“HOW DID WE GET THE BIBLE?”

2Timothy 4:1-5

Introduction• 2Timothy 3:16-4:5• The Word of God is powerful and it is essential to

our Christian lives. • What we are going to deal with this morning is

called transmission.• Transmission deals with how we went from the

original writings, called autographs, to what we have today.

• One thing that I especially want to stress as we go through this is the power, sovereignty, and providence of God.

Introduction

• We serve a God that is omnipotent, He is all powerful and He is in control of what goes on in our world today!

• When we are done with this study I believe that our faith in the Word of God and desire to live the Word of God will be increased.

1. The Writing And Languages Of Scripture

• This book is the direct product of God.• Being all powerful God could have chosen any

method to convey His revealed word.• He could have communicated His truth to mankind

through angels as He has done with the prophets, apostles, and others.

• “There were certain distinct limitations in having to call upon angels to convey everything that God wished to say to every man under every circumstance in every age.”

1. The Writing And Languages Of Scripture

• The other problem is our short memories.• The other problem with visions and dreams is that

they tend to be personal and subjective as opposed to objective and universal.

• God could have used the Urim, Thummim and lot; he could have used moral law and creation, or even direct revelation and miracles.

• In the time when the OT was written there was a strong oral tradition.

1. The Writing And Languages Of Scripture

• God chose a different method to communicate His truth.

• He chose a method that is more precise, more permanent, and easier to spread while at the same time remaining personal.

• God chose to communicate his truth through writing.

• There is a precision in writing that is often neglected in speech.

1. The Writing And Languages Of Scripture

• As already mentioned it would also be easier to copy and disburse a written record.

• Lastly is the matter of preservation.• We believe the first book of the Bible was written

about 1450 B. C.• The objection has been raised that Scripture

couldn’t be that old because writing wasn’t developed until later.

• Archaeology has discovered writing on tablets dating as far back as 3500 B. C.

1. The Writing And Languages Of Scripture

• In Exodus God commands Moses to write!• Genesis mentions books recording the descendants

of Adam though no indication is given of when the writings were done.

• I mention this because as you can see from the material used writings often did not last very long; the fact that we have some today that are over a thousand years old is a small miracle in and of itself.

• Out of all the languages available God chose Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek.

1. The Writing And Languages Of Scripture

• In His selection of languages I believe we see the truth of Ephesians 1:11 portrayed. God truly “…worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.”

• God chose the languages He did because they were best suited to what He wanted to accomplish.

• The primary reason God chose the languages He did is that they were the languages of the People He originally gave His revelation to.

1. The Writing And Languages Of Scripture

• Aramaic is probably the language that was spoken by Jesus and the disciples in day to day speech.

• Because we believe that God not only knows the end from the beginning but is in control of it all, it becomes apparent that God planned the languages to fit His message.

• Hebrew is a more picturesque and personal language suited for conveying OT stories and accounts.

1. The Writing And Languages Of Scripture

• “Hebrew presents a vivid picture of the acts of God among a people who became examples or illustrations for future generations.”

• Greek is a more technical language that better expressed the doctrines developed in the NT.

• It is an intellectual language that was practically universal in the day making it perfect for evangelization.

• “Because Greek possessed a technical precision not found in Hebrew, the theological truths that were more generally expressed in the Hebrew of the Old Testament were more precisely formulated in the Greek of the New Testament.”

1. The Writing And Languages Of Scripture

• “It may be concluded, then, that God chose the very languages to communicate His truth which had, in His providence, been prepared to express most effectively the kind of truth He desired at that particular time, in the unfolding of His overall plan. Hebrew, with its pictorial and personal vividness, expressed well the biographical truth of the Old Testament. Greek, with its intellectual and universal potentialities, served well for the doctrinal and evangelistic demands of the New Testament.”

1. The Writing And Languages Of Scripture

• I believe we see clearly the sovereignty of God displayed in the writing and language of Scripture.

• God chose written revelation because it could be easily copied, distributed, preserved, and more precise in its presentation.

• He chose the Hebrew language because it better pictured the events and people of the OT.

• He chose the Greek language because it more precisely depicted the doctrines of the NT.

