Greer-Heard: Ehrman's 2nd Response

Ehrman closed with four final points:

1. On Dan's claim of the 1% of variants that "matter," it's not the percentage that matters but how meaningful they are. If only one in a hundred words differs, but that one word is something like "not," it could change the interpretation of the passage entirely.

2. Ehrman questioned why the standard Wallace seemed to be using was whether or not central theological doctrines were affected. Ehrman pointed out that if every Bible suddenly were missing Mark, Phillipians, and 1 Peter, no essential doctrines would be altered, but it would still be a significant event. Significance does not depend solely on whether or not theology is affected.

3. For the sake of argument, Ehrman agreed with Wallace on Galatians. But even after the initial letter was sent out, without error, there would still be copies of copies of copies...

4. Ehrman felt like Wallace hadn't answered his question of why study textual variants if they don't matter? If they don't change anything, what's the point? Ehrman noted that he studied them because he's a historian, and so he's interested in ancient texts and what they said.