Approximation Drafts Versus Manuscripts

The Bible is a book comprised of many books written across centuries. Today, most people do not realize how the words contained in the Bible were given to us. In a day in which we can electronically transmit massive amounts of data and print books on command with the aid of a computer, we forget that the books in the Bible were copied by hand, and due to this, mistakes inevitably resulted during the copying process. With each manuscript copied it brought over the mistakes of the previous scribe. To determine what is a mistake and what is likely belonging to the original, scholars employ a discipline known as “textual criticism.” Basically, they have a set of guidelines that they follow when comparing manuscripts, with the end goal of producing something very close to the original or at least the earliest possible draft. The obvious problem with textual criticism is the limitation of the earliest manuscripts and their scarcity. Unfortunately, finding more manuscripts is more dependent on luck, which thereby leaves scholars to devise new methods of comparing manuscripts.

Genetic literary reconstruction does the same thing that textual criticism does, but backwards. Instead of producing a work that closely resembles the original manuscript, the GLR critic produces a prior draft of the work. The result is that the GLR critic can see the process used to transition from one draft to another. The process is also open and can be validated and/or corrected by others. With some works, such as Revelation, multiple complete approximation drafts can be produced, while with other works only portions of the text will yield a draft. This is in contrast to the circumstances of the textual critic, who has to hope for a discovery of a new manuscript or a better methodology (which will more than likely result in word variances and some unique quirks to the newly discovered manuscript).

One of the most important end products of textual criticism is a critical text of the Bible or books contained within it. A critical text is not a text derived from a single manuscript, but rather text that is derived from studying all of the earlier manuscripts. Generally, they contain the critical text and notations that show the significant differences between the manuscripts.

Just as the discipline of textual criticism has produced critical texts, we can do the same using GLR. For example, in my book, How John Wrote the Book of Revelation: From Concept to Publication, the first three drafts of the book of Revelation are reproduced as well and the last two drafts are described. Imagine being able to pick up a book that used GLR to produce the critical texts to the various drafts that ultimately became the Gospel of Matthew. The way we interpret scripture may be changed forever.