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  • 8/11/2019 Amazing Bible Story

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    This digital resource was written and produced

    by Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.

    Turning Points mission is to deliver the unchanging

    Word of God to an ever-changing world.

    This digital resource is one way we are

    fulfilling our God-given mission.

    For more on the ministry of Turning Point,

    visit our official website at DavidJeremiah.org

    http://www.davidjeremiah.org/site/default.aspx?tid=dj_pdf_astbdi_djhomehttp://www.davidjeremiah.org/site/default.aspx?tid=dj_pdf_astbdi_djhomehttp://www.davidjeremiah.org/site/default.aspx?tid=dj_pdf_astbdi_djhomehttp://www.davidjeremiah.org/site/default.aspx?tid=dj_pdf_astbdi_djhome
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    ARoman emperor named Constantine and aGerman student of ancient Bible texts namedTischendorftwo actors in the sometimes-hard-to-believe drama

    of how we got our Biblelived 1,500 years apart, yet were

    connected by events neither could have foreseen. The story began

    with the Roman emperor Diocletian.

    In 303, Diocletian initiated the last great persecution of the

    Christian Church in the Empire. More than the emperor feared

    Christian buildings or beliefs, he feared the copies of their sacred

    book. He knew if the Scriptures survived, the Church could

    survive! So he destroyed all the copies he could nd. But the Bible

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    was then, and still is, a survivor. Through the ages, Gods Word

    has fed the people of God and kept the Church alive.

    When Constantine became emperor of Rome in 324, he made

    Christianity the ofcial religion of the Empire. But, as a result

    of Diocletians actions, he discovered that the churches of

    Constantinople had no Bibles. So he commissioned a scholar

    named Eusebius to produce 50 vellum Bibles for the churches:

    . . . volumes, that is to say, of the Holy Scriptures, the provisionand use of which is, as you are aware, most necessary for the

    instruction of the Church.

    Diocletian tried to get rid of Gods Word but Constantine brought

    it backand a young German scholar named Tischendorf helped

    bring it into the modern era.

    ConstantineAND KONSTANTIN

    Unfortunately, not a single one of those 50 vellum Bibles produced

    by Eusebius exists today. But once Christianity was made the

    ofcial religion of the Roman Empire, the preparation of Bible

    copies increased signicantly. One of the ironies of biblical history

    is that Emperor Constantines efforts were recognized by a young

    Bible student who bore the emperors name: Lobegott Friedrich

    Konstantinvon Tischendorf. His adventures in search of ancient

    copies of the Bible read like an Indiana Jones adventure. But itsnot ctionits fact.

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    Tischendorf spent years blowing dust off ancient

    manuscripts in Europe and the Middle East trying to nd

    long-forgotten copies of the sacred text. In 1844, he visited

    a monastery near Mount Sinai in Egypt. While in the

    monastery library, he saw a trash bin next to the replace

    lled with pages of an old manuscript about to be used

    as kindling. When Tischendorf examined the pages, to his

    horror he realized he had found 129 leaves of the oldest Bible

    manuscript he had ever seenprobably a copy of one of the

    50 Bibles Constantine had commissioned centuries earlier.

    When he explained to the monks what he had discovered,

    they quickly conscated all but 43 of the pages, whichTischendorf was allowed to take with him.

    Haunted by the memory of the rest of the pages he had

    left behind, Tischendorf visited Saint Catherines again in

    1853, but came away empty-handed. On another visit in

    1859, he was more low-key, not mentioning ancient Bibles

    until the last night of his visit. A monk took him to his room

    and pulled down from a shelf a bundle wrapped in a red

    cloth. As Tischendorf looked on breathlessly, he saw the

    remaining pages of the manuscript he had pulled from the

    trash in 1844much of the rest of the Old Testament, the

    Apocrypha, the entire New Testament, and two nonbiblical

    letters written by early church leaders.

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    Through Tischendorfs diplomatic efforts, this manuscript

    eventually made its way to Cairo, then to the Imperial Public

    Library of St. Petersburg in Russia. Today, Codex Sinaiticus

    is one of the three largest, earliest, and best-preserved

    copies of the Bible in existence. (Incidentally, another 3,000

    manuscripts were discovered at Saint Catherines Monastery

    in 1975, including more pages of Codex Sinaiticus!)

    I ask you: Is the Bible not a survivor? Think about it: one of the

    three most important biblical manuscripts in the world sitting in

    a trash can, destined for the replace, in a remote monastery in

    the Sinai wilderness! Who can doubt that the hand of God was at

    work to cause a young scholar to happen on the scene at just the

    right moment to save it from destruction?

    In this article we want to focus on the preservation of the Word

    of Godthe amazing and miraculous story of how God has

    preserved the record of the revelation of His redemption for all the

    world to read. To be sure,preservationis the right word. Given the

    way other ancient literature has vanished from the world stage,

    the preservation and propagation of the Bible can be attributed to

    nothing except the providence of God throughout history.

