. Fourth Edition. New York, 2008: 487-499.