Transcript How We Got the Bible

How We Got the Bible
• Part One: From Moses to the Canon
• Part Two: From Jerome toWycliffe
• Part Three: From Erasmus to Tyndale,
and Onward
Part I: From Moses to the Canon
• Moses begins writing the Old Testament ca.
1400 B.C.
• Paul begins writing the New Testament ca.
A.D. 49
• The Canon is complete by A. D. 100
O.T. Hebrew
Hebrew Text
Stone, Clay, Papyrus, Leather
Preserving the Hebrew Scriptures
The Massoretes, ca. A.D. 500, “sought ways and methods
by which to eliminate scribal slips of addition or omission.
this they achieved through intricate procedures of counting” (Neal Lightfoot, How We Got the Bible, 2003, p. 132).
Pre-Massoretes, Talmud regulations reflect infinite care
in the preservation and transmission of the text of the
Hebrew Scriptures.
Evidence from the Cairo Genizah, discovered late 19th
century, indicated damaged or inferior manuscripts taken
out of circulation -- later buried.
The Dead Sea
Qumran Community
Miqveh (Baptistry)
Scriptorium
Dining Area
Dead Sea Scrolls, ca. 250 BC
Cave 4
Isaiah Scroll
Shrine of the Book
On the Nile Delta
Antiochus IV, r. 175-64 BC
Rosetta Stone
ca. 196 BC
Septuagint Version, ca.250 BC
Antiochus IV, Epiphanes
r. 175-164 B.C.
Attempted to destroy the Hebrew Scriptures
Alexandria, Egypt
The Septuagint (LXX) Version
ca. 250 B.C.
O.T. in Greek translation
produced in Alexandria,
Egypt.
Rosetta Stone, ca. 196 B.C.
Alexander the Great sowed
Greek language throughout
the classical world -- the
koine (common) dialect was
the lingua franca of the Roman
Empire by New Testament times.
New Testament, Koine Greek
Papyrus P 52, Oldest N.T.
portion, A.D. 110-130
Preserving the Greek N. T.
Of CAESAR’S GALLIC WARS from A.D. 900 10 Copies
Of THUCYDIDES (History)
from A.D. 900
8 Copies
Of HERODOTUS (History)
from A.D. 900 8 Copies
Of ARISTOTLE (Philosophy)
from A.D. 1100 5 Copies
Of NEW TESTAMENT
from A.D. 110-30 onward,
over 5000 portions or complete copies.
Preserving the Greek N. T.
“To be skeptical of the resultant text of the
New Testament books is to allow all of
classical antiquity to slip into obscurity,
for no documents of the ancient period are
as well attested bibliographically as
The New Testament.”
J.W. Montgomery, Barrister/Scholar
Do We Have the Bible?
“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, Dir. British Museum, dec.
About Textual Variants
“We possess so many MSS., and we are
aided by so many versions, that we are
never left to the need of conjecture as the
means of removing errata.”
S. P. Tragelles, Greek New Testament, Prolegomena
O.T. Canon Finalized, Council of
Jamnia, A.D. 90?
N.T. Canon Finalized, Council of
Carthage, A.D. 397?
The Indestructible Word of God
“Heaven and earth shall pass away
but my words shall not pass away.”
Matthew 24:35