First Century Christianity

Errors in copying the Bible.
—
The Impossibility of Identical Bible Copies
Since copies of the Bible were written by human hands and translated by humans from one language to another, errors in copying and translation are inevitable. It is also possible that there have been deliberate additions or deletions.
Indeed, copies of the Bible are not identical to each other. For example:
* The Septuagint (Greek) version of the Old Testament (Torah) has differences from the Hebrew versions.
* In the New Testament, for example, the phrase “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen” is added to the Gospel of Matthew: Matthew 6:13.
* There are other differences as well.
This is due to: mistakes or sins of scribes and translators.
Also, some Christian prayer books are sometimes not identical to what is in the Bible:
For example: the phrase “in Christ Jesus our Lord,” in the liturgy of the Coptic Orthodox Church, is a phrase added to the Lord’s Prayer in Egypt, “Our Father who is in heaven…”.
This is because of the desire of one or some clergymen – I do not know who he is or who they are – to add it, so it was added.
Thus, there is a difference between copies of some religious books, which some may describe as distortion, and there may be something in it that is contrary to the principles of the religion, but this is normal as long as these copies were written by human beings, but it is also possible to know the truth from the totality of what is contained in the book: that is, from the general context of the book.
What contradicts the general context of the book and is not mentioned in some versions, we know that it was added during copying or translation.
Also, I believe that God deliberately did not interfere in what the writers of the Gospels wrote because the Gospels are testimony, and testimony should not be interfered with in order for it to be accepted. The writers of the Gospels wrote what they saw or heard or imagined, and it is not necessary for it to be exactly identical to the truth. Rather, it is a testimony of what the witness perceived, so that it can be taken with the rest of the testimonies to reach the truth.
Also, the epistles of the New Testament were not all inspired, but rather contained personal opinions, as evidenced by Paul’s saying in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 7, verse 25:
“Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.”

—
The difference in some copies can be found in versions of books of other religions. What one of the caliphs did by burning all copies of his religious book except for the version he chose means that these versions were different from the version that exists now. Also, the difference in understanding the readings of that book means a big difference in the content of the whole book.
It is not a mere sentence that was added or deleted when copying.

—
But the matter is still in our hands in our Christian religion. When there is a difference in copies of the Gospels, we must take in consideration what is in the general book i.e. The New Testament, and in the spirit of the book, and not what is according to our whims, and we must leave what contradicts the general book.
In this way, we know the truth.
We know our true religion by using reason and accepting what is consistent with logic and reason.
—
Dr. Kamal Farid Ishaq
—
Additional Explanations and Context:
* The Septuagint: This is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) that was created for Greek-speaking Jews in ancient times. It is still used by some Christian churches today.
* The Lord’s Prayer: This is a prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The longer version quoted in Matthew (with the doxology “For thine is the kingdom…”) is not found in the oldest manuscripts and is considered by some scholars to be a later addition.
* Paul’s Letters: The Apostle Paul wrote many letters to early Christian churches, which are included in the New Testament. While Paul’s letters are considered inspired by some Christians, others believe that they also contain his personal opinions and interpretations.
* Caliph’s Burning of Copies: This refers to the story of the third Caliph, Uthman, who is said to have ordered the burning of all variant copies of the Quran except for one authorized version. This was done to ensure uniformity of the text.
+++