Whose Word Is It?

Scholars have long known that the New Testament did not reach modern readers exactly as its authors wrote it. Copyists making handwritten reproductions over the centuries altered wording, sometimes by accident and sometimes on purpose. This book examines who made these changes and what motivated them.

Bart D. Ehrman, a historian of early Christianity and professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, approaches the question as a textual critic. He traces how the manuscript tradition developed and explains why the surviving copies differ from one another. Readers interested in how the Bible was transmitted, and in the people who shaped its text, will find it useful.