How Textual Criticism Helps Students Read Scripture with Confidence

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It’s not uncommon to hear people say, “You can’t trust the Bible. It was made up by people way after the time of Jesus. It’s totally unreliable.” If the middle of this objection was true, then their conclusion would be too. But students can read the Bible with confidence. A surprising source of help comes from a field of study called Textual Criticism.

Textual Criticism is an approach that helps scholars identify the original text of an ancient document, using both external and internal evidence. Contrary to the popular objection, the Bible is a remarkably trustworthy ancient document. This doesn’t mean every textual critic believes in the inspiration and authority of Scripture. But it does mean they reject Scripture and Christianity for other reasons than the reliability of the Bible. 

Since this is a rather technical field of study, the following is a simplified way I have taught about it to teenagers. The video at the bottom of this post is also a helpful discussion starter.

A Helpful Example

Consider the following example that can help us understand how textual criticism works.

The brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

Now, imagine a scribe who’s making a new copy and writes, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” He feels better about himself because he knows this is intended as a sentence that uses every letter of the English alphabet, so the scribe completes the incomplete line. But he changed the original text in the process. Thankfully, the other copies retain the original line, so we would be able to know this scribe made some changes. Sometimes, scribes would make a change to the text to “improve” it or add their clarifying interpretations.

Meanwhile, another scribe wrote, “The red fox jumped over the lazy dog.” This makes sense, because foxes are usually red, not brown. But the original line calls the fox “brown.” So it’s easy to see why this copy changes the text, because most changes are going to add clarity and make more sense. In this case, we can see that textual critics give more weight to the harder or clunkier reading, because it’s likely that a change in the text would make it easier to read. 

Finally, a copy would sometimes have an honest mistake. Perhaps the scribe was hungry or tired or lost their place while copying the original text. This could show up in a copy that reads, “the fox jumped over the dog.” It’s still true and still captures the message, but it’s missing a few words. Even diligent scribes would make the occasional mistake.

Checking the Evidence

When conducting textual criticism, you would consider the internal evidence and external evidence. The above examples highlight internal evidence because they have to do with that particular copy. In these cases, you ask “Did the scribe add commentary or interpretation into the text?” or “Did they try clarifying something that was confusing?” or “Is there simply a mistake in this copy?” This is why our Bibles have footnotes with alternate readings (called variants), usually with the explanation, “Some ancient manuscripts say…” and then it’ll share an alternate text that makes significantly more sense. Generally speaking, the shorter and more difficult-to-understand reading will get preference since it’s more likely a scribe added more clarity than confusion. These are the factors to consider as internal evidence to determine the original text. 

Thankfully, we have thousands of copies of ancient manuscripts to consider as external evidence. Archaeological evidence abounds, and continues to strengthen our confidence in the reliability of Scripture. Although the first “complete” New Testament dates from the 300’s, we have portions of the New Testament that are very close to the original date of authorship. In fact, this is one of the considerations that went into affirming which books were recognized as Scripture: they were writings that Christians immediately recognized as something they wanted a copy of, so they would make a copy for their church before sending the courier onto the next city. And so, there were copies of the New Testament letters scattered throughout the ancient world, because Christians were hungry for faithful teaching about the gospel, and God continued to use these books and letters to build his church. SEBTS has an array of these manuscripts available online here. External evidence gives preference towards older manuscripts. This simply makes sense, because they would have less time available to change from the originals. 

Read with Confidence 

Students can read their Bibles with confidence. Biblical scholars continue to discuss the external and internal evidence with every new translation in order to present us with good and faithful translations of God’s Word. It’s also important to mention that instances of ongoing debate are not surrounding portions of Scripture that carry significant theological impact. This article explains one such instance. 

One of the reasons I believe this is important enough to teach students is this: when we lose confidence in the trustworthiness of Scripture, then we can easily justify whatever beliefs or lifestyles we want. Every veteran youth worker has seen this happen countless times. Students graduate and head off to college, or the stumble upon a website that points out contradictions and casts doubt on the Bible - and next thing you know, the student’s faith has crumbled like a house of cards. 

Let’s be sure we are helping students build on a solid foundation. May we consistently proclaim the grace of God, which isn’t merely a wish or a good idea, but is anchored in the historical person of Jesus Christ. This is the one whom the Bible proclaims. And the Bible we hold today is an account of that same Jesus, written by those who knew him, heard him, ate with him, saw him rise from the grave, and heard the angels announce his future return. Read with confidence.