When I taught elementary school, I have to say that
most of my kids worked well in class.
I like the practice of the One Minute Manager,
to catch them doing something good,
and compliment them. I'd love to tell them
"You did a good job."
But with the older kids, sometimes there would be
that student who turned in a paper
that he clearly did not work well on. It was filled with erasures,
crossing out and writing again. And it wasn't a draft
--it was the final copy!
Then when I'd look at his work, I'd look at him and say,
"Is that your best job?"
And he'd look sheepish and say, "No, Mr. Daniels."
And I'd have him do it over again.
I've told you some about the Sinaiticus,
the book that changed Bible believers
into Bible doubters, almost overnight,
starting in the 1860s. I've told you about
the perfectionist, Scribe D.
But now I'm going to show you
another reason why I believe Sinaiticus
is not the document the experts have made it up to be,
simply by letting you see it for yourself,
up-close.
Then ask yourself, "Was that their best job?"
You'll be amazed at what you find out.
Ready?
Hi, I'm David Daniels from Chick Publications.
First, listen to this scripture, about the sacrifices to the Lord,
which are supposed to be perfect and without blemish:
Malachi 1:8 "And if ye
offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil?
and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?
offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee,
or accept thy person? saith the Lord of hosts."
Now, let me ask you a simple question.
If you were offering your very best to the emperor,
what would it look like?
In Codex Sinaiticus: The Story of
the World's Oldest Bible, David Parker wrote:
"...it has been claimed that the Codex
may even have been written at the emperor's express command.
The reason for this is a passage in Eusebius'
Life of Constantine..."
And he quotes the Emperor Constantine's
command to Eusebius back in the early 300s AD.
Listen to these words.
"We make known to you that you are to commission
fifty volumes which are to be bound in leather,
easy to read and (for convenience) portable.
They are to be written by craftsmen
who are both calligraphers and used to working accurately.
They are to be copies of the divine Scriptures,
which you well know must be available
for reading in church."
At the end of all this, Eusebius wrote,
"Thus the emperor instructed. Action immediately followed word,
as we sent him threes and fours in curiously worked bindings."
Listen to those parts very carefully. Constantine commanded 50 volumes,
made how?
1. To be bound in leather 2. Easy to read
3. Portable. 4. Written by craftsmen
who were (get this): a. Calligraphers, artistic writers,
b. Used to working accurately (remember that)
5. COPIES of the divine Scriptures 6. Available for reading in church
I could use another vlog just to take this apart.
But let me just summarize the juicy parts:
Many people have said that Sinaiticus WAS
one of those 50 copies. They even
rationalized those words to make it fit.
And the only pictures of Sinaiticus we ever saw in our books in school
were beautiful, perfectly set pages of text.
I think those were typed-in, not the original ones.
But at the very least, they didn't show you
what I've been showing you. Now to the six points:
1. The Sinaiticus isn't bound in beautiful leather.
In fact, from the time in 1859
when Tischendorf brought it out of Egypt,
it has had NO binding at all! So no one could check
to see if it were a beautiful, ancient bound text
or a modern counterfeit.
2. Easy to read? That is only
if you have a single text that you are reading.
I've already shown you the work of Scribe A
with D correcting, and the piles of words
written into margins, over other words,
the erasings, etc. That is NOT easy to read.
3. Portable. Let me remind you
that the facsimiles (this is a facsimile)
of Sinaiticus are 5% smaller than real-life?
This is not exactly something you can carry with you
to prayer meeting.
4. Written by craftsmen who are calligraphers.
Now that much is possible. Scribes A, B1, B2 and D
did form letters that you can read.
5. But "used to working accurately"? I'm not sure you could
call what they did "accurate."
So let me stop there and show you
what the text of much of Sinaiticus
looks like from a distance. Then let me show you
close-up what is really going on.
I've marked these, but do you see
the general text? Okay.
See that upside down triangle of words,
right here?
Let me get you a close-up.
In English, it says this:
"At the sign of the three crosses is the end of the seven leaves
which are superfluous and not part of Esdras."
That's referring to the 19 chapters of 1 Chronicles
that were duplicated here, that I talked about in Vlog 150:
Why You Can't Trust the Sinaiticus.
There are so many wrong things here.
First, it admits that there are seven leaves --
7 folia, 14 pages of 1 Chronicles --
that are "superfluous," which really means
"they're extra, and they don't belong there."
But they didn't take them out and fix it!
Second, see those "three crosses" there?
It says where "the sign of the three crosses" is,
is the end of the 7 leaves. But it's not.
The end of the 7 leaves is up above,
where I drew that red line.
Third, look to the left of that red line.
That circle next to it that I made,
is around something that's smudged out.
Can you see it? It's a cross!
But it's not the 3 crosses from the note.
No. They're down at the bottom,
right here. And there's another set
right here, on the right side of the note,
as well!
So even the note about the mistake is a mistake.
Yes, this is a big mistake.
But there are also little mistakes all through Sinaiticus.
Even in the Psalms. Remember,
I told you they are beautiful. And they are.
But if you look closely (I'm going to zero in right here),
they have mistakes.
Here's that part, zoomed-in. You see it?
How about if I mark them for you?
There you go. See?
It doesn't matter how you slice it,
or where you look, not even in Scribe D.
Let's face it: it's nobody's best job.
And it's not a final job, either.
So that's why the mess called Sinaiticus
is all the more surprising to me, now that I finally
get to look at every page for myself.
It doesn't look like the final work
of any real "scribe" at all. It looks more
like a messy term paper in the middle of corrections.
It looks more like a draft copy, before they knuckle down
and make a real Bible.
If you turned that writing in to your teacher,
you'd get an F. He'd say,
"Don't give me your draft. Give me your final copy."
I don't think anymore that Sinaiticus was
one of Constantine's 50 Bibles.
So why is Sinaiticus in that messed-up condition?
That gets into my theory, and that's for another vlog.
In the meantime, aren't you glad
you can simply trust what God put in plain sight?
We have God's preserved words which we have in English
in the King James Bible.
It's easy to read. It's portable.
It's beautiful. It's accurate.
And best of all, it's scripture.
EVERY WORD OF IT!
God bless you, and have a wonderful day.