It’s not a millenia-long game of whisper down the lane. We have access to the original text. And we still cross-reference different translations to be sure.
All I said is that the original texts are long gone. Sure the generations of Jews kept the word of God and traditions alive, but we don’t have the original texts. We have the Masoretic text, and we know that is different to what was in use prior because of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in the 1940s and 50s that were mostly the same but with some differences. And the Dead Sea Scolls were not original either, with scrolls found from different Jewish sects.
The different scripts were also written at different times, separated by at least many hundreds of years.
We may have different ideas of what “original” means. In my view, “generations of Jews who kept the tradition and texts alive” is quite different from having the original texts.
The original claim was:
All I said is that the original texts are long gone. Sure the generations of Jews kept the word of God and traditions alive, but we don’t have the original texts. We have the Masoretic text, and we know that is different to what was in use prior because of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in the 1940s and 50s that were mostly the same but with some differences. And the Dead Sea Scolls were not original either, with scrolls found from different Jewish sects.
The different scripts were also written at different times, separated by at least many hundreds of years.
We may have different ideas of what “original” means. In my view, “generations of Jews who kept the tradition and texts alive” is quite different from having the original texts.