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The Text of the Bible The Canon of the Bible The Translations of the Bible The Interpretation of the Bible. The Old Testament was originally written in two languages, Hebrew and Aramaic (portions of Ezra and Daniel), from the years 1500 to 400 B.C.
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The Text of the Bible • The Canon of the Bible • The Translations of the Bible • The Interpretation of the Bible
The Old Testament was originally written in two languages, Hebrew and Aramaic (portions of Ezra and Daniel), from the years 1500 to 400 B.C. • The New Testament was originally written in Koine Greek from the years 40 to 100 A.D. • We do not have any original writing (autographa). • All transmissions of the Bible were handwritten until the invention of the printing press in 1450s by Johann Gutenberg. • The most readily available writing materials were stone, papyri, and parchment/vellum. Later (second century B.C.) the codex was developed.
1500 B.C. -100 A.D. Autographs 1600 A.D. - Present Critical Texts 1600 A.D. - Present Translations 100 -1600 A.D. Manuscripts
Textual Criticism: Science of reconstructing the original text of the Scriptures based upon the available manuscript evidence.
1500 B.C. -100 A.D. Autographas 1600 A.D. - Present Critical Texts 1600 A.D. - Present Translations 100 -1600 A.D. Manuscripts
1600 A.D. - Present Critical Texts 100 -1600 A.D. Manuscripts
We don’t have the originals and the Bible has been transmitted so many times that it is impossible to know what it really said.
“Drinking apples with regular frequency, docs says, is good for the ticker in your chest.”
How do we know that the Bible we have today is an accurate representation of the original?
“ [How] Can we hope to get back to anything like the original [biblical] text, the text that the authors actually wrote? It is an enormous problem. In fact, it is such an enormous problem that a number of textual critics have started to claim that we may as well suspend any discussion of the “original” text, because it is inaccessible to us.” (p. 58)
Four Types of Scribes: • Hired hand: Most objective. Mistakes will be unintentional. • Pastoral: May smooth the text over, making some of the language more understandable. • Zealous Apologist/Theologian: May seek to correct what he perceives bad theology • Commentator: May add notes or exclamations of praise.
Manuscripts Evidence • Dead Sea Scrolls (2nd Century B.C.) • John Ryland Papyri (125 A.D.) • Codex Sinaiticus (a; 350 A.D.) • Codex Vaticanus (B; 350 A.D.)
Early Church Fathers and Jewish Writings • Codes of religion. • Commentaries, diaries, books, and letters • Polycarp, Clement of Rome, Justin Martyr, Ignatius, Irenaeus, Tertillian, etc. • John Burgeon, a biblical scholar, catalogued over 86,000 quotations before A.D. 325. • Reconstruction of the New Testament could be accomplished within 100 years of its completion using these manuscripts.
Translations • 15,000 copies • Syriac, Old and New Latin, Sahidic, Bohairic, Middle Egyptian, Armenian, Gothic, Georgian, Ethiopic, and Nubian versions.
Ninety-nine percent of the variants make no theological difference. • Of the one percent that do, none affect any major doctrine.
2 Pet. 3:15–16 “And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.”
Psalm 1:1-2 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
Field Ops: Discuss how many ways can this statement be misunderstood and mis-transcribed? “Paul went to the mall to buy apples. Paul also went to the mall to buy orangutans.” Come up with at least three ways to mis-transcribe this.
How does the manuscript evidence give testimony to the uniqueness of Scripture? Why do you think that God did not allow the originals to be preserved? Does it disturb you that there are so many variations? Why or why not?
The Canon of the Bible Do we have the right Books?
There is nowhere in the Bible to go to find which books belong in the Bible.
The Protestant Bible has 66 books. • There are 27 books in the New Testament. • There are 39 books in the Old Testament. • Roman Catholics and many Eastern Orthodox have more books in their Old Testament than do Protestants.
Athanasius’ Easter Letter (367) Council of Hippo (393) Council of Carthage (397) All confirm NT canon RC Council of Trent declares deuterocanonical books canonical (1546) Council of Jamnia confirms Hebrew canon (90) Writing of the Septuagint (LXX) (300–150) Canonization of OT Canonization of NT Writing of OT Writing of NT 1400 B.C. 400 B.C. 400 A.D. 1600 A.D. 100 A.D.
The formation of the Canon was organic. In other words, there were not discussions, debates, and councils that got together and discussed the legitimacy of each new book. The majority writings were accepted into the canon because the people of God realized their prophetic nature from the beginning.
Five Proposed Tests for Canonicity • Does the New Testament attest to its authority (Old Testament)? • Do extrabiblical writers affirm them? • Is the writing consistent with other revelation? • Was it written by a prophet or someone of divine authority? • Did Christ attest to its authority?
Apocrypha: Lit. “Hidden writings.” (also Deuterocanonical) This describes the group of writings, mostly written in Greek during the intertestamental period (400–100 B.C.), that are accepted by Roman Catholics and some Eastern Orthodox as Scripture, but rejected by Jews and Protestants.
Protocanonical: Lit. “first canon.” In contrast to the deuterocanonical books, refers to the books of the Old Testament that have always been accepted by all as Scripture. Pseudepigrapha: Refers to rejected books that are falsely attributed to an author (e.g., The Apocalypse of Peter).
