Textual Criticism - what is it and how does it help us?

[andrew]

Exactly. Until the printing press hit the streets (so ±1500 years...), this was almost a non-issue.

The Primacy of the Book has more to do with the printing press, the Protestant struggle against the Catholic church (professors v. priests), and American Fundamentalism as a social movement than it does the actual writings in the book itself....

 

[Mojo]

Been a bit busy, so quick comment without too much flesh on it here.

I do remember, especially when seeing parts of the Dead Sea scrolls in person (totally cool!) that there are/were differences in how the name of God was transcribed. I think it was attributed to the individual scribe's preference, or the era under which he scribed and the "popularity" of the time.

Personally, I don't consider that to be part of the lower percentage.

If I said "Moshe and Ytzak went to eat at the mall" and it was transcribed as "Moshe and Ytzak went to the shopping center." I wouldn't consider that to be anything other than a minor discrepancy.

If it was changed to "Moshe and Irving went to eat prime rib at uncle Morty's..." that's another story. Are the notations you speak of on that order?

 

[FollowingHim]

Very comprehensive explanation @IshChayil. I think it is important to remember the point you made yourself that even if it is not original, that does not mean it is not true. If it is completely fraudulent, that could raise questions about God's preservation and protection of the text against rogue scholarship. However if it is a true account that was later shoehorned into John by editors who believed it was important enough to preserve within a gospel but were not all in agreement where to put it, that does not have any such negative implications. My point is simply that even if we are to examine the evidence and conclude that it isn't original, that's not necessarily something to get too worked up about. Not original does not necessarily equal not true nor does it mean we must doubt the accuracy of scripture as preserved for us.

 

[FollowingHim]

This made me think about the early believers. How many of those early believers who died for their faith were even literate?
Now how about the first eon AD? How many believers were literate and how many of those who were literate could afford a complete bible, hand written, etc.?
I'm gonna guess maybe 2% were literate and had their own bible.

This is why I increasingly realise that following God must always be really really simple. If we're getting bogged down in details we must have something fundamentally wrong in our understanding of the nature of His instructions. God's instructions must be simple enough to be obeyed by an illiterate peasant who gets a chance to hear a sermon once every few months (when visiting the temple three times a year, or similarly infrequent visits by travelling preachers) - otherwise following Him would be unachievable for too many real people.

 

[IshChayil]

This is why I increasingly realise that following God must always be really really simple. If we're getting bogged down in details we must have something fundamentally wrong in our understanding of the nature of His instructions. God's instructions must be simple enough to be obeyed by an illiterate peasant who gets a chance to hear a sermon once every few months (when visiting the temple three times a year, or similarly infrequent visits by travelling preachers) - otherwise following Him would be unachievable for too many real people.

I mostly agree with this. One benefit an illiterate peasant has over another illiterate one is if he happens to also live among believers; he grows up just culturally seeing how to live; the ethos of the culture shows him. Today this is less and less feasible which makes the book a bit more necessary depending on where one lives; with or without community etc.
This may be why the Law is boiled down to the most important aspects: Love G-d with our whole being, Love our neighbor as ourselves...
Though those are both quite hard to do, you don't need any text to ponder them in daily life.

That said, I believe Hashem does call some to have an extra love for the text and lovingly laboring over it and this can include the efforts to restore it to the original...

 

[IshChayil]

Been a bit busy, so quick comment without too much flesh on it here.

I do remember, especially when seeing parts of the Dead Sea scrolls in person (totally cool!) that there are/were differences in how the name of God was transcribed. I think it was attributed to the individual scribe's preference, or the era under which he scribed and the "popularity" of the time.....

Some DSS use the older Hebrew Alphabet (pre-captivity) only for G-d's name. I think this is probably what you are referencing.
No, that would not count as a textual variance since the spelling is actually the same the script is just different (still spells Y-H-W-H).