A man named Aram as the father of God, and someone named Phares as the father of all humanity? This is the genealogy you will receive if you read Minuscule 109. It happened because a scribe writing this manuscript copied across two columns instead of down them. However, this isn’t a unique occurrence. From looking at the various manuscripts of the New Testament one will see that the manuscripts are littered with rumors and changes. Dr. Bart Ehrman found that there were 200,000 to 400,000 of these changes. That’s more changes to the words than there are words in the New Testament!
Some of these changes are quite funny. For example, John 17:15 is supposed to read:
“15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” (John 17:15 KJV)
But in Codex Vaticinus some words were left out, reading “I ask not that you keep them from the evil”
But what did early Christians think about these variations? Dr. Ehrman notes that the scholar Origen comments on this.
Origen says:
“The differences among the manuscripts have become great, either through the negligence of some copyists or through the perverse audacity of others they either neglect to check over what they have transcribed, or, in the process of checking, they make additions or deletions as they please.”
Origen acknowledges changes specifically made by scribes on his side of the theological aisle.1 Tertullian also acknowledges changes but he only acknowledges theologically motivated changes made by groups he viewed as heretical
“One man perverts the Scriptures with his hand, another their meaning by his exposition. For although Valentinus seems to use the entire volume, he has none the less laid violent hands on the truth only with a more cunning mind and skill than Marcion. Marcion expressly and openly used the knife, not the pen, since he made such an excision of the Scriptures as suited his own subject matter. Valentinus, however, abstained from such excision, because he did not invent Scriptures to square with his own subject-matter, but adapted his matter to the Scriptures; and yet he took away more, and added more, by removing the proper meaning of every particular word, and adding fantastic arrangements of things which have no real existence”2
The most interesting thing about this is that what Tertullian is noting, theological changes to the text, happen both with who he viewed as heretics but also with who he would call brothers in Christ. Eusebius of Caesarea alleges a similar complaint:
“But that those who use the arts of unbelievers for their heretical opinions and adulterate the simple faith of the Divine Scriptures by the craft of the godless, are far from the faith, what need is there to say? Therefore they have laid their hands boldly upon the Divine Scriptures, alleging that they have corrected them. 16 That I am not speaking falsely of them in this matter, whoever wishes may learn. For if anyone will collect their respective copies, and compare them one with another, he will find that they differ greatly”2
St. Augustine alleges a different complaint. He doesn’t directly attack the scribes but he does note changes in the text. He says
“For those who are anxious to know, the Scriptures ought in the first place to use their skill in the correction of the texts, so that the uncorrected ones should give way to the corrected, at least when they are copies of the same translation”
Paul Gibson takes these quotes to be an indication that the Church fathers practiced textual criticism, the discipline that tries to identify the original version of a text.2
What’s interesting is that it’s not just church fathers thinking about textual changes. One can see that the author of Revelation also notices scribal errors. This comes in Revelation 22 where it’s written:
“ I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” (Revelation 22:18-19 KJV)
The author, John of Patmos, is clearly guarding against people changing the text. This would only happen as a reaction to a fear of people changing the text of Revelation. This seems to be a reaction to other common textual changes, especially when you remember that Revelation was the last of the books of the New Testament, and therefore the Revelation author would likely have access to manuscripts of the other books of what would become the New Testament. Therefore it seems clear that even within the New Testament itself there are reactions to changes to the New Testament.
Ehrman, Bart D. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. San Francisco, HarperCollins, 2007.
Gibson, Paul. “Were the Church Fathers Aware of Variations in the New Testament Manuscripts? - BibleQuestions.info.” Biblequestions.info, 25 July 2020, biblequestions.info/2020/07/25/were-the-church-fathers-aware-of-variations-in-the-new-testament-manuscripts/#easy-footnote-bottom-4-1701. Accessed 26 Apr. 2024.