The Majority Text - Can it be trusted?

This earlier post reviewed the 4 main documents on which the Minority Text is based, and upon which most modern versions of the Bible rely. These 4 documents are corrupt, with many alterations, erasures, etc. and they don’t even agree with each other.

First of all, we must remember where the twisting of Scripture originated.

“Hath God said…?”(Genesis 3:1) These are the first spoken words ever recorded by our enemy. And Satan has been trying to cast doubt on the credibility of God’s Word ever since.

So what about the Majority Text, upon which the King James Version and several other Bibles have been based? Can we trust that text?

The Early Christians knew which Scriptures were genuine. However, in the first 100 years after the originals were written, two false religions appeared:

Gnosticism – A combination of Christianity, Mysticism, and Pagan philosophy that denied that Jesus was both God and man, denied the virgin birth, resurrection, and ascension. (many liberal churches today are just repackaged Gnosticism). Gnostics believed they were “enlightened” to the truth.

Arianism – Denied the deity of Jesus Christ (Jehovah’s Witnesses come to mind)

These groups began producing false books that they said belonged in the Bible – and even falsely claimed that the books were written by Apostles themselves. They also changed the wording of true Scripture, altered, and removed passages according to their Gnostic/Arian beliefs. It was because of these groups that councils were held to once and for all declare which books of the Bible were truly God’s Word and which ones were false and to be discarded. By 300-400 AD it had been established by true Christians which books did indeed belong in the Bible we have today. It must be noted that at this time, the books were not chosen – they were simply confirmed in order to combat the Gnostic and Arian writings.

The Greek manuscripts which the Christian churches accepted as the true documents have been called the Majority Text, the Traditional Text, the Common Text, the Byzantine Text, the Syrian Text, the Ecclesiastical Text, and the Received Text. This text was used as the basis of translating the Bible into other languages, with one exception: the Roman Catholic Latin Vulgate produced by Jerome was based on the Alexandrian manuscripts of Origin, who is mentioned in the post on the Minority Text. Origin was a Gnostic and the Father of Arianism.

How many manuscripts is the Majority Text based on? Over 5000. Compare that to the mainly 3 or 4 documents on which the Minority Text is based.

Do the documents supporting the Majority Text agree with each other, or are they corrupted too?

Liberals (and interestingly, Muslims) like to say that we can’t be sure we have an accurate Bible today because it has been changed thousands of times over the years.

They are either uninformed or they are liars.

When liberal theologians count the differences in Scripture they deceitfully multiply the actual number of differences by the number of manuscripts that have the variant. For example, if one word varies and there are 3000 manuscripts with that variance, they claim it as 3000 variances instead of one.

Of the actual differences, only 1/8th of them are even worth the scrutiny. For instance, if thousands of the manuscripts all are in agreement, and then 3 manuscripts from one particular geographical region are all in agreement on one variance, then obviously this is either a purposeful alteration or a copying error. In fact, 1/60th of the 1/8th are such unremarkable differences that there is no reason for skepticism. For instance, there may be one word spelled differently, or a difference such as one text saying “Jesus said” and another saying “So Jesus said”. Hardly grounds for liberals’ claims that we can’t trust the authenticity of our Bible.

On the more serious variances, which make up about 1/1000th of the text, not one of the major fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith rest solely on any disputed passage. Though there are passages that are disputed, there are always many other non-disputed passages that support the core doctrines.

Bibles that were based on the Majority text include the The Tyndale version, Matthews Version ( a friend of Tyndale), The Great Bible Version, the Geneva Version, and the King James Version.

The King James Version was based on the Standard Greek Text , the Majority Text, which was the basis for nearly every Bible Translation from the 400s AD until the early 1900s. Assuming that the early Christians were correct that this Majority Text was the true text of Scripture, that means that the King James reflected the entire 1500 years of Christiandom leading up to 1611.

If your primary Bible is not a King James Bible, chances are it is based on the corrupted Minority Text. And if the text it is based on is corrupt, it stands to reason that the version itself is corrupted.

Is that important? You have to make that call. But I suggest you do it prayerfully. God promised He would preserve His Word. So did He?