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Pastor's Pen
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Memorization
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Thank you
for visiting.
Please send spiritual
comments to
Pastor's Pen
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Please e-mail all
other comments
to
WindJammer
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Ambassador Baptist Church
1926 Babcock Blvd
Pittsburgh, PA 15209
(412)477-3210
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| Question:
How did the people writing the King James Version obtain the manuscripts? I thought the Catholic Church at that time had the
manuscripts.
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Response:
The Catholic church did not possess all the manuscripts. The Catholics did have some ancient manuscripts like Sinaiticus and Vaticanus which were in disuse at that time (although they ultimately became the basis of the Westcott and Hort Text which underlies the modern English translations), but history shows that it was in fact the Byzantine Empire, headquartered in Constantinople, that preserved the Greek manuscripts for us. This is why the Textus Receptus, the text of the King James version, is often referred to as the Byzantine text. During the dark ages, there was very little education going on in Europe. However, learning and scholarship made a comeback in the 11th - 14th centuries. The prevailing approach to learning was called scholasticism, which was an attempt to combine Greek philosophy with Romanism. Of course, an interest in Greek philosophy would produce an interest in the Greek manuscripts, which the Byzantines had, and could make available (the Byzantine Empire did not fall until 1453). The Italian Renaissance (1350 - 1600) also brought about a revived interest in Greek literature. As the Byzantine empire began to crumble, scholars from that area fled to Italy to escape the oncoming Turks, and they brought manuscripts with them. The availability of ancient manuscripts, coupled with the increase of interest and availability in education, set the stage for Erasmus to produce the Textus Receptus in 1516.
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By Dr Mark Montgomery
Ambassador Baptist Church
1926 Babcock Blvd
Pittsburgh, PA 15209
(412)477-3210
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