Codex Sinaiticus Is Going Digital Soon

The rival to the Bible

By Roger Bolton

What is probably the oldest known Bible is being digitised, reuniting its scattered parts for the first time since its discovery 160 years ago. It is markedly different from its modern equivalent. What's left out?

The world's oldest surviving Bible is in bits.

For 1,500 years, the Codex Sinaiticus lay undisturbed in a Sinai monastery, until it was found - or stolen, as the monks say - in 1844 and split between Egypt, Russia, Germany and Britain.

Now these different parts are to be united online and, from next July, anyone, anywhere in the world with internet access will be able to view the complete text and read a translation.

For those who believe the Bible is the inerrant, unaltered word of God, there will be some very uncomfortable questions to answer. It shows there have been thousands of alterations to today's bible.

The Codex, probably the oldest Bible we have, also has books which are missing from the Authorised Version (King James Version) that most Christians are familiar with today - and it does not have crucial verses relating to the Resurrection.

(Read More: Here).

See also: “The Rival to the Bible?” Nice line but shame about the agenda…

Mainly, these sections from the above link:

OBSERVATIONS OF BIAS?
But here are some observations from the article:

The title is nice, isn’t it? Has a nice ring and rhythm. It even rhymes, sort of. I bet the bod who thought it up was pretty pleased. I would be. But it’s a bit of an exaggeration, surely?
Then look at the statements at the end of the opening paragraph: It is markedly different from its modern equivalent. What’s left out? Well the article only touches on one or two things - nothing justifies use of the word ‘markedly’ in my opinion.
But take this: the thrust of the article. Roger Bolton writes: For those who believe the Bible is the inerrant, unaltered word of God, there will be some very uncomfortable questions to answer. It shows there have been thousands of alterations to today’s bible. Well, it’s true that there are many questions to answer about the Bible - i will certainly never exhaust them, and nor will the greatest scholars. And some are perhaps uncomfortable. But so what? It seems to me that the purpose of the article, far more than to inform about an exciting technological and academic development, is to make faithful traditional believers feel uncomfortable.

And:

One reason that i like the NIV is that it has nothing to hide - so WHENEVER there are variants or textual issues, they are always explicitly mentioned in footnotes. As someone who read Classics at university (and had to read the whole of Homer’s Iliad in Greek), it is incredible how FEW footnotes there are for the NT, in huge contrast to other ancient texts. But the task of scholarship is always to hone our understandings of texts and original manuscripts. Which is why the making of the CODEX SINAITICUS online is such GREAT news - and why I’ve had a link from my resources bar on the right for months! I’m not embarrassed or concerned by this. It is a HUGE STORY.

But notice the implication of appealing to one scholar, Prof Bart Ehrman:

Mr Ehrman was a born again Bible-believing Evangelical until he read the original Greek texts and noticed some discrepancies. The Bible we now use can’t be the inerrant word of God, he says, since what we have are the sometimes mistaken words copied by fallible scribes.

Oh well - that’s OK then. Anyone else who is a born-again evangelical will now obviously read this article on BBC online and they will give up their faith too (beause presumably, most people do not have the ability to read ancient Greek texts). You’d have to be an idiot not to. But of course there are some people who are Christians who don’t believe all this ‘Bible is true’ rubbish - because as the last interviewee said, ‘the Bible is a living text’. Whatever that means. So if you have to be a Christian, at least take a more relaxed line.

All I have to say is no manuscript contradictions are great cause for concern, however that may be inerrancy of the bible is still an absurd position to take.

It's Time! Week 4: Prayer As An Act Of Love

PRAYER AS AN ACT OF LOVE

The Greek word for "to pray" is:

proseuvcomai“proseuchomai” (prayer)
to offer prayers, to pray

---which is closely related to the Greek word for "worship:"

WORDS FOR WORSHIP

proskunevw
PROSKUNEO (4352) - to worship, to kiss (like a dog licking its master's hand),
to prostrate oneself in homage. John 4v23 and Revelation 7v11
Definition to kiss the hand to (towards) one, in token of reverence
among the Orientals, esp. the Persians, to fall upon the knees and touch the ground with the forehead as an expression of profound reverence
in the NT by kneeling or prostration to do homage (to one) or make obeisance, whether in order to express respect or to make supplication
used of homage shown to men and beings of superior rank
to the Jewish high priests
to God
to Christ
to heavenly beings
to demons

Another Greek word for worship is:

latreuvw
LATREUO (3000) - to serve, minister, worship. Phillipians 3v3 and Luke 2v37 to serve for hire to serve, minister to, either to the gods or men and used alike of slaves and freemen
in the NT, to render religious service or homage, to worship
to perform sacred services, to offer gifts, to worship God in the observance of the rites instituted for his worship
of priests, to officiate, to discharge the sacred office

Latreuo is the Greek word for which the Latin word "latria" is derived from in Roman Catholic beliefs. Latria essentially means "adoration"---so here we see a close connection to love and prayer. Prayer is both communication and devotion to God in it's most raw, naked and intimate form. See: Prayer As A Relationship, my friend Calvin Wulf's recent Blog post and Prayer and Sex Related!.

