Jesus Leaving the Cosmos

How do we know that happened? Well, the words are in no Greek text before the 1500’s Reliability of New Testament Texts - they are in some earlier Latin texts, so this marginal note was put in a Latin text [Wren library Cambridge] - and then when it was copied, it became the source of a whole family of texts Cambridge, where I work, has amazing collections of Biblical manuscripts - the verse became very popular as a wonderful text for preaching on the Trinity - perhaps the best in the world after London, Leningrad (which has many OT [Erasmus] texts), Vatican City and Jerusalem (which has the Qumran fragments) Many people were upset when they saw it was missing from Erasmus’ Greek text - and I work in a research institute, Tyndale House, where world experts in - he was the first person to produce a printed text which anyone could buy Biblical studies are forever passing through and talking about their work - this was going to be very influential so people wanted this verse to be in it - so I’m very aware that the NT manuscript have thousands of differences - but Erasmus said, reasonably, that he didn’t know any Greek text which had it - I want to tell you why I’m not worried by them; in fact I rejoice in them - so they said: If we can find even one, will you promise to include it? He agreed. But before I tell you why I’m not worried, let me make you a little more worried - a couple of years later, they brought Erasmus a Greek text with this verse in it - 1 John 5:7 is a key verse for the Trinity and most Bibles no longer have it - we now know that it was copied by Irish monks that same year, presumably for - the King James version and some which follow it have still got it the purpose of providing Erasmus with that one Greek manuscript - but newer translations have almost all cut it out. - I think Erasmus realised what had happened but decided that if so many people [1Jn 5.7] were that determined, it might spoil his sales to miss out the verse KJV 1 John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, nd the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8 And there are - so, the introduction to the 2 edition refers to this vow, and includes the verse three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: - and that edition was influential in the translation of the King James Bible and these three agree in one. [King James Bible] This verse is largely behind all the arguments about the King James Bible ESV 1 John 5:7 For there are three that testify: - lots of people still want to keep this verse, so they reject modern translations 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. - but why? It is clearly not original, and removing it doesn’t deny the Trinity [1Jn 5.7 U] - there are lots of other verses which refer to the deity of Jesus and the Spirit Here the words which are retained in modern translations are underline: - correcting this verse doesn’t make any difference to any teaching in the Bible KJV 1 John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8 And there are OK – you have survived the big shock, and that’s about it three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: - because that is the worst example of a text which we aren’t sure about and these three agree in one. - all the other uncertainties are far less important, with no doctrinal consequence - most of them are simple errors or corrections – it is difficult to decide which Almost all scholars agree that the extra words were added later. - was the author a bad speller or have people copied a copying error? - most likely they were a note in the margin which was accidentally copied into the text - usually we can’t tell, and, in the end, who cares. It’s obvious what it should be - the text got into the margin as a kind of commentary or sermon note [Caesar MS] - then a later scribe thought the previous scribe put them in the margin as a correction We have far more evidence for the Biblical text than for any other ancient text - you can imagine someone reading the words “there are three that testify: the - for other ancient works, like those by Julius Caesar, we have only a few copies spirit the water and the blood” - the earliest originate from centuries after the original, so they are copies of copies of copies - and suddenly they think: that reminds me of the Trinity. What a great sermon! - most ancient works are available only as incomplete fragments - and they quickly make a note in the margin: “these three testify on earth, but in - often they aren’t available in the language they were originally written in heaven there is another three: Father, Son and Holy Spirit”. - for the Bible the situation is a complete contrast - and he goes skipping down the cloister corridor looking forward to Sunday - we have the text in the original language, and we have thousands of copies - not realising that his scribble will one day become a puzzling part of the text - the earliest copies aren’t centuries after they were written but just decades - and there are so many good copies that the few errors can be corrected easily [Monk copying] [class copying] [Mark MS] Imagine a class of 30 children are all told to write out a chapter from a book The jury’s still out on some of these issues, but here’s the key fact: nothing is - all of them will make mistakes, just like the early Christians did lost - but when you collect them all together, you can easily get the exact chapter - there’s occasional uncertainty about the exact word, but at least we still have it - we don’t have 30 copies of the NT, but thousands, though have more problems - and as more manuscript evidence is collected, we’re more and more certain - some of the scribes did make some editing decisions as well as errors - in contrast, the Calif Uttmann burned Quran texts different to what he approved - no early Qurans survived with differences (except a few surviving in graves) - Over many years the scholars have found a pattern in manuscript differences - personally I prefer having the mass of early manuscripts with a few differences - after the 5th century they fall into two main groups: Eastern and Western - than having only the approved manuscripts, without any differences. - the Eastern and Western Church parted company and settled on slight changes - we know the original words of the NT with more certainty than for any other - most have no implication for the meaning but a few are a little more significant ancient text, though occasionally we aren’t sure which of 2 or 3 word is original - the Eastern Church produced what we now call the Byzantine text - they liked correcting the grammar of the NT and making the spelling consistent - the Western Church liked to fill bits, eg when one gospel has only half a saying - nice of them all to do this, but I’d rather they’d left the text alone [shelves of texts] Fortunately we now have a large number of texts from before all this tidying - they preserve the untidy and sometimes ungrammatical original text, - and we have found so many that the original behind almost all the minor copying errors have been sorted out - Tischendorf rescued a 4th C text from the brazier at Mt Sinai monastery - a librarian found another among some neglected dusty books in the Vatican library - hundreds of scraps were found in bone-dry rubbish tips in Egypt - they are copies of the NT made by believers in the 2nd & 3rd centuries [scholars] The last 200 years have been a wonderful time for Biblical Studies - because so many new manuscripts have been discovered, or rather, OLD ones - New Testament manuscripts from the 4th C, and fragments from the 2nd C [old Bibles] And I don’t mean there aren’t ANY problems. There are lots of little problems - if there weren’t, there would be nothing for scholars to puzzle over - we’ve already looked at the most theologically important verse - there are other verses with uncertainty which have no theological importance - but there are also two large blocks of verses which are important: - the end of Mark and the forgiven adulteress in John 8. - if you want my quick assessment, here it is without any supporting details: - I think the original end of Mark was lost, and the longer ending was added - the two other possible endings were later attempts to supply an ending. - and the story about the forgiven adulteress was censored as morally misleading - when people made a personal copy of the NT, this was considered dangerous - so, to make a NT which was safe for wives & daughters, they missed it out [Other Gospels2] all the beasts of the forest should grow tame before me. (ch.19) In like What about the “other” gospels which were left out by the later church? manner lions and leopards adored him and accompanied them, showed - if you read them, you’ll find they are dramatically different from the others them the way, and bowed their heads to Jesus. - and the opinion of scholars is that they all originate in the 2nd century and later - and the four gospels all originate in the 1st C Were the authors trying to pass off these stories as real history? - the later Gospels suffer from two fairly obvious problems - nowadays we would call these kinds of stories ‘Fan Fiction’ or ‘fanfic’ - some of them are blatantly written to promote a particular brand of teaching - ie stories about famous people which everyone knows are not real - others are stories, often extraordinary, filling in the gaps left by other gospels - but in time, people forget that these are fiction and they start to become real - they’re like Christian novels with stories which at the time were simply stories [Jesse James] - they especially liked stories about the ‘silent years’ of Jesus childhood, eg: - Jesse James attracted a lot of Fan Fiction which has become his real ‘history’ [Jesus+Birds] - so now we don’t think of the original boy – only the daring fiction told of him

