Stephanus and Sinaiaticus

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say a word. Well, I wouldn't want to cause an issue.
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Well, it's been a while. It's been a while.
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Oh yeah. Good morning,
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Doctor. I'm not sure how we're gonna do this.
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I do not have a projector set up or anything. Wouldn't really help us with this anyhow.
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A few weeks ago that I would send these things in, and so I did.
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You can ask my wife. This thing is incredibly heavy. I'm not really even sure that, yeah, it is much heavier than Codex Ricketonia, shall we say.
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We looked at some pictures of, how am
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I going to do this? I can't just, you know, hold something up and have you all see it.
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So, this is a full -size facsimile copy of Codex Sinaiticus.
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And it's upside down. That's nice. Obviously, the
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Codex as it exists today exists in multiple locations.
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There are, this is all of it, no matter where it is, it's been digitized and high -quality photography taken of it.
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And so, it sort of gives you an idea of how big it would have been even though the pages are actually rather finer than the glossy print paper that this is printed on, so it wouldn't have been quite as heavy.
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I'd estimate between 35 and 45 pounds. It's a beast.
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It was not a pocket New Testament, shall we say, in any way. But we looked at a couple of the, well, what were these, what were the, what category would this, this may, from our previous, previous, it was taking notes actually.
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This, would this be a papyri? It's not a papyri. So, what is it?
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Well, it's Codex. It's made of vellum. What other term was used?
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Well, it's an, it's certainly an Alexandrian in its test, its text type, but of non -Alexandrian.
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It is, the other term that we used was unsealed, unsealed texts.
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And what was the date? Anyone remember? The time of the
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Council of Nicaea, we know according to Church history,
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Constantine gave some money, manuscripts, because Rome had been destroying so many thousands.
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And one of the theories is that Sinaiticus and Vaticanus were both. That's a possibility.
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When this was Old and New Testament, there, even yet, early sections,
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Genesis, you know, that, that happens with, with ancient manuscripts. Things fall apart, bindings give way, so on and so forth.
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But, it gives us one of the earliest Greek Septuagint translations that we have.
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And then, of course, the New Testament as well, pretty much in the order of the books that we have them, have them today.
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And so, most of it is in the, the British Library or Museum, British Museum, I think now.
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There's some still at St. Catharine's. There's some in Russia, because the story of it basically being stolen from the monks and finally making its way to England is a story of political intrigue and money and all sorts of things like that.
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But, obviously, there are a lot of people who really dislike this manuscript.
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The King James Only folks do, because, really, when you think about the history of the
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New Testament, I can text here to show you in a moment. I've, I mentioned at the last time we were together, the history of where our
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English New Testaments came from. And what happened to extra credit for the date?
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1516. And it is actually a diaglot. He is much more concerned.
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And anyone remember about how many manuscripts he had to work with? About half a dozen.
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About six. The oldest that he had was from around the year 1, so he primarily relied upon one from around 1200
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A .D. Did I tell you the story of the Book of Revelation with Erasmus?
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You're saying yes. You're sort of nodding yes, but you've heard it, so you're probably conflating things.
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To get the job done, because there was actually a
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New Testament that had been printed, but it was many volumes. It was multi -volume work by Cardinal Jimenez, and it was waiting
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Papal approval, so his printer didn't want to get scooped. All publishers put pressure on authors to get done.
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So he was looking for a manuscript of the Book of Revelation, and he could not find one in the library in Basel, Switzerland, which is where, the whole reason he had gone there is he figured there'd be lots of manuscripts.
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He finally finds a commentary on the
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Greek text of the Book of Revelation from the commentary on the
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Book of Revelation, which led to a number of problems and issues. Latin into Greek for the last few verses of the
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Book of Revelation, and came up with some interesting readings. Did a great job, but came up with some interesting readings that remain to this day.
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He did five editions up to 1535.
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He was Caliph of Geneva, starting in 1551, was one of Stephanos, one of Basel's seven printed
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Greek New Testaments. Stephanos and Basel take Erasmus and make very minor changes.
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They're not really examining manuscripts, sort of taking what Erasmus put together, which was not the reason, it's just the default text, like that.
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These seven printed texts, Basel's translation of the
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New Testament. The King James translators were not using manuscripts. They were using printed editions of Erasmus, and there are differences, small differences, but they're different.
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And the result is an English translation of the New Testament, which we have a version of 1611.
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It was translated between 1604 and 1611. Well, this family of King James become known as the
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Textus Receptus, or abbreviated
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TR. And that came from an advertising blurb in 1633.
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Things have changed. And so they called it the text received by all, the
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Textus Receptus, and that's where the name came from. So it was an advertising blurb, somebody trying to sell something. But that's where the term came from.
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What happens is a fellow by the name of Scrivner, centuries later, decided, you know, there are differences between each of these printed editions.
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I'm going to look at the King James New Testament, and I'm going to see what reading the
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King James translators chose when there's a difference between Erasmus, Stephanos, and Basel, and I'm going to create the
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Greek text by the Textual Tribune of the
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Trinitarian Bible Society in London, a text of Scrivner, that is the work of Scrivner, and what it reflects in the
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King James translators. Now, there are entire churches that view that little blue case found
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Greek New Testament as the final word. It's the final word as far as what the New Testament should say.
