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How We Got The Bible? Pt. 2 The Written Word Introduction:
In the first lesson we talked about the importance of the Bible, questions
people have about it, and its claim of being the inspired word of God. Old
Testament and New Testament writers said they were writing what God told them or
had revealed to them to write. Now we want to go further and study the writings
themselves and how they have been preserved for mankind. I)
The Recording of Inspiration A)
Moses told to write in a book, Exodus 17.14; Joshua 24.26 1.
Jeremiah was told to write it down, Jeremiah
30.1; 36.2, 17, 28. 2.
The same goes for Ezekiel 24.2. 3.
The Jews had the written oracles of
God, Romans 3.2.
a. Inspiration was not just given, it was recorded.
b. Without the recorded word we would have no way of knowing what
had been
revealed. Not everything has been recorded for
us to know. But
everything necessary for life and godliness has been, 2
Peter 1.3. B)
New Testament 1.
The events of Jesus and the apostles were written down so we can believe, John
20.30-31. 2.
There is a warning in the Bible to those that may want to change either by
substitution or addition or subtraction, Revelation
22.18-19, Deut. 6.1-4; Mal. 4.4. II)
The Material and Languages of The Manuscripts A)
The material 1.
Stone was the earliest material used for writing, Exodus
31.18; 34.28.
a. Critics of the Bible used to argue that Moses could not have written
the first
5 books of the Old Testament. Supposedly writing did not develop
until after Moses lived, roughly 1450 BC.
b. Inscriptions in 2.
Clay introduced by Assyria and 3.
Wood tablets used in Isaiah 30.8. 4.
Leather was used in ancient times. Probably used in Jeremiah
36.23. 2 Timothy 4.13 is likely animal skin. 5.
Papyrus rolls, developed by the Egyptians. Took the papyrus plant, immersed it
in water and then peal it. The layers were crisscrossed, pressured, and dried.
Papyrus rolls were the “books” or the ancient world until the first of the 2nd
century. 6.
Codex manuscript, the papyrus was cut in uniform shape and made into a book. 7.
Vellum was developed when the King of Pergamum, King Eumenes II (197 – 158 BC)
wanted to build his library to world wide stature. The King of Egypt cut off the
supply of papyrus.
a. Vellum is a fine quality animal skin as distinguished from leather, in
not
being tanned. Both sides were scraped off, and lines were ruled by
means
of a pointed instrument.
b. This was the material used for more than a thousand years in
making copies of the New
Testament. 8.
Paper, developed by the Chinese as early as the 2nd century BC. Only
after Arabs captured Chinese prisoners skilled in the making of paper was this
process know by others, eight century AD. B)
The language of the Bible 1.
Hebrew is the language of most of the Old Testament It is written backwards and
contains no vowels. 2.
Aramaic during the exile became the common language, Daniel 2.4-7.24; Ezra
4.5-6.18; 7.12-26 are recorded in this language. In the New Testament Aramaic
words are found such as Abba (Galatians
4.6) and Maranatha (1 Cor. 16.22).
a. Phrases such as talitha cumi
in Mark 5.41; eli eli, lma sabachthani
in Matthew 27.46.
b. This is the language that was spoken during this time period. Was of
the same family as Hebrew. Two distinct languages but they share common shapes
of letters. 3.
Greek, the universal language during the time of Jesus. Specifically this is the
Koine (common) Greek. III)
Three Main Sources For Our Bible A)
Manuscripts – the original language (the earlier the better). B)
Versions – original language translated into another language. C)
Writings of early church fathers. They were not inspired but they often quoted
extensively from the Bible. IV)
Dating Manuscripts By Language and Style A)
Hebrew language changed during its usage 1.
At first there were no vowels in the Hebrew language. A system of vowels were
later added in. 2.
What was thought to be mistakes sometimes were changes in spelling. For instance
dog: kalbu, kalbu, dalk, kelb, kevel, kebev are all different spellings for dog.
B)
Aramaic 1.
Biblical Aramaic used in Daniel and Ezra 2.
