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1 Cor Chapter 10 Verse 9.
1 Cor Chapter 10 Verse 9.
Many translations read Christ instead of Lord and use this verse as a support
of the Trinity. Some Greek manuscripts read Lord, some read God, and some
read Christ, and furthermore, the Church Fathers are divided as well, because
different Fathers quoted the verse differently, clearly because they were reading
manuscripts that differed from one another. The subject of textual criticism is
very involved, and it is common that scholars differ in their opinions as to which
texts are original and which texts have been altered. In this case, there are early
texts that read both ways, so the job of determining the original reading from
textual evidence becomes more difficult. Although there are a wide variety of
manuscripts, even old ones, that read Christ, as Bart Ehrman points out, These
arguments, however, are not persuasive. In fact, we know that most Christians
had no difficulty at all in understanding how Christ could have been active in the
affairs of the ancient Israelites. Most of them believed he was actively involved
and read his involvement into Old Testament narratives on every possible
occasion (The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture; pp. 89, 90). Ehrman goes on
to point out why the text would have been changed to read Christ and shows
that the Alexandrian text is usually considered more accurate, and the
Alexandrian texts (Sinaiticus, B.C. 33) read Lord. We agree with Ehrmans
conclusions and the authors of the English versions that read Lord, and believe
Lord was the original reading.
As it is translated in versions that take the word Lord as original, there is no
Trinitarian inference or support (cp. ASV, Amplified Bible, GWN, NASB, NIV,
NJB, Rotherham, RSV, etc.). There is only a Trinitarian inference if the
manuscripts that read Christ are considered original.
Every translator will testify to the importance of context in determining the
correct translation of Scripture. We feel the context makes it clear that Lord is
the correct reading. Although there are many times that the Israelites were said
to tempt God or Yahweh (often translated the LORD) in the Old Testament,
there is not even a single reference to tempting Christ. Furthermore, there is not
even a reference to tempting adonay, the generic word for lord. The
Israelites tempted their God, Yahweh, never Christ.