• In short the writing of Scripture from what it was written on to the languages that were used came directly from God!

2. The Method Of Copying And Preservation

• I believe the first thing we need to understand is that we do not have the autographs of Scripture.

• The only conclusion that we can come to is that God did not want us to have the originals.– 1 – Mankind has a tendency to worship religious relics.– 2 – If there are no originals than no one can tamper with

them.

• As it stands there are thousands of Scriptural manuscripts leaving it practically impossible for anyone to make changes in all of them.

2. The Method Of Copying And Preservation

• How accurate is what we have today when compared to what was originally given?”

• When talking about the Old Testament it is essential to realize that vowels were not used in writing.

• “Have you read this book?”• “Hv y rd ths bk?”• “Wll y rd ths bk?• There are essentially two different types of

manuscript for the OT; those for synagogue use and those for private use.

2. The Method Of Copying And Preservation

• There are two groups that are especially significant in the preservation of the OT; The Scribes and the Masorites.

• The men known only as Scribes were responsible for the preservation of the OT from the time of Ezra to the time of the Masorites.

• [1] A synagogue roll must be written on the skins of clean animals, [2] prepared for the particular use of the synagogue by a Jew.

2. The Method Of Copying And Preservation

• [3] These must be fastened together with strings taken from clean animals. [4] Every skin must contain a certain number of columns, equal throughout the entire codex. [5] The length of each column must not extend over less than 48 nor more than 60 lines; and the breadth must consist of thirty letters. [6] The whole copy must be first-lined; and if three words should be written without a line, it is worthless. [7] The ink should be black, neither red, green, nor any other colour, and be prepared according to a definite recipe.

2. The Method Of Copying And Preservation

• [8] An authentic copy must be the exemplar, from which the transcriber ought not in the least deviate. [9] No word or letter, not even a yod, must be written from memory, the scribe not having looked at the codex before him…. 10] Between every consonant the space of a hair or thread must intervene; [11] between every new parashah, or section, the breadth of nine consonants; [12] between every book, three lines. [13] The fifth book of Moses must terminate exactly with a line; but the rest need not do so.

2. The Method Of Copying And Preservation

• [14] Besides this, the copyist must sit in full Jewish dress, [15] wash his whole body, [16] not begin to write the name of God with a pen newly dipped in ink, [17] and should a king address him while writing that name he must take no notice of him.

• In addition to these rules the Scribes would count the number of words in each section and the number of verses and paragraphs.

• Each manuscript was checked for error within 30 days, if even one error was found in a manuscript it was destroyed and redone.

2. The Method Of Copying And Preservation

• The OT was written on parchment (animal skins) that were specially prepared, as we have seen, and therefore it preserved well.

• The NT was written on papyrus which would only survive if specifically preserved.

• When Christianity was “legalized” in the 4th and 5th centuries there was immediately a multiplication of the manuscripts of the NT.

• However, even these better preserved manuscripts are copies of earlier papyri and they give evidence to that.

2. The Method Of Copying And Preservation

• This makes it apparent that the margin for error in the manuscripts of the OT was very small.

• The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 has shown an incredible level of preservation in the purity of the OT text.

• We can read the OT with confidence that we have God’s Word exactly as He intended us to.

• The major difference between the preservation of the OT and the NT is the materials on which they were written.

2. The Method Of Copying And Preservation

• From the 6th century onward the manuscripts of the NT were preserved, copied, and cared for by monks in monasteries.

• Some believe that this period produced a large quantity of NT manuscripts but less careful copying.

• I personally have found no evidence to support the claim that the NT was less carefully copied than the OT.

• For the OT we have the careful preservation of the Scribes and the Masorites.

2. The Method Of Copying And Preservation

• For the New Testament, beginning with the second century ancient versions and manuscript fragments and continuing with abundant quotations of the Fathers and thousands of manuscript copies from that time to the modern versions of the Bible, there is virtually an unbroken line of testimony.

• It may be concluded that no major document from antiquity comes into the modern world with such evidence of its integrity as does the Bible.

• I hope that this answers the question of whether or not the Bible you hold is accurate to what was originally given.

