The Writing of

God Promised to Preserve His Word

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands

forever.–– Isaiah 40:8

Early Old Testament Hebrew Manuscripts

Cairo Codex (895 AD)

Leningrad Codex of the Prophets (916 AD)

Leningrad Codex (1008 AD)

British Museum Codex of Pentateuch (850 AD)

The Masoretes5-10th Centuries AD

Counted the number of letters in each book,

the repetitions of certain expressions,

the middle letter, and the word and the verse in the middle of each book or collection of

books.

Found the letter aleph occurs 42,377 times,

the letter beth 38,218 times.

(1) A synagogue roll must be written on the skins of

clean animals, (2) prepared for the particular uses of

the synagogue by a Jew. (3) These must be fastened

together with strings taken from clean animals. (4)

Every skin must contain a certain number of columns, equal throughout the entire

codex. (5) The length of each column must not

extend over less than 48 or more than 60 lines, and the breadth must consist of 30

letters.

(6) The whole copy must be first lined; and if three words be written without a line, it is worthless. (7) The ink should be black, neither red, green nor any other color, and be

prepared according to a definite recipe. (8) An

authentic copy must be the exemplar, from which the

transcriber ought not in the least deviate. (9) No word or letter, not even a yod, must be written from memory, the scribe not having looked at

the codex before him.

(10) Between every consonant the space of a

hair or thread must intervene. (11) Between every new section, the

breadth of nine consonants; (12) Between every book, three lines. (13). The fifth

book of Moses must terminate exactly with a

line, but the rest need not do so. (14). Besides this,

the copyist must sit in full Jewish dress, (15) wash his whole body, (16) not begin to write the name of God

with a pen newly dipped in ink

(17) and should a king address him while writing that name he must take no notice of him.

–– Samuel DavidsonHebrew Text of the Old Testament.

The variation between the earliest Masoretic scrolls

known to exist (9th Century) and those copied by sofars (scribes) in the 21st Century

is less than 8 letters.

–– Avi Bloomenstiel, Hasidic sofar, Dallas, Texas.

November 2013

Accuracy of the Masoretic TextThe Septuagint (LXX) (250-150 BC).

• Based on a Hebrew text 700- 1000 years older than

the Masoretic text.

• “Substantial agreement with the Masoretic Hebrew Old Testament text.” –– Geisler & Nix

General Introduction to the Bible

Dead Sea Scrolls (200 BC-50 AD).

• 500 books; 127 Biblical texts

• Isaiah scroll (125 BC) is more than 1000 years older than any Isaiah manuscript previously discovered.

The Isaiah scroll “proved to be word for word identical with our

standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95% of the

text.”–– Gleason Archer

A Survey of the Old Testament

The scrolls show that the Hebrew Bible has been

amazingly accurately preserved through centuries of hand-

copying. One scroll that contains a major portion of the book of Isaiah, shows only 13 minor variations from the modern

version.U.S. News & World Report, July 7, 1997

The discovery of the Dead

Sea Scrolls was extremely

reassuring. The Isaiah scroll

from Cave I, for example, is

by far the most complete of

the scrolls and was one of the

first to be published. Word by

word, verse by verse, it

corresponds exactly to the

text as we have it.”

--The Book. A History of the Bible.

by Christopher DeHamel. Fellow Librarian of Corpus

Christi College, Cambridge, England (2001).

The new evidence confirms what we have already good reason to believe ––

that the Jewish scribes of the early Christian centuries copied and re-copied

the text of the Hebrew Bible with utmost fidelity.

–– F.F. BruceSecond Thoughts on the Dead Sea Scrolls

It may safely be said that no other work of antiquity

has been so accurately transmitted.

–– William Henry GreenGeneral Introduction to the Old

Testament

The Writing of

Sir Frederic Kenyon1863-1952

Director, British Museum

It cannot be too strongly asserted that in substance

the text of the Bible is certain. Especially is this

the case with the New Testament. The number of

manuscripts of the New Testament, of early

translations from it, and ofquotations from it in the oldest writers of the Church, is so large that it is

practically certain that the true reading of every doubtful passage is preserved in

some one or other of these ancient authorities. This can be said of no other

ancient book in the world.

