Our English BiblePart 1

An Outline of Its Textual History

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Our English Bible:

1. It initially consisted of 2 Testaments totaling 80 books (14 apocryphal)

2. The first (old) contains 39 books originally written in Hebrew by some 30 authors between 1500-400 B.C., has 929 chs., 23,145 vs., 593,493 words, covers 3,600 yrs of history, and is called in the Hebrew the “Masorah” or traditional text

3. The last (new) contains 27 books originally written in Greek by 8 authors between 37-98 A.D., has 260 chs., 7,959 vs ., and 181,253 words; covers a 100 yr. history, and is called the “Textus Receptus,” or received text

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Our English Bible:

4. It is the most translated book in history (1,200+)5. The Bible was divided into chapters by Stephen Langton

c.1228 A.D.. The OT was divided into verses by Rab. Isaac Nathan in c. 1448 A.D., and the NT by Robert Stephanus in 1551 A.D.

6. The first English Bible to contain both the chapter and verse divisions was the Geneva translation of 1568 A.D.

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The Old Testament Text

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The Hebrew “Tanakh”:The Hebrew tongue consists of 22 letters (all consonants), written from right to left.It contains 309,997 words, is divided up into 24 books, 929 chapters, and 23,213 verses; further divided into 3 sections:

1. Torah (5 books) “The Law”2. Nebim (8 books) “The Prophets”3. Ketubim (11 books) “The Writings”

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The Hebrew “Tanakh”:All 39 books of the Tanakh were officially recognized by the Jews during the 4th cent. B.C.

It was anciently translated into Aramaic (Targums), Greek (LXX), and Latin (Vetus Latina)Different schools of interpretation developed among the Jews regarding how it should be understood. Two primary schools are mentioned in Scripture:

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The Schools of Interpretation:Two primary divisions (sects) developed within Hebrew culture during the days of the Persian Empire (538-331 B.C.) and the later Greek empire (331-168 B.C.). These two sects became known as:

The Pharisees: from the Hebrew פרש (parash), meaning “tradition”. These traced their lineage and their oral and written tradition from Moses. These became known as the “traditional,” “Mosaic,” or “conservative” school; and closely associated with the Pharisees were the scribes, who maintained both the Mosaic and Talmudic writings.The Sadducees: from the Hebrew צדק (sadaq), meaning “just” or “right”. These traced their lineage from Zadoc the first priest to officiate under the Temple of Solomon. They became known as the “elite,” “priestly” or “liberal” school.

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“Judaism & Christianity”(1942)

“A Jewish Home”pp. 24, 25, 28-29

Fred C. Gilbert (1867-1947)

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After the death of the Old Testament prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, there arose a class of leaders who legislated for Jewish home life. They

did not always agree with the counsel offered by the Heaven-appointed Seer [prophet]. These self-

appointed rabbis professed to follow in the footsteps of their Heaven-appointed predecessors, and they

claimed that their instruction did harmonize with the light given through Moses and the prophets, though their application of those teachings was changed to

fit the times and conditions under which they lived.

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The Talmudists developed such a heterogeneous mass of social instruction that the writings of the prophets became obscured. Nevertheless, the multitudes were

forced to accept all the teaching of the rabbis, whether those counsels developed concord or discord.

The Saviour’s attitude toward those slavish teachings and customs was one of the reasons the Scribes and

the Pharisees were often so angry at Him. These self-appointed leaders knew that if the common people

should follow His instructions, their own power over the multitudes would be broken.

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If such a situation followed, rabbinical prestige and authority would wane. The only hope of these leaders,

if they were to keep control over the people, was to insist that the traditions be strictly and literally obeyed.The Talmudic writings consist of two great divisions. The first division is called the Mishna; the second is

the Gemara. The Mishna consists of rabbinic comments on the Old Testament; the Gemara contains

the comments on the Mishna. For several centuries prior to the advent of the Saviour, the rabbinic comments on the Bible were preserved orally.

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These sayings were handed down from father to son, from rabbi to pupil. Very few of them were in written

form. These humanly inspired sayings had accumulated for about four centuries.

