HOW WE GOT THE

BIBLE
Lesson 7
 THIS LESSON:
CONFIDENCE IN THE
ACCURACY OF THE
NEW TESTAMENT
GREEK TEXT
VERY IMPORTANT:
If we take ONLY ONE
MANUSCRIPT AS THE BASIS OF
THE NEW TESTAMENT TEXT, WE
WILL FAIL!
If we take MANY MANUSCRIPTS
AND OTHER WITNESSES, the
ORIGINAL TEXT WILL BE
ASSURED!
THREE TYPES OF AUTHORITIES
FOR DETERMINING THE
ORIGINAL TEXT
1. The thousands of available
MANUSCRIPTS
2. The EARLY VERSIONS
translated into many
“tongues”
3. Early CHRISTIAN WRITERS.
There are many Volumes
TO CONSIDER:
1. The primary sources are the
many manuscripts available
2. The early Christians translated
the New Testament into many
languages
Syriac, Latin, Coptic (Egyptian),
Armenian, Gothic, Ethiopian, and
Georgian
 THE EARLY CHRISTIAN
WRITERS POSSESSED COPIES
OF THE SCRIPTURE THAT ARE
OLDER THAN THE
MANUSCRIPTS
IN THEIR WRITINGS, WHICH WE
HAVE, THEY QUOTED
MULTITUDES OF SCRIPTURES
 DR. BRUCE METZGER, A
RENOWNED NEW TESTAMENT
TRANSLATOR SAID,
“So extensive are these citations
that if all other sources for our
knowledge of the text of the New
Testament were destroyed, they
would be sufficient alone for the
reconstruction of practically the
entire New Testament.”
 A LITTLE TASTE OF HISTORY
1. In 1516, Erasmus of
Rotterdam published the first
New Testament in Greek
2. However, he based his Greek
text on only a few “young,” late
manuscripts
 2. In 1550, Robert Stephanus
published a Greek New
Testament that became the
basis for the “Received Text”
from which the King James
translation came
3. In 1881, Westcott and Hort,
using many more older
manuscripts, produced the
basis for our Greek text now
MORE EXCITING
MANUSCRIPTS!
“MANUSCRIPTS
FROM THE SAND”
THE “PAPYRI”
POINTS TO CONSIDER:
1. Manuscripts such as the
Sinaitic, Vatican, and
Alexandrian were written on
vellum, animal skins

2. But, the earliest documents

of the New Testament were
written on papyrus
3. In 1750, a beautiful villa was
uncovered at Herculaneum
which had been destroyed in A.
D. 79 by the eruption of Mt.
Vesuvius
4. About 2,000 papyrus rolls and
fragments were found
5. There was then hope that
more papyri might be found,
even Scripture
 6. In 1896-97, a number were
found at Oxyrhynchus in
Egypt. One was a portion of
Matthew 1 dating back to the
third century
At that time, it was considered
the oldest known manuscript
7. At Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in
1945, Gnostic texts found
(“Gospel of Thomas”), etc.
 8. 20 manuscripts from
Oxyrhynchus of portions of the
New Testament are dated in
the 2nd, 3rd, and early 4th
centuries
THE CHESTER BEATTY PAPYRI
1. The original group had 11
manuscripts, 8 of them portions
of the Old Testament in Greek,
and 3 of the New Testament.
(See later slides)
2. They are in the Beatty library
in Dublin, Ireland
 THE BODMER PAPYRI
1. Found near Thebes in
Southern Egypt
2. Large number of papyri in
Greek and Coptic (Egyptian)
3. Include most of John, and an
early copy of I and II Peter
 SELECTED NEW TESTAMENT
PAPYRI
1. P-1 More than 15 verses of
Matthew 1. Found at
Oxyrhynchus. 3rd century
2. P-4, P-64, P-67 From same
codex. A number of verses
from Matthew and Luke.
Late 2nd century
3. P-5 Part of several chapters
of the gospel of John. 3rd
century
4. P-38 Part of Acts 18, 19. Late
3rd century
5. P-45, P-46, P-47 Beatty
papyri. P-45 is part of the 4
gospels and Acts
6. P-46 Most of Paul’s letters.
Early 3rd century
7. P-47 About a third of the text
of Revelation. 3rd century
8. P-52 John Rylands fragment.
John 18:31-33, 37, 38. First
half of the 2nd century
9. P-66 Almost all of the first 14
chapters of John. 200 A. D. or
earlier
10. P-72 Bodmer papyrus. 1st
and 2nd Peter and Jude in
complete form. 3rd or 4th
century
11. P-75 Bodmer papyrus.
Parts of Luke and John.
Earliest known copy of Luke
and one of the earliest of
John. 175-225 A. D.
 ESSENTIAL CONCLUSIONS
1. There are almost 100 New
Testament papyri known
2. Of these, more than 50 are
from the 4th century or
earlier
3. More than 30 are from the 3rd
century or earlier
 4. These papyri contain, in part,
(some in whole,) every New
Testament book except 1st and
2nd Timothy
5. These papyri uphold the Greek
text we have today, NOT the
“Received Text” from which the
King James was translated
6. The text of the New Testament
rests on a solid foundation
7. “Substantial” variants only
account for about 1/1000th of the
text
8. Where there are “substantial”
variations, “NOT ONE
PRINCIPLE OF FAITH OR
DIVINE COMMAND IS
INVOLVED”
“The Christian can take the whole
Bible in his hand and say without
fear or hesitation that he holds in
it the true word of God, handed
down without essential loss from
generation to generation
throughout the centuries”
--- Sir Frederic Kenyon
HOW WE GOT THE
BIBLE
Lesson 8
THE TEXT OF THE
OLD TESTAMENT
 THE OLD TESTAMENT WAS
FIRST WRITTEN IN HEBREW
BY “INSPIRED” MEN
(II Peter 1:20, 21, etc.)
THE NEW TESTAMENT WAS
FIRST GIVEN BY INSPIRATION IN
“KOINE” GREEK
(Ephesians 3:1-5)
“All Scripture is breathed out
by God and profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for
correction, and for training in
righteousness,”

“that the man of God may be

competent, equipped for every
good work.”

