Do Modern Bibles Reflect What The Ancient Authors Really Wrote? TEXTUAL CRITICISM Do Modern Bibles Reflect What The Ancient Authors Really Wrote?

The Voice of a Religious Cynic “We will never be able to attain the sacred writings as they gladdened the eyes of those who first saw them, and rejoiced the hearts of those who first heard them. If the external words of the original were inspired, it does not profit us. We are cut off from them forever. Interposed between us and them is the tradition of centuries and even millenniums” (Dr. C. A Briggs).

The Voice of Faith “Quite distinct from the inspiration of the original manuscripts have been the care and providence whereby the Scriptures have been kept pure. It is by virtue of these two separate considerations – the immediate inspiration of the sacred writings in their original form and the singular divine care and providence – that the OT in Hebrew and the NT in Greek are to be regarded as authentic” (Dr. J. H. Skilton).

How Reliable Is The Text of the OT? In Washington, D.C. you can visit the Archives building where the original Declaration of Independence lies preserved under glass. You can still see the signatures of John Hancock and the other signers. It has no special value, however, because even if it did not exist, many accurate copies of it will continue to exist.

How Reliable Is The Text of the OT? We no longer have the original documents written by Moses, Isaiah, Ezra and the other OT worthies. All the originals were destroyed by the ravages of time. But we have copies: thousands of copies. How good are our copies? How close to the originals written under supervision of the Holy Spirit?

What Is Textual Criticism? Textual Criticism studies the reliability of the text: How close is it to the original autographs. It investigates the methods of ancient scribes and their copying of manuscripts. This is a technical process: it requires that we put ourselves in the shoes of an ancient scribe and see how he worked. To really study it, you must learn the original languages: Hebrew and Greek.

The Hebrew Language For 2000 years Hebrew was written with virtually no vowels or word dividers. Letters “bd” stood for bad, bid, bed, bud, bade and bide. Consonants “ktb” in Hebrew meant “to write” or “he wrote” or “writing” or “something written.” It was not as much a problem as it would be in English, but it did cause problems. OT text had a long tradition of vocalization which made the process easier.

Moabite Stone (Mesha Stele) Ca. 853 B.C. Note that the letters are run together.

The Hebrew Language In the Middles Ages Hebrew scribes finally invented a system of dots and dashes to indicate the vowels scientifically: called “vowel points.” Hebrew went through three stages. First stage: In Moses’ time no vowels at all written, only consonants. Second stage: In Ezra’s time a few vowel letters were used in the text to indicate their sounds: vowel letters, “y,” “w,” “h.” Third stage: Pointed text in Middle Ages.

Stage Three: Massoretic Text

The Hebrew Manuscripts Textual criticism must deal chiefly with the consonantal text, since all vowels were added later. Textual criticism must often ignore word division, since it came later. How close is the consonantal text to the original? How carefully has the copying been done? The manuscripts in the museums answer this question.

The Hebrew Manuscripts But here we run into a serious problem: until recently there were relatively few old Hebrew manuscripts in the museums. The Jews of the Middle Ages reverently destroyed their worn-out copies of the Scriptures. Fortunately, they prepared new copies with utmost care. Cairo genizah mss represent 10-13th century cache of 210,000 fragmentary Hebrew texts (Solomon Schecter, 1897).

Ben Ezra Synagogue, Cairo, Egypt; site of Cairo Genizah discovery.

Cairo Geniza Manuscript Leaf

The Hebrew Manuscripts If in copying a scroll they made too many mistakes, they branded the copy unfit for official use. They counted the words and verses of the book and calculated the middle word and verse then counted backward and forward. Such care is unprecedented in the preservation of ancient writings: Plato, Aristotle or Horace were not preserved so carefully, yet none would argue we do not have their very words.

Types of Mistakes Scribes Made Failure to repeat a letter or word. Repeat what occurs only once. False recollection of a similar passage or another mss. Omission of a passage between identical words. Confusion of letters of similar form. Insertion into the body of the text of marginal notes.

Dated 1010 AD. Oldest complete Hebrew Bible. Lenigrad Codex B19A. Leningradensis Ben Asher Hebrew Bible. Dated 1010 AD. Oldest complete Hebrew Bible.

