seven canons question

I am flustered, Garp. I answered it (canon 7) very thoroughly, and when I went there now to link it for you, IT WAS GONE.

Grrrrr.

Every person who is faced with a number of Greek documents MUST establish rules for judging between x-y-z that are consistent and fair. God said He inspired His Word. He said He preserved His Word.

But well-meaning folks, copying, quoting from memory, adding/subtracting for theological bent, etc -- as well as no longer having an original signed by Paul or John -- means that we have 5500 variations.

Hence God expects us to use our minds and not just blindly say "Eenie, meenie, minie moe" and by faith accept one copy. NNE does that, btw. Scholars work and evaluate, based on these rules.

These 7 are historic principles for the past 150 years. I think they were meant to cover ALL 5500 manuscripts of all ages. Dean Burgon has 7 that are very parallel to it, but lean to support the textual readings of the AV (His bias).

So simple answer? God hasn't given us the list, but we NEED established guidelines or we will have cultic Bibles (like the New World Translation of the JW's) that claim to the original greek.

Hope this helps. And hope nobody steals this one!