8. Digging deeper

In this chapter, we’ll look at some of the better-known passages that are textually questionable, meaning they were probably added by scribes in later centuries and not written by the biblical authors. What you’ll discover is that many of them have to do with differences between the Greek behind the King James Version (one of the older English translations) and the Greek behind the more recent translations.

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Discussion questions

1. What is the Byzantine text-type? What role did it play in our Bibles today?
2. How does knowing about text-types help us understand which manuscripts are the most accurate ones to use for Bible translations?
3. Why do you think many textual critics do not use the Textus Receptus?
4. Why is it important to know which verses of the Bible are not original?
5.  How do you feel about some of the more famous variants? Do you think they should be preached on? Should they be printed in the text of the Bible?
6. Do modern translation omit 17 verses? Do they remove the doctrine of the Trinity?
7. What did you learn from this chapter about variants and their impact? How has it affected your view of the reliability of the Bible?