Textual Criticism of Bible translations Page 2 of Ensign to the Nations

Page 2 of Ensign to The Nations Bible Edition. Pages 8-11 of As It Is Translated Correctly. Chapter 1 Texual Criticism

Chapter 1 Textual Criticism

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To properly study the inaccuracies of Bible translations, we must apply the science of “textual criticism”. This is not disputing, condemning or questioning the Bible as being the word of God, but rather it is the study of errors in the text made by human scribes and translators. If this book is to be used as a guide in each Christian’s life, is it not vitally important then that these inaccuracies are discovered and exposed?
Textual criticism, commonly known in the past as “lower” criticism in contrast to the so-called “higher” (historical and literary) criticism, is the science that compares all known manuscripts of a given work in an effort to trace the history of variations within the text so as to discover its original form. (Biblical Criticism, Gordon Fee, Zondervan Publishing House, p. 127)
Protestant scholars have contributed an immense amount of excellent study in this field, but many of its ministers have taken the biased attitude that several Catholics have, namely–that the Bible contains no errors!
Catholic doctrine maintains that, because the books of the Bible have God as Author, they are free from error. Any theory that detracts from Biblical inerrancy is reprobated. * * * The clearest statement of Catholic doctrine on Biblical inerrancy is found in Providentissimus Deus. Leo XIII states that inerrancy is an inescapable corollary of divine inspiration. “For all the books … are written wholly and entirely, with all their parts, at the dictation of the Holy Spirit; and so far is it from being possible that any error can coexist with inspiration, that inspiration not only is essentially incompatible with error, but excludes and rejects it as it is impossible that God Himself, the supreme Truth, can utter that which is not true” (Denz 3292). The Pontiff adds that those who maintain that error is possible in any

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genuine passage of the sacred writings must either pervert the Catholic notion of inspiration or must make God the author of such error (Ench Bibl 126). (New Catholic Encyclopedia 2:514)
Some Catholics, as well as a few Protestants, accept the Bible as literally the “word of God”, thus being God’s “revelation” to man. However, they still acknowledge the errors and textual faults of translators and copyists. They conclude that–
The popes have emphasized, however, that the original texts, only, were inspired and free from error and that copies and translations are inerrant insofar as they conform to the original texts. But no original texts are extant, and copies and translations contain additions, omissions, and other textual faults. It is the task of textual criticism to correct these mistakes. Pius XII wrote of textual criticism: “Its very purpose is to insure that the sacred text be restored as perfectly as possible, be purified from the corruptions due to the carelessness of copyists and be freed, as far as may be done, from glosses and omissions, from the interchange and repetition of words and from all other kinds of mistakes…. (New Catholic Encyclopedia 2:514)
Both Protestants and Catholics have admitted that:
One of the most important problems about the Bible is that of establishing an accurate text. Before the invention of printing, copies of the Bible had to be made by scribes who laboriously transcribed the text from other copies. Because of the mistakes which were made in this process, the different manuscripts of the Bible showed numerous minor disagreements. Textual scholars attempt to reconstruct the original text

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of the Bible by comparing the different manuscripts, and especially the earliest ones. (Enc. of World Methodism, 1:264)
Most authors correct their own writings after the first edition is published. Perhaps years or centuries later, another person may also make revisions and corrections. Corrective criticism is not an evil, but often a valuable service. All criticism is not condemnation. It is usually a method of correcting human error or clarifying some meaning.
Many religious fanatics and anti-Mormon zealots convey the idea that because Mormons believe the Bible needs some correction in its translation, that they do not believe the Bible. The fact that thousands of Protestant scholars have been making hundreds of Bible revisions should be evidence to them that it must contain errors. An American citizen may say that our government has laws, regulations and codes that are unclear, incorrect and need revision–but that does not make them un-American, nor indicate that they think the whole government is wrong.
Neither can it be said of the Book of Mormon that because it contains some errors, it cannot be from God. Human wisdom and human error manifest themselves in anything that man does, and God depends on man for the translating and publishing of His word. The only text that God ever wrote Himself was the Ten Commandments (with His finger on stone), but we do not have that “original text” either. Just because a translator made an error, doesn’t mean that the original author blundered or that the whole text should be discarded.
Textual criticism is a necessary science, comparing all known manuscripts and tracing variations within the text to discover its original form. This is important for interpreters because (1) it helps to reveal what the original author actually said; (2) it helps to discover the original meaning of what was written; (3) it helps to reveal the errors, opinions, interpolations and additions inserted by other scribes.

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In reality, then, textual criticism asks, “What does it say?” before it asks “What does it mean?”. An accurate translator, or textual critic, is the person who is in quest of what the original author had in mind.
Over many centuries, translators and scribes have unintentionally or even purposely, added errors, opinions and various church interpretations into their Bible revisions, thus changing the meaning of the original author’s intent and purpose. For instance, one edition of the Bible became known as the “Wicked Bible” because it left the word “not” out of the seventh commandment, making it read “Thou shalt commit adultery.” The possibility of human error has always existed in the writing and printing of every kind of book–even the Bible.
Contained in this publication is a study into the many problems confronting Bible translators. It gives a closer look at many problems of translation–not as a criticism of the Bible itself nor of the original manuscripts, but as an explanation of the human factors involved. It briefly explains the difficulties translators have faced in trying to explain the original author’s intent.
A diligent and objective research into these ancient texts will prove that Joseph Smith knew and understood more of Biblical translations and revisions than all the thousands of ministers who condemned him as a false prophet. The deeper we investigate the history and content of this great book, the more we will conclude the Bible indeed contains the word of God, “as far as it is translated correctly.”