In the publicity that has been given to the new Revised Standard Version statements concerning the text have often been made that could be misunderstood to the undermining of faith in the Bible. The Bible was copied by hand for hundreds of years and it was inevitable that errors should creep in. It is the first aim of modern translators to make sure of their text, and this involves careful comparison of MSS. As was said in a recent broadcast :

"There is an almost bewildering mass of evidence to be examined and weighed; and as a result of the vast labour that has been expended on the task in recent years, we are today better informed about the original text of the Bible than any previous generation. There is still room for improvement, but we can be reasonably confident that we have reliable texts to translate. In this respect we are very much better off than the translators of the Authorized Version or the Revised Version."

A person unfamiliar with the facts might conclude that the A.V. and the R.V. are hopelessly outdated. The fact is, of course, that these variations only affect very minor details; and the proof of this for the ordinary reader is in the practical agreement of all translations on essentials. The worst MS. of the New Testament would yield a translation of reasonable accuracy. Some helpful quotations from competent textual critics are given in Oracles of God in the chapter on "Inspiration".