Textual Criticism Quotes

“Lay people are usually unaware that the scrupulous scholarly work achieved by modern biblical criticism … represented by scrupulous academic work over about 300 years, belongs among the greatest intellectual achievements of the human race. Has any of the great world religions outside of the Jewish-Christian tradition investigated its own foundations and its own history so thoroughly and impartially? None of them has remotely approached this. The Bible is far and away the most studied book in world literature.”
― Hans Kung

“On the latter point, it was sometimes noted that Christians gathered together under the cloak of darkness, calling one another "brother" and "sister" and greeting one another with kisses; they were said to worship their god by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. What was one to make of such practices? If you can imagine the worst, you won't be far off. Pagan opponents claimed that Christians engaged in ritual incest (sexual acts with brothers and sisters), infanticide (killing the Son), and cannibalism (eating his flesh and drinking his blood). These charges may seem incredible today, but in a society that respected decency and openness, they were widely ac­cepted. Christians were perceived as a nefarious lot.”
― Bart D. Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why

“Every biblical story reflects something that mattered to its author. Whenever we figure out what it was and why it mattered, we move a step closer to knowing who wrote a part of the Bible.”
― Richard Elliott Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible?

“Orthodox Christians must not stoop to conquer.”
― Edward F. Hills, The King James Version Defended

“To translate a text is to be conducted into its mysteries in a way that no mere act of reading—however conscientious or frequent—makes possible. At the very least, a translator is obliged to confront the words on the page not merely as meanings to be received, but as problems to be solved; and this demands an attentiveness to detail for which most of us never quite have the time.”
― David Bentley Hart, The New Testament