2. The Method Of Copying And Preservation

• Great care has been taken by men and women of ancient times to preserve the revelation that God has given.

• Had the Scribes and Masorites not had such an awe of who God is, we wouldn’t have the OT.

• Even through persecution and slaughter God preserved the NT.

• Though we owe a great debt to the scholars of the past they are simply the tools that God used to bring us His Word!

3. The Manuscripts Of Scripture• The first link is God – Scripture is the direct product

of Almighty God.• The second link would be the prophets of the OT

and the Apostles of the NT.• The third link is the men that God used to preserve

the Old and New Testaments.• The fourth link would be what we have, the

translations of what is preserved.• What we have to understand is that from the first

link to the last God is what holds it all together!

3. The Manuscripts Of Scripture• One interesting thing you will find if you study the topic

of textual criticism is that scholars have come to the conclusion based on all the manuscript evidence that our Bible is 99% accurate to what was originally given.

• “The providence of God, a characteristic that is consonant with a self-revealing God, is the force that welds together the entire chain of communication. Any alleged “cracks” are welded by God, who providentially planned the process of communication and, therefore, is the One who perfects its product. The chain, then, has no real “cracks” because it is God who welds it together.”

3. The Manuscripts Of Scripture• What this says to me is that though the scholarly

evidence says we have a 99% accurate Bible, when we factor in the involvement of almighty sovereign God I believe we have a Bible that is 100% accurate.

• We have exactly what God intended us to have!• are over 12,000 manuscripts and pieces of the OT in

existence today.• Until 1890 there were only about 731 manuscripts

of the OT.• In 1890 10,000 OT manuscripts were found in Cairo,

and in 1947 the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.

3. The Manuscripts Of Scripture• When they were found it was assumed there would

be significant variation with the Masoretic text; however they agree 95% and the 5% disagreement are determined to be from slips of the pen.

• There are 3 major OT Manuscripts used for comparison, The Septuagint, The Masoretic text, and The Samarian Pentateuch.

• When all the evidence is combined the OT has survived with perfect accuracy.

3. The Manuscripts Of Scripture• While accuracy of the OT is based on how careful

and meticulous the Scribes were, the accuracy of the NT is different.

• The accuracy of the NT is based on the multitude of manuscript evidence.

• Counting only Greek copies we have 5,366 partial and complete copies of the NT dating from the 2nd – 15th centuries.

3. The Manuscripts Of Scripture• “A few of the New Testament manuscript fragments

are very early, dating from the second century. By contrast, the manuscripts for most other ancient books date from about a thousand years after their original composition. Some 362 New Testament uncial manuscripts and 245 uncial lectionaries date from the second through the tenth centuries, constituting nearly 11 percent of all New Testament and lectionary manuscripts. Those early uncial manuscript witnesses are extremely valuable in establishing the original text of the New Testament. The other 89 percent of manuscripts are minuscule, dating between the ninth and fifteenth centuries; those provide the basis for the text family commonly referred to as the Majority Text.”

3. The Manuscripts Of Scripture• Testimony to the accuracy of the NT is gathered

from 3 sources: Greek manuscripts, ancient translations, and the quotations of early church fathers.

• “…if there were no biblical manuscripts available today, the entire New Testament could be reconstructed from the writings of the church Fathers of the first three centuries with the exception of eleven verses.”

• The oldest fragment of the NT that we have contains John 18:31-33 and it was copied within 30 years of when John wrote it.

RELIABILITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENTAuthor/Book

DateWritten

EarliestCopies

TimeGap

No. ofCopies

PercentAccuracy

HinduMahabharata

13th cent. B.C.

90

Homer,Iliad

800 B.C. 643 95

Plato 400 B.C. c. A.D. 900 c. 1,300 yrs 7 ?

Demosthenes 300 B.C. c. A.D. 1100 c. 1,400 yrs 200 ?

Caesar,Gallic Wars

100-44 B.C. c. A.D. 900 c. 1,000 yrs 10 ?

PlinySecundus,Natural History

A.D. 61-113 c. 850 c. 750 yrs 7 ?