    ProvidenceAND THE BIBLE

    Without doubt,providenceis the key word in the Bibles survival

    story. What is providence? The Westminster Shorter Catechism

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    Truh h ae,GODS WORD

    HAS FED THE

    PEOPLE OF GODAND KEPT THE

    CHURCH ALIVE.

    SHARE:

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    denes it this way: Gods works of providence are, his most

    holy, wise, and powerful [acts of] preserving and governing all

    his creatures, and all their actions. Or, in the words of Scripture

    itself, providence is the outworking of Him who works all things

    according to the counsel of His will (EPHESIANS 1:11) .

    Probably not a week goes by that we dont hear someone say

    (maybe we say it ourselves!), I caught a lucky break, or He was

    so fortunate, or What a coincidence, or Good luck to you!When we use such language, we reect a secular worldview that

    says life is the result of chance events coinciding randomly

    sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad.

    But the doctrine of providence says the opposite: Life is not a

    pinball machine; events dont bounce off one another in random

    fashion. Instead, the Bible teaches that God orders the events of this

    world to accomplish His divine plan and purposes (PROVERBS

    16:1-9) . And that includes the preservation of the Bible from the

    time of its writing until the end of the ages. Gods providence

    includes things like Tischendorf showing up at Saint Catherines

    Monastery just in time to rescue a fourth-century copy of the

    Greek Bible from the ames.

    Looking at the preparation and preservation of the Bible can be

    like looking at our own lives. On any given day, events can seem

    unrelated, random, or without reason. But over the course of timewe can see purpose and divine providence at work. For instance,

    the Bible is a collection of 66 books written by 40-plus authors

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    over a period of a thousand years. By the second century B.C., the

    Old Testament books had come together; and by the fth century

    A.D., the New Testament was gathered together. It was not always

    a tidy process, but it was one superintended by the providence of

    God.

    In 1500 B.C. there was no Bible, but in A.D. 500 there was. Between

    those two dates is a story of drama, debate, and desire to collect

    the revelation of God to man and put it together for all to read.Miraculously, the English Bibles we read today (and the same

    goes for the Bibles in other languages) are faithful representations

    of what men moved by the Holy Spirit (2 PETER 1:21) wrote

    in their original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words. In fact,

    almost all Bible scholars agree that, regarding matters of faith and

    salvation, there is no doctrine central to the Christian faith that

    can be questioned due to an issue of the accuracy of the copies we

    possess of the original biblical writings.

    I hope you are as thankful as I am for the providence of God in the

    preservation of the Bible for generations past, present, and future.

    PreservationAND THE BIBLE

    Think about some of the ways God worked in biblical days to

    bring us the Word He wanted us to have:

    MOSES AND PICTURE DRAWINGS.

    Moses, the Bibles rst author, learned to write as a child in

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    Egyptin hieroglyphics, those strange shapes and symbols

    we see on the walls of Egyptian burial tombs. Sometime

    later, probably in Midian before going to lead the Hebrew

    slaves out of Egypt, he learned to write with the letters

    which became the Hebrew alphabet (consonants only; no

    vowels). It is amazing to think that the clear English words

    we read in Genesis, In the beginning . . . , Moses originally

    wrote in squiggly picture-letters thousands of years ago. But

    Gods providence ensured that His words were preserved.

    SOLOMON, SONGS, AND SAYINGS.

    Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs and wrote 1,005 songs

    (1 KINGS 4:32) . If he spoke the proverbs (undoubtedly

    on more than one occasion), someone had to be writing

    them down. We know that the scribes in King Hezekiahscourt several generations after Solomon copied some of the

    collection of Solomons proverbs (PROVERBS 25:1) . God

    gave Solomon wisdom (2 CHRONICLES 1:7-12) which

    has come to us as two books of the Bible. Gods providence

    controlled the speaking, writing, choosing, and collecting

    for our benet.

    JOSIAH AND THE LOST LAW.

    Josiah became king of Judah when he was eight years old.

    Because his father had allowed the kingdom to deteriorate

    dramatically, the scrolls of the Law were nowhere to be

    found. Until, that is, workers who were rebuilding thetemple found the Book of the Law. When Josiah had it read

    to him, he tore his robes in grief over how they had ignored

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    Gods Word. Was it lucky that the workers found the scrolls?

    No, it was providential.

    EZRA AND EVERYTHING ELSE.Ezra is probably the faithful scribe who began collecting all

    the Old Testament writings after the captivity of Judah in

    Babylon. He was a man who loved Gods Word (NEHEMIAH

    8:1-9) . After the books were written, God raised up a man

    with the skills to collect them and preserve them together.

    SEVENTY SCRIBES IN ALEXANDRIA.

    The king of Egypt (third century B.C.) wanted a Greek

    translation of the Old Testament books for the library

    in Alexandria, Egypt. According to tradition, 72 Jewish

    scholars went to Egypt from Israel and prepared a Greek

    version of the Old Testament. Because Greek had become

    the common language of the Mediterranean world due

    to Alexander the Greats conquests, this Greek version of

    Scripture made Gods Word accessible to the Mediterranean,

    Greek-speaking world. Coincidence? No, the providence of

    God at work in the heart of the king of Egypt.

