Changes in Scripture

[FreakBoy]

I recently finished reading "Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why" by Bart D. Ehrman. Wonderful read, and if correct, it suggests WAY more textual anomalies than I had ever expected in the New Testament.

This lead me to a logical question.

What about textual issues from the Old Testament?

As a kid I had been told through my very unfortunate torture sessions called "Hebrew School" that the copying of the Jewish scriptures was watched very carefully. Copying the Jewish scriptures may have been watched over but that can't account for a few thousand years of humans doing it.

Does anyone have any information on this? Sites? Books? Anecdotes? Snarky Bumper stickers?

 

[kmortis]

I don't have anything at my finger tips, but I see no reason to think that the Jewish Torah was treated any differently than the New Testament.

 

[Bikewer]

Any time you have a long oral tradition that eventually gets transcribed you're going to have problems.
Add to this (as Ehrman says in Misquoting Jesus) the fact that much of the population was illiterate, and the class of folks who could read and write were in many cases only marginally able to do so....

 

[This Guy]

I recently finished reading "Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why" by Bart D. Ehrman. Wonderful read, and if correct, it suggests WAY more textual anomalies than I had ever expected in the New Testament.

This lead me to a logical question.

What about textual issues from the Old Testament?

As a kid I had been told through my very unfortunate torture sessions called "Hebrew School" that the copying of the Jewish scriptures was watched very carefully. Copying the Jewish scriptures may have been watched over but that can't account for a few thousand years of humans doing it.

Does anyone have any information on this? Sites? Books? Anecdotes? Snarky Bumper stickers?

Don't have time to dig for links and such, but my understanding is that the Jewish Scribes that made the copies of the Torah (?) (what we non-Jews would call the Old Testament), had a very precise procedure to follow. I've been told they would basically do it one letter at a time, and verify each letter as they went along.

Again, no links to confirm any of that, but that's what I was told back in my Christian days.

Good question though, I think. If no one gives any better input by the time I get home from work, I may do a bit of research. I always like confirming or disproving long held beliefs

 

[This Guy]

I can't speak on the accuracy, but here's one description of the copy process, with a summary of how more recent versions compared to very early versions.

http://www.digitalsurvivors.com/archives/scribeswritingoldtestament.php

Too tired (OK, lazy) to look for more

 

[FreakBoy]

When my mother was in Israel she was taken to the place where a scribe was writing the Sh'ma, the prayer that goes inside of a mezuzah. He did so at his house, alone, nobody watching over him. Not sure its the same was work on the Torah, but she found it odd.

 

[Beerina]

As a kid I had been told through my very unfortunate torture sessions called "Hebrew School" that the copying of the Jewish scriptures was watched very carefully. Copying the Jewish scriptures may have been watched over but that can't account for a few thousand years of humans doing it.

One could now re-interpret this as a meme-level agent responsible for protecting the integrity of the power structure of those atop the religion. By emphasizing accuracy of copy, they may actually have been stopping threats to their power by those who, finding difficulty climbing the ranks normally, wanted to re-write parts of scripture so they could go somewhere else and trump up their own new following.

I wonder what percent of the re-writes and differences between the Gospels is due to "people finally writing down verbal stories passed from generation to generation" at different times and geographic locations, and what fraction of the deltas were active alterations by frauds (or perhaps psychotics) with their own agendas.