The Majority Text: Divine Preservation and Christian Reason

[jeremiah1five]

So, to recap WE today (in our time and context) refer to the Bible as the Word of God. But "the Word of God" in the context of the first century NT usually means "the gospel message that was preached." That is what the apostles usually mean when they refer to "the Word of God." How do we know this? Context. Because they tell us that's what they mean when they say "Word of God" (See, the 80 or so verses I posted a couple pages back).

A second difficulty is that while the Bible can be inspired, there is no inspired "Table of Contents." That's another reason why the 2 Timothy 3.16-17 proof text doesn't work. "All Scripture is God-breathed." First, that's referring to the OT. But second, even if we did extend that beyond the OT, Christians have never been in full agreement on what constitutes the rest of Scripture.

Take for instance the present conversation. Even here there is disagreement over the so-called "Majority Text," which again wasn't even a "thing" until 1982. There is no "Majority Text" manuscript that has been passed down through history. The "Majority Text" is a statistical construct that was first published in 1982:

Hodges and Farstad, 1982. Zane C. Hodges and Arthur L. Farstad, The Greek New Testament According to the Majority Text. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982; 2nd edition 1985

And while it's certainly important to be as accurate as we can, even more important is the fact that someone can still come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ through the "Majority Text," the "Critical Text," or any Bible translation.

The Majority Text is the name given what is the Textus Receptus by John W. Burgon, who successfully investigated the Westcott and Hort Revised Version developed by that committee to be using mainly Greek texts rejected by the Church throughout 1500 years from Christ.
The Revised Version was developed using the Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus texts, both to be of questionable origin and also mutilated through the years by persons unknown. These texts don't even agree with each other let alone other minor Greek texts Westcott and Hort used. Both were closet-Catholics and there are writings of both these men and at least one son in which they worshiped Mary and prayed to Mary (Mariology) and rejected the inspiration of the Holy Scripture.
Do you want someone like these two translating the Scripture?
Using corrupt Greek texts they omitted words, added words, changed words, changed whole paragraphs, omitted whole paragraphs, and their Revised Version of 1881 became the basis of modern-day, new-age translations today. The market is flooded with bibles translated using their Greek texts. Hundreds of different translations have filled the market-place today and this has cause great confusion the Church may not recover from this man-centered attempt to destroy God's Word.
Thank God for John William Burgon.

 

[TMal3]

The Majority Text is the name given what is the Textus Receptus by John W. Burgon, who successfully investigated the Westcott and Hort Revised Version developed by that committee to be using mainly Greek texts rejected by the Church throughout 1500 years from Christ.
The Revised Version was developed using the Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus texts, both to be of questionable origin and also mutilated through the years by persons unknown. These texts don't even agree with each other let alone other minor Greek texts Westcott and Hort used. Both were closet-Catholics and there are writings of both these men and at least one son in which they worshiped Mary and prayed to Mary (Mariology) and rejected the inspiration of the Holy Scripture.
Do you want someone like these two translating the Scripture?
Using corrupt Greek texts they omitted words, added words, changed words, changed whole paragraphs, omitted whole paragraphs, and their Revised Version of 1881 became the basis of modern-day, new-age translations today. The market is flooded with bibles translated using their Greek texts. Hundreds of different translations have filled the market-place today and this has cause great confusion the Church may not recover from this man-centered attempt to destroy God's Word.
Thank God for John William Burgon.

Not quite. Although there are a lot of similarities, the Majority Text and TR are not the same thing.

 

[jeremiah1five]

Not quite. Although there are a lot of similarities, the Majority Text and TR are not the same thing.

I'll give you that.
They are not the same.
They are similar.