Timothy said:
I heard that 99% of the Manuscripts agree with each other, and yet modern versions use heavily a 1% that don't agree with the 99% ...
What is your take on this statement?
I believe that you are misunderstanding what was said about manuscript agreement.
Here is a simplified explanation. I am using very round numbers.
First. I am only going to be discussing Greek manuscripts. There are around 5,600 that are known today. This number is slowly rising as new manuscripts are continually being discovered and cataloged. See the following link.
http://www.csntm.org/
Second. People who have given their lives to the study of manuscripts report that there are no two that are exactly alike. Not even two. They are all different from each other.
Third. The 99% is a figure some people give to indicate what part of all known manuscripts agree. In other words 99% of all manuscripts are exactly the same. There is 1% difference between all of them that results in a translation difference. I have seen numbers from 95% the same and 5% differences to the figure you gave of 99% the same and 1% difference. My opinion is that it lays some where in between these two.
Fourth. This results in versions that have no difference in the cardinal doctrines of the Bible. You can find the salvation message in the NIV as well as in the NASB or even the KJV. They all are the Word of God. This is also what the KJV translators believed. See Translators to the Reader.
http://sceti.library.upenn.edu/sceti/printedbooksNew/index.cfm?TextID=kjbible&PagePosition=6
Fifth. Let me illustrate what a large number of these differences are. In the original KJV1611 Bible, spelling is not the same as what we have in our modern highly revised KJVs. Look at the original KJV1611. Then look at your modern KJV at the same place.
http://sceti.library.upenn.edu/sceti/printedbooksNew/index.cfm?textID=kjbible&PagePosition=1
A manuscript expert would look at each spelling difference and count that as a real difference even though you can easily tell what we should use in our modern vernacular language today.
If the KJV1611 were a Greek manuscript and you were bringing it into today's English those spelling differences would not result in any translatable differences at all even though there are 100s of thousands of these spelling differences.
Some people like to point out how different it is, but in reality it is hardly different at all.
Sixth. It is the 1% difference on which manuscript experts spend their research time. This 1% difference does not effect any cardinal doctrine of the faith, but we want the most accurate Greek text possible.
All translations produced by qualified translators are the Word of God.
