24th October 2005
A trip to Holland, and a long wait in Schipol airport, has given me the opportunity to read "The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament"
An Academic Book
This is an academic book about how Orthodox transcribers of early Christian scriptures altered text to avoid its misinterpretation by 'heretics', such as Gnostics or Ebionites. It will not only be of interest to students of the subject, but it is relevant to any Christian who relies on the New Testament as the basis of their faith.
It is written by a Professor who is obviously meticulous and thorough in his research. He "dots every i and crosses every t", or if not he points it out and explains why.
Reading this book from cover to cover does feel academic. Although it is very well written, Ehrman goes through his arguments in great detail before arriving at his conclusions. A student of the topic would probably want to follow his arguments in the order he sets them out, but my interest in the topic is less serious than that.
However, there is a way of reading the book that circumvents the academic feel.
A suggested approach for the lay reader
Chapter 1 lays the foundations of the book and the reason for his study. Chapters 2 to 5 then look in great detail at the subject of his research, but has at the end of each chapter a short "summary and conclusions". Chapter 6 then brings the whole book together with an overall summary.
Lay readers, like me, may therefore find it useful to read the book in the following order:
- The introduction and Chapter 1
- As much of Chapter 2 as you find interesting, to develop an understanding of the approach Ehrman takes in his research and analysis
- Then skip to the end of Chapter 2, to read the "summary and conclusions".
- Read the summary and conclusions for Chapters 3 to 5.
- Read the whole of Chapter 6
Thereafter, there is an extremely useful 'Index of Scripture' at the back. It lists over 150 verses where the text appears to have been altered by early transcribers and points to the page in the book where this verse is discussed. This index makes it highly usable and invaluable as a reference for anyone trying to understand particular scriptures, and wondering if the meaning has been changed through early transcription.
Assessment
I think this is an excellent and valuable book. It will be put in an easily-accessible place on my bookshelf, and will no doubt used as a reference when trying to understand some of the more difficult passages of scripture.
For students of New Testament scripture, however, I suggest it should be compulsory reading.
by Bart D. Ehrman 
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