Most people don't realize there are many languages in the world. English, Chinese and Spanish showing up in the top five isn't surprising. Would you have guessed Hindi is number three and French is number five? Arabic, Bengali, Russian, Portuguese and Indonesian round out the top 10. There are far more languages in the world than that. In last week's article, How Many Languages Exist?, I used the estimate of 7,139 languages, from...
How Many Languages Exist?
In 1999, a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) resolution recommended February 21 be celebrated as International Mother Language Day. International Mother Language Day was first observed in 2000, but not formally approved by the United Nations General Assembly until 2002. This resolution is not unique, as there has been a significant effort to preserve all languages.
- 1999: UNESCO proclaims 21 February...
Why do Christians Sing?
For some people, singing is simple entertainment, a distraction from everyday life. For many people, singing is a pleasurable experience, but it also has positive effects on life. It can help us temporarily forget events we may be worrying about. Singing can improve memorization skills, as we learn the words to a song. Singing with a group of people improves socialization skills, whether it's a duet or a large congregation. Singing causes people to...
What is the Shema Yisrael?
The phrase Shema Yisrael comes from the first two Hebrew words of the verse Deuteronomy 6:4 (Hebrew שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל), transliterated as šemǎʿʹ yiś·rā·ʾēlʹ. The words mean "Hear Israel", and this passage is frequently referred to as the Shema. Strong’s Concordance assigns the number 8085 to the Hebrew word šemǎʿʹ and translates it as "hear". "Hear" is...
What’s Next for BibleQuestions.info?
I don't know what I'll be writing about next on BibleQuestions.info. I've spent over a year writing about Greek New Testament manuscripts and Textual Criticism, and I've decided to take a break. I will probably write some individual articles, or maybe a short series. Writing a long series take an enormous amount of time to do the research.
I'm currently working on a series about English Bible Versions, but the topic will take a lot more time than...
Is New Testament Textual Criticism Important?
Before I started writing this blog just over two years ago, I didn't know what textual criticism was. I knew there were many English Versions of the Bible, but I assumed most of the differences were just choices in the specific English words the translators used to reflect the original Hebrew or Greek word. That was clearly a naïve view. New Testament Textual Criticism (NTTC) tries to determine if the Greek New Testaments we have today are...
Do We Have What The New Testament Authors Wrote?
I've spent over a year researching and writing about Greek New Testament Manuscripts and New Testament Textual Criticism. My goal was to find out if the New Testament has been reliably transmitted to us over nearly two thousand years. The simple answer is: yes!
There were many, many mistakes made in copying the New Testament, but mistakes in an individual manuscript can be corrected using other manuscripts that don't have errors in the same...
What is the Purpose of Textual Criticism?
The purpose of Textual Criticism is actually quite simple: restore the text to the original form the author wrote (or as close to it as possible). Textual criticism isn't just used in New Testament studies, but also Old Testament studies, and by scholars working on the text of other ancient writers, both religious and secular.
The process of textual criticism, however, can be extremely complicated. There are many manuscripts which have slight...
Why are Some Verses in Square Brackets?
Most modern English translations of the Bible have some places where scholars believe the traditional English translations included some words, verses or even whole sections, that may not have been part of the original text written by the Biblical author. When scholars are uncertain if part of the text is original, the passage is put in square brackets.
UBS [United Bible Societies Greek New Testament] and NA [Nestle-Aland Greek New...
What is the Correct Wording In 1 John 5:7-8?
I've spent the past seven months writing about New Testament textual criticism, showing how ancient Greek New Testament manuscripts have errors in them. In spite of the errors (most of them spelling mistakes), the Bible still presents a consistent message.
For the past few weeks, I've been focusing on the last name in Matthew 1:7-8. The person referred to was, Asa, a King of Judah. The oldest existing Greek New Testament manuscripts record the...