The Blessings of Textual Variants

Many Christians do not feel comfortable when they learn that there are differences in text among copies of the Bible. However, textual variants are actually a good thing for the Bible!

Blessing #1: Textual variants imply that the Bible was never controlled by a central authority. After the books of the Bible were composed, no person or organization was ever able to universally enforce their standardized version of the Bible. We know this because there are many textual variants among biblical copies. If the Bible was really controlled by a central authority, then biblical copies would be more standardized, and there would not be so many significant textual variants among them.

Blessing #2: Textual variants help Bible scholars to determine the original reading of Bible passages. Each biblical copy is a Bible that was used by a Christian community in history. Thus, a biblical copy reflects the Bible text that was used by that Christian community during the time when it was produced. Hence, differences among biblical copies provide important historical data points, which allow Bible scholars to determine the original reading of Bible passages more easily. As more and more copies of a Bible passage are discovered, we can become increasingly confident about the original reading of the passage.

Blessing #3: Textual variants demonstrate that the Bible has been reliably handed down to us. Despite all the differences among biblical copies, no essential element of the Christian faith is affected by any textual variant. This means that the Bible that we have today is essentially the same as the Bible that was used by Jesus, the Apostles, and the first Christians.