Did God Allow Transmission Errors?

[JoeMama]

Did God know there would be transcription errors in the transmission of the "perfect autographs," but nevertheless choose not to prevent them?

[Miles]

[Replying to Miles in post #9]

All of the words you listed contain, in varying degrees, the same meaning within the context provided: Those things that otherwise are of even great value to the person, become valueless when compared to the gain coming from salvation.

A fair point, and I'd say that if Ahaziah's age was actually 22 its appearance in 2 Chronicles 22:2 as 42 in 42% of the bibles I checked (22 out of 53) is pretty egregious. Of course this doesn't rule out the possibility that his true age was indeed 42---2 Kings 8:26 being completely wrong and 2 Chronicles 22:2 being partially so to an even greater degree, but who knows? The Bible certainly isn't letting on.


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[JehovahsWitness]

So basically you are asking about bible copyist errors?


Regarding 2 Chronicles 22:2 most bibles say "22 years" . The King James Version might be reflecting a copyist error which has since been corrected.
https://biblehub.com/2_chronicles/22-2.htm

God could have prevented such an error, if he wanted...

Sure but perhaps he knew it would be corrected in time and /or it was of little or no consequence (ie did not change the course of the narrative nor pervert any central tenets of biblical truth)



JW

[1213]

...
Of the 55 Bible versions I checked, "dung" appears 11 times as a translation of σκύβαλον in the verse, and

"refuse" 4 times
"garbage" 10 times
"rubbish" 13 times
"filth" 2 times
"trash" 6 times
"worthless" 2 times
"less than nothing" 3 times
"manure" 1 time
"waste" 1 time
"dirt" 1 time
"sewer trash" 1 time.

Interesting. I don't see that as an error, because the word can be translated several ways, which all basically are the same.

[1213]

[Replying to 1213 in post #4]

Not all translations show the apparent transmission error below. God could have prevented such an error, if he wanted:

According to 2 Kings 8:26, Ahaziah was 22 years old when he began to reign, and reigned for one year in Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 22:2 gives his age as 42 years when his reign began in Jerusalem.

Ok, people can make poor translations. Do you think it would be good, if God would take freedom from people and prevent them making any errors?

[1213]

Did God know there would be transcription errors in the transmission of the "perfect autographs," but nevertheless choose not to prevent them?

Please show one example of an error?

Thank you. That is an thing to be clarified. It is a case of errors in the Bible. Factual, contradictions, additions and mistranslations. Aside denial that there are any such the question of Transmission of such errors arises, or permission of such errors. Transmission is obvious, or in some cases, not.

Unless one goes to a degree of science denial ....

Ok, thank you. All of the errors I have seen, seem to be based on what people believe and what world view they have. The problem with that is, they may be wrong. Opinions and beliefs are not enough to prove Bible erroneous, when they can be wrong on itself.

[TRANSPONDER]

So basically you are asking about bible copyist errors?


Regarding 2 Chronicles 22:2 most bibles say "22 years" . The King James Version might be reflecting a copyist error which has since been corrected.
https://biblehub.com/2_chronicles/22-2.htm

God could have prevented such an error, if he wanted...

Sure but perhaps he knew it would be corrected in time and /or it was of little or no consequence (ie did not change the course of the narrative nor pervert any central tenets of biblical truth)



JW

That's why I avoid little errors that can be explained away (innerrancy that is not about micromanaging Bible perfection but it is correct where it matters). That's always a reasonable excuse, though it does rather put the creation of the Bible down to man rather that God.

But it's why I avoid the little errors, easily shrugged off, but go for the biggies, especially since there seems to be (by accident or design ) a tendency to have debates about One angel or Two and missing the big ones, like John has no angel and message.

Mind, I did like the debate you put in about the day of the Passover. I have my doubts, of course (whether the Priests could eat Passover on any day in the week) but you did a good job.

[historia]

Of the 55 Bible versions I checked, "dung" appears 11 times as a translation of σκύβαλον

In fact, I see such transmissions as errors.

In the spirit of clarification here, we should draw a distinction between 'translation' and 'transmission'.

Translation is rendering a word or phrase from one language into another -- in the example above from Greek to English.

Transmission is the process of making a copy of a text (by hand) in the same language. Codex Sianaticus, for example, is an early Greek manuscript of the Bible, which was copied from earlier Greek manuscripts of the Bible. That's transmission.

So, if we're considering transmission errors in this thread, we're talking about places where the biblical text may have become corrupted during copying.

[Miles]

...
Of the 55 Bible versions I checked, "dung" appears 11 times as a translation of σκύβαλον in the verse, and

"refuse" 4 times
"garbage" 10 times
"rubbish" 13 times
"filth" 2 times
"trash" 6 times
"worthless" 2 times
"less than nothing" 3 times
"manure" 1 time
"waste" 1 time
"dirt" 1 time
"sewer trash" 1 time.

Interesting. I don't see that as an error, because the word can be translated several ways, which all basically are the same.

Is dirt the same thing as garbage? No.
Is manure the same thing as rubbish? No.
Is refuse necessarily worthless? No.
Is dung sewer trash? No.

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[Miles]

Of the 55 Bible versions I checked, "dung" appears 11 times as a translation of σκύβαλον

In fact, I see such transmissions as errors.

In the spirit of clarification here, we should draw a distinction between 'translation' and 'transmission'.

Translation is rendering a word or phrase from one language into another -- in the example above from Greek to English.

Transmission is the process of making a copy of a text (by hand) in the same language.

Yes it can. And it can also involve the process of translating text into another language.

trans·mis·sion
noun
noun: transmission
1. the action or process of transmitting something, or the state of being transmitted.

Note, there is no hint of any exclusion of translation in the definition. I can well transmit Swedish instructions to you by translating them into English.

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[Miles]

So basically you are asking about bible copyist errors?

Regarding 2 Chronicles 22:2 most bibles say "22 years"

A margin of 42% to 58% (my calculations of 53 Bibles) is indeed most, but not particularly telling. If just five (5) Bibles had said he was 42 years old rather than 22 years old the majority would go to "42 years old."

The King James Version might be reflecting a copyist error which has since been corrected.

But not corrected recently enough to make it into the 1994 21st Century King James Version and 21 other Bibles, including some of those copyrighted in the 2020s.

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