BarneyFife
Well-Known Member
That's the problem right there.
The SAY "manuscript" when they MEAN manuscript copies.
They are even numbered "manuscripts" (copies) for the same book.
Depending on where they found the COPY and the approximated COPY date.
Like Papyrus P-52, mentioned earlier. Which was only a fragment.
From a very early manuscript COPY.
So, the main difference between the terms "manuscript" and "original manuscript"
is that THERE ARE NO original manuscripts. They actually use the term "autograph"
to refer to what they attempt to determine what the "original manuscript" said.
And part of the problem in New Testament translation is that they are "blessed"
with SO MANY copies, that it takes a lot of work to sort through it all.
When comparing all the copies, they have to identify all the scribal errors,
additions, embellishments, and deletions, to get to their best guess.
After that, the text is subject to the doctrinal biases of the translators.
And errors in the original translations can carry forward as a matter of tradition.
What a mess.
/
Maybe "they" are goofy.

Weren't the scribes pretty meticulous about copying the stuff?
Do we need originals to believe the Word?
Wouldn't God have preserved them if that were the case?
I get nervous talking about this stuff what with the way folks are about it.
The "inerrancy" question was posed to Mrs. White at one point ( I wish I had the reference handy) and her answer was, essentially:
"Yeah, so what?"
As if to say something like:
With 3/4 million words in the English Bible, don't you think God could have managed to keep enough of it intact that we have no need to worry that our eternal destiny might be in peril because of clerical or translational errors?
I mean, some people carry on like the language of the New Jerusalem is going to be Olde English.
.