How We Got The Bible

How We Got The Bible

Does it matter whether the Bible is reliable or not? Is it so important that we accept them as true historical records? Yes! Unlike, other religions, Christianity is distinguished by its relation to historical time. If its historical reliability is questionable, so too its spiritual teaching. It is vital to us and our faith that we do have God’s inerrant word.

Ancient Writing

How the Bible has come down to us is an incredible story. It is one of faith and perseverance by those, sometimes at the cost of their lives, who passed down from generation to generation the message of salvation. In a world today where books are written and printed by thousands, we can easily overlook the miracle of having a Bible.

How and when did the books of the Bible have their origin? In what way are these books different than other books? How have these books been preserved and passed on to us?

Birth of the Bible

In the beginning God spoke to man directly. But the time came when it was necessary for the divine will to put in a more permanent form. In other words, it was God’s purpose that by means of a “written record” all succeeding generations would receive God’s words. The first person mentioned in the Bible as writing anything is Moses, dated in the period of about 1350 - 1225 B.C. There are six instances attributed to his hand:

1) memorial concerning Amalek — Exodus 17:14 2) words of the covenant made at Sinai — Exodus 24:4 3) the Ten Commandments — Exodus 34:27

4) the journeys of the children of Israel in the wilderness — Numbers 33:2 5) the Book of the Law — Deuteronomy 31:9, 24

6) Song of Moses — Deuteronomy 31:22

Also, Moses is held by strict Jewish tradition as being the author of the first five books — known as the Pentateuch. Other writers and Jesus give support to this claim as well: Joshua 8:31; Judges 3:4; Malachi 4:4; Luke 24:44; and John 7:19.

Once God’s words were put in writing, it was natural for other revelations and events to also be recorded. This would become a practice of men of God who wrote both history and prophecy. From the Laws of Moses to the writings of the prophets the O.T.

gradually grew into an accepted collection about the time of Ezra (400 B.C.). Josephus, a Jewish historian writing in the time of the first century, said that no book was added to the Hebrew Scriptures after the time of Malachi.

Similarly, the N.T. gradually came into existence; but in a shorter period of time

(A.D. 50-100). These books were in most cases, simply letters penned by inspired men

and addressed to different churches and individuals. (II Peter 1:20-21)

Form of the Bible

Our Bible today is divided into two major sections known as the Old and New Testaments. The term “testament” is not the best translation. The Greek word “diatheke”

is better defined as “contract” or “covenant.” The O.T. appears in English Bibles in the following order: 1) five books of the Law (Genesis to Deuteronomy); 2) twelve books of History (Joshua to Esther); 3) five books of Poetry (Job to Song of Solomon); 4)

seventeen books of Prophecy (Isaiah to Malachi) — sometimes these are further broken into five books of the Major Prophets and twelve books of the Minor prophets. This order comes from the Latin Vulgate, which in turn is derived from the Septuagint.

The books of the Hebrew Bible, however, are grouped differently. There are only three major divisions: 1) the Law; 2) the Prophets; and 3) the Writings.

The N.T. are grouped into 3 divisions also: 1) five books of History (the Gospels and Acts); 2) twenty one books of doctrine (Romans to Jude); and 3) one book of

prophecy (Revelations). Some manuscripts may have different order with the letters. The first three Gospels are known as the Synoptic Gospels because of their similar content.

The Gospels are so called because they present the message of God’s good news revealed in Jesus Christ.

Languages of the Bible

The Bible was written originally in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.

Contrary to some opinions, these languages are not dead languages. Hebrew is the spoken language of the state of Israel; Aramic in spoken in Damascus, Syria and in a few other areas; and Greek is spoken by millions — although it is different from the Greek of the N.T.

1) Hebrew — almost all of the thirty-nine books of the O.T. are written in Hebrew. It is written right to left, has many sounds unfamiliar with more modern languages, and the alphabet is without vowels. Hebrew is of a large family of languages known as Semitic.

