# If mankind lost the Bible, could we reproduce it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 27, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680 "2010-08-27T16:15:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/21 "2010-08-27T18:16:49Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Which Bibles would we be sure to lose? The ancient Hebrew ones? > > No way. Rabbis have incredible memories for scripture; there are probably a few who could reproduce the _Talmud_ from memory, never mind the written OT. Not to mention that at least for the 5 books of Moses, traditional Jews hear the entire thing in the synagogue over the course of every year, and are supposed to read the weekly portion in private twice every week, plus commentary. > > Trust me, in the unlikely (and to us religious folk, horrible) event that something destroyed every Torah scroll in the world, Jews would have a much easier time creating a new one that’s identical in content to the old ones than probably anyone else would. If you guys can cover the Old Testament, I know a bunch of people who can do the New Testament before breakfast. I betcha I could 90% of the Synoptic Gospels myself. If can comb other works to find quoted verses, I bet it would be even easier. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/22 "2010-08-27T21:48:47Z")
Lots of Biblical quotations in novels & other texts. You could piece together a lot, that way. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/23 "2010-08-27T22:47:50Z")
What you would do would be to get 70 scholars to rewrite it from memory. Then when all 70 submit identical manuscripts, take that as a divine signal that it’s a perfect recreation. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/24 "2010-08-27T23:11:41Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > What you would do would be to get 70 scholars to rewrite it from memory. Then when all 70 submit identical manuscripts, take that as a divine signal that it’s a perfect recreation. Too easy. For a convincing proof, identical maunuscripts’d have to be achieved by [a thousand blindfolded monkeys](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem#Origins_and_.22The_Total_Library.22), typing on a thousand typewriters. God only knows where we’d find a thousand typewriters in this day and age. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/25 "2010-08-27T23:19:57Z")
> [@](#): > > Interestingly, I think recreation could be done for some non-religious works; I imagine most, if not all, of the currently available works of Shakespeare could be recreated, quite a few epic poems, etc. Not just Shakespeare; I imagine all plays of any importance whatsoever could be recovered. Just find a theater troupe somewhere that’s currently performing it, and the actors between them can reproduce it (since you need to memorize your part to put on the play in the first place). You wouldn’t even need all the actors. Back in 7th grade when I played Scrooge in _A Christmas Carol_, between our own lines, the cues for our lines, and the lines that we cued, I and the fellow who played Cratchett could get the whole thing between us. And that was twelve-year-olds for an amateur performance: I would imagine the pros would be even better at it. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/26 "2010-08-27T23:22:32Z")
All Buddhist documents were not written down until 400 years after Buddha died. They were passed down orally for those 400 years. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/27 "2010-08-27T23:35:04Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > > [@Gorsnak](#): > > > > What you would do would be to get 70 scholars to rewrite it from memory. Then when all 70 submit identical manuscripts, take that as a divine signal that it’s a perfect recreation. > > Too easy. For a convincing proof, identical maunuscripts’d have to be achieved by [a thousand blindfolded monkeys](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem#Origins_and_.22The_Total_Library.22), typing on a thousand typewriters. God only knows where we’d find a thousand typewriters in this day and age. Oops, [72](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint#Creation_of_the_Septuagint). Got it wrong. ---
**Author:** ![EdwardLost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@EdwardLost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdwardLost)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/28 "2010-08-28T00:37:03Z")
What’s the point of speculating? This sounds a great idea for an experiment. Set up a wiki called “The Bible by Memory”. When users log in, have an agreement in which they swear up and down to use no texts whatsoever - just their memory. It may take some time for word to get out, but I predict that once it’s half done it will be finished within a few hours. I’d start with “The King James Bible by Memory”. ---
**Author:** ![Bartman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Bartman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bartman)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/29 "2010-08-28T00:38:44Z")
I hate to be a wet blanket here… but no way. You may be able to get something similar, but you would have thousands of variants and no agreement on how to resolve them. Remember something similar happened once when a bunch of Greeks started copying the original autographs. They even had actual copies to work with and were just as dedicated to the scriptures as anyone alive today. And yet the Greek NT manuscripts we have contain more than 200,000 points of variation between them, more than there are words in the New Testament. And while most are simple errors easily corrected many of them are significant like the Comma Johanneum. The human mind isn’t nearly as steel trap like as people seem to be assuming. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/30 "2010-08-28T00:58:20Z")