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the OT Text Scrolls discovered in 11 caves in 1947 around Wadi Qumran near the Dead Sea. About 100 scrolls are OT books in Hebrew; all OT books except Esther. Date from the last few centuries BC and first century AD. Texts are 1000 years older than those previously held in museums.

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the OT Text Translations of the OT into Greek and Latin between AD 100-200 had already shown the Hebrew had been copied very accurately. “Massoretes” had produced the MT as a unified text between AD 500-1000; included cantillation accents. Dead Sea Scrolls mss provided no major alterations of the text; the scribes had done their work extremely well. R. Laird Harris on Isaiah scroll copy A: “So much like the MT that we must marvel at the accuracy of the scribes who worked in the succeeding centuries” (How Reliable Is the OT Text? 124).

Qumran Scroll jar. Dated before 70 AD.

1QHAB2

1QHAB6

God Has Preserved The OT Scriptures in their Essential Purity! Among the extant mss of the Hebrew Bible there is extraordinary agreement. B. Kennicott (Vetus Testamentum Hebraicum) deals with variants from 600 mss. Aside from insignificant ones, there is only one variant per 1580 letters. The variants for the most part are supported by only one or a few mss.

Robert D. Wilson of Princeton “There are hardly any variant readings in the manuscripts of the OT in Hebrew with the support of more than one out of the 200 to 400 mss in which each book is found, except in the full and defective writing of the vowels, a matter which has no bearing on either the pronunciation or the meaning of the text…We are scientifically certain that we have substantially the same text that was in the possession of Christ and the apostles” (A Scientific Investigation of the OT 69, 8).

Christ Quoted the Greek Translation of the OT LXX or Septuagint version of the OT from Hebrew was produced in the 3rd-2nd centuries BC. Jesus himself, and his inspired NT writers, frequently quoted from the Greek translation of the OT without hesitation: Matt. 22:32 quotes Ex. 3:6. Note Matt. 22:31, “Have you not read that which was spoken to you by God?”

Christ Quoted the Greek Translation of the OT After 1000 years of scribal transmission, Jesus still said that when the text was read God was speaking! After translation into a foreign language, Jesus still said that when the text was read God was speaking!

Textual Criticism of the New Testament The NT was written in Greek. Books at first were copied in all capital letters. Later mss (9-16th) in cursive (uncial & miniscule). Abbreviations employed for God, Jesus, Lord, man, Father, and Spirit. At first copied on papyrus sheets. 4-13th centuries parchment or vellum was used. Scrolls at first, then “codex” book form.

Papyrus Greek Manuscripts Earliest witnesses to the NT text are the papyri; over 70 are known. P52 in the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England is the oldest known NT document; dated ca. 125; 4 verses from John 18. All of Acts, 1-2 Peter, Jude, Luke, John, etc. are found in the papyri.

Papyrus leaf from Paul’s Epistles. Hebrews 1. Dated 200 AD.

P52 Dated 125 AD

John Rylands Library. Papyrus fragment 457. John 18:31-33. Dated before 150 AD. Recto.

John Rylands Library. Papyrus fragment 457. John 18:37-38. Dated before 150 AD. Verso.

P66 – John 1:1ff. Dated 200 AD

Uncial Manuscripts More than 250 uncial mss are known, from small fragments to nearly complete Bibles, OT and NT. Copied with the greatest possible care by professional scribes. Therefore, they are the most important witnesses to the NT text. Codex Sinaiticus, Bezae, Alexandrinus, and Vaticanus (4th-5th centuries) are the four most famous.

Uncial Leaf from Codex Sinaiticus

Cursive Manuscripts Penned in longhand style, most are on parchment. Date after the 9th century AD. These number in the thousands and are of less value because of their late dates. 95 % of all mss are from this period.

Other Witnesses Lectionaries: Scriptures written for reading in church services. Versions: translations into Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Georgian, Ethiopic, Gothic, Arabic, Persian, Slavonic, and Frankish. By translating backwards into Greek, scholars “recreate” the text originally used by the first translator. Patristic Quotations.

Leaf From Coptic (Egyptian) Bible

Are the NT Documents Reliable? “Fortunately, if the great number of