NewTestament

A.D. 50-100 c. 114 (fragment)c. 200 (books)c. 250 (most of N.T.)c. 325 (complete N.T.)

±50 yrs

100 yrs150 yrs

225 yrs

5366 99+

3. The Manuscripts Of Scripture• I think it is important for us to understand that

none of the manuscripts we have are in and of themselves perfect.

• Though I believe that we have exactly what God wants us to have I don’t believe that the copyists and Scribes who handed down Scripture were infallible.

• As we have seen the OT contains so little variation and none of it significant that textual variants in the OT are not really debated.

3. The Manuscripts Of Scripture• With NT however textual variants have became a

huge topic of debate within the body of Christ.• “Scholars have developed certain criteria for

determining which reading is the correct or original one.”– (1) The older reading is to be preferred, because it is

closer to the original.– (2) The more difficult reading is to be preferred, because

scribes were more apt to smooth out difficult readings.– 3) The shorter reading is to be preferred, because

copyists were more apt to insert new material than omit part of the sacred text.

3. The Manuscripts Of Scripture– (4) The reading that best explains the other variants is to

be preferred.– (5) The reading with the widest geographical support is

to be preferred, because such manuscripts or versions are less likely to have influenced each other.

– (6) The reading that is most like the author’s usual style is to be preferred.

– (7) The reading that does not reflect a doctrinal bias is to be preferred.”

• I want to state that I believe textual criticism is good as long as it is carefully controlled.

3. The Manuscripts Of Scripture• What bothers me about these rules is the

implication that these early church scribes didn’t care about preservation.

• If a scribe is taking the time to copy the Word to me it seems reasonable that he would take the time to do it right!

3. The Manuscripts Of Scripture• “As a result of their widespread destruction, the

Scriptures were in danger of being lost to the church. Therefore, Christians often made copies of the manuscripts to take the place of those that had been destroyed. Many of these copies were made hastily, as the scribes were in danger of persecution if apprehended, and quite often they were copied ‘unprofessionally,’ or in an amateur fashion, by members of a given church.”

• We are talking about Christians who believed the Bible to be the Word of God and who were Scribes by profession.

3. The Manuscripts Of Scripture• For example; the threat of persecution did not

hinder the precision with which Wycliffe made his translation into English.

• As a result of textual criticism the Greek Manuscript evidence for the NT basically boils down to 4 camps.– 1 – Textus Receptus.– 2 – Critical Text (also called Nestle & Alland or Wescott &

Hort).– 3 – Majority Text.– 4 – A combination of these.

3. The Manuscripts Of Scripture• There are about 10,000 places in the NT where

there are variant readings.• When really studied and searched out most of

these variants turn out to be cases of spelling, punctuation or a similar type of error.

• Of all the variant readings only 400 affect the sense of a passage. And only 50 of those have any real significance.

• When all is said and done the 4 camps that I mentioned earlier agree 98.33%.

3. The Manuscripts Of Scripture• It is important to understand that even with the

differences no major doctrine or teaching of Scripture is jeopardized.

• Because we do not build doctrine off of one verse, these differences leave the message of Scripture unscathed.

• However, this does not mean that the differences are unimportant.

Conclusion• Psalm 138:2• What David is expressing in this verse is that God’s

Word and God’s name are exalted above everything else!

• The real sense of this verse is that God has exalted His Word and His name equally.

• Psalm 113: 1-3 “1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise, O ye servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD. 2 Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. 3 From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the LORD'S name is to be praised.”

Conclusion• Word is as exalted as His name, how precious

should we consider the Word of God to be?• This is not a book to be taken lightly; it is not a book

to be ignored.• The Word of God is precious, it is powerful and God

has miraculously preserved it so that we can know His will.

• Though there are variations and disagreements between some manuscripts we can be confident that we have exactly what God wanted us to have!

Conclusion• We serve a sovereign God who orchestrated the

languages of history to perfectly coincide with His revelation to man.

• We serve a God who preserved His record through the ages of time and the persecutions of unbelievers!

• He wants us to read and obey and build our lives around His Word.

• Build you life on its principles, and set your hope in the Savior that it proclaims.