February 4, 2017
Potential Apprentice Jeffrey
Facts
The KJV is an English translation of a Greek text. This Greek text is the called the “received text” or textus receptus.
The received text was created by Erasmus in the early 16th century. The first edition was called the “New Teachings”. The second through the fifth editions were called the “New Testament”.
Martin Luther used the text of the second edition as the basis for his Bible.
The text of the King James Bible is the third edition of the “New Testament” dating from the year 1522.
Discussion
The New Testament did not exist until Erasmus put the individual books together and publish them together as one book in the year 1517. We can say this since neither Erasmus nor the publisher knew to call it the “New Testament”.
We can say that no Bible could have existed before the year 1517, since there was no New Testament to add to the “Old Testament”.
We do not doubt Erasmus was a leading scholar. Erasmus corrected parts of the New Testament. This means he did understand the original text to be divinely inspired.
Luther clarified Saint Paul’s writing. This means Luther did not believe Erasmus’ text to be divinely inspired.
Responses to Possible Issues
The Gutenberg Bible is allegedly dated to around the 1450. The Guttenberg Bible has no printed date of publication.
The Alexandrian version of the Bible has been known since the 1620s. The Sinai version of the Bible was found in the 1840s. The Vatican version of the Bible was allegedly found in the 1470s.
Our calendar was not created until 1582, and dates before then are uncertain. Two of the three oldest Bibles were only known after Eramsus’ New Testament.
Since books were still being copied by hand until the early 1800s, we cannot know when Alexandria and Sinai were created.
Hand written books cannot be dated. Many books do not have dates. Dates before the year 1582 should be treated with caution.
Conclusion
The Bible could not be published before the creation of both the Old and New Testaments.
The New Testament was created in the year 1517.
Therefore, there were no Bibles before the year 1517.