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But in reality, there's no manuscript in the world that reads the way that that does, because it is actually a
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Greek New Testament based upon an English translation. And it's amazing how many people will say, this is it.
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This is what God preaches. This is the final word. You don't have to be a
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Mormon Baptist to take that view. They're not like me at all.
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And some of them are aware that the TR they have is the work of Scrivner, but, you know, looking at the
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King James choices, the reasons that they will argue is they will look at our own commentary and they'll say, see, it says to them that was the
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TR. Well, by default, for example, in his
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New Testament commentaries will point out differences in manuscripts and differences in readings, and at times will reject.
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The reading ends up in the Textus Receptus. So the idea that all of the early
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Baptist writers and the authors of the 1689 contextual criticism just simply isn't true.
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And in fact, the vast majority at that particular point in time.
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And so it's, I think, is an abuse of their place in history to say, ah, see, we've got a particular fashion.
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Well, what does this have to do with Sinaiticus? Well, the default Greek text up until which is published, manuscripts, well, more than, well, three, but two especially had come to light in that century,
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Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, along with Alexandrinus as well. And so those who are fans of the
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Textus Receptus or the traditional text or the Byzantine text, whatever you want to call it, I remember,
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I think it was like a
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Denny's type place. They had set up a room for the speakers to have dinner together at this conference
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I was speaking at. This was years ago. It was about 2000, 2001. And Dave Hunt was there.
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And it was literally as we were leaving the room, somebody said something about Sinaiticus. And I remember
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Dave Hunt saying, yeah, well, that's what you get for using a manuscript that's found in a trash can. And there's all sorts of stories about how
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Sinaiticus was found, all sorts of controversy, mainly going to the fact that Tischendorf probably ripped off the monks and was not exactly honest in how he got hold of it in that sense.
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But it was mainly just between he and the monks and who gets to have credit for it.
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But it's certainly not the theory that somebody else wrote it. The reason that this is so vilified is because it began the process of dethroning the
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Textus Receptus as the final authority. And so those who continue to see it as the final authority, well, they really, really, really don't like it.
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So I guess what I'll do is I'll just introduce both the texts and I'll have folks who want to come up and take a look at them.
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In this, I know I've brought this before. It's the first time I've brought this. I know that. I didn't get it all that long ago.
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It was a gift from somebody. But I know I have brought this before.
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And of the two, this is one we have to be much more careful of. And this is my 1550.
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That's not Codex Sinaiticus. This is 465 years old.
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Its current estimated value is $35 ,000, so I won't be passing it around currently.
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But this is the Greek New Testament that was published without verse numeration.
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So this is the work of Stephanos. This one was published in...
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I'll open it up very carefully here to the Acts of the Apostles. It was published in Paris and then moved from Paris to Geneva.
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And it is, you can see it right there, Stephanos 1550. It's one of the seven that was used by the
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King James translators. Is it possible that a King James translator used that very one? Sure. There are only so many of them left today.
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It may not have been. It may have been. There's no way of knowing. But that certainly is the text.
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And it's amazing to me, anyways, that when you look at the condition, 465 years old,
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I have books from that time that have yellowed more than its pages have.
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They knew how to make paper back then. And we still know how to make paper today. We just don't because we're cheap.
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But it is amazing to see. The font was developed by a guy that some of you who do computer work are going to go, oh, the font that is used there was developed by a man by the name of Garamond.
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And if you've ever looked through your fonts on your Windows or Mac machine, there's almost always a
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M -O -N -D font to this guy that worked with Stephanos in designing fonts back in the day when printing was a little more art form and a little less computer than it is today.
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As I said, this is the last one that does not have verse enumeration. The 1551 Stephanos text has the verse divisions in it, and that then becomes the basis for the verse divisions.
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No, Geneva was 1599, wasn't it?
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Yeah, yeah. Greek text.
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All these translations were heavily influenced by the Latin Vulgate as well. 1560. 1560,
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OK. Original. Original, OK. All right. So that's just after Stephanos of impact of any.
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And many have pointed out that it's pretty much Tyndale in what, 70 % of the language is pretty much straight out of Tyndale.
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So there were predecessors to it to be certain. OK. What I'd like to do is give you all a chance to take a look at this if you'd like.
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I'll, if we need to, if we want to do anything with the Greek text, I'll have to do that.
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But you're certainly free to thumb through here if you'd like. You'll, you will see, for example,
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I have it open here. A hundred years.
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And so you'll find that kind of better shape than others.
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Some are clearer, easier to read. But you take a look at that.
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And if you want to look at a particular in this one, we can only get about, what, about five people at a time.
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So why don't we just do it by rows if you want to come up and get a closer look. We'll start up front. Sorry if you sat in the back.
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You know, there you go. It's back row Baptist. Don't get to have as much time looking at the cool stuff, you know.
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So this is Acts. Proxi, Stone, Apostle, and Acts of the
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Apostles. I don't know, is there any verse? That's still
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Acts, pretty long. There's Corinthians. And, ah, there's
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Romans. Yeah, there's Romans 1. I guess we'd leave it open to that.