2) Aramaic — a language similar to Hebrew, and after the time of the exile (500 B.C.) became the tongue of the common man in Palestine. Some portions of the O.T. are written in Aramaic instead of Hebrew: Genesis 31:47, Jeremiah 10:11, Daniel 2:4-7:28, and Ezra 4:8-6:18, 7:12-26). This occurrence has strengthened the reliability of the transmission of the O.T. scriptures we have today.

The Dead Sea Scrolls have produced some fragments from Daniel. In the exact spots where our most recent texts change from Hebrew to Aramaic (Daniel 2:4) and Aramaic back to Hebrew (End of chapter 7) the Dead Sea Scrolls also record this

language change; exactly as our text reads two thousand years later. Some Aramic words are also recorded in the N.T. texts:

Mark 5:41, Mark 7:34, Matthew 27:46, and I Corinthian 16:22. Wherever you find the word “Abba” you are reading the Aramaic word for “Father.”

3) Greek — the books of the N.T. were written in Greek. This was at the time, a

language that was spoken all over the world. The language of the N.T. is more correctly

termed Hellenistic or Koine (common) Greek.

Manuscripts of the N.T.

Most of the first letters of the N.T. were written on papyrus sheets; which of course meant that the originals would perish. We do not have any original manuscripts of the N.T. The word manuscript denotes anything written by hand; but by general consent in connection with the Bible is restricted to documents of the original tongue. Does this mean that we cannot have a reliable translation today? If it does, then we cannot accept other historical documents as being reliable; as most of the original writings of some classic theologians have also been lost and only copies that were written thousands of years later remain.

Author Date Oldest Copy Interval Copies

Aristophanes 400 B.C. 900 A.D. 1300 years 45

Aristotle 340 B.C. 1100 A.D. 1450 years 5

Julius Caesar 50 B.C. 900 A.D. 950 years 10

Herodotus 435 B.C. 900 A.D. 1350 years 8

Plato 360 B.C. 800 A.D. 1150 years 15

Sophocles 415 B.C. 1000 A.D. 1400 years 7

Thucydides 410 B.C. 900 A.D. 1300 years 8

The hard facts for the Bible, in comparison, far exceed these unquestionably accepted manuscripts. Thus, the Bible is, in a historian’s objective view, one of the most reliable collection of manuscripts in existence today. Hard facts:

• The N.T. was written approximately 50 to 100 A.D.

• The earliest fragment of a N.T. manuscript dates from 125 A.D.

It is the gospel of John — written only 30 years earlier.

• Manuscripts of entire books of the N.T. date from 200 A.D.

Thus the interval of time in this case is only 100 years!

• The oldest copy of the complete N.T. dates from 350 A.D. —

a gap of only 250 years, compared with gaps of four or five times as long for most classical works.

• The gap for most O.T. books, for comparison, is as little as 200 to 400 years.

• There are over 5,000 ancient Greek copies alone!

• Including ancient copies in other languages, there are well over 40,000 complete and partial manuscripts of the N.T.

• In addition there well over 35,000 quotations from the N.T. in early writers, almost all of which date earlier than the oldest surviving N.T. manuscripts! Thus, even if all our N.T. manuscripts were lost, it would not be difficult to reconstruct most of the N.T. from these references. No other classical work even comes close.

Manuscripts of the N.T. fall into two major divisions: uncials and cursives.

Uncials are those penned in large, capital letters, without intervening spaces between the words; while the cursives are those similar to our longhand script. Most of our

manuscripts are cursives, since they are dated from the ninth century on. However, the

vellum uncials are of greater importance because some of them date as early as the fourth century. Three of the most important uncials are complete or almost complete copies of the N.T. In other words, they are the oldest Bibles in the world!

1) The Vatican Manuscript — (Codex B) dated in the fourth century. It is located in the Vatican Library at Rome. It has resided there since at least 1481, but not until the last century did the exact contents become available to the public. The history of this occurrence is an interesting story all its own.

This vellum codex is a rare gem that contains practically all of the O.T. and N.T.

in Greek. One interesting note is that the Gospels does not contain Mark 16:9-20;

however, for some strange reason its scribe left at this point more than a column of space blank in its manuscript. Perhaps, the scribe knew of these questioned verses, but was undecided as to whether he should include them or not.

