Neno Moja, Matini Mbili ZilizochapishwaOne Word, Two Printed Texts

Katika sehemu mbili zilizopita shahidi wa pili alitoa ushuhuda ulio wazi: Agano Jipya linatufikia kupitia wingi mkubwa wa miswada (nakala za maandishi ya mkono), iliyonakiliwa kwa uaminifu na kurudi nyuma hadi ndani ya kizazi kimoja baada ya mitume. Hata hivyo, tulipokuwa tukitembea katika jumba hilo la maonyesho tuliona jambo moja la kweli ambalo hatukusimama kulitatua. Miswada mikuu ya zamani — Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, na mafunjo — wakati mwingine inatofautiana, katika sehemu chache, na Matini Iliyopokelewa ya baadaye iliyo nyuma ya toleo la King James na Reina-Valera. Sehemu hii inalishughulikia tofauti hiyo moja kwa moja, kwa maana ndilo swali moja hai lililobaki katika kujifunza matini ya Biblia. Hebu tuweke msingi kwa uangalifu kabla hatujaanza, kwa sababu machafuko mengi, na ukosefu wa upole usio mdogo, umezuka hapa. Huu ni mgawanyiko halisi wa maoni kati ya Wakristo wanaoipenda Biblia na wasiotaka chochote isipokuwa Neno la kweli la Mungu. Ni swali la ndani, jambo la kifamilia — wala si, kwa namna yoyote, swali la kama tunalo Neno la Mungu. Tunalo. Matini zote mbili kuu zilizochapishwa zinabeba injili nzima ya Yesu Kristo. Kwa hiyo tutafanya hapa kile ambacho kozi hii imefanya tangu mwanzo: kuwasilisha misimamo yote miwili kama watetezi wake bora na waaminifu zaidi wanavyoishikilia, kusimama juu ya fundisho kwamba Mungu amelihifadhi Neno lake, na kukataa madai ya kupita kiasi yaliyotolewa na upande wowote.In the last two units the second witness gave a clear testimony: the New Testament comes to us in an abundance of manuscripts, faithfully copied and reaching back to within a generation of the apostles. Yet as we walked the gallery we saw one honest thing we did not stop to settle. The great early manuscripts — Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, the papyri — sometimes differ, in a handful of places, from the later Received Text that stands behind the King James Version and the Reina-Valera. This unit takes that difference up directly, for it is the one live question left in the study of the text. Let us set the frame carefully before we begin, because much confusion and not a little unkindness have grown up here. This is a genuine disagreement among Christians who love the Bible and want nothing but the true Word of God. It is an in-house question, a family matter — and it is not, in any way, a question of whether we possess the Word of God. We do. Both of the great printed texts carry the whole gospel of Jesus Christ. So we will do here what this course has done throughout: present both positions as their best and most faithful defenders hold them, stand on the doctrine that God has preserved His Word, and refuse the overclaims that have been made on either side.

Tulipataje, kwanza kabisa, matini mbili za Kigiriki zilizochapishwa? Kwa takriban karne kumi na nne Agano Jipya lilinakiliwa kwa mkono, na idadi kubwa ya nakala zilizobaki zinabeba kile kinachoitwa matini ya Kibizantini — muundo uliotumiwa bila kukatika na kanisa lililozungumza Kigiriki. Uchapishaji ulipofika, mwanazuoni Mholanzi Erasmus alichapisha Agano Jipya la kwanza la Kigiriki mwaka 1516, akitumia idadi ndogo ya miswada ya baadaye aliyokuwa nayo karibu. Matini yake iliboreshwa katika karne iliyofuata na Stephanus, Beza, na wachapishaji wa familia ya Elzevir, ambao toleo lao lilijitangaza kuwa matini "iliyopokelewa sasa na wote" — na hivyo ikapata jina Textus Receptus, yaani Matini Iliyopokelewa. Hii ndiyo matini iliyo chini ya toleo la King James, New King James, na Reina-Valera — ikiwemo Reina-Valera Gómez, Biblia ya Kihispania inayotumiwa na kozi hii. Kisha, katika miaka ya 1800, kupatikana tena kwa miswada mikuu ya zamani kulibadilisha hali yote. Wanazuoni kama Westcott na Hort walihoji kwamba mashahidi hao wa zamani zaidi wanapaswa kupewa uzito mkubwa zaidi, na wakajenga kutokana nao matini tofauti iliyochapishwa — Matini ya Kiuhakiki au