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2010. Yeah, it was a donation in the ministry from a fellow back in New York that had shown it to me in his house.
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And I had said, whatever you do, remember me in your will. So he decided to remember me before his will.
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And, yeah, look at that paper. That paper's doing better than you,
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Brick. Yeah. Yeah, mine's all faded. Yeah, yeah. I don't know what she has.
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It's the beginning of Romans, end of Acts. I'd have to look them up, but,
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I mean, almost every place has things like that and the margins and things. Well, not necessarily commentary, but sometimes textual corrections, sometimes commentary.
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Hard to say. I mean, this is probably Old Testament here. And there's something written in, obviously, in Minya school at a different point in time.
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Yeah, it's all
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Greek to you, right? It's the beginning of Romans, the end of Acts right there.
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An attorney, he's got a 1611 KJV and stuff.
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And he was showing me stuff in his house once, I don't know, back around 2000.
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And he had shown me this, and I said, remember me in your will. And I'd said that a few times, and so he heard it enough times he got the hint and decided to wait not to die.
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Codex Sinaiticus. This is the Stephanos text of 1550.
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Oh, that's an outline of Romans. And that's the beginning of Romans right there.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. You go to Trinity College in Dublin and you go into the reading room there where there's stories of books.
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And it's all the same smell. It's all the same smell.
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Probably later. Yeah, those definitely look later to me, much later. Probably paragraph divisions.
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Those look like Old Testament to me, so I don't think they're very common elsewhere.
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It's handwritten. No, there's places you'll see some markouts and crossouts and stuff stuck in between lines and stuff.
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Depends on the individual. Yeah, 465 years old.
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Yeah. Which one? Don't remember that, but yeah.
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Staupitz. Yes. Yeah, this is handwritten.
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That's printed. They were both gifts.
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You can buy this. It's about 500 bucks if you can buy it. Yeah, yeah, just 35 ,000 bucks.
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Yep, she's... 465.
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Greek. That's the beginning of the Book of Romans. End of Acts, beginning of Romans.
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No. Yes. 325, 350.
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A lot older than this. It is amazing, yeah.
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Somewhere in John you can see Kata and then Ioannes. Yeah, yeah, they made things nice back then.
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Our Greek New Testaments aren't quite as... No, oh, oh, no.
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No, it's not really leather. I don't know what you'd call it. You all can touch this one, but not this one.
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This is the Stephanos 1550 text. Oh, that's the beginning of Romans.
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That's the beginning of Romans. How long would it take to learn
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Greek? Depends on how well you want to learn it. Depends on how well you want to learn it. Dark sending?
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No, this doesn't have it, this does. Everybody who's wanted to see it, see it?
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Well, you can touch that one. Yeah, you always want to touch the one you can't touch.
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This is the beginning of Romans. No verse numbers, but...
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I think you can probably see... You can see divisions like that there.
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Oh, you have Paulus, the big fancy P. Paulus, Doulas, Iesu, Christian.
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I'm sorry? Yep. So is that everybody?
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All right. We've got enough time to look at one textual variant real quick.
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I have, obviously, some really nice slides on this, but it does not want to go in that area.
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All right, well, as a beast, that was definitely not something you'd want to carry with you.
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If you'll look, you'll have a
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King James or New King James. A first flesh will appear.
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Anything else? ESV, NASV, NIV, Holman Christian. If it's a modern translation, other than New King James, referring to Jesus.
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And so, this is important because it is a question of whether at this particular text,
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God. Now, readings, they don't seem to...
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It seems to be pretty easy to preach sermons and things like that, saying, well, here's clear liberalism.
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Here's a clear example where you have bias at play and the liberal...
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And that's exactly what you're going to get. Saying this is an example of this.
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We need to remember the word God, which in Latin is the nomina sacra.
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Nomina sacra. And, well, it's pretty much the only way you could abbreviate it, it's os.
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As theta and then majuscule or unseal of the earliest manuscripts.
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He who is the term hos, which becomes in the unseal form.
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So, the difference would be that versus that.
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As you can see, and remember, this is liberalism or this is some type of conspiracy or so on.
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When you're reading these words and you're reading somebody else's, they're dead.
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You can't go back and ask. And it doesn't make any sense.
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In the earliest manuscripts, all say hos. Theos would certainly be an orthodox reading, but I certainly would not utilize this particular text as one of the key texts in defending the deity of Christ.
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This, in John 118. In John 118, the
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King James, the unique God, hos.
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So, it goes both directions. Long line of capital letters.
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No spaces. And there are so few variations to deal with, rather than what you would expect, with as much copying as was done in the context.
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You'd have a whole lot more. But, again, and it doesn't sell books.
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It's a whole lot easier to get people riled up. And not good for conspiracy.
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It's, I think, important to see. Okay? Let's pray.
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Father, we do thank you for the preservation of your word. The fact that we have all of this information available to us.
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We still have the freedom to talk about these things. Lord, as we especially celebrate the resurrection today, we ask that as we go into worship, you would be with us.
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You would lift up our hearts and our minds. That we would be able to sing praises to you and truly honor you.