Book Review: Misquoting Jesus by Bart Ehrman
I just finished reading a fascinating book that was (ironically?) given to me for Christmas. The title is Misquoting Jesus, and it takes a critical look at the Bible we English speakers read. The upshot is that the New Testament has changed dramatically from the original texts (all of which are actually lost). The source material available in any language was changed by the scribes who copied the texts in the early centuries of Christianity, and those changes stuck, ultimately giving us divergent "families" of texts that tell sometimes significantly different stories.
A few good examples: the King James Bible is based on a Latin translation of a single Greek version of the New Testament (and a heavily altered Greek version at that). Earlier Greek versions, among the "closest" we have to the originals, leave out some fairly well-known stories: the famous "let he who is without sin cast the first stone" story and Christ’s sweating blood before he is captured to be crucified, to name a couple. Also, scribes often tried to reconcile the gospels, which means we don’t have to grapple with the question of whether Jesus was an imperturbable figure (Luke’s story) or a bit of a moody badass with a message (Mark’s original story!).
I have always been fascinated with history and love to study religions, so I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Take a read through it, then go consult your Bible and see if it has a few of the incredibly well-researched footnotes that perhaps it should. No version is perfect, but as for me, next time I want to read the Bible I’m likely to consult the NRSV.
