From God to Man

1
From God to Man

• The Story of How We Got the Bible
• Part 4 Preservation

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How We Got the Biblethe earth shall be filled
with the knowledge of Jehovah Isaiah 119

• 1. Revelation
• 2. Inspiration
• 3. Documentation
• 4. Formation
• 5. Preservation
• 6. Translation
• 7. Application
• 8. Propagation

From God
To Man
3
Preservation
4
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
  Gods word (from the 1850s to present)

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Preservation

• The king copied it (Deut. 1718)
• Joshua copied it (Josh. 832)
• Scribes copied it (Ezra 76, 10)
• The scribes pen (Judg. 514 Jer. 88 Psa.
  451 Isa. 81)
• The scribes inkhorn (Ezek. 92-3)

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Writing Materials in Bible Times

• Stone tablet (Ex. 311, 18 341, 28 3216
  Deut. 102, 4 272-3, 8)
• Clay tablet (Isa. 81 Jer. 171 Ezek. 41
  Lk. 163)
• Wood tablet (Isa. 308 Hab. 22)
• Leather scroll (Jer. 3623)

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Writing Materials in Bible Times

• Papyrus scroll (Jer. 362 Ezek. 29 Rev. 51)
• Vellum/parchment scroll (2 Tim. 413)
• Paper scroll
• Other (wax, metals, pottery, linen, etc., see
  3 Jn. 13)

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Preservation of the OT Text

• Men like Moses were educated in reading and
  writing (Acts 722)
• All copies were made by hand from the time of
  Moses to the printing press in A.D. 1456

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Preservation of the OT Text

• The OT text in biblical times was formed by
  Jewish scribes (see Lk. 416-20)
• 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

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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

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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 Gods name on it.

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The Massoretic Text
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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

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The Dead Sea Scrolls
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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
624-26.
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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

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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)

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Three Types of Manuscripts
Minuscule
Papyrus
Uncial
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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)

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Three Important Uncials
Alexandrinus
Vaticanus
Sinaiticus
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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 1831-33.
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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.)

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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)

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New Testament Manuscripts Compared
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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

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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)

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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. 169-20 Lk. 65
  Jn. 54 753-811 Acts 837 1 Jn. 57)

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From God to ManPreservation
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Two Results of Preservation

• God made sure that his word, once spoken and
  written, was transmitted and preserved for all
  time Gods word will not pass away (Mt. 518
  2435 1 Pet. 124-25 Isa. 408)
• Gods providence ensures the preservation of his
  word the preservation of his word ensures the
  presentation of his word (Jer. 3627-32 2 K.
  228)