Subject: Re: Equidistant letters

From: [email-masked] (Nichael Lynn Cramer)
Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1997 09:35:52 -0500

Ronald L. Minton wrote:
> [...]  DR. Riplinger uses it to prove the
>M.T. and KJV are supernatural   :)

This, of course, is one on main issues surrounding these claims; it is
certainly the the thrust of the BR article.

But since this is being discussed on a list devoted to Textual Criticism
perhaps we should focus on aspects of this controversy at least related to
that topic.

For example:  Let us assume for the sake of argument that such sequences of
letters really exist and all that Dr Riplinger and the author of the BR
article claim them to be.  In that case, what are we to make of those
unfortunate souls who happened to have lived during those centuries before
the MT took its final --and presumably divinely authorized-- form?

To name one such group: the members of the early Christian church and, in
particular the writers of the NT.  Setting aside the fact that they
primarily used the LXX, are we not then forced to accept that these writers
didn't even have _access_ to an authentic, inspired text of the Hebrew
Scriptures?

Nichael                                                      __
[email-masked]                         Be as passersby -- IC
http://www.sover.net/~nichael/

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From: "Robert B. Waltz" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1997 11:23:00 -0700

On Sun, 9 Feb 199, [email-masked] (Nichael Lynn Cramer) wrote:

[ ... ]

>didn't even have _access_ to an authentic, inspired text of the Hebrew

It seems to me that, *if* one accepts that assumption, then the
conclusion is obvious: The MT is *the* divinely inspired text, and
so presumably the original text. Divergences from it, as found e.g.
in LXX, are errors.

A secondary conclusion, it seems to me, is that Judaism is the
divinely inspired religion, rather than Christianity.

But, of course, this still ignores the other possibility: Coincidence.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

                            Robert B. Waltz
                         [email-masked]

Want more loudmouthed opinions about textual criticism?
Try my web page: http://www.skypoint.com/~waltzmn
(A very rough draft of part of the Encyclopedia of NT Textual Criticism)

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From: Maurice Robinson <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1997 15:55:55 -0500 (EST)

> letters really exist and all that Dr Riplinger and the author of the BR

Before any more of this "Dr Riplinger" nonsense gets out of hand, let me
remind the entire group that Gail Riplinger only has an earned Master's
degree in Interior Design, and is **NOT** a "Dr" in any legitimate sense
of the word, let alone any type of authority in fields of textual
criticism or statistical analysis. 

It is true that the ultra-fundamentalist and KJV-Only pastor Jack Hyles
(who runs an unaccredited fundamentalist bible college in Hammond,
Indiana) DID "award" her an "Honorary Doctorate" (a Th.D. I believe!) for
having written the ridiculous _New Age Bible Versions_ book, but this is a
FAR cry from any reason to make this woman academically into something she
most clearly and obviously is not in the current discussions.

_________________________________________________________________________
Maurice A. Robinson, Ph.D.           Professor of Greek and New Testament
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary     Wake Forest, North Carolina
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