What does Kapr have to say about textual criticism? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
This book is an odd read. The second chapter is about textual criticism. Now what would have helped this case even more would have been to have had a description more on how textual criticism works. There was some of this, but I would have liked to have seen more. Again, Kapr is surprisingly friendly to the Bible and doesn’t seem to think arguments from textual criticism to break down the Bible really work at all.
However, what made this into a more surreal experience was the fact of who Kapr goes after the most in this chapter. It’s not fundamentalist atheists. While it is Christians, which is expected, it’s the group of Christians that he goes after the most that is most surprising.
Kapr has a long and sustained argument against the King James Only movement in this chapter. Ironically, he does a lot of work to undermine the position and has the data from the translators of the KJV at this disposal as well. There is no demeaning of the KJV as it is a fine translation, but it is not a perfect translation sent down from Heaven. (I suspect at this point anyone who is a follower of the blog who is a KJV onlyist has hit unsubscribe.)
The argument I think actually works. If I had been told that I was reading a Christian author, I would not have been surprised. Kapr’s way of approaching this I think is more often fair and even-handed than the majority of atheists out there.
I know this is short for a blog for me, but there’s really not much to say. Right now, I’m leaning towards thinking if an atheist wanted to read a non-scholarly work from their position, this could be a good one to start with. So far, I am under the impression that I could have a reasonable conversation with the author. It’s rare and refreshing.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)