Monday with Mounce

Because Greek is an inflected language, words that go together don't have to be next to each other. It can make translation a little challenging, though, when you start reordering words and phrases to make sense in English.

When we construct a parallel sentence in English, we can leave out words in the second half, assuming them from the first half. We do it so naturally in English that we may not notice what we are doing. Greek does the same, but sometimes it can be difficult for an English speaker to see what is going on. (You can also watch this blog on YouTube.)

Prof. Bart Ehrman claims that originally John 1:18 declared Jesus to be the “unique Son” (μονογενὴς υἱός), which was later changed to “unique God” (μονογενὴς θεός) by the orthodox scribes who wanted to assert the divinity of Christ in contrast to the adoptionists (Misquoting Jesus, 61–62.)

In my upcoming book, Why I Trust the Bible, due out in August, I deal with this text critical issue (spoiler alert, John originally did write “unique God”), but here I want to make a different point. Even if John did write “Unique Son,” there are other proofs for the deity of Christ.

The answer to his question is partially based on Ephesians 4:26 and a textual variant in Matthew 5:22, and as such it helps us to understand the relevance of textual criticism.

A while back I did a vlog on the supposed “17 Missing Verses” in modern translations, and  the questions keep coming. So I thought I would create a website specifically to deal with this issue. It is www.MissingBibleVerses.com.