Types Of Textual Alterations
TYPES OF TEXTUAL ALTERATIONS
There are three general types of errors that might find its way into a text and therefore be transmitted:
Unintentional Errors: These are errors which took place as a result of a mistake on the part of the scribe.
Errors from faulty eyesight. 1 Timothy 3:16 contains a difference in two words which look very much alike in the Greek text.
Errors arising from faulty hearing. Some scribes would copy from verbal dictation in which one reader would read the text aloud to a number of scribes who would write that text. There are homonyms both in English and in Greek.
Errors of the mind. Sometimes a tired scribe would switch words or even letters in a word by mistake. For example, the word evlabon (“they received”) is Mark 14:65 was changed in one manuscript to evbalon (“they threw”) and evballon (“they were throwing”) in another.
Additions due to personal notes. In the same way that we sometimes write a notation in the margin of our Bibles, scribes would sometimes place an interpretive notation. Since the text itself was handwritten, a later scribe might unintentionally copy down the note with the text, thinking that it was a part of the original.
Intentional Changes. In some cases, scribes made intentional changes to the manuscript which they were copying, not to hurt the text, but to either clarify or to correct what they perceived to be an error.
Some of these are simply changes in spelling and grammar.
Some are attempts to harmonize two like passages. This is seen in the two versions of the Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:1-54 versus Matthew 6:1-34). When Matthew 9:13 has Jesus saying, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners,” some copyists could not resist adding the words “to repentance” (from Luke 5:32).
Occasionally, an attempt was made to correct what was thought to be a historical error. Origen made such an attempt when he substituted the word Bethabara for Bethany in John 1:28, a substitution that is reflected in the KJV. A confluence of readings. When faced with two differing texts, a scribe would sometimes copy both readings rather than leave one out. Thus, when a scribe had two variant endings of the book of Luke, he sometimes used them both. They were continually in the temple PRAISING God and They were continually in the temple BLESSING God was combined to read They were continually in the temple PRAISING and BLESSING God. (Luke 24:52).
Changes because of Doctrine. The Jehovah's Witnesses were not the first cult to attempt to rewrite the Bible. It is known that Marcion edited his own version of the Bible, cutting out those parts which were inconsistent with his own personal beliefs. In each case where an error crept into the text, it would be reproduced in any copies that were made of that text. It is for this reason that the older manuscript tends to be seen as the more trustworthy.