Whose Word is it?: The Story Behind Who Changed The New Testament and Why [Hardcover]

Bart D. Ehrman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2006

With the advent of the printing press and the subsequent publishing culture that reproduces exact copies of texts en masse, most people who read the Bible today assume that they are reading the very words that Jesus spoke or St. Paul wrote. And yet, for almost 1,500 years manuscripts were copied by hand by scribes -- many of them untrained, especially in the early centuries of Christendom -- who were deeply influenced by the theological and political disputes of their day. Mistakes and intentional changes abound in the competing manuscript versions that continue to plague biblical scholars who determine which words, phrases, or stories are the most reliable and, therefore, merit publication in modern Bibles.

Whose Word Is It? is the fascinating history of the words themselves. Biblical scholar Bart Ehrman shows us where and why changes were made in our earliest surviving manuscripts, changes that continue to have a dramatic impact on widely-held beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origins of the Bible itself. Many books have been written about why some books made it into the New Testament and why others didn't (canonization) or about how the meaning of words change when translated from Aramaic to Greek to English. But this is the first time that a leading biblical scholar reveals for the general reader the many challenging -- even disturbing -- early variations of our cherished biblical stories and why only certain versions of those stories qualify for publication in the Bibles we read today.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'This is the first book written which offers a thorough examination of the issue of who changed the New Testament and why they did so... an excellent guide to both the sources and context of the New Testament... highly accessible, yet scholarly at the same time.' Publishing News

'Engaging and fascinating ... [Ehrman's] absorbing story, fresh and lively prose, and seasoned insights into the challenges of recreating the texts of the New Testament ensure that readers might never read the Gospels or Paul's letters the same way again.'

(Publishers Weekly )

'The most interesting feature of the book is the wider theological lesson it draws.'

The Furrow: A Journal for the Contemporary Church

(Joseph S. O'Leary )

'Whose Word Is It? also presents a great deal of information about the history and practice of New Testament textual criticism in an engaging and accessible way.' (Andrew Gregory Church Of England Newspaper )

'The most interesting feature of the book is the wider theological lesson it draws.'

The Furrow: A Journal for the Contemporary Church

(, )

About the Author

Bart D. Ehrman chairs the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

He is the author of Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew, Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Not Make it into the New Testament, The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot, Lost Scriptures, Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium and New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (March 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826491294
• ISBN-13: 978-0826491299
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,739,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent account of how the New Testament came to take its present form, November 9, 2007

By 

Alisdair J. Gordon "kosmische" (Glasgow, Scotland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Whose Word is it?: The Story Behind Who Changed The New Testament and Why (Hardcover)

I should declare an interest as a militant atheist but having said that, the author of this book certainly started off as a devout christian. This therefore is no Dawkins/Hitchens/Harris-type rant but rather a well laid out historical account of how the new testament came to take its present form.

Haven't you ever wondered how you could be sure that the NT was an accurate history of anything given how many times it must have been copied - by hand, remember - and also translated from one language to another to another to another.... etc etc. Most of us after all will be reading it in translation into languages that effectively didn't even exist at the time e.g. English.

Ehrmann shows well how the texts have been altered over time, sometimes accidentally and often quite intentionally in some quite substantial ways to present a particular picture of jesus and his beliefs.

It would appear arguments began to rage very soon after the death of jesus even about who he was - was he entirely divine, was he entirely human, was he both - and also about the "true" meaning of his teachings so that the texts of the gospels began to change to reflect an emerging orthodoxy and to counter opposing views of which there seem to have been several.

I came away from this book even more strongly of the view that as an accurate history of jesus, his family and companions, and his beliefs and teachings, the new testament is absolutely worthless. We have absolutely no way now of knowing who this man really was - leaving aside the vexed question of whether he even existed , at least as the person most christians imagine him to have been - nor what his teachings were.

The new testament simply represents the outcome of what might best be seen as propaganda wars in which various factions sought to have their version of history prevail over the others.

I strongly recommend this book to believers and non-believers alike.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thou shall not plagiarize thyself, February 22, 2011

By 

Cristobal Garza-gonzalez "estuchedepeluche" (Richmond, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Whose Word is it?: The Story Behind Who Changed The New Testament and Why (Paperback)

If you already own or have read "Misquoting Jesus, The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why" you have in effect already read this one too. It could be an editorial decision away from the apt hands of Ehrman or a plot to make you buy the book twice, so Who's tittle is it? Why was it changed? Is this a copyist error or the actual Word of Ehrman? Do most Ehr, err? Many are the questions and few the chosen to be confused by them.

All jokes aside, the book(s) is (are) very, very well researched and historically grounded, at the same time the sources, methods, and ideas are presented in very comprehensible ways, it could easily be used for an undergraduate class or as coffee shop reading. I still think it is funny, ironic and possibly a bit tongue in cheek that book was published under a tittle in the USA and another in the UK, precisely when the book is concerned with the rigor and the failures of the printed word.

P.S. Being a grad student allowed me to borrow both copies, and makes me wonder how many of the tittles from Ehrman contain the same writings. It is not a problem if one restates, researches further one's ideas and publishes more, most of us aren't experts in anything, let alone more than one subject. But I would find highly problematic if the situation persisted across Ehrman's books, it would give his detractors a great deal of ammunition.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very satisfied!, December 28, 2009

By 

A. Bayle "book lover" (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Whose Word is it?: The Story Behind Who Changed The New Testament and Why (Hardcover)

I am very satisfied by the products and by their timely deliveries.
Bart Ehrman's book "Whose word is it?" is excellent. Strongly recommend
it to anybody interested in New Testament and religious documents from a
historical point of view. Bart Ehrman is a scholar, a first-class educator
who writes so beautifully.