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Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51364.Misquoting_Jesus_The_Story_Behind_Who_Changed_the_Bible_and_Why?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (Plus)" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1170379100m/51364.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51364.Misquoting_Jesus_The_Story_Behind_Who_Changed_the_Bible_and_Why?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/643.Bart_D_Ehrman">Bart D. Ehrman</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/10718000?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> rating: 4 of 5 stars<br/>It surely comes as no surprise that someone would say the Bible has inconsistencies. Even those who believe in the "verbal plenary inspiration" of scripture, I've noticed, have to really actively read (and reach) in order to resolve them. <br/> <br/>This is a book about those inconsistencies. However, it is not condemnatory. I thought that this was a very intelligent and thoughtful discussion that looks at the Bible as "a very human book." Ehrman doesn't look at the changes made as anything devious or duplicitous; rather, he examines them as people doing what anyone does when they read: "... scribes occasionally altered their texts to make them say what they were already believed to mean." <br/> <br/>And, as he makes the case, you really see that there have been some significant changes. True, this does cause a problem with verbal inspiration of scripture, but, as Ehrman establishes, "even if God had inspired the original words, we don't have the original words" (he mentions that, in all, there are more errors than words in the New Testament). But again, "The authors too were human beings with needs, beliefs, worldviews, opinions, loves, hates, longings, desires, situations, problems - and surely all these things affected what they wrote." <br/> <br/>For example, did you know: <br/> <br/>-the Gospel of Mark (the oldest gospel) doesn't end with the Great Commission, but originally with the words, "So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid" ? <br/> <br/>-the prologue to John ("In the Beginning was the word and the word was God, etc. etc.) is a later addition? <br/> <br/>-Paul's injunctions that women be quiet in the Church and submit to husbands(1 Corinthians 14) originated somewhere OTHER than the "original" text? <br/> <br/>-Jesus didn't originally sweat blood before his crucifixion? <br/> <br/>And the list goes on. Admittedly, most changes were grammatical and spelling errors, but, as evinced above, some had strong implications. <br/> <br/>This is an important book for anyone to read. Especially if you believe that the scriptures were verbally dictated by God. Even if you don't buy into that, I think you need to encounter and deal with (intelligently) these issues, since they're out there. If you have a negative view of scriptures b/c of inconsistencies, I think that Ehrman's book offers some very interesting and exciting ways to read the Bible - in its various social contexts over its long and varied history. <br/> <br/>A good read. I'm still deliberating whether to give it five stars.... <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/700490?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>