The importance of textual criticism in your study of the Bible

Rev. Roderick Heck, M.T.S., M.Div., Pastor Theologian

The first question some of you may be asking is what is textual criticism and why does it matter?  Actually, that’s two questions, so let’s deal with the first question, what is textual criticism? 

To answer that question, we must start with the understanding that we do not possess Scripture as was originally written. What we do have is tens of thousands of copies of the New Testament dating from the 1st to the 15th.century A.D. and of the Old Testament dating from the 4th century B.C. to the 15th century A.D. It is important to know that these ancient copies of the Bible disagree with one another as to the precise wording of a given text.  

Textual criticism is the study and comparison of the various copies of the Scripture we currently possess to determine, as best as possible, the exact wording of an original text so that we can understand God’s Word in its clearest meaning.

Now, let’s answer the second question, why does textual criticism matter?

Textual criticism is valuable in a ministry context because it allows the disciple of Christ to minister, teach and instruct with the greatest amount of accuracy. It allows us to answer deeper questions about how the Scriptures have come to us in the forms in which we have them, or about why there are so many different modern language translations.

Knowing that 99 percent of the Greek New Testament can be reconstructed beyond reasonable doubt allows us to teach, minister, and instruct with the assurance that we have God’s very word to his church.

God Bless.

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