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Title	Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
Author	Bart D. Ehrman
Copyright	2005
Type	Non Fiction. Theology, The Bible
Length	242 Pages
Finished Reading	March 12, 2024
Ratings	Ratings: Personal: 4 Stars GoodReads: 3.9 Stars (18,584 Ratings) Amazon: 4.5 Stars (2,910 Ratings)

If you have more than one edition of the Bible at hand you can easily see differences in many verses. Consider Paul’s letter to the Romans Chapter 16 verse 7. My Oxford Annotated Bible (Revised Standard Edition) which I used in my college religion courses in the early 1970s has this (italics are mine):

Greet Andronicus and Junias my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners; they are men of note among the apostles, and they were in Christ before me.

Romans 16:7. Oxford Annotated Bible Revised Standard Edition.

This Bible was later updated and issued as the New Revised Standard Edition. Here is the translation of that same verse:

Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives who were in prison with me; they are prominent among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.

Romans 16:7 Oxford Annotated Bible; New Revised Standard Edition.

Why is this important? The name Junia is a women’s name; whereas Junias is a masculine version, although that name is not found anywhere in the ancient world. [Pages 205-206]. Ehrman argues that at a later point in the life of the Church

“Some scribes also had difficulty with ascribing apostleship to the otherwise unknown woman, and so made a very slight change in the text to circumvent the problem.
…
“With this textural change, no longer does one need to worry about a woman being cited month the apostolic band of men.”

Page 206

The New International Version uses “Junias” with a footnote that it is a feminine name.

Ehrman argues that textual analysis shows the name should be “Junia”. Both Jesus and Paul had women take on important roles in their missions. The change to the masculine “Junias” appeared later in the evolution of the Bible when the Church was making women more subservient and was eliminating them from positions of authority.

Bart D. Ehrman’s analysis – as well as other textual critics – examine the thousands of differences in the Bible and strive to determine which are most closely aligned to the original texts.

“…we don’t actually have the original writings of the New Testament. What we have are copies of these writings, made years later – in most cases, many years later. Moreover, none of these copies is completely accurate, since the scribes who produced them inadvertently and/or intentionally changed them in places. All scribes did this. So rather than actually having the inspired words of the autographs [i.e. originals] of the Bible, what we have are the error-ridden copies of the autographs [originals]. One of the most pressing of all tasks, therefore, was to ascertain what the originals of the Bible said, given the circumstances that (1) they were inspired and (2) we don’t have them.”

Page 9

Most of the thousands of the errors and differences have no substantive impact on theological issues; but some discripancies are very important. Some alterations were simple mistakes made my scribes – especially the early volunteer scribes. Other alterations of the originals arise from the fact that many of the original Greek manuscripts used no punctuation, no capitalization, and no spaces between words. Still other changes – such as those referring to women’s roles – were likely deliberate to bring the Bible into harmony with the then existing practices of the Church. So real problems exist. The New Testament is at the very heart of Christianity; it is the word of God; so it is important we get this right.

Ehrman is a trained textual Biblical analyst devoting his professional life to comparing the many different early texts of the Bible. He is fluent in Greek, Latin and other languages in which the Bible was written. In this book, he uses theological debates – such as the role of women in the Church – to demonstrate how Biblical translations and differences came about in the past, how textual analysis evolved and how it works today. This work is not done by some liberals to subvert the Bible by bringing in women or supporting other theological issues. Rather it takes seriously the goal of identifying the texts central to Christianity.

I get more comments on my religious/theological posts and will likely get them here. I welcome your comments; but if you have problems with the approach of textual analysis and criticism I encourage you to read Ehrman’s book and note the specific issues you have.