how we got the bible part one: from moses to the canon part two: from jerome towycliffe part three:...
TRANSCRIPT
How We Got the Bible
• Part One: From Moses to the Canon
• Part Two: From Jerome toWycliffe
• Part Three: From Erasmus to Tyndale,
and Onward
Part I: From Moses to the Canon
• Moses begins writing the Old Testament ca.
1400 B.C.
• Paul begins writing the New Testament ca.
A.D. 49
• The Canon is complete by A. D. 100
O.T. Hebrew
Hebrew Text Stone, Clay, Papyrus, Leather
Preserving the Hebrew ScripturesThe Massoretes, ca. A.D. 500, “sought ways and methodsby which to eliminate scribal slips of addition or omission.this they achieved through intricate procedures of count-ing” (Neal Lightfoot, How We Got the Bible, 2003, p. 132).
Pre-Massoretes, Talmud regulations reflect infinite carein the preservation and transmission of the text of theHebrew Scriptures.
Evidence from the Cairo Genizah, discovered late 19thcentury, indicated damaged or inferior manuscripts takenout of circulation -- later buried.
The Dead Sea
Qumran CommunityMiqveh (Baptistry)
Dining Area
Scriptorium
Dead Sea Scrolls, ca. 250 BC
Isaiah Scroll
Shrine of the Book
Cave 4
On the Nile Delta
Antiochus IV, r. 175-64 BC
Rosetta Stoneca. 196 BC
Septuagint Version, ca.250 BC
Antiochus IV, Epiphanesr. 175-164 B.C.
Attempted to destroy the Hebrew Scriptures
Alexandria, Egypt
The Septuagint (LXX) Versionca. 250 B.C.
O.T. in Greek translationproduced in Alexandria, Egypt.
Rosetta Stone, ca. 196 B.C.
Alexander the Great sowedGreek language throughoutthe classical world -- thekoine (common) dialect wasthe lingua franca of the RomanEmpire by New Testament times.
New Testament, Koine Greek
Papyrus P 52, Oldest N.T.portion, A.D. 110-130
Preserving the Greek N. T.
Of CAESAR’S GALLIC WARS from A.D. 900 10 Copies
Of THUCYDIDES (History) from A.D. 900 8 Copies
Of HERODOTUS (History) from A.D. 900 8 Copies
Of ARISTOTLE (Philosophy) from A.D. 1100 5 Copies
Of NEW TESTAMENT from A.D. 110-30 onward,over 5000 portions or com-plete copies.
Preserving the Greek N. T.
“To be skeptical of the resultant text of the New Testament books is to allow all of classical antiquity to slip into obscurity,for no documents of the ancient period are as well attested bibliographically as The New Testament.”
J.W. Montgomery, Barrister/Scholar
Do We Have the Bible?
“It is reassuring at the end to find that the general result of all
these discoveries and all this study is to strengthen the proof of
the authenticity of the Scriptures, and our conviction that we
have in our hands, in substantial integrity, the veritable Word
of God.” Sir Frederick Kenyon, Dir. British Museum, dec.
About Textual Variants
“We possess so many MSS., and we are aided by so many versions, that we arenever left to the need of conjecture as themeans of removing errata.”
S. P. Tragelles, Greek New Testament, Prolegomena
O.T. Canon Finalized, Council ofJamnia, A.D. 90?
N.T. Canon Finalized, Council of Carthage, A.D. 397?
The Indestructible Word of God
“Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away.”
Matthew 24:35