I would also add that, even if our brains could do it, our personalities would prevent it. I imagine people would see it as great opportunity to clarify vague passages if not outright campaign to have them changed. It took hundreds of years of arguing, sometimes scholarly and sometimes with a sword, to get the Bible as we know it today. Now, imagine that with the Glen Becks of the world being involved. ---
**Author:** ![moejoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@moejoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moejoe)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/31 "2010-08-28T04:02:51Z")
You could just get my mom to recite it for you, no problem. ---
**Author:** ![EdwardLost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@EdwardLost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdwardLost)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/32 "2010-08-28T16:57:58Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > I would also add that, even if our brains could do it, our personalities would prevent it. I imagine people would see it as great opportunity to clarify vague passages if not outright campaign to have them changed. It took hundreds of years of arguing, sometimes scholarly and sometimes with a sword, to get the Bible as we know it today. Now, imagine that with the Glen Becks of the world being involved. If the re-creation were done by an individual or small group, this would no doubt happen. But if there were a widespread, concerted effort to recover a version of the Bible, with everyone allowed to discuss and vote, I believe it would be done with high accuracy. Errors would probably be minor, like misspellings of once-mentioned names in the long genealogies. The more meaningful passages are the ones many people would have memorized; intentional or subconscious “improvements” would get shouted down. There may be wide-spread, common misrememberings. (I can’t think of examples off-hand from the Bible, but like “gild the lily”, “what dreams are made of”, and “I knew him well”, from Shakespeare.) These might get inserted at first, but I believe the hard-core memorizers would be able to convince the others and get them corrected. ---
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/33 "2010-08-29T00:16:09Z")
I’ve heard this before and always wondered… How in the hell can anyone memorize the whole Bible or Quran? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/34 "2010-08-29T02:45:03Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > And how much of a fight would there be if there was any disagreements over wording? Would this be a project the Vatican would oversee, or would it farm out the rewriting process and have votes on whichever passage most people think is the correct one? Most likely it fall to an organization like the International Council on Religious Education, part of the National Council of Churches. They came out with the Revised Standard Edition and the New Revised Sandard Version – and just for kicks, a version including the Apocraphya to satisfy the Anglicans. Of course there’d be other groups who would recreate the King James Version, the American Standard Version, Good News for Modern Man, et al, but that’s pretty much the same argument that Christians are already having. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/35 "2010-08-29T03:57:30Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ve heard this before and always wondered… How in the hell can anyone memorize the whole Bible or Quran? Why, which verse do you think would be the tough one? ---
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/36 "2010-08-29T08:10:22Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > I’ve heard this before and always wondered… How in the hell can anyone memorize the whole Bible or Quran? > > Why, which verse do you think would be the tough one? Not one in particular but literally the whole thing… It’s been said here that people have memorized the whole bible, right? Now if it’s possible, how the hell do they do it? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/37 "2010-08-29T20:57:38Z")
By memorizing pieces of it until they’ve got the whole thing. Really, that’s all there is to it. Almost anyone could do it, if they really wanted to. ---
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/38 "2010-08-29T22:34:55Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > By memorizing pieces of it until they’ve got the whole thing. Really, that’s all there is to it. Almost anyone could do it, if they really wanted to. Makes sense but still wow. I think about how long it would take me to even getting around to reading the whole thing and the mind boggles. Any idea how much practice and/or time it would take to memorize those books? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/39 "2010-08-29T23:16:00Z")
At a guess, based on the things I’ve memorized, somewhere between one and ten years. The people who do it will have that as their main hobby, and will often also have some professional connection. ---
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680/40 "2010-08-30T01:41:07Z")
I see. Thanks for that **chronos** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mankind-lost-the-bible-could-we-reproduce-it/551680.md?page=3)