Matini ya Kuchagua (Eclectic), inayoboreshwa leo katika toleo la Nestle-Aland. Matini hii iko chini ya tafsiri nyingi za kisasa, kama ESV na NIV za Kiingereza na NVI ya Kihispania. Matini mbili za Kigiriki zilizochapishwa; familia mbili za tafsiri zinazotiririka kutoka kwazo.How did we come to have two printed Greek texts in the first place? For some fourteen centuries the New Testament was copied by hand, and the great majority of the copies that survive carry what is called the Byzantine text — the form used continuously by the Greek-speaking church. When printing arrived, the Dutch scholar Erasmus published the first printed Greek New Testament in 1516, working from a small number of late manuscripts he had at hand. His text was refined over the next century by Stephanus, Beza, and the Elzevir printers, whose edition advertised itself as the text "now received by all" — and so it gained the name Textus Receptus, the Received Text. This is the text underlying the King James Version, the New King James, and the Reina-Valera — including the Reina-Valera Gómez, the Spanish Bible this course uses. Then, in the eighteen-hundreds, the recovery of the great early manuscripts changed the landscape. Scholars such as Westcott and Hort argued that these older witnesses should carry the most weight, and built from them a different printed text — the Critical or Eclectic Text, refined today in the Nestle-Aland edition. This text underlies most modern translations, such as the English ESV and NIV and the Spanish NVI. Two printed Greek texts; two families of translation flowing from them.

Kabla hatujalinganisha misimamo hii miwili, ni lazima tupate uwiano sahihi, kwa sababu karibu kila hofu katika eneo hili inatokana na kukosea jambo hili. Matini Iliyopokelewa na Matini ya Kiuhakiki zinakubaliana katika sehemu kubwa mno ya Agano Jipya. Mstari baada ya mstari, sura baada ya sura, maneno ni yale yale tu. Tofauti ni za kweli, lakini zimekusanyika katika idadi ndogo kiasi ya mahali. Zinazojulikana zaidi ni mwisho mrefu wa Marko, sura ya kumi na sita, na habari ya mwanamke aliyefumaniwa akizini katika Yohana sura ya nane; zaidi ya hizo, kuna mistari michache iliyotawanyika iliyo kamili zaidi katika Matini Iliyopokelewa na kuwekewa maelezo ya chini katika matoleo ya kisasa, na tofauti chache za neno moja kama 1 Timotheo 3:16. Sasa shika jambo hili kwa nguvu, kwa maana ndilo nanga ya sehemu hii nzima: hakuna hata fundisho moja la msingi la imani ya Kikristo linalosimama au kuanguka kwa sababu ya tofauti yoyote kati ya hizi. Uungu wa Kristo, Utatu Mtakatifu, ufufuo wa mwili, wokovu kwa neema kupitia imani — kila moja ya haya linafundishwa mara nyingi, katika vifungu ambavyo matini zote mbili zinashiriki neno kwa neno. Mjadala unahusu maneno ya mistari fulani. Haujawahi kuwa mjadala kuhusu injili.Before we compare the two positions, we must get the proportion right, because almost every fear in this area comes from getting it wrong. The Received Text and the Critical Text agree across the overwhelming majority of the New Testament. In verse after verse, chapter after chapter, the wording is simply the same. The differences are real, but they gather in a relatively small number of places. The best known are the longer ending of Mark, chapter sixteen, and the account of the woman caught in adultery in John chapter eight; beyond those, a scattering of verses that stand fuller in the Received Text and are footnoted in the modern versions, and a handful of single-word differences such as 1 Timothy 3:16. Now hold this fast, for it is the anchor of the whole unit: not one cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith rises or falls on any of these differences. The deity of Christ, the Holy Trinity, the bodily resurrection, salvation by grace through faith — every one of these is taught many times over, in passages that both texts share word for word. The debate concerns the wording of certain verses. It has never been a debate about the gospel.

Hebu tusikilize kwanza hoja ya Matini ya Kiuhakiki, katika nguvu zake zote, kama watetezi wake waaminifu wanavyoitoa. Lengo lake moja ni kurejesha, kwa ukaribu kadiri ushahidi unavyoruhusu, maneno halisi ambayo mitume waliandika mwanzoni. Imani yake inayoiongoza ni hii: miswada ya zamani zaidi, ikiwa na hatua chache za unakili kutoka kwa nakala asili, kwa kawaida ndiyo mashahidi wa kuaminika zaidi wa maneno hayo. Na inaona mtindo fulani katika jinsi waandishi-nakili walivyofanya kazi — kwamba katika karne nyingi walikuwa na uwezekano mkubwa zaidi wa kuongeza kuliko kuacha, wa kulainisha kifungu kigumu, wa kuoanisha Injili moja na nyingine, wa kujaza cheo kinachojulikana. Ikiwa ni hivyo, basi pale nakala za zamani zaidi zilipo fupi zaidi, au zinaposomeka kwa ugumu zaidi, mara nyingi zinahifadhi maneno asili, na usomaji kamili na laini zaidi wa miswada ya baadaye ni ukuaji wenye nia njema. Kwa hoja hii, nakala kuu za karne ya nne (codices) na mafunjo ya zamani zaidi yanapaswa kuwa na uzito kuliko wingi tu wa nakala za baadaye za Zama za Kati, kwa sababu umri uko karibu zaidi na chanzo. Huu ndio msimamo wa wengi katika usomi leo, na unashikiliwa na Wakristo wengi sana wanaoamini kila neno la Biblia na wasiotaka chochote isipokuwa maneno ya mitume wenyewe.Let us hear the case for the Critical Text first, at its strongest, as its faithful defenders make it. Its single aim is to recover, as nearly as the evidence allows, the exact words the apostles first wrote. Its guiding conviction is this: the earliest manuscripts, standing fewer copies away from the originals, are generally the most trustworthy witnesses to those words. And it observes a pattern in how scribes worked — that over the centuries they were far more likely to add than to leave out, to smooth a rough phrase, to harmonize one Gospel with another, to fill in a familiar title. If that is so, then where the oldest copies are shorter, or read more roughly, they are often preserving the original, and the fuller, smoother reading of the later manuscripts is a well-meant growth. On this reasoning, the fourth-century codices and the still older papyri should outweigh the sheer number of the later medieval copies, because age lies closer to the source. This is the majority position in scholarship today, and it is held by a great many Christians who believe every word of the Bible and want only the apostles' own.

Sasa hebu tusikilize hoja ya Matini Iliyopokelewa na Matini ya Wengi, nayo pia katika nguvu zake zote, nayo pia kutoka kwa mikono ya waaminifu. Inakuja katika nyuzi mbili. Uzi wa kwanza ni hoja inayotokana na wingi wenyewe: usomaji unaopatikana katika umati mkubwa wa miswada — matini ambayo kanisa zima lilinakili na kusoma, Jumapili baada ya Jumapili, kwa miaka elfu moja — ndio wenye uwezekano mkubwa zaidi wa kuwa asili. Kwa nini, msimamo huu unauliza, miswada miwili kutoka mchanga wa Misri iwe na uzito kuliko maelfu ambayo kanisa lililo hai lilitumia kwa kweli? Miswada iliyodumu katika droo ya monasteri au kwenye rafu ya Vatikani huenda ilidumu hasa kwa sababu iliwekwa kando na kusomwa kidogo. Uzi wa pili ni hoja ya uhifadhi: Mungu aliahidi kwamba Neno lake halitapita, na ingekuwa ajabu kweli kwa maongozi yake kama matini ya kweli ingepotea kwa kanisa lake kwa miaka elfu moja na mia tano, ili tu ipatikane tena kutoka kwenye pipa la taka na maktaba katika zama za kisasa. Matini Iliyopokelewa ni matini ya Matengenezo ya Kanisa, matini iliyolilisha kanisa katika kipindi cha uamsho mkuu, matini ya King James na Reina-Valera — na Reina-Valera Gómez ilitengenezwa mahususi ili kuyaleta Maandiko ya Kihispania katika upatano kamili zaidi nayo. Msimamo huu, nao pia, unashikiliwa na watu makini na waaminio.Now let us hear the case for the Received and Majority Text, also at its strongest, also from faithful hands. It comes in two strands. The first is the argument from the majority itself: the reading found in the great mass of the manuscripts — the text the whole church copied and read, Sunday after Sunday, for a thousand years — is the more likely to be original. Why, this position asks, should two manuscripts from the sands of Egypt outweigh the thousands the living church actually used? Manuscripts that survived in a monastery drawer or on a Vatican shelf may have survived precisely because they were set aside and little read. The second strand is the argument from preservation: God promised that His Word would not pass away, and it would be a strange providence indeed if the true text were lost to His church for fifteen hundred years, only to be recovered from a wastebasket and a library in the modern age. The Received Text is the text of the Reformation, the text that fed the churches through the great awakenings, the text of the King James and the Reina-Valera — and the Reina-Valera Gómez was made expressly to bring the Spanish Scriptures into fuller agreement with it. This position, too, is held by serious and believing men.

Hebu tuone jinsi njia hizi mbili za kufikiri zinavyokutana na mifano halisi, tukichukua ile mikali zaidi kwa uaminifu. Mwisho mrefu wa Marko umo katika Matini Iliyopokelewa na umechapishwa kikamilifu katika King James na Reina-Valera; haumo katika nakala kuu mbili za zamani (codices), na kwa hiyo matoleo ya kisasa yanautenga kwa maelezo. Mkali zaidi ni kifungu kinachoitwa Comma Johanneum, katika Waraka wa Kwanza wa Yohana sura ya tano, sentensi moja iliyo wazi kuliko zote katika Biblia nzima inayomtaja Baba, Neno, na Roho kama watatu walio umoja. Kimo katika Matini Iliyopokelewa, King James, na Reina-Valera — lakini kinapatikana katika miswada michache sana ya Kigiriki, ya baadaye sana, na Erasmus mwenyewe alikiingiza tu katika toleo la baadaye, chini ya shinikizo, wakati nakala moja ya Kigiriki iliyokuwa nacho ilipoletwa. Huu ndio mfano ambao upande wa Matini ya Kiuhakiki unausisitiza kuliko yote. Na hapa tena kuna nanga: kweli ya Utatu Mtakatifu imefumwa katika Maandiko yote ambayo matini zote mbili zinashiriki — ubatizo kwa jina la Baba, Mwana, na Roho katika Mathayo sura ya ishirini na nane, Neno wa milele wa Yohana sura ya kwanza, neema na pendo na ushirika wa Waraka wa Pili kwa Wakorintho sura ya kumi na tatu. Chapisha Comma au kiwekee maelezo ya chini: fundisho linabaki thabiti bila kutikisika. Ndivyo ilivyo kila mahali. Tofauti zinagusa maneno ya mstari; kamwe hazigusi mafundisho ya Maandiko yote.Let us see how the two ways of reasoning meet the actual examples, taking the sharpest ones honestly. The longer ending of Mark stands in the Received Text and is printed in full in the King James and the Reina-Valera; it is absent from the two great early codices, and so the modern versions set it apart with a note. Sharper still is the passage called the Comma Johanneum, in First John chapter five, the single clearest sentence in all the Bible naming the Father, the Word, and the Spirit as three who are one. It stands in the Received Text, the King James, and the Reina-Valera — yet it is found in only a very few, very late Greek manuscripts, and Erasmus himself included it only in a later edition, under pressure, when a single Greek copy of it was produced. This is the example the Critical Text side presses hardest. And here is the anchor once more: the truth of the Holy Trinity is woven through the whole of the Scriptures that both texts share — the baptism into Father, Son, and Spirit in Matthew twenty-eight, the eternal Word of John chapter one, the grace and love and fellowship of Second Corinthians thirteen. Print the Comma or footnote it: the doctrine stands unmoved. So it is everywhere. The differences touch the wording of a verse; they never touch the teaching of the whole.

