我仍然记得干花的样子. 洗礼后储藏室的味道. 我的心和思想在狂奔.
我在这个房间里的原因与几周前的一次布道有关. I was a college kid serving as an associate pastor in a rural church while 研究ing for a Biblical Languages degree. 讲道的经文是使徒行传8:26-40. 学习宝盈集团bbin很有趣, 送货顺利, 那天晚上，几十名会众在离开时礼貌地和我握了握手.
What I hadn't predicted was the impact of pointing out in the sermon that Acts 8:37 might not show up in everyone's Bible; or if it did show up, 你的圣经可能会有一个小注释，表明这节经文在大多数早期手稿中都找不到.
事实证明，这个乡村浸信会教堂并不热衷于考证. (I should've guessed this based on one church member who weekly ridiculed academic degrees for pastors...但是，哎，大学时代的傲慢会蒙蔽一个人的头脑. 这两样我都有——傲慢和糊涂.)
So, 几周后, there I was in the storage room being questioned by the pastor about why I didn't have a higher view of Scripture. 我以为我对圣经的爱, 对希腊语的研究, 对考证的兴趣意味着我对《宝盈集团bbin》有很高的看法. 但是牧师有点不高兴, and it's worth noting that he made some fair points about how college-boys should be more careful when given the chance to pulpit supply on Sunday nights.
那件事过去没几年, 我发现自己在另一个储藏室大小的房间里, this time as a seminary student living in 新奥尔良 and meticulously collating manuscripts from the first dozen or so centuries of Christianity. [1]在研究这些早期手稿的变体和细微差别的过程中, my view of God's Word didn't diminish; in fact, 我对圣经的信心和爱与日俱增. [2]
快进到2020年，1月26日我的讲道经文是马太福音23:13-39. 一些(多? ... 我只能希望!婚姻使他的傲慢变得迟钝了, 育儿, 和牧养——这是上帝创造的三个最伟大的圣化者. 无论哪种方式, 我不可能有时间讲完布道中的27节经文, so it was just my luck that I had only 26 verses to worry about since Matthew 23:14 is missing (at least in my 信任y Greek New Testament and the English Standard Version serving as my first-language crutch).
不用说, the "case of the missing verse" didn't make it into my sermon; but it's an important issue for pastors, 老师, 教堂也要考虑. 所以，这里有一个简短的版本，我们如何处理这些缺失的经文.
首先，在学习圣经时，“批评”不是一个坏词. 批评并不意味着对圣经持批评(否定)的态度. 在以后的帖子中会有更多的介绍.
考证 is the art and science of identifying the earliest wording for a series of documents when we no longer have access to the original document. (这种假想的原始文件通常被称为亲笔签名.)以比较现有的手稿, 在措辞或拼写上的差异通常被称为变体.
In addition to identifying the earliest wording (with the goal of getting as close as possible to what the author originally wrote), textual critics also want to explain how and why secondary readings -- both deliberate and accidental -- originated. 和, 除此之外, 考证家能够提供一扇了解基督教教义的窗口, 教会历史, 语言发展.
最后，不要忘记文本批评是一项正在进行的工作. We are still finding manuscripts; scholars are still working on databases and theories; and translators are still determining which variants to include in the main text of their published Bibles.
我鼓励你们把文本中的变体看作机遇和礼物，而不是问题.
If you find yourself questioning the validity of Scripture because there are variations among the manuscripts, imagine the conspiracy theories that would fly if we had hundreds or even thousands of manuscripts and there was not a single difference among any! 在这种情况下, 我们可能不那么相信圣经, 因为在大量的手抄文档中，没有任何变化会让人觉得是骗局. 文本批评应该比以往任何时候都更有信心去阅读, 研究, 信任, 并且顺服神的话.