2) The Sinaitic Manuscript — (Codex Aleph) has an amazing discovery story. A great text critic, Constantine Tischendorf, who discovered them in a monastery on Mt.

Sinai (ironically). In 1844 he stumbled on a basket full of old parchments which were destined for the fire. On closer scrutiny he realized these were very old copies (middle of the fourth century) of parts of the O.T. and a completed N.T. They eventually would be sold by the Russians to the British in 1933.

3) The Alexandrian Manuscript — (Codex A) was the first of the uncials to be discovered. Not as good quality of the other two manuscripts, it was dated in the fifth century. It was a gift from Alexandria to the King of England and passed down through the royal families.

There are of course many other uncials and cursives that provide the primary resources for the Greek N.T. There are two types of secondary resources: ancient versions or translations and quotations made by early Christian writers.The Syriac and Latin versions were translated from Greek within 200 years of the originals. The transmission of the O.T. text also has an incredible story. Thanks to the sensational discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948 and the almost fanatical precision and strict rules applied by Hebrew copyists the accuracy of our present Hebrew text is remarkable.

With over a thousand years between our oldest and recent O.T. manuscripts, only trivial variations are found.

The existence of all these manuscripts lead us to the question of how well were these copies in comparison to the lost originals? It is apparent that some errors could have been made, copied, and mixed in with pure text. This leads to the science of Textual Criticism.

Textual Criticism

The function of the textual critic is plain: he seeks by comparison and study of all the available evidence to recover the exact words of the author’s original composition.

Errors can take place in two ways: 1) unintentionally, which can easily be detected, and

2) intentional, not as easily detected.

They have come up with some guidelines to deal with these mistakes.The quality of evidence is more important than the quantity. The more difficult reading is preferred.

And, the different reading in parallel passages is usually the more reliable one.

If someone were to say that there were over 200,000 variations or errors in the manuscripts, what would be your response? How can we be sure if we have the original N.T. message? As more and more manuscripts come in existence this number will increase, but what does it really mean? How did they come to this large number?

This number was created by adding up all the variations in all the manuscripts.

For example, if one word were misspelled in 4,000 different manuscripts it amounts to 4,000 “errors,” although actually it is one error copied 4,000 times. “If the large number of manuscripts increases the total of variations, it at the same time supplies the means for checking them.”

Nearly all these variants are spelling mistakes, minor differences in word order, or instances of a copyist missing a word or line. Only a very few variants present some difficulty for our text, but they are solvable. Because the number of them are so few and insignificant to teachings elsewhere, these variants should not present a stumbling block to our faith.

It goes without saying that along with this science, the science of Archaeology also has proven to be a continual support to the validity of the Scriptures. Studying the evidence archaeology has produced in context with the Bible is exciting and faith building.

Canon of the Scriptures

Most of the preceding study has concerned the transmission of the Bible text.

However, many of the discovered manuscripts contain books that are not contained in the Bibles we have today. Which of these books rightfully belong, and which should be excluded from the Scriptures? The answers to these questions can be found by the study of what is called the “canon” of the Scriptures.

The English word “canon” goes back to the Greek word “kanon” which comes from the Hebrew word “qaneh.” This word is literally translated in English “reed.” A reed was used to measure, and therefore the word “canon” came to mean a standard or rule; which determined which books were considered as Holy Scripture. A book’s canonicity depends upon its authority. A book first has divine authority (I Corinthians 14:37) based on its inspiration, and then later attains its canonicity due to its general acceptance as a divine product.

Good evidence exists in the N.T. that the canon of the O.T. was already fixed by the time of Jesus. (Luke 11:51 — referring to the martyrs of the O.T.) There were certain books that were in question before this, but remained, such as Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and Song of Songs. Additional evidence comes from Jewish historians and early Christian writers such as Josephus, Jerome, and Origen.

