The Human Preservation of Scripture

I mentioned in another thread that I believed in the human preservation of Scripture, based on the priesthood of the believer. We as believers are responsible our own selves to preserve Scripture, and there are plenty of passages in both the OT and NT. There seemed to be some interest in the topic, so I thought I would start a thread on it.

Can you think of Scriptures that teach a doctrine of human preservation? What say ye?

Here is how I believe we preserve Scripture:
(1) Each believer should have his or her own Bible, take good physical care of it, and hide it in his or her heart. The kings of Israel were required to have their own scroll of the Law.
(2) Some gifted individuals, like Dr. Cassidy, should concentrate on textual criticism, to give us the best possible editions of the original language texts. By gifted in this and (3), I mean given the gift of language ability ("tongues," if you will) by God. In the OT, the "oracles of God" were given to the Jewish people (Rom. 3:2), and the priests were the literal preservers of Scripture since the scrolls were kept in the temple.
(3) Some gifted individuals should labor in translating the Word of God into the languages of the world. And enough with the English versions, already. There are still 1000's of languages and dialects with no Bible or even Bible portion. The Great Commission says "All the world." (Caveat: I don't find where God promised to make my Japanese translation inerrant.:smilewinkgrin: )
(4) Ministries should offer their services to print the Word of God. Psalm 68:11--"The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it."

 

Pastor_Bob, as you know I too am a TR/Byz/Maj man. However, within that tradition believers had to take responsibility and make choices. For example, there are many places where the Stephanus TR and the Scrivner TR differ, never mind the different editions of the Stephanus TR. Furthermore, any TR differs from the Hodges Majority Text or the Robinson Byzantine Text in many more places. The textual critics had to make choices, and God did not guarantee anywhere in the Bible that their choices would be perfect.

 

Note these specific cases of human preservation of Scripture:

1. In Old Testament Israel, the priests were entrusted by God with the task of preserving the Scriptures (Deut. 17:18, Ezek. 44:8 and 15, Mal. 2:7). Remember that the Decalogue of Moses was to be kept in the ark of the covenant, and that the Temple was where the scrolls of Scripture were to be kept. (2 Kings 22:9-10).

2. God commanded the Jews to bind God's law on their hands and on their foreheads (Ex. 13:9, Deut. 6:8 & 11:8, Prov. 3:3, 6:2, 7:3).

3. Each king of Israel was required to write out his own copy of the Bible. "And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites" (Deut. 17:18). Not only was he to have his own copy of the law, he was to live and rule by it (v. 19).

4. Moses cared enough about the Decalogue to make an box of shittim wood in which to preserve it. (Deut. 10:3-5)

5. The ark of God was called variously "the ark of the testimony" (Josh. 4:16) and "the ark of the covenant" (Josh. 4:18), obviously referring to the fact that God's Word was to be kept inside it (Deut. 31:26).

6. God commanded the Jews to build an altar and write the law on the stones of it when they crossed the river into the Promised Land. (Deut. 27:1-8) Joshua obeyed God's command and did so (Josh. 8:30-35).

7. The Apostle Paul specifically asked Timothy to bring his personal copy of some of the Old Testament Scriptures (2 Tim. 4:13).

So, Man has a responsibility in the preservation of Scripture. The first edition of the John R. Rice Reference Bible (KJV) had many mistakes in it. That wasn't God's fault, it was the fault of the proof readers at Nelson's. The Japanese Shinkaiyaku Bible was proof read eight times, which is twice the usual requirement. Therefore it is remarkably free from transcription, spelling and punctuation errors.

 

I think we see eye-to-eye here, Rob. I believe the Byz/Maj is closer to the originals myself, but either way you look at it, I agree that while there are commands in Scripture to preserve it, there is no guarantee that it will be done perfectly. As God put the "oracles of God" in the hands of the Jews for preservation, in particular the priests, so we who are the priests of this dispensation have the responsibility to preserve the Word in the ways I listed in my OP. So, whoever copied those early manuscripts, the proper question to ask is, how diligent were they with their priestly responsibilities?

We are currently on the second draft of our new Japanese Gospel of John, and should finish it in in the committee in a couple of weeks. After that I will check through my son's notes on the accuracy of my translation compared to the Greek. (He is fluent in both Greek and Japanese.) Then I hope to have notes from a number of Japanese pastors about Japanese style. After that will begin the proof-reading--and no matter how many times we proofread it, there are bound to be errors in it!!

In the past, I have asked several in this forum who believe in a perfect translation how I can guarantee my Japanese translation to be perfect, but I get no takers. There are simply no Scriptures on the matter. However, there are plenty of verses on diligence, honesty, hard work, etc. Hopefully we are doing the work necessary to ensure a good translation. It is our responsibility as priests of Jesus Christ!

To give credit where credit is due, I must say that it was through the works of Edward Hills that I first began thinking this through.

Side note: one who is often used to defend the "perfect translation" concept is Jasper Ray and his little book, God Only Wrote One Bible. Alas, Jasper mis-quoted the KJV several times in his little book!

 

Good posts, all. I'm still waiting for someone to debate with!

Here's the deal: I can use any Greek or Hebrew text for my translation, and if I translate faithfully and stick strictly to the Scriptures for my beliefs I will come out the same. Either ms tradition has: all the doctrines (with the possible exception of snake-handling! :smilewinkgrin: ), all the names of Christ, all the prophecies, all the history (with the possible exception of John 8--but even then all texts leave it in, but some put it in brackets), etc., etc.