We have variations in the text as a result of scribes (not machines) copying the documents by hand. 任何用手或键盘复制文件的人都知道，人孰能无过. A missed letter here; a skipped line there; and before you know it, the document has variants. 在许多(大多数)?)的情况下，这些变体并不是有目的的. Even the purposeful variants often aren't significant -- perhaps a copyist decided to correct a spelling mistake or insert an explanatory note (there is some evidence that notes made in the margins of a manuscript later found their way into the text). 在极少数情况下——尽管确实存在——变体与神学有关. 即使在这里，这些差异也不会彻底改变基督教的信仰体系.
This is where the rubber meets the road; and frankly, where things can get a bit complicated.
当在多个选项中做决定时, 学者们通常从外部因素和内部因素两方面来分析变异.
External factors include: the date of the manuscript; the geographic location where the manuscript originated or was found; and the "stream" of manuscripts to which the document belongs. (我知道最后一点令人困惑. 想象有多条支流从一个源头分叉. 手稿可以根据相似的变体和其他因素进行分组, 它们有共同的来源和特征.)
内部因素包括:变体的长度, 与平行通道比较, 语法, style, 和词汇. Internal analysis is admittedly more subjective and can be boiled down to the key question: "Which option best explains the origin of the other variants?"
基于这些因素, a base text is developed for the Greek New Testament (which is then used for translation); and the variants are placed in a set of footnotes that translators and scholars can use to debate and analyze the differences.
The most obvious impact of textual criticism for most people has to do with the wording in various Bible translations. 当然, the King James Version differs the most from other versions because of the KJV's use of a limited set of manuscripts.
A basic grasp of textual criticism can calm panic when people begin to ask questions about the footnotes in their Bible; and textual criticism -- done rightly -- can infuse some needed humility into our small groups and churches as we 研究 God's Word together. 除此之外，我认为任何圣经读者都可以从下面的步骤中受益.
认真, thank God for the embarrassment of riches we have with so many available manuscripts displaying the development and incredible consistency of the New Testament. (旧约也是如此...but my Hebrew skills disappeared long ago and I don't know much about Old Testament textual criticism. 另外，承认你对大多数事情都不了解是一种难以置信的自由.)
感谢神的一部分包括带着信心和敬拜阅读，然后顺服你所读的. 研读圣经，甚至研读圣经的发展，都应该促使我们爱神, 爱别人, 并作耶稣的门徒.
我们常常害怕我们不理解的东西. Ask questions; explore resources; discuss the topic with people you respect.
如果你想进一步学习考证的话, 一个起点是这篇来自《宝盈APP登录》的文章. [3],, 如果这能勾起你的胃口, 您可以订购CSNTM文章中提到的宝盈APP登录文本批评的最新书籍. 这本书叫做《新约考据中的神话和错误. [4]
When your Bible has a footnote indicating a particular verse isn't found in the earliest manuscripts, 问:
至少这样, 下次再有人因为少了一节诗而进了花库, 这个房间看起来和闻起来都很好.
欧文NEASE 是NOBTS的校友也是俄克拉荷马城以马忤斯浸信会的牧师. 这篇文章最初出现在 OwenNease.com.
[1] Collating is the process of comparing a manuscript document against a "base text" and looking for any ways in which the manuscript being studied differs from the base text. 这些差异被记录下来，以便学者们可以追踪和比较变化.
新奥尔良 浸信会神学院 has a wonderful Bible museum and 研究 center as part of the H. 弥尔顿哈格德新约研究中心(http://www).shichengjigou.net/cntts/default.html). 我建议你去看看他们的网站. 不过，对于我在这个网站上可能写的任何愚蠢或不正确的东西，NOBTS概不负责.
[2]我知道不是每个人的故事都是这样结束的, and I am certainly not speaking poorly or despairingly of those whose academic 研究 led them to adjust or abandon their faith. 我只是想反驳那种认为学术研究会使人远离基督教信仰的观点.
[3] The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts website also includes multiple free resources and textual images.
[4]本书的撰稿人之一是NOBTS校友马修·所罗门(Matthew Solomon).