The Manuscripts

Original Text(27 books)

GreekManuscripts

(5,500)

John Ryland MSSJohn 18:31-33

125 AD

Codex Alexandrinus(350 AD)

Codex Vaticanus (325-350 AD)

Codex Sinaticus(340 AD)

NUMBER OF EXTANT COPIES

Caesar 100-44 BC 10 copiesPlato 427-347 BC 7 copiesTacitus 14-70 AD 20 copiesPliny 61-113 AD 7 copiesAristotle 384-322 BC 5 copiesSophocles 496-406 BC 100 copiesLucretius 54 BC 2 copiesNew Testament 50-95 AD 5,500 copies

TIME SPAN FROM WRITING TO EARLIEST EXTANT COPY

Caesar 1,000 years 10 copiesPlato 1,200 years 7 copiesTacitus 1,000 years 20 copiesPliny 750 years 7 copiesAristotle 1,100 years 5 copiesSophocles 1,000 years 100 copiesLucretius 1,100 years 2 copiesNew Testament 60 years 5,500 copies

MORE MANUSCRIPTS DISCOVERIES ….

• In 1897 excavators recovered 36 baskets full of fragments every day! Included Matthew 23:30-39 (200 AD) Now at Oxford University Library

• Titus chap 1 and 2 (200 AD) found in Cairo antique shop

• 1931 Almost complete volume of Paul’s epistles (200 AD), the Gospels and Acts (3rd Century) found in Egypt

• Complete copy of gospel of John (200 AD) with original stitching intact!

• Gospels of Luke and John together found (3rd Century). Perhaps exemplar for Codex Vaticanus

• Two virtually complete copies of four gospels (5th cent.) purchased at Cairo antiques shop

The Translations

Original Text(27 books)

GreekManuscripts

(5,500)

Translations(18,000 – 25,000)

OLD SYRIAC(Aramaic)

3rd Century, copied from 2nd Century

text

SINATIC SYRIACCopied from 2nd

Century text

SYRIAC PESHITTA5th Century, copied

from 2nd & 3rd Century

COTIC (EGYPTIAN) BIBLE

Copied from2nd Century

papyrus

AFRICAN OLD LATIN

Copied from2nd Century papyrus

LATIN VULGATE366-384 AD

DIATESSARION OF TATIANHarmony of the GospelsIn Syriac (2nd Century)

The Quotations

Original Text(27 books)

GreekManuscripts

(5,000)

Translations(9,000)

Quotations inChurch Fathers

(86,000)

…so extensive that the New Testament could virtually be reconstructed from them

without the use of the New Testament manuscripts.

–– J. Harold Greenlee

Original Text(27 books)

Lectionaries(2,100+)

The Lectionaries

GreekManuscripts

(5,500)

Translations(18,000 – 25,000)

Quotations inChurch Fathers

(86,000)

The great majority of the New Testament “has been

transmitted to us with no, or next to no, variation: and even

in the most corrupt form in which it has ever appeared, to

use the words of Richard Bentley, ‘the real text of the sacred writers is competently exact; … nor is one article of faith or moral precept either

perverted or lost.’” B.B. Warfield

All evidence confirms that the text of the

Christian Bible as we have it today has been

maintained and transmitted with

extraordinary accuracy since the late

second or early third century AD. No

significant variations or deliberate

falsifications have ever been found to shake

public confidence in the Bible as a whole.

No other text of comparable antiquity has

come down to us with so few uncertainties

about its transmission.

--The Book. A History of the Bible. by Christopher De Hamel, Fellow

Librarian of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, England (2001).

It is reassuring at the end to find that the general result of all these discoveries and

all this study is to strengthen the proof of the authenticity

of the Scriptures, and our conviction that we have in our hands, in substantial

integrity, the veritable Word of God.

–– Sir Frederick Kenyon

It is reassuring at the end to find that the general result of all these discoveries and

all this study is to strengthen the proof of the authenticity

of the Scriptures, and our conviction that we have in our hands, in substantial

integrity, the veritable Word of God.

–– Sir Frederick Kenyon

The last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures

have come down to us substantially as they were

written has now been removed. Both the

authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the

New Testament may be regarded as finally

established.–– Sir Frederick Kenyon

The last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures

have come down to us substantially as they were

written has now been removed. Both the

authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the

New Testament may be regarded as finally

established.–– Sir Frederick Kenyon

COMING NEXT

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE