At the end of this post is an extract from a well known THEOLOGY college, concerning the role of a Redactor in the bible. Redactors were used both for the old testament and the new testament. Essentially these were people who were given a bunch of texts and were not told they all come from different authors, some of those authors in fact unknown. It is the Redactor's job, according to the article below, to "shape the material he has received for a purpose. Sometimes the purpose of the redactor is in harmony with the author and sometimes it is not" Sometimes, indeed the redactor him/herself does not know the purpose.
Given that:
1) The old testament and new testament both have gone through a number of "redactors" issued by different governments
2) These governments clearly stated their purpose of redaction was to develop a work with a common message that fits into the economic and political agenda of the time
3) Bible redactors who refused to participate in changes beyond a certain point were put to death
4) Despite redactors there are over 28 000 versions of the bible from which sprang churches so completely different that some are polygamous, some are not, some believe in "communion" and some do not, some believe in prophesy and some do not
...Is it not then in the mind of any sane person, extraordinarily dangerous to place one's eternal salvation in the hands of hand-me-down policies and redacted texts of which there is such variety??
Christians say that the changes made were slight, merely "editorial". Looking at the article at the end of this blog post, please note that the BOLD was EMBOLDENED BY the theology institute not by me, they did so, claiming to know that these WERE THE CHANGES made to these verses- do these look like "minor editorial/grammar/spelling changes" to you? Does this text not in its very essence put words into the son of MAN as though he be the son of GOD? Who then in his/her right mind would follow a text that had been so radically altered?
The article is at the end of this blog post. For now, let's look at JUST ONE of the verses which they've taken out of the so-called original text in the bible as per the theology college in question (as original as the 2nd redactor found it, so yeah... a pinch of salt here too....) - and then let's see if it DOES change with the presence of the redactor, shall we?
So - apparently (although how the even know this is beyond me since nobody does!) - the original text said::
"Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. "
Let us understand this tiny bit of the "bible" from a Quranic and Islamic perspective (before the redactor's change):
- "no-one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." (Islam has no problem with the presence of God - his BREATH, (spirit/ruh) is what gave Adam (as) life
- no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." - the Quran says that we come from HIM and to HIM we do return. There are also many descriptions of the seven heavens, references to these being above us and to angels coming "down" to us, to hear our duahs. We are therefore born "from above" not "OF above" which indicates a fatherhood type relationship born of water and Spirit - This points directly to the islamic interpretation of creation. Adam (as) was created from clay (soil) and Allah breathed his ruh (breath/spirit) into Adam (as). Herein is the spirit. The Quran tells us that we are created from a drop of Nutfah (a drop of impure water). Therefore as creations from that drop of nutfah and descendents from Adam (as); we are created from both, and we know it.
- just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. " How did Moses lift up the serpent? The quran tells us, upon Moses (Musa as) going up to the mountain (the story of the burning bush in the bible) "As Prophet Musa (A) obeyed, he heard the voice ask him to throw his staff onto the ground. At once it changed into a serpent, scaring him. He was then commanded to lift the snake without fear and as he did so, it changed back into a stick." IN OTHER WORDS - he did not KILL the snake. The snake did not DIE and then get resurrected; it was lifted up. Moses put his hand down, and lifted up the snake- he didn't kill it first! Just the same way, Jesus (Essa as) is telling everyone that just as miraculously as a snake is picked up and held in Moses' hand, the stick could be put back down (and was, in front of the pharoah) and turn back into a snake, SO TOO Allah would reach out, and LIFT Jesus up to the heavens (ASCENSION) and will be put back onto the earth. And whomsoever believes IN THAT - MAY HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. No-where does Jesus say that you are to believe that he will be killed and rise from the dead. The snake was not killed; it was LIFTED UP. The quran says that Jesus (Essa as) was lifted up.. Now Christians will say "oh but if he was lifted up he had to be dead." But Jesus (Essa as) is not the first person to have ascended, and christians indeed believe in the ascension of not ONLY Jesus (Essa as) but others.
Let us now look at the SAME verse AFTER the redactor's change? (Redactor's Changes are highlighted)
"Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."
Read that again, for yourself - HAS the message changed?
In the first (more original, so they say) version, Jesus speaks of being lifted up, and no-where does he claim God as FATHER - let's look at what these additions are:
- Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" - So much for Chrisitans "rebirth" right?
- What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. - this is completely contradictory since Jesus said that one must be born of water AND spirit - right in this same verse!
- The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Who said that? Doesn't Jesus say you must be born of water AND the spirit? Now this says you should ONLY be born of the spirit/ let's go back to the PURPOSE for the redaction - what on earth could it have been?
- No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And Said who? Did JESUS say this? But how Christians stand by this when they believe in the ascention of Elija and Elisha, of Moses, and of Mary? hmm... a slight editorial change, you say? To homogenise things, you say? Methinks there be a hornet in this nest!
- For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God." - This is possibly one of the most quoted and cited verses in christianity today. AND YET - THIS was actually written by a redactor? Well well well... Nonetheless, let's look at this... it does NOT say that those who believe he was raised up and not killed are "unsaved" - it says that THOS WHO DO NOT BELIEVE IN HIS NAME... (in his existance, per chance?) Muslims DO believe in Jesus (Essa as).. And WHERE did this "SON OF GOD come in, when Jesus has referred to himself the whole time in this verse as the son of Man? The redactor just said that you are EITHER born of "flesh" or born of the spirit, leading the reader to think "oh, Jesus was born of the spirit" - and JESUS says he is the son of man (who is flesh). so GOD refers to the "spirit" only, then Jesus is EITHER mere flesh, or he is the son of God (Spirit) - he cannot be both because the redactor says what is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the spirit is spirit. The answer? ISLAM says that we are FLESH into which the BREATH (spirit) of God has been breathed through Adam (as). Seems to me we are the believers in what Jesus said, far more than christians appear to be...
The choice, dear christian reader, is clear - you believe a Redactor, or you believe JESUS. And if you believe JESUS, then by all descriptions above from Jesus:
1)you believe in ONE God,
2)you believe Jesus is the son of MAN (not God),
3)you believe Jesus is flesh and spirit, as we all are. Why? Because THAT is what Jesus said, among the bits some unknown redactor added in there.. And people wonder why muslims don't believe in the bible? We believe in the INJEEL - the word, the living word that was put into Jesus (the man) which he taught and lived by.. but we do not believe in some 4 redactor's version of the truth - and the above is why!
I don't know what's worse - that the redactions are taken as "gospel truth" (pardon the pun) or that they appear to KNOW what some of the redactions are and defend these despite the fact that it changes SO much!
So here's the article - feel free to do a similar evaluation of the 2nd verse.
Redaction Criticism is the study of editorial activity. A redactor is simply an editor who shapes the material he has received for a purpose. Sometimes the purpose of the redactor is in harmony with the author and sometimes it is not. In this segment of our study we will be examining the methods used to discover editorial work and how it can be distinguished from the authors own work. Performing redaction criticism is simply a matter of (again) asking questions of the text. The first question that must be asked is, does the segment of text I am looking at show "seams" or "stitches". Seams or stitches are obvious comments in the text which interrupt the flow of the narrative. These are called "commentary" by literary critics. (NB: It must be noted that the various methods of criticism overlap in places). If there is an obvious seam, then one must ask- does this seam attempt to clarify the passage; or does it seem to take the passage in another direction? The following passage will illustrate these questions. The BOLD face type are those words deemed editorial comments. The normal face type is the original narrative. The student will note that the editorial comments serve either to explain a word or phrase, or to make a theological comment which explains the text. The passage is John 3:1ff.
"Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."The bold print can clearly be seen to interrupt the flow of the narrative and the it frequently offers clarification or explanation. This is what redaction critics mean when they talk of edited text. The student can find these editorial insertions and clarifications in most passages in the Bible. The passage above is offered simply because it is very well known. The purpose of these editorial insertions is to make explicit what the editor saw as the underlying theological message. The editor thus saw himself as simply making plain what he may have considered to be unclear. Redaction criticism is a very subjective method and the student should make sure that there is a clear seam before assigning a passage to the editor. A very famous, and yet plainly clear example of editorial work is found in the so called "long ending" of Mark. The oldest manuscripts of Mark do not contain Mark 16:9ff (see the text criticism module). The verses appended by a later editor clearly attmempt to harmonize the ending of Mark with the endings of Matthew and Luke. Here, the editor wanted to make sure that the "Great Commission" and the post resurrection appearences were included in Mark. He saw their absence as a possible source of confusion- so he clarified by adding them in! Here is Mark 16. Again, the BOLD face type are the editorial insertions while the plain type is the original narrative of the author:
"When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, "Don't be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you." So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Now after he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover." So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it."This editoritorial addition can be seen by anyone. In the original narrative, the women leave the tomb terrified and speak to no one. In the editorial addition the women speak to the disciples! The student should also note the harmonization with the other Gospels which takes place in this editorial addition. When one is able to use the method of Redaction criticism, one is able to separate the strands of the author and the editor. This is a very important task in the theological explication of the Bible.
