Understanding "Verbal Plenary Preservation": A Closer Look

Understanding "Verbal Plenary Preservation": A Closer Look

You often hear terms like "inspiration" – the idea that God breathed out the very words of Scripture. That's foundational, and we all agree on it. But there's another idea, sometimes called "Verbal Plenary Preservation", or VPP, that we need to examine carefully.

Let's break down what VPP generally means.

Verbal: This refers to the very words themselves. Not just the ideas or concepts, but every single word.

Plenary: This means "full" or "complete." So, it's about the full collection of words.

Preservation: This is the key part for our discussion. It's the belief that God has perfectly kept all of those original inspired words throughout history, in exactly the same form, down to every jot and tittle, in specific existing texts today.

In simpler terms, VPP teaches that God has miraculously preserved the exact words of the original Bible manuscripts, so that we have them today without any change or loss. For some, this belief often centers on a specific translation, like the King James Version, or a specific family of Greek and Hebrew manuscripts, asserting that these are the perfectly preserved texts.

Now, while we all affirm God's providential care over His Word, and we believe He has faithfully preserved the message and truth of Scripture for us, we need to ask: Does the evidence truly support the idea of Verbal Plenary Preservation in the way some proponents define it? And if not, what are the implications?

Why VPP, as strictly defined, presents some challenges:

Let's explore why a very strict, absolute interpretation of VPP, claiming a perfect preservation of every single original word in an existing text, can lead to misunderstandings and errors.

The Reality of Ancient Manuscripts:

Think about how books were made thousands of years ago. There were no printing presses. Everything was copied by hand. Scribes, dedicated as they were, were still human.

What we have today are thousands of ancient manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments. And here's the crucial point: they are not all identical. There are variations, differences, and discrepancies between them. These are often very minor – a spelling difference, a word order change, or a missing or added phrase.

These variations are not signs that the Bible is unreliable. Far from it! They are actually evidence of how widely the Bible was copied and distributed. But they do show that no single manuscript, or even family of manuscripts, perfectly matches every other in every detail.

If VPP means "God perfectly preserved every word without any variations," then the existence of these variations, however minor, immediately poses a problem for that definition.

No "Perfect" Original is Extant:

We don't possess the original parchments written by Moses, Paul, or Peter. Those "autographs" (the very first writings) are long gone. What we have are copies of copies of copies.

Because we don't have the originals, and because the copies have minor variations, it's a huge leap to say that God has perfectly preserved every single word in a specific existing manuscript or translation. Which one would it be? If you pick one, you're implicitly saying all the others are less "perfectly preserved."

The Nature of Copying and Transmission:

Imagine copying a long book by hand, day after day. You'd make mistakes. You might skip a line, repeat a word, or misspell something. This was the reality for ancient scribes.

Scholars who study these manuscripts (a field called "textual criticism") don't just guess. They compare thousands of manuscripts, analyzing these variations. Their goal is to get as close as possible to the original wording, like solving a giant puzzle with many pieces.

This process, though rigorous, acknowledges that absolute "perfect" preservation of every single original word in every single copy isn't what we see in the historical evidence. God preserved His Word through this human process, not always despite human error in copying.

Misplaced Authority and Translation Issues:

When VPP is applied to a specific translation (e.g., "The King James Version is the perfectly preserved Word of God"), it elevates that translation to the level of the original inspired text. This is problematic because translations are, by their very nature, interpretations. They are the work of human translators, making choices about words, grammar, and style.

If a specific translation is considered "perfectly preserved," it often leads to rejecting other translations as inferior or even corrupt, despite them being excellent attempts to convey God's Word accurately. This can create division and undermine confidence in the broader body of reliable Bible translations.

Furthermore, if the original language manuscripts themselves have variations, then no translation (which is built upon these manuscripts) can claim absolute verbal plenary preservation in the strictest sense.

The True Comfort: God's Providential Preservation

So, what do we believe about God's preservation of His Word?

Instead of a rigid VPP, what we see is God's providential preservation. This means:

The Core Message and Truth are Untouched: Despite minor variations in manuscripts, the central doctrines, narratives, commands, and promises of the Bible have been miraculously preserved. No essential truth has been lost. We have abundant evidence that the Bible we hold in our hands accurately reflects God's revelation.

Abundance of Manuscripts: The sheer number of ancient manuscripts (thousands!) means that we can cross-reference and compare them. This vast amount of evidence allows scholars to reconstruct the original text with a very high degree of confidence. The variations are tiny compared to the overwhelming agreement.

God's Purpose Endures: God's purpose for His Word – to reveal Himself, to guide us, to save us, and to equip us for righteousness – has been perfectly fulfilled throughout history. The Bible has transformed countless lives and continues to do so.

In conclusion, while we deeply cherish God's commitment to His Word and His power to preserve it, we must align our understanding with the historical and textual evidence. A rigid "Verbal Plenary Preservation" often struggles to account for the reality of manuscript variations.

Instead, let us confidently affirm God's providential preservation – that through all the copying, translating, and transmitting, God has ensured that His inspired Word, in all its vital truths and teachings, has been faithfully passed down to us, allowing us to know Him and His will for our lives. This understanding strengthens our faith, grounds us in reality, and encourages us to delve deeper into the rich and reliable revelation He has given us.