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The New Testament Text

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The Greek “He Kaine Diatheke”:The Greek tongue consists of 24 letters (7 vowels, 17 consonants), left to right in what were called unicals (capitals) with no spacing or punctuation. It was later adapted into the lowercase (miniscule), and eventually into a cursive script.It contains nearly 141,000 words., divided up into 260 chapters, and 7,957 verses, and can be divided into 4 basic sections:

1. The Gospels (4 books)2. The History (1 book)3. The Epistles (21 books)4. The Prophecy (1 book)

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The Greek “He Kaine Diatheke”:The oldest translations of the Greek NT are the Latin (Itala c. 200-300 A.D.), the Aramaic (Peshitta), the Egyptian (Coptic), the Armenian, and the GothicIts 27 books were officially recognized by the church in the 4th cent. A.D.

There developed two schools of interpretation and classification of text within Christianity during the first 3 centuries of the Christian era:

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Antioch

Alexandria

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Antioch

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Alexandria

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School of Alexandria

It was established by a philosopher 2nd Cent. A.D.It was a great center of science and learning

It was philosophical schoolIt taught a “spiritual” or “allegorical” meaning

Its most notorious teacher was Origen

It originated the texts known as the “Alexandrian,”

“Variant,” or “Western” texts

School of Antioch

It was established by the Apostles in the 1st Cent. A.D.

It was a great center of science and learningIt was a Bible schoolIt taught a “literal” or “contextual” meaning

Its most famous teacher was Lucian

It originated the texts known as the “Received,”

“Majority,” or “Eastern” texts

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“New Testament Documents”

(1943)Ch. 2, “Their Date and Attestation”

p. 10

Frederick F. Bruce Frederick F. Bruce (1910-1990)(1910-1990)

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The evidence for our New Testament writings is ever so much greater than the evidence for many writings of classical authors, the authenticity of which no one

dreams of questioning. And if the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt. It is

a curious fact that historians have often been much readier to trust the New Testament records than have

many theologians.

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Reliability of Ancient TextsAuthor Date Written Earliest Copy Time between # Copies Accuracy

Lucretius 55-53 B.C. c.1,150 A.D. 1,100 yrs 2Pliny 61-113 A.D. 850 A.D. 750 yrs 7Plato 427-347 B.C. 900 A.D. 1,200 yrs 7Demosthenes 500-400 B.C. 1,100 A.D. 800 yrs 8Herodotus 480-425 B.C. 900 A.D. 1,300 yrs 8Suetonius 75-160 A.D. 950 A.D. 800 yrs 8Thucydides 460-400 B.C. 900 A.D. 1,300 yrs 8Euripides 480-406 B.C. 1,100 A.D. 1,300 yrs 9Josephus 70-100 A.D. c.950 A.D. 850+ yrs 9Aristophanes 450-385 B.C. 900 A.D. 1,200 yrs 10Caesar 100-44 B.C. 900 A.D. 1,000 yrs 10Tacitus c.100 A.D. 1,100 A.D. 1,000 yrs 20Aristotle 384-322 B.C. 1,100 A.D. 1,400 yrs 49Sophocles 496-406 B.C. 1,000 A.D. 1,400 yrs 193Homer (Iliad) 900 B.C. 400 B.C. 500 yrs 643 95%Greek NT 50-100 A.D. c.130 A.D. 30 yrs 5,600 99.5%

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The English Bible

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Between the years 1381 and 1382 A.D. the prominent English scholar and

theologian, John Wycliffe (a.k.a. The Morning star of the Reformation),

translated the first complete English Bible from the Latin vulgate.

John Wycliffe (c.1320-1384)

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In the year 1516 A.D. a famous Dutch scholar named Desiderius Erasmus (a.k.a. Erasmus of Rotterdam) compiled for the

first time in history the first complete Greek NT text from his own collection of Greek manuscripts. Subsequent editions

of this Greek NT followed in 1519, 1520, and 1521.

Desiderius Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)(1466-1536)

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In the year 1527 A.D. the English scholar and theologian William Tyndale

became the first man to translate the Greek NT into English, and gave to the people of England and elsewhere, for the very first time, the Bible in their

own tongue.

William Tyndale (c.1494-1536)

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Bible testimony of its origin & nature:

2 Peter 1:212 Timothy 3:16

2 Samuel 22:31 (see also Psalm 18:30)

John 17:17 (see also Psalm 119:160)

The EndPart 1