Updated American Standard Version
Giving Bible readers what God said not what translators think God meant
The discovery of P75 proved to be the catalyst for correcting the misconception that early copyists were predominately unskilled. As we elsewhere on our blog earlier, either literate or semi-professional copyist produced the vast majority of the early papyri, and some copied by professionals.
P75 contains most of Luke and John, known as Bodmer 14, 15 (P75), dating from 175 C.E. to 225 C.E. It is textually very close to Codex Vaticanus. A handful from the 19th and early 20th centuries argued that Codex Vaticanus and Sinaiticus manuscripts removed the Byzantine text readings. However, if this were true and the corrupt Byzantine readings were early as some claim, we would have those readings in P75 to prove it, as well as the other 60+ papyrus manuscripts dating from 100-300 A.D.
Erasmus said of God's Word, "I WOULD have these words translated into all languages, so that not only Scots and Irish but Turks and Saracens too might read them . . . I long for the plowboy to sing them to himself as he follows his plow, the weaver to hum them to the tune of his shuttle, the traveler to beguile with them the dullness of his journey." (Clayton 2006, 230)
It is challenging to enter this next era of the English Bibles without talking about Desiderius Erasmus and the Textus Receptus (Received Text) that would impact English Translations for centuries to come. Erasmus is credited with saying, “When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes.”
Erasmus said of God's Word, "I WOULD have these words translated into all languages, so that not only Scots and Irish, but Turks and Saracens too might read them . . . I long for the ploughboy to sing them to himself as he follows his plough, the weaver to hum them to the tune of his shuttle, the traveler to beguile with them the dullness of his journey." (Clayton 2006, 230)