Also, AN ACT OF LOVE from OUR CATHOLIC PRAYERS has this to say:

How’s your love life? Spiritually speaking, that is! The Act of Love prayer gets right to the heart of the matter as to what really counts as love in
God’s eyes:
O my God, I love you above all things, with my whole heart and soul, because you are all-good and worthy of all love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of you. I forgive all who have injured me, and I ask pardon of all whom I have injured.

(Note that in many books this prayer is called simply “An Act of Love”.)

These three sentences challenge us to think about real love in a way the world around us doesn’t! The Act of Love prayer brings to mind our Lord’s two great commandments to us, expressed in the Gospels: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind [and] thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matt 22:37, 39).

(Note that these by no means superseded the original Ten Commandments but were meant to summarize their essence! We show our love of God in our obedience to His commandments.)

Jesus made it very clear many times in the Gospels, and in the Lord’s Prayer, that we show our love for Him in how we treat other people, and that He will forgive us as much as we forgive them. Also, we must not poison our relationships with others by being too proud to apologize when we have wronged them.

God’s idea of love is not the same as that expressed in too many songs and TV programs these days, all about sex and self-gratification. The love He seeks from us, and asks us to give others, is an agape love (from the Greek term), one intimately mingled with charity.

This love is one of God’s gifts to us. It is one of three theological virtues, along with faith and hope, each with their own prayer! Often referred to as “charity” in traditional translations of the Bible, it consists of loving God, as the Act of Love prayer states “above all things,” and loving our neighbor out of love for Him.

It doesn’t come from our feelings, that is to say, from our natural likes and dislikes, but rather from our will in our desire to please God.

This is indeed love of others for God’s sake without thinking about what we might get in return. In addition, we are called to love those who might not seem particularly loveable, as well as our enemies.

In case the notion of loving your enemies seems like too tall an order in a world saturated with conflict, consider that, as St. Paul said, Christ died for us to reconcile us to God while we were His enemies (Rom 5:10). Christ’s love for us on this earth was modeled on humility and selflessness. He was born in a manger and died on a cross in the ultimate act of love!

As our Lord instructed His Apostles the night before His Passion, we are to “love one another, as I have loved you …by this shall all men know that you are my disciples” (John 13:34-35). He meant for us to love each other, warts and all!

St. Therese was so taken by this command in John’s Gospel that she dedicated her life to loving others as Jesus would love them. She wanted everything she did to be an act of love! That included looking for the good in everyone, putting up with their faults, and showing those she might otherwise find disagreeable kindness and respect.

Following this example, if we can’t always settle our differences with others we can at least pray for them and pray that we might not have bitterness or resentment in our hearts towards them.

While this might be especially difficult in cases of severe emotional or physical abuse, think of those more mundane situations in your life when pettiness gets the better of you. Do you know someone who just has to be right about everything? Are you like that?

Also, how much does it (or even should it) matter who has the bigger car, house, or wallet? Don’t forget the emotional, physical, as well as spiritual toll envy and resentment can have on us. Even the small grudges we carry around with us can feel like 50 pound weights after a while!

Although the Act of Love prayer invites us to think of “we” in a world of “me,” it is important for us to love ourselves as children of God seeking to do His work by sharing His love and goodness! We must avoid the kind of sensual, prideful self-love in which we’re always looking out for #1, thinking only of ourselves.

The renowned English poet W.H. Auden summed up the tragedy of the human condition in this regard when he wrote when World War II began:

The error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have,
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.

Many times when we think of “universal love” in the abstract, we get tripped up as well. Linus once said in a old Peanuts comic strip “I love mankind, it’s people I can’t stand!” Likewise, the satirist Tom Lehrer once said only somewhat tongue-in-cheek that “I know that there are people who do not love their fellow man, and I hate people like that!”

Don’t we all fall prey to those kinds of thoughts sometimes? Do you find it’s easier to champion some abstract cause than to be polite under stress, or not to bear grudges in turf wars with colleagues at work? You're not alone!

Speaking of being alone, paraphrasing Auden above, we are not to love God alone, in the sense of trying to keep Him all to ourselves in our spiritual lives, while having a condescending or unforgiving attitude towards those around us.

St. Paul said in this regard that if he “should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity [the traditional term for agape love, as mentioned earlier], I am nothing” (1 Cor 13: 2).

We must also beware of gossip, which affects, and indeed infects us all, one way or another. It can be an act of love not to spread or repeat rumors or otherwise ruin someone’s reputation. St. James called the tongue “an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison” when used in this manner (James 3:8).

Mahatma Gandhi once said that “I like your Christ but I dislike your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.” While we might find that assessment harsh, it nonetheless points up one of our great challenges in living our faith: Are we showing others Jesus in our lives by our actions? Are we letting Him work through us?

Most of the times what drives us most crazy is each other! God invites us to live in a world much more at peace than this one, here as well as in heaven.

The Act of Love prayer points the way to that world. St. Paul reminds us in his first letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 13:7), as you might have heard read in weddings, that love is patient, kind, gentle, unpretentious, not ambitious or self-seeking, and that it doesn’t bear grudges or rejoice in someone else’s misfortunes.

The more we can adopt that approach, with God’s help, the more we can live our lives as an act of love for Him and for each other. Then, we might be able to rejoice along with the author of Psalm 133 when he said (in verse 1) “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity!”

It's Time! Week 1: Scripture Verse From The Preface

Being Missional Ambassadors For Christ

Last Sunday we started our churchwide study on Dan Vestal's book, It's Time so here is a detailed study on the scripture verse from the preface:

2 Corinthians 5:16-20---NRSV

16From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. 17So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 20So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

<< ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Β΄ 5 >>
2 Corinthians 5:17-20 Greek: N. Vamvas (Bambas) OT and NT

17 ὥστε εἴ τις ἐν Χριστῷ, καινὴ κτίσις· τὰ ἀρχαῖα παρῆλθεν, ἰδοὺ γέγονεν καινά· 18 τὰ δὲ πάντα ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ καταλλάξαντος ἡμᾶς ἑαυτῷ διὰ Χριστοῦ καὶ δόντος ἡμῖν τὴν διακονίαν τῆς καταλλαγῆς, 19 ὡς ὅτι θεὸς ἦν ἐν Χριστῷ κόσμον καταλλάσσων ἑαυτῷ, μὴ λογιζόμενος αὐτοῖς τὰ παραπτώματα αὐτῶν καὶ θέμενος ἐν ἡμῖν τὸν λόγον τῆς καταλλαγῆς. 20 ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ οὖν πρεσβεύομεν ὡς τοῦ θεοῦ παρακαλοῦντος δι' ἡμῶν· δεόμεθα ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ, καταλλάγητε τῷ θεῷ.

<< ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Β΄ 5:17-20>>
2 Corinthians 5:17-20 Greek NT: Wescott-Hort Transliterated

17 ōste ei tis en christō kainē ktisis ta archaia parēlthen idou gegonen kaina 18 ta de panta ek tou theou tou katallaxantos ēmas eautō dia christou kai dontos ēmin tēn diakonian tēs katallagēs 19 ōs oti theos ēn en christō kosmon katallassōn eautō mē logizomenos autois ta paraptōmata autōn kai themenos en ēmin ton logon tēs katallagēs
20 uper christou oun presbeuomen ōs tou theou parakalountos di ēmōn deometha uper christou katallagēte tō theō 21 ton mē gnonta amartian uper ēmōn amartian epoiēsen ina ēmeis genōmetha dikaiosunē theou en autō

---the two key themes in these verses are: justification and reconciliation---both of which are part of Christ work of atonement. The underlying Greek terms in this text are: δικαιοω (dikaioō), "to declare/make righteous" --- deek-ah-yoo (justified) and katallage <2643>
katallagh katallage
Pronunciation: kat-al-lag-ay'
Origin: from 2644
Reference: TDNT - 1:258,40
PrtSpch: noun feminime
In Greek: katallaghv 2, katallagh 1, katallaghn 1
In NET: reconciliation 4
In AV: reconciliation 2, atonement 1, reconciling 1
Count: 4
Definition: 1) exchange
1a) of the business of money changers, exchanging equivalent values
2) adjustment of a difference, reconciliation, restoration to favour
2a) in the NT of the restoration of the favour of God to sinners
that repent and put their trust in the expiatory death of
Christ

For study notes go: here.

Dan Vestal related articles: Daniel Vestal Article , Battle of the Baptists, Daniel Vestal on Religion & Politics and Daniel Vestal on Being Missional & Being Baptist.