Jewish Aramaic used in C)
Koine Greek (Popular or Common Greek) 1.
Uncials are all capital letters. Written without punctuation or spacing between
words. PAULASERVANTOFJESUSCHRIS TCALLEDTOBEANAPOSTLESEP ARATEDUNTOTHEGOSPELOFG ODWHICHHEPROMISEDAFORE TIMETHROUGHTHEPROMISEDB 2.
Cursive style – running hand style around 8th century AD. D)
Style – large or small letters, are there spaces between the words, number of
columns to a page, length of the columns, punctuations, paragraphs, etc. IV)
The Manuscripts of the Old Testament A)
The Massoretes 1.
A group of scribes at Tiberius started around 500 AD dedicated to spotting
errors in the Hebrew text. 2.
Many letters were similar and they formed a system of vowels. However, they
inserted the vows above or below the text and never bothered the text itself. 3.
They numbered the verses, words, and letters of each book. Calculated the middle
verse, the middle work, and letter of each book. 4.
Page 75 of How We Got the Bible explains the pains taken by the scribes to
insure the integrity of the manuscripts. B)
Samaritan Manuscript, 400 BC contains the first 5 books of the Old Testament. C)
The 1.
Prior to 1890 only 731 Hebrew manuscripts were published. The D)
The 1.
The oldest know manuscript of the entire Old Testament completed in 1008
AD. 2.
Why no Old Testament manuscripts found dated earlier? Because the manuscripts
were destroyed when they were worn out, due to the Jewish respect for God’s
word. E)
Samaritan Pentateuch (400 BC) 1.
Contains only the first 5 books of the Old Testament 2.
Variations between the Massorete Text in misspelled words and some additions due
to the theological ideas of the Samaritans. F)
Torah 1.
Torah, strict definition, the Pentateuch, dates back to
539 BC. 2.
Torah, oral traditions included in the writings. Arranged by subject matter. 2.
Septuagint Version (286 BC) 1.
Not in Hebrew but in Greek. V)
Manuscripts of The New Testament (4500) A)
Group 1 the Uncials – the earliest 300 manuscripts dated from the 4th
to 8th century; 70 dated
from the 2nd to 4th century. **
The older vellum manuscripts are completed or almost complete copies of the New
Testament, 300 to 450 AD. 1.
Vatican Manuscript, located in the Vatican Library since 1451 AD.
a. Called Codex B. Contains in Greek practically all the Old Testament.
All of Genesis is there up to Genesis 46.28; all of Psalms up to Psalms
106 – 138;
Hebrews 9.14 to the end of the book, letters to Timothy, Titus, and
Revelation are missing. Mark 16.9-20 is missing but a space is left at
the end of the
column.
b. Has been carefully guarded. 2.
Sinaitic Manuscript at the
a. 1844 Tischendort at St. Catharine’s Monastery in
b. In 1859 after much
searching a monastery steward showed Tichendorf
an old manuscript. It contained most of the Old Testament and all of the
New Testament. 3.
Alexandrian Manuscript (Codex A) does not measure up to the standard of the
other two manuscripts. 4.
Ephraem Manuscript (Codex C) dated 5th Century. Was covered over and
written on top off. It contains most of the New Testament. VI)
Versions – Translations Of Greek Into Other Languages A)
Syrian
Version -- Spoken in regions of 1.
Curetonian Syria, is the 5th Century copy of the Gospels. 2.
Sinaitic Syriac, discovered in 1892 at St. Catherine’s Monastery on 3.
These two Old Syriac witnesses were copied from a text of the 2nd
Century. B)
Latin Version -- The Bible for 1.
Old Latin originated in the 2nd Century (150 AD) from the Septuagint.
2.
Latin Vulgate – (from the Hebrew) an attempt made to correct some corruption
made in the Latin Version. Jerome in 382 AD corrected the Gospels and later the
rest of the Bible. It became the official Bible of the Catholic Church. Conclusion: Isa 55:10-11 God’s word has been preserved for us to read. (Much
of the above material was taken from, How We Got The Bible, by Neil R.
LIghtfoot.) |