{"id":1188,"date":"2009-05-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/contentfeeds\/2009\/05\/bible-qa-for-january-31.html"},"modified":"2009-05-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-21T00:00:00","slug":"bible-qa-for-january-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/contentfeeds\/2009\/05\/bible-qa-for-january-31.html","title":{"rendered":"Bible Q&A for May 21"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the history of the Bible, how many times was the holy book revised? During the revision, is there any possibility that God’s verses were amended to suit the needs of the scholars concerned?<\/b>
\nThe Bible has not really been revised over the ages, as you are suggesting. However, words and passages have at times been miscopied or mistranslated.
\nIf you are wondering if there has been a scholarly conspiracy to amend the Bible to suit particular theological views, the answer is basically no, unless you are dealing with versions like the New World Translation by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
\nBut bear in mind that every translation is already an interpretation of the original language text, and scholars do debate what the proper translation of this or that foreign word or phrase may be. Words only have meaning in context, and as with English, many Greek or Hebrew words have multiple possible meanings. Only careful study of the context helps determine what the inspired author may have meant.
\n—Ben Witherington III<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the history of the Bible, how many times was the holy book revised? During the revision, is there any possibility that God’s verses were amended to suit the needs of the scholars concerned? The Bible has not really been revised over the ages, as you are suggesting. However, words and passages have at times…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":235,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-qa"],"yoast_head":"\nBible Q&A for May 21 - Content Feeds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/contentfeeds\/2009\/05\/bible-qa-for-january-31.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bible Q&A for May 21 - Content Feeds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the history of the Bible, how many times was the holy book revised? During the revision, is there any possibility that God’s verses were amended to suit the needs of the scholars concerned? The Bible has not really been revised over the ages, as you are suggesting. However, words and passages have at times…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/contentfeeds\/2009\/05\/bible-qa-for-january-31.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Content Feeds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-05-21T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jana Melpolder\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bible Q&A for May 21 - Content Feeds","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/contentfeeds\/2009\/05\/bible-qa-for-january-31.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bible Q&A for May 21 - Content Feeds","og_description":"In the history of the Bible, how many times was the holy book revised? During the revision, is there any possibility that God’s verses were amended to suit the needs of the scholars concerned? The Bible has not really been revised over the ages, as you are suggesting. 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