Re: prayer and healing Textual Criticism

On Tue, 4 Apr 2006 Fivefree@aol.com wrote:

>
>
> In a message dated 4/1/2006 3:58:21 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time,
> gbrown@euclid.colorado.edu writes:
>
> Mark 16:9-20 (the longer ending of Mark) is not contained in the oldest
> known manuscripts, and it is highly doubtful that Mark included it in his
> gospel.
>
> Gordon Brown
>
>
> Actually, the oldest manuscripts are the oldest because they are found in
> Egypt. Dry, dry dry. I have seen contour maps drawn of textual versions found
> in Egypt. Just because it was found in a dry climate does not mean it is
> original. It means it was left in a dry climate.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Jack Jackson
>

We do not possess the originals. We try to reconstruct the originals from
all the evidence that we have, and that is not limited to Greek
manuscripts of the New Testament. Textual critics have examined early
translations into other languages, quotes from early Christian writers to
deduce what their Bibles said, and comments by these writers on how common
it was for manuscripts to contain certain variant readings. An additional
consideration in Mark 16 is that the He in verse 9 has no antecedent in
verse 8. The two verses don't fit together naturally.

Gordon Brown
Department of Mathematics
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0395
Received on Tue Apr 4 18:14:34 2006