From God to Man

The Story of How We Got the BiblePart 4 – Preservation

How We Got the Bible“the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah” – Isaiah 11:9

1. Revelation

2. Inspiration

3. Documentation

4. Formation

5. Preservation

6. Translation

7. Application

8. Propagation

From God

ToMan

Preservation

Preservation

• We do not have any original books of the Bible (autographs); what we have are accurate and reliable copies (manuscripts) of each of the 66 books

• We live in an age of archaeological discoveries which have given us many manuscript copies of God’s word (from the 1850’s to present)

Preservation

• The king copied it (Deut. 17:18)

• Joshua copied it (Josh. 8:32)

• Scribes copied it (Ezra 7:6, 10)

– The scribe’s pen (Judg. 5:14; Jer. 8:8; Psa. 45:1; Isa. 8:1)

– The scribe’s inkhorn (Ezek. 9:2-3)

Writing Materials in Bible Times

• Stone tablet (Ex. 31:1, 18; 34:1, 28; 32:16; Deut. 10:2, 4; 27:2-3, 8)

• Clay tablet (Isa. 8:1; Jer. 17:1; Ezek. 4:1; Lk. 1:63)

• Wood tablet (Isa. 30:8; Hab. 2:2)

• Leather scroll (Jer. 36:23)

Writing Materials in Bible Times

• Papyrus scroll (Jer. 36:2; Ezek. 2:9; Rev. 5:1)

• Vellum/parchment scroll (2 Tim. 4:13)

• Paper scroll

• Other (wax, metals, pottery, linen, etc., see 3 Jn. 13)

Preservation of the OT Text

• Men like Moses were educated in reading and writing (Acts 7:22)

• All copies were made by hand from the time of Moses to the printing press in A.D. 1456

Preservation of the OT Text• The OT text in biblical times was formed by

Jewish scribes (see Lk. 4:16-20)

• The OT text used today is the Massoretic Text; it was formed by Jewish scribes near Tiberias (Massoretes, massorah = tradition) living A.D. 500 to 900; they were known for their (1) meticulous care in copying, counting verses, words, and letters; and (2) vowel pointing in the text

Preservation of the OT Text

• The Cairo Codex contains the Former and Latter Prophets and dates to c. A.D. 895

• The Leningrad Codex of the Prophets dates to c. A.D. 916

• The Aleppo Codex dates to c. A.D. 950

Preservation of the OT Text

• The British Museum Codex of the Pentateuch dates to c. A.D. 1000

• The Leningrad Codex of the entire OT dates to c. A.D. 1008

• Why so few OT manuscripts? Ancient Jewish scribes buried a manuscript when it got old or worn? They wanted to prevent an improper use of any material that had God’s name on it.

The Massoretic Text

Preservation of the OT Text

• The Dead Sea scrolls, found by a Bedouin shepherd boy in 1948, a few miles south of Jericho, contain portions of the OT text (Genesis, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Isaiah), portions of the Apocrypha, as well as non-biblical writings; dating from 100 B.C. to A.D. 68

• The nearby Qumran community had a building for their scribes to copy scripture

The Dead Sea Scrolls

The Silver Scroll Necklace

The Silver Scroll necklace was found in 1979 in the Old City portion of Jerusalem. It dates from 600 B.C. and contains the scripture of Numbers 6:24-26.

Preservation of the NT Text

• We have today about 5700 manuscripts of the NT text (in whole or in part)

• The NT is the best attested book from the ancient world

Types of NT Manuscripts

• About 90 papyri mss. have been found, dating from c. A.D. 150 - 350 (papyrus, paper)

• About 375 uncial mss. have been found, dating from c. A.D. 300 - 800 (large block letters, all caps, no spaces or punctuation)

• About 2,800 minuscule (cursive) mss. have been found, dating from c. A.D. 800 – 1400 (small, longhand script)

Three Types of Manuscripts

Papyrus Uncial Minuscule

Types of NT Manuscripts

• About 30 ostraca (pottery) have been found

• The three most important uncials dating from c. A.D. 300 – 450 are…

– The Vaticanus (Codex B)

– The Sinaiticus (Codex Aleph)

– The Codex Alexandrinus (Codex A)

Three Important Uncials

Vaticanus

Sinaiticus Alexandrinus

The John Rylands Papyrus (P52)

The John Rylands Papyrus was found in Egypt in 1920. It dates back to c. A.D. 150 and contains a portion of the scripture of John 18:31-33.

Other Important NT Manuscripts

• About 2,200 lectionaries have been found (selected passages designed to be read in a public service)

• A number of versions have been found (translations from Greek to another language)– Syriac versions (Old Syriac, The Peshitta)

– Latin versions (Old Latin, Latin Vulgate)

– Other versions (Egyptian, Armenian, etc.)

Other Important NT Manuscripts

• Many quotations of scripture come from the early “Church Fathers”

– 2nd century (Justin Martyr, Tatian, Irenaeu, Clement of Alexandria)

– 3rd century (Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian)

– 4th century (Eusebius, Jerome)

New Testament Manuscripts New Testament Manuscripts ComparedCompared

Manuscript Variants

• Two kinds of “errors”:

– errors of the eye caused by (1) no spaces between words, (2) abbreviated words, or (3) two lines beginning or ending with the same word

– errors of the ear caused by (1) words sounding alike but with different spellings and meanings, and (2) vowels and diphthongs were pronounced alike

Manuscript Variants

• Are the OT variants major? No!

• For example, there are only 13 variants between the Isaiah scroll (c. 100 B.C.) found at the Dead Sea and the Isaiah scroll of the Massoretes (c. A.D. 900)

Manuscript Variants

• Are the NT variants major? No!

• There are trivial variants which are of no consequence to the text (omission or addition of words like “and,” “the,” “for”; different spellings of the same word)

• There are substantial variants which are of no consequence to the text (Mk. 16:9-20; Lk. 6:5; Jn. 5:4; 7:53-8:11; Acts 8:37; 1 Jn. 5:7)

From God to ManPreservation

Two Results of Preservation

• God made sure that his word, once spoken and written, was transmitted and preserved for all time; God’s word will not pass away (Mt. 5:18; 24:35; 1 Pet. 1:24-25 [Isa. 40:8])

• God’s providence ensures the preservation of his word; the preservation of his word ensures the presentation of his word (Jer. 36:27-32; 2 K. 22:8)