Blog #1 Sable LeFrere

I came into this class not knowing what I was really getting myself into. I was always taught in CCD classes, from my family and in church that the Bible was the truth. If it was in the Bible, then there was no questions about it, but after reading this chapter, everything that I was taught seems to be in question.


Ehrman explained in the chapter that throughout centuries, the Bible has been altered and edited. Some changes mistakenly and others intentionally. "The same is true of all the books of the New Testament," he wrote. "We do not have the originals or any early copies, but only copies made much later." [1] It was said back then that most were illiterate, barely being able to read and/or write and those that were literate made humanly mistakes that could have been copied years later. For example, some scribes got a case of what is known now as "periblepsis occasioned by homoeoteleuton," meaning their eyes skipped from one line to the next because they both ended with the same words.[2] This mistake was seem in John 17:5 when Jesus prays to God saying, "I do not ask that you keep them from the world, but that you keep them from the evil one." Ehrman wrote the middle line is omitted in an older manuscript because of the lines ending the same way and reads as Jesus saying, "I do not ask that you keep them from the evil one."[3] To many christians, especially those that grew up in previous generations, this could cause a world wind of problems and strike many nerves. As we've talked about in class, there are some that are more excepting of these mistakes and there are others that will totally ignore Ehrman and continue to believe the words in the Bible are the original words.


As for me, I don't know quite how I feel about all that I've read. Being a student, I can understand how mistakes can be made when copying things down as the scribes did. I guess growing up in this era, my generation is more acceptable of the things that Ehrman talks about where as other before me like my grandparents' generation maybe wouldn't be. For instance, the church just recently made a change to the wording of the Roman Missal, which is the book of texts and prayers. For about four decades we have been use to saying prayers and responses one way, and now we are having to embrace a new translation of the Mass that more faithfully embraces the original Latin. I still find myself saying the old wording and having to flip through pew cards for the new phrases. Even the priest at my church pokes fun at us for all mumbling when it's time to say the new wording. It is frustrating? Yes, sometimes it is, but it will just take some getting use to in my opinion.

[1] B. D. Ehrman, The New Testament (4; New York; Oxford; 2008), 489.

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

[3] B. D. Ehrman, The New Testament (4; New York; Oxford; 2008), 493.

Bibliography

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