Basi, kozi hii inasimama wapi? Kwa uwazi: Biblia zetu wenyewe, New King James na Reina-Valera Gómez, zinasimama katika mapokeo ya Matini Iliyopokelewa, na tunayathamini sana mapokeo hayo na tunaona hoja yake ya uhifadhi kuwa na uzito. Lakini hatutafanya uchaguzi wa mtu wa matini kuwa kipimo cha imani yake, na tunakataa misimamo miwili ya kupita kiasi ambayo imeleta madhara makubwa. Tunakataa dai, linalotolewa wakati mwingine, kwamba Matini Iliyopokelewa na King James ni potofu au ni kimbilio la wasiojua; hayo ni Neno lililojaribiwa na kuheshimiwa lililolibeba kanisa kwa karne nyingi. Na tunakataa, kwa uthabiti uleule, dai lililo kinyume — kwamba matoleo ya kisasa ni upotoshaji wa makusudi, wa kishetani, "unaofuta" mistari ili kuidhoofisha imani. Shtaka hilo huchukua tofauti ya maoni ya kitaaluma iliyo ya uaminifu na kuivika vazi la njama, nalo huwajeruhi waamini wa kweli wanaosoma Biblia za kisasa zilizo aminifu na kumpenda Bwana kwa mioyo yao yote. Ndugu aliye na ESV au NVI ameshika Neno la Mungu mikononi mwake. Ndugu aliye na King James au Reina-Valera ameshika Neno la Mungu mikononi mwake. Unyoofu wa kihafidhina maana yake ni kusimama kwa uchangamfu na bila kuomba radhi katika mapokeo yetu wenyewe, huku tukikataa kuwatenga na kanisa ndugu wanaosimama katika mapokeo mengine.Where, then, does this course stand? Plainly: our own Bibles, the New King James and the Reina-Valera Gómez, stand in the Received Text tradition, and we hold that tradition dear and find its argument from preservation weighty. But we will not make a man's choice of text into a test of his faith, and we refuse the two extremes that have done such harm. We refuse the claim, sometimes made, that the Received Text and the King James are corrupt or the refuge of the ignorant; they are the tried and honored Word that carried the church for centuries. And we refuse, just as firmly, the opposite claim — that the modern versions are a deliberate, satanic corruption that "deletes" verses to undermine the faith. That charge takes an honest scholarly disagreement and dresses it as a conspiracy, and it wounds sincere believers who read faithful modern Bibles and love the Lord with all their hearts. A brother with an ESV or an NVI holds the Word of God in his hands. A brother with a King James or a Reina-Valera holds the Word of God in his hands. Conservative candor means standing warmly and without apology in our own tradition, while refusing to unchurch the brothers who stand in another.

Na hivyo shahidi wa pili anapumzika. Matini yoyote aminifu na tafsiri yoyote aminifu uliyoishika, umeshika Neno la Mungu. Tofauti kati ya Matini Iliyopokelewa na Matini ya Kiuhakiki ni za kweli, na zinawalipa wale walioitwa kwa kazi hiyo kwa kujifunza kwa makini; lakini ni chache, zinajulikana vizuri, zimechapishwa waziwazi pembeni mwa Biblia zetu wenyewe, na hakuna hata moja inayoigusa kwa kidole injili ambayo kwayo uliokolewa. Hivi ndivyo uhifadhi wa Maandiko umemaanisha siku zote — si kwamba Mungu alitukabidhi nakala moja, kamilifu, isiyoweza kuhojiwa, bali kwamba alilihifadhi Neno lake kwa wingi mno na waziwazi mno, katika mikono mingi mno kwa karne nyingi mno, hata kweli yake isiweze kamwe kupotea wala kuzikwa. Vitabu sahihi. Maneno sahihi. Shahidi wa pili amekamilika. Sasa shahidi wa tatu anainuka kutoa ushuhuda — na huyu haongei kwa wino hata kidogo. Anaongea kwa mawe na vigae vya vyungu na kuta zilizozikwa: ulimwengu wa Biblia, ukiinuliwa kutoka ardhini. Tunageukia ushahidi wa akiolojia.And so the second witness rests. Whatever faithful text and translation you hold, you hold the Word of God. The differences between the Received Text and the Critical Text are real, and they reward the careful study of those who are called to that work; but they are few, they are well known, they are printed openly in the margins of our own Bibles, and not one of them lays a finger on the gospel by which you were saved. This is what the preservation of Scripture has always meant — not that God handed down a single, perfect, unquestionable copy, but that He kept His Word so abundantly and so publicly, in so many hands across so many centuries, that His truth could never be lost or buried. The right books. The right words. The second witness is complete. Now a third witness rises to testify — and this one does not speak in ink at all. It speaks in stone and potsherd and buried wall: the world of the Bible, lifted out of the ground. We turn to the evidence of archaeology.