    SANDY SCROLLS ON THE SEASHORE.

    Just prior to the birth of Jesus, a group of Jews, the Essenes,

    lived on the shore of the Dead Sea in a community called

    Qumran. They specialized in making copies of Jewish

    scriptures and had an extensive library of manuscripts.

    They abandoned their community with the Roman

    occupation of the region in A.D. 70, and their manuscripts

    disappeared for nearly nineteen-hundred years. In 1947, a

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    shepherd boy discovered a cache of clay jars in a cave near

    Qumran. This discovery ultimately produced around 800

    ancient manuscripts, including all the Old Testament books

    except Esther. The magnicent scroll of Isaiah was found

    to be almost identical to the Hebrew texts used to prepare

    our modern Bibles, showing how carefully the text of Gods

    Word has been preserved through the centuries. It was

    nothing but providential that the Essenes valued their texts

    and hid them carefully in caves, only to be discovered whenarchaeology and textual studies could best appreciate their

    great value.

    PAULS LOST LETTER.

    Did you know that Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthian

    church in addition to the two we have in the New Testament(1 and 2 Corinthians)? He refers to this letter in 1 Corinthians

    5:9, but we have never seen it. Was it unlucky that it was

    lost by a careless scribe or pastor in the rst century? On

    the contrary, its an indication that the letters which God

    wanted preserved for the Church through the ages were

    kept safe. Its likely that the lost letter was meant for the

    Corinthians eyes only.

    I hope Ive whetted your appetite for recapturing a passion for

    the sacred text. Its one thing to take for granted the various and

    modern versions of the Bible we all possess, but quite another

    to think soberly about the path that book has taken over the last3,000 years.

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    And I hope Ive encouraged you to apply the lessons of Gods

    providence with the Bible to your own life. Everything that

    happened in the Bibles life was for a reason, and everything

    that happens in your life is for a reason as well. Gods book and

    Gods children who need that book are survivors together through

    the ages!

    No other book in the world has been prepared and preserved like

    the Holy Scriptures, and no other book in the world deserves oursacred honor and devotion.

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    NO OTHER BOOK

    IN THE WORLDHAS BEEN

    PREPARED ANDPRESERVED LIKE

    teoy citrs.SHARE:

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    For no prophecy was ever made by an

    act of human will, but men moved by

    the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

    2 PETER 1:21 (NASB)

    All Scripture is breathed out by God and protablefor teaching, for reproof, for correction,

    and for training in righteousness.

    2 TIMOTHY 3:16 (ESV)

    The law of the LORDis perfect,

    reviving the soul;the testimony of the LORDis sure,

    making wise the simple;

    the precepts of the LORDare right,

    rejoicing the heart;

    the commandment of the LORDis pure,

    enlightening the eyes;

    the fear of the LORDis clean,

    enduring forever;

    the rules of the LORDare true,

    and righteous altogether.

    More to be desired are they than gold,

    even much ne gold;

    sweeter also than honeyand drippings of the honeycomb.

    Moreover, by them is your servant warned;

    in keeping them there is great reward.

    PSALM 19:7-11 (ESV)

    PROVIDENCE o SCRIPTURE[the Bible is the Word of God]

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    The grass withers, the ower fades,

    But the word of our God stands forever.

    ISAIAH 40:8

    Heaven and earth will pass away,but My words will by no means pass away.

    MATTHEW 24:35

    Forever, O LORD,

    Your word is settled in heaven.

    PSALM 119:89

    For I testify to everyone who hears the

    words of the prophecy of this book:

    If anyone adds to these things, God will

    add to him the plagues that are written in

    this book; and if anyone takes away fromthe words of the book of this prophecy,

    God shall take away his part from the

    Book of Life, from the holy city, andfrom

    the things which are written in this book.

    REVELATION 22:18-19

    PRESERVATION o SCRIPTURE[Gods Word stands forever]

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    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    David Jeremiahis the seniorpastor of Shadow Mountain

    Community Church in

    El Cajon, California.

    A best-selling author, his

    popular syndicated radioand television Bible-teaching

    program, Turning Point, is

    broadcast internationally. David and his wife, Donna,

    have four children and eleven grandchildren.

    http://www.davidjeremiah.org/site/default.aspx?tid=dj_pdf_astbdi_djhomehttp://www.davidjeremiah.org/site/default.aspx?tid=dj_pdf_astbdi_djhomehttp://www.davidjeremiah.org/site/default.aspx?tid=dj_pdf_astbdi_djhomehttp://www.davidjeremiah.org/site/default.aspx?tid=dj_pdf_astbdi_djhomehttp://www.davidjeremiah.org/site/default.aspx?tid=dj_pdf_astbdi_djhomehttp://www.davidjeremiah.org/site/default.aspx?tid=dj_pdf_astbdi_djhomehttp://www.davidjeremiah.org/site/default.aspx?tid=dj_pdf_astbdi_djhomehttp://www.davidjeremiah.org/site/default.aspx?tid=dj_pdf_astbdi_djhome