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Originally Posted by polemic_turtle  Letis seems to claim that when you get beyond the popular level, you realize that scholars are not nearly so confident that they'll ever find the perfect text ... |
Is "the perfect text" the same thing as the "original text"? If so, then that's part of what I found confusing about Letis. When I listened to him and read his arguments I found myself in agreement.
Yet other, very qualified, textual critics claim that variants are actually helping us re-create the original text; that we already have in hand about 95% of that text.
Actually, I'm in over my head. But you bring up an incredibly significant and crucial issue. Where is our final authority? Who - and what - says so?
When I was Roman I had no problem with this because the church - the pope and college of bishops - were infallible. That was the authority. Period. End of argument.
But upon joining a liberal protestant denomination I found myself floundering. If sola scriptura is supposed to be our authority - and that authority is errant and fallible - then we may as well throw in the towel. Which is why I ended up embracing and defending plenary Scriptural inerrancy and infallibility.
Someone recently gave me a quote from the Evangelical Lutheran Church's website that clearly claims that the interpretation of Scripture belongs to the church (my guess is that the PCUSA would say the same thing). If that's true, then the reformation is over and Rome wins. (At least this is true for those denominations.)