Data Over Dogma Podcast

Currently Playing: Is the Bible the World's Longest Game of Telephone?

"The Bible is the world's longest game of telephone." It's a great line used by comedians and critics, and it's exactly half right. This episode we sort out why the translation half of the claim is simply false, and why the transmission half isn't just a live option but a demonstrable fact. Along the way: the black hole between when these texts were written and our earliest surviving manuscripts, and the uncomfortable discovery that your own memory works the same way. _______________________________________________ Get your Data Over Dogma merch at our online store: https://data-over-dogma-shop.fourthwall.com/ _______________________________________________ Support Data Over Dogma and get every episode early and ad-free, plus exclusive bonus content — become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma _______________________________________________ Listen to the podcast on every app: https://pod.link/1681418502 _______________________________________________ Follow us: Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/dataoverdogmapod TikTok — https://www.tiktok.com/@data.over.dogma.pod Threads — https://www.threads.com/@dataoverdogmapod X — https://x.com/data_over_dogma Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod _______________________________________________ Get Dan McClellan's New York Times bestselling book, The Bible Says So: https://static.macmillan.com/static/smp/bible-says-so-9781250347466/ _______________________________________________ Chapters: 0:00 The World's Longest Telephone Game 1:06 David Cross's Version 2:21 Translations of Translations? 3:36 Back to the Source Languages 4:41 Erasmus, Tyndale, and Luther 6:06 The Rare Exceptions 6:38 Transmission, Not Translation 7:05 Verses Modern Bibles Cut 7:45 Quoting the Church Fathers 8:57 Sinaiticus and Vaticanus 9:42 The Manuscript Black Hole 11:03 "Nothing Changed"? 11:46 Whole Chapters Added Later 12:49 The Hebrew Bible Is Worse 13:05 Jeremiah's Missing Sixth 13:59 Who Knew God's Name? 14:55 Isaiah Grew Over Time 15:55 Myth, Not History 17:18 The Book: God's Biography 17:40 Your Swiss Army God 18:55 The Accommodationism Dodge 21:34 Centuries of Oral Tradition 22:56 How Manuscripts Get Changed 23:26 Family Stories Drift Fast 24:15 False Memories and Bob's Burgers 25:36 Telephone Inside Your Head 26:45 Closing _______________________________________________ #DataOverDogma #BibleScholarship #TextualCriticism #NewTestament #DeadSeaScrolls