The canon of the N.T. is also a very interesting study supported by the thousands

of manuscripts, and quotes of early Christian writers. Some fragments, such as the

Muratorian Fragment, go so far as listing (much like our outlines in text books today) the

actual accepted books of the N.T. — this fragment was dated as early as the middle of the

second century A.D.

Not long after some scriptures were written, they were read among the churches.

Gradually the canon of the N.T. took place. It was not any council that determined the canon, for the Scriptures have their own authority. They simply approved what was already accepted. The canon controls the church, not vice versa.

As a child identifies its mother, the later church simply identified the books which were already the accepted authority in the early church. How did the early Church know what scriptures were inspired you might ask? Mark 16:19-20, much like the O.T. the letters written by the apostles and those with the gifts had their message confirmed by the miracles that accompanied them. Once these were written and the gifts began to fade, they were accepted as divine scripture. Those that did not have this confirmation were not accepted as divine, or included into the canon. Today there is not major disagreement over the canon of the N.T., however, there is among some religions disagreements concerning the canon of the O.T. The traditional denominations differ than the newer Protestant divisions in that they contain some extra books of the O.T. known as the Apocrypha.

The Apocrypha

The O.T. Apocrypha include either 14 or 15 books, depending on the method of counting, which were written in the period of 200 B.C. to A.D. 200. The O.T. Apocrypha covers a broad range of subjects and represents different varieties of literary form. They can be divided into four groups: 1) historical, 2) legendary, 3) prophetic, and 4) ethical.

However, they were never considered as part of the O.T. canon. The following are some logical reasons why they were and should be rejected:

• They were never included in the Hebrew O.T.

• They were never quoted or accepted by Jesus or the Apostles as canonical.

• They were not accepted by early Jewish or Christian writers.

• Historical errors clearly exist.

• There is no claim of inspiration within the Apocrypha itself.

• The council of Trent (1500 years after Christ) was the first official Catholic proclamation on the Apocrypha; and this was an obvious move to fight against the Protestant Reformation.

God’s Word

Tracing the Bible down through the centuries presents the human side of how we got the Bible. In contrast, the story of how we got the Bible begins and ends with God.

Ultimately, the question of how we got the Bible leads to God!

Mark 13:31

Jesus makes two claims: one, His words are divine; and two, they will never pass

away. His words are not from this world, because the world will pass away!

My Words

II Timothy 3:16-17, II Peter 1:19-21

As Jesus claimed his words are divine, so too the Bible claims as a whole for itself. Here the reference of Scripture could include the N.T. as well as the O.T. being that these are some of the last letters written in the N.T.

I Thessalonians 2:13

This shows that clearly the first century Christians accepted the teaching of the Apostles as the Word of God; as well as the O.T. scriptures. The claims of the Bible plus the contents of the Bible equal a convincing case for the Scriptures as the inspired Word of God.

Will Never Pass Away Isaiah 55:10-11

God’s Word will never pass away or return empty. No matter what man has done to destroy, change, or discount God’s word — it still remains! God is in control, and He has made sure to maintain his message to us throughout the ages.

If any book from ancient times has descended to us without substantial loss or alteration, it is the Bible. The number of manuscripts, archaeological evidence, early translations, and quotations from early Christian writers is so large that it is practically certain that the true reading of every doubtful passage is preserved in some or one of these ancient authorities. This can be said of no other ancient book in the world.

The quality of materials available on the Bible text are also greater than all other accepted classical manuscripts. Many within 200 years of their originals. Also the Hebrew culture, of which finds its origins in the Bible, have been preserved with

incredible commitment even up to this present day; which shows the incredible accuracy of their copyists.

I Peter 1:24-25

The promise of Jesus has been tested by centuries and has not failed. But greater than the reliability of its message, is the promises it proclaims to all mankind. It is the story of God seeking man, and offering us the incredible gift of eternal life. Let us

combine trust in the reliability of his Word, to the continual obedience to its teaching! His Words will never pass away!

Resources:

“How we got the Bible” — Neil R. Lightfoot, 2nd Edition, January 1998

“The New Testament Documents” — F.F. Bruce, 1943, 5th Edition, 1994