(II Timothy 3:16, 17)

“knowing this first of all, that no
prophecy of Scripture comes
from someone's own
interpretation.”

“For no prophecy was ever

produced by the will of man, but
men spoke from God as they
were carried along by the Holy
Spirit.”
(II Peter 1:20, 21)
 “When you read this, you can
perceive my insight into the
mystery of Christ,”

“which was not made known to

the sons of men in other
generations as it has now been
revealed to his holy apostles and
prophets by the Spirit.”

(Ephesians 3:4, 5)
HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS OF THE
OLD TESTAMENT
1. The “Aleppo Codex”
Named after the city in SYRIA
The ENTIRE OLD TESTAMENT
Partially destroyed in Arab riots
Dated in the 10th century
2. The “Leningrad Codex”
Now, the oldest, complete
manuscript of the Hebrew Bible
It was copied in Cairo about the
year 1010 A. D.
Both the “Aleppo” and
“Leningrad” codices are model
examples of the “Massoretic
Text”
3. The “Cairo Codex”
The “Former and Latter”
Prophets
Written about 895 A. D.
It is in the possession of the
Karaite sect in Egypt
4. The “Leningrad Codex” of the
Prophets
Dated in 916 A. D.
Contains Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel and the Minor Prophets
 5. British Library Codex of the
“PENTATEUCH”
Dated about the 10th century
THERE ARE MANY MORE
MANUSCRIPTS, BUT THESE ARE
THE MOST IMPORTANT!
NOTE: (A fascinating question)
WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THE
OLDER MANUSCRIPTS?
The Jews had almost a
superstitious respect for Scripture
They had a “ceremonial burial” of
damaged or defective copies
Before burial, they hid them in a
“genizeh” meaning “to hide”
 THE MASSORETES
JEWISH SCRIBES WHO
WERE SO CAUTIOUS AND
CAREFUL TO COPY
CORRECTLY
Beginning about 500 A. D.
 NOTE SCRIBES IN THE OLD
TESTAMENT

“The clans also of the

scribes who lived at Jabez: the
Tirathites, the Shimeathites and
the Sucathites. These are the
Kenites who came from Hammath,
the father of the house of
Rechab.”
(I Chronicles 2:55)
 THE MASSORETES
The ones from Tiberias are the
most important

They were scribes from as early

as 500 A. D who copied the
Hebrew text
It was well known how careful
they were to copy every detail
correctly
 MASSORETES (Continued)
They even numbered the verses,
words, and letters of the text of a
book of the Old Testament
The Hebrew alphabet contains
only CONSONANTS, NO
VOWELS!
The Massoretes added VOWEL
POINTS and ACCENTS
 The Massoretes were seeking
PERFECTION in the copying of
the Biblical Text
Very STRICT RULES FOLLOWED
BEFORE RECENT DISCOVERIES,
the Old Testament manuscripts
date back only to the 9th century
The DEAD SEA SCROLLS will be
discussed!!
IT WILL BE SEEN THAT THE
SCRIBES WERE SO CAREFUL
THAT THE

MASSORETIC TEXT
IS LIKE THE TEXT COPIED
BEFORE THE BIRTH OF
CHRIST!
 THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS
The First Scrolls were discovered
in 1948 in caves behind the ruins
of Qumran near the Dead Sea
About 800 scrolls have now been
found including thousands of
fragments
Brother Fry With Dead Sea Scroll Jar
A museum was built in Jerusalem
to “house” a number of the
SCROLLS. It is called “The
Shrine of the Book”
One of the scrolls is the great
scroll of the book of ISAIAH
It is 24 feet long

It is DATED about 100 B. C.

 In the SCROLLS and the
FRAGMENTS, almost every book
of the Old Testament is
represented
NOTE:
For all practical purposes, the
ISAIAH SCROLL Is the same text
as the MASSORETIC text copied
many hundreds of years later
These SCROLLS are a
THOUSAND YEARS
EARLIER than the
Hebrew manuscripts
discussed earlier….
YET, THEY TEACH
THE
SAME TRUTH!
 There are about 20 manuscripts
of the book of ISAIAH. Every one
of them is very similar to the
MASSORETIC TEXT
Note an example of a “VARIANT”
in ISAIAH 6
One says, “HOLY, HOLY” and the
other says “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY”
These are NOT significant!
ONE SCHOLAR SAID:

“… the authenticity of the

Massoretic text stands higher
than at any time in the history
of modern textual
criticism….”
--- Bleddyn J. Roberts
ANOTHER SCHOLAR SAID:

“It should therefore be stated

explicitly that, when we survey
the Hebrew Bible as a whole,
the incidence of copyists’
errors is statistically very few
indeed….”
(Continued)
 QUOTATION CONTINUED:
“…. Even allowing for the
intrusion of occasional errors in
the received Hebrew text, it is
remarkable how faithfully it was
transmitted.”
--- J. Weingreen