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The Bible/"Adding to" or "taking away from"
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Contents
Criticism
Critics claim that the Book of Mormon cannot be true because the nothing should be "added to" or "taken away from" the Holy Bible.
Source(s) of the criticism
- "[Joseph] Smith apparently was either oblivious to the expressed warning about adding to or substracting from the Word of God, or willfully disobedient to it (see Rev. 22:18,19)." - "Dr." Walter Martin, Mormonism (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers, 1984), 29.
Response
The verse often cited (as by Martin, above) is Revelation 22꞉18-19:
- For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Critics claim that this verse states that the Bible is complete, and no other scripture exists or will be forthcoming.
However, the critics ignore that:
- The book of Revelation was written prior to some of the other biblical books, and prior the the Bible being assembled into a collection of texts. Therefore, this verse can only apply to the Book of Revelation, and not the Bible as a whole (some of which was unwritten and none of which was yet assembled together into 'the Bible'). While the traditional date of the book of Revelation is A.D. 95 or 96 (primarily based on a statement by Irenaeus), most scholars now date it as early as A.D. 68 or 69. The Gospel of John is generally dated A.D. 95-100. (For more information on the dating of Revelation, see Thomas B. Slater's Biblica article).
- The book of Revelation is the last book in the Bible only because it was placed there centuries later. Therefore, John cannot have intended the last few sentences of Revelation to apply to the entire Bible, since he was not writing a 'final chapter'.
- Other scriptures (such as Deuteronomy 4:2, Deuteronomy 12:32, and Proverbs 30:6) likewise forbid additions; were the critics' arguments to be self-consistent, they would have to then discard everything in the New Testament and much of the Old, since these verses predate "other scripture" added by God through later prophets.
- The Bible forbids men to add to the Word of God; it does not forbid that God may, through a prophet, add to the Word of God. If this were not possible, then the Bible could never have come into existence.
Noted Biblical scholar Bart Ehrman wrote:
- The very real danger that [New Testament] texts could be modified at will, by scribes who did not approve of their wording, is evident in other ways as well. We need always to remember that the copyists of the early Christian writings were reproducing their texts in a world in which there were not only no printing presses or publishing houses but also no such thing as copyright law. How could authors guarantee that their texts were not modified once put into circulation? The short answer is that they could not. That explains why authors would sometimes call curses down on any copyists who modified their texts without permission. We find this kind of imprecation already in one early Christian writing that made it into the New Testament, the book of Revelation, whose author, near the end of his text, utters a dire warning [quotes Revelation 22:18–19].
- This is not a threat that the reader has to accept or believe everything written in this book of prophecy, as it is sometimes interpreted; rather, it is a typical threat to copyists of the book, that they are not to add to or remove any of its words. Similar imprecations can be found scattered throughout the range of early Christian writings.[1]
Conclusion
The critics misuse Revelation, misunderstand the process by which the Bible cannon was formed, and must ignore other, earlier scriptures to maintain their position. Their use of this argument is a form of begging the question whereby they presume at the outset that the Book of Mormon and other scriptures are not the Word of God, which is precisely the point under debate. If they are the work of uninspired men, then of course one ought not to trust them. If, however, they are indeed the word of the Lord to prophets, then all ought to heed them.
Endnotes
- [note] Bart D. Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (HarperSanFrancisco, [2005] 2007), 54–55. ISBN 0060859512. ISBN 0060738170.
Further reading
FAIR wiki articles
FAIR web site
- FairMormon Topical Guide: Bible Complete? FairMormon link
- Scott Gordon, "To Add To or To Take From," (Mesa, Arizona: FAIR, April 2002) PDF link
External links
- Ben Spackman, "Revelation 22, Curses, and Copy Protection: Something You Probably Haven't Heard Before" (millennialstar.org) off-site
- Howard W. Hunter, "No Man Shall Add to or Take Away," Ensign (May 1981): 64. off-site
- Stephen E. Robinson, Are Mormons Christians? (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, 1993). off-site FAIR linkoff-site
Printed material
- Alan Denison & D.L. Barksdale, Gues Who Wants To Have You For Lunch?, 2nd edition, (Redding, California: FAIR, 2002[1999]), 37–57. ISBN 1893036057. FAIR link