Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Everybody does textual criticism — including the people who insist it's the devil's work.
This episode we dig into how scholars actually reconstruct the earliest recoverable form of the biblical text: why there's no original manuscript of any biblical book, what a credit-card-sized scrap of John can and can't tell us, and how a single letter in John 1:18 turns a unique Son into a unique God.
Plus, Erasmus back-translating Revelation out of Latin, the verses your Bible quietly dropped, and the paragraph of Samuel that the Dead Sea Scrolls handed back to us.
_______________________________________________
Get your Data Over Dogma merch at our online store:
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:
patreon.com/DataOverDogma
_______________________________________________
Listen to the podcast on every app:
pod.link/1681418502
_______________________________________________
Follow us:
Instagram — instagram.com/dataoverdogmapod
TikTok — tiktok.com/@data.over.dogma.pod
Threads — threads.com/@dataoverdogmapod
X — https://x.com/data_over_dogma
Facebook — facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod
_______________________________________________
Get Dan McClellan's New York Times bestselling book, The Bible Says So:
static.macmillan.com/static/smp/bible-says-so-9781250347466
_______________________________________________
Chapters:
0:00 Cold open
0:45 This week: textual criticism
1:59 KJV onlyism pushes back
3:11 Truth versus certainty
4:08 The KJV's own textual criticism
5:01 It started with Homer
6:00 The earliest recoverable text
7:17 No originals survive
8:33 The Hebrew Bible gap
10:17 Qumran and Origen's Hexapla
11:50 Erasmus and seven manuscripts
14:03 When it became a science
14:27 The harder reading wins
15:49 John 1:18: Son or God
20:00 The shorter reading rule
21:12 Griesbach, Lachmann, and after
23:40 The 1881 Revised Version
25:33 Verses added later
26:38 Diplomatic versus eclectic
28:48 Haplography and dittography
31:43 A lost paragraph in Samuel
32:52 Conjectural emendations
33:53 Wrap-up and thanks
_______________________________________________
#DataOverDogma #BibleScholarship #TextualCriticism #BibleManuscripts #KingJamesVersion
Everybody does textual criticism — including the people who insist it's the devil's work.
This episode we dig into how scholars actually reconstruct the earliest recoverable form of the biblical text: why there's no original manuscript of any biblical book, what a credit-card-sized scrap of John can and can't tell us, and how a single letter in John 1:18 turns a unique Son into a unique God.
Plus, Erasmus back-translating Revelation out of Latin, the verses your Bible quietly dropped, and the paragraph of Samuel that the Dead Sea Scrolls handed back to us.
_______________________________________________
Get your Data Over Dogma merch at our online store:
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:
patreon.com/DataOverDogma
_______________________________________________
Listen to the podcast on every app:
pod.link/1681418502
_______________________________________________
Follow us:
Instagram — instagram.com/dataoverdogmapod
TikTok — tiktok.com/@data.over.dogma.pod
Threads — threads.com/@dataoverdogmapod
X — https://x.com/data_over_dogma
Facebook — facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod
_______________________________________________
Get Dan McClellan's New York Times bestselling book, The Bible Says So:
static.macmillan.com/static/smp/bible-says-so-9781250347466
_______________________________________________
Chapters:
0:00 Cold open
0:45 This week: textual criticism
1:59 KJV onlyism pushes back
3:11 Truth versus certainty
4:08 The KJV's own textual criticism
5:01 It started with Homer
6:00 The earliest recoverable text
7:17 No originals survive
8:33 The Hebrew Bible gap
10:17 Qumran and Origen's Hexapla
11:50 Erasmus and seven manuscripts
14:03 When it became a science
14:27 The harder reading wins
15:49 John 1:18: Son or God
20:00 The shorter reading rule
21:12 Griesbach, Lachmann, and after
23:40 The 1881 Revised Version
25:33 Verses added later
26:38 Diplomatic versus eclectic
28:48 Haplography and dittography
31:43 A lost paragraph in Samuel
32:52 Conjectural emendations
33:53 Wrap-up and thanks
_______________________________________________
#DataOverDogma #BibleScholarship #TextualCriticism #BibleManuscripts #KingJamesVersion