Infancy Gospel of Thomas, ch.2: (trans. Attridge & Hock) There’s lots of fanfic on the internet about pop stars and other famous people When this boy, Jesus, was five years old, he was playing at the ford of a - modern fans distinguish between fanfic and real history which they call ‘canon’ rushing stream. (2) He was collecting the flowing water into ponds and - they inherited this word from the church which did the same thing in the 4th C made the water instantly pure. He did this with a single command. (3) He - Jesus fanfic had been around for 1or 2 centuries, so some forgot it was fiction then made soft clay and shaped it into twelve sparrows. He did this on [other_gospels] the sabbath day, and many other boys were playing with him. - so the church had to define the NT so people knew what had come later (4) But when a Jew saw what Jesus was doing while playing on the - the 4th C church didn’t invent this list – they just publicized the accepted list sabbath day, he immediately went off and told Joseph, Jesus' father: "See here, your boy is at the ford and has taken mud and fashioned twelve The richness of thousands of manuscripts, and prolific fan fiction made problems birds with it, and so has violated the sabbath." - but historians love these problems and the slight messyness they produce (5) So Joseph went there, and as soon as he spotted him he shouted, - when things are too tidy, this is a sign they have been tidied up deliberately "Why are you doing what's not permitted on the sabbath?" - the mass of manuscripts, with differences you’d expect from hand copying, (6) But Jesus simply clapped his hands and shouted to the sparrows: tells the historian that we have access in them to the original words of the NT "Be off, fly away, and remember me, you who are now alive!" And the - and the vibrant life of the church produced new beliefs and new stories sparrows took off and flew away noisily. - and the differences in these help us to be more confident in the older texts (7) The Jews watched with amazement, then left the scene to report to - they tell simple stories about real people and places which have a ring of truth their leaders what they had seen Jesus doing. - a historian can’t tell you to base your life on these stories, but a historian can [Jesus+Dragon] tell you that that these texts are massively more reliable than any of the time.

Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew ch.18 (Trans. James) Mary and Joseph came to a cave and wished to rest there. Mary dismounted and sat with Jesus in her lap. Three were three boys with Joseph and a girl with Mary. Suddenly a number of dragons came out of the cave, and all cried out in fear. Jesus got down from his mother's lap and stood before the dragons, which worshipped him. Thus was fulfilled the word, 'Praise the Lord out of the earth, ye dragons and all deeps'. Jesus walked before them and bade them hurt no one. Mary was alarmed for him, but he said, 'Fear not, neither conceive that I am a child, for I always was and am a perfect man, and it is necessary that