| Our next step is to move behind the English translations
and examine the Greek texts behind them. YOU DO NOT NEED TO KNOW
ANYTHING ABOUT GREEK TO CONTINUE. All that you will need to do is
compare the Greek words and see if they are the same. Once again
you will need to click on the "PARALLEL
GREEK & HEBREW BIBLE" on the BROWN
TOOLBAR at the top of the page and then click on Mark
1. You will see the Greek texts that are shown below.
While you are there print the page with
the above Greek texts. IMPORTANT!!! MAKE
SURE THAT YOU SPECIFY THE NUMBER OF PAGES THAT YOU WANT TO PRINT.
If you don't specify the number of pages, you will print out all of
chapter 1 and that will take 93 pages. Print the page with the
Greek texts for Mark 1:1 so you will be able to do the next step.
Our next step is to compare the Greek words of each texts. On
the page you printed find Stephens 1550 Textus Receptus, which is
the top text. Number each of the
Greek words from left to right. When you finish your page will
look like the example below.
The Stephens 1550 Textus Receptus text of Mark 1:1 consist of eight
words. Next, compare the words of the Stephens 1550 Textus Receptus
to that of the Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus. If a word in
Scrivener is exactly the same, place the identical number from Stephens
above it. When you finish compare your page to the following.
Now continue the process until you finish numbering all of the
texts. Make sure that you use the same number for identical words
in each text. When you finish your page should look like this.
The first three Greek texts are identical and contain eight
words each. The Alexandrian text has
seven words, with word number 7 missing. Also, notice that
brackets are used around words 6 and 8. Hort and Westcott has five
words, with words 6, 7 and 8 missing.
A large number of Greek manuscripts have been discovered since most
of those above were found, many
are much also older than those above. A good tool to use to make
sure that the other
Greek texts are like those above is found on the BLUE TOOL BAR
at the top of the page -- the NESTLE-ALAND
26 GREEK NT link. If you click on it and then click on SELECT
A CHAPTER, you will go to a page that list all of the
books in the New Testament and chapter numbers. When you select Mark 1
you will see the following.
Please print the page with the above verse. REMEMBER
THAT IT IS IMPORTANT TO MAKE
SURE TO SPECIFY ONLY THE "CURRENT
PAGE!" After you print the page, using the same numbers for words that you did for the Stephens 1550
Textus Receptus, number the words of the Nestle-Aland 26 Greek NT
text. When you finish the verse will look like this.
You may notice that the first letter in words 1, 4 and 5 appear to be
different. Nestle-Aland has the capitalized form of the
letters. Nestle-Aland is identical to the Alexandrian
text. The brackets around words 6 and 8 indicate that the words were not
found in the most ancient Greek manuscripts. They placed them in
brackets so readers would be aware of that fact, and they would also
know that they were added to later manuscripts. Rather than use
brackets, Hort and Westcott
decided to display what they believed to be the original Greek text of
Mark 1:1 and leave them out.
Since we are working with a Greek text and do not know how to read
Greek we do not know how words 6, 7 and 8 were translated. Now
lets take another look at the different English translations and see if
any of the words are placed in brackets.
Either the translators of the above Bibles did not have access to the
oldest manuscripts or they chose to ignore the fact that some of the
Greek words were bracketed or missing. Our next step is to find
out how words 6, 7 and 8 were translated. The good news is that
you don't have to take a course in Greek, all you will need to do is be
able to point your mouse at a Greek word! Please go to the next
page to continue this study.
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