Up until now,
this information was available, but only after countless
hours of diligent study. For example, language scholar and
Reverend R.B. Thieme over his past 50 years of ministering
at Berachah Bible Church in Houston, has provided
virtually everything in the book about the creation of our
modern day canon of scripture (for free), in his
exhaustive tape series on Canonicity. Here, however,
Ehrman condenses years of study into a quick read that is
comprehensible even to those without a background in
formal bible study.
I do wish Ehrman had gone further with the examples used
in his textual criticism and included some of the Old
Testament errors. He does provide many of the more widely
accepted known errors, such as the addition of the last 12
verses in the Book of Mark, undoubtedly a case of scribe
tampering, but omits cases of misinterpretation and/or
mistranslation of the original text, such as in Proverbs
24:6. I would have also like to have seen more inclusion
of the history of ancient manuscripts. Since the
completion of the King James in 1611, literally hundreds
of far more ancient manuscripts, than Textus Receptus (the
King James source), have been discovered as well as much
information about the Koine Greek language. As a result,
we now know far more about the language and have access to
more original sources than the translating scholars at
Oxford, Cambridge and Westminster had.
Of particular interest to me, was Ehrman's inclusion of
acknowledging some of the early work and accomplishments
of biblical scholars such as Lachmann, Tischendorf, Arndt,
and the combined diligence of Wescott and Hort. For the
layperson, there is nothing here that is earth shattering
or ground breaking, but I believe there is a vast audience
of readers who will benefit greatly from this work.
The book certainly could have been much better, but the
significance of having this information in one quick
source is undeniable. It is easy to read and should help a
lot of people with misconceptions. Perhaps this book will
lead to greater future endeavors in this venue.
Monty Rainey
www.juntosociety.com
.
