Scan barcode
A review by misscalije
Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why by Bart D. Ehrman
5.0
At first, I was excited.
Then, I was shook.
I finished, I now feel at peace.
I am a Christian who before reading this book was sincerely open to the idea of textual variance in the New Testament. I never could have been prepared to learn HOW textual variance can and should severely change everyone’s understanding of the Bible and church doctrine.
The Bibles that we have today are not divinely inspired documents. If you claim to believe that, I feel that you are lying or are willfully ignorant. I cannot go into the evidence as to why this belief (which I grew up with and very much believed) is false without recapping the entire book. (Read it yourself.)
But rather than shaking my faith to the ground, this book has given me the opportunity to understand the world, Christianity, and Christ himself in more personal ways. Like Ehrman says in the conclusion to Misquoting Jesus, “...to read a text is, necessarily, to change a text.” No one, not the writers of the gospels, the scribes who disseminated them, the translators, the pastors, our parents, or us ourselves, has completely understood the stories of the Bible in the way that they were “originally” intended. All we can do is take what we have, become the best scholars we can be, and decide for ourselves what these influential and very human texts mean for us.
I’m giving this book five stars because it was well written, and I do think that if someone wishes to, they could get something important from this book. It might not be what I took from it, but again...that’s kind of the point.
Then, I was shook.
I finished, I now feel at peace.
I am a Christian who before reading this book was sincerely open to the idea of textual variance in the New Testament. I never could have been prepared to learn HOW textual variance can and should severely change everyone’s understanding of the Bible and church doctrine.
The Bibles that we have today are not divinely inspired documents. If you claim to believe that, I feel that you are lying or are willfully ignorant. I cannot go into the evidence as to why this belief (which I grew up with and very much believed) is false without recapping the entire book. (Read it yourself.)
But rather than shaking my faith to the ground, this book has given me the opportunity to understand the world, Christianity, and Christ himself in more personal ways. Like Ehrman says in the conclusion to Misquoting Jesus, “...to read a text is, necessarily, to change a text.” No one, not the writers of the gospels, the scribes who disseminated them, the translators, the pastors, our parents, or us ourselves, has completely understood the stories of the Bible in the way that they were “originally” intended. All we can do is take what we have, become the best scholars we can be, and decide for ourselves what these influential and very human texts mean for us.
I’m giving this book five stars because it was well written, and I do think that if someone wishes to, they could get something important from this book. It might not be what I took from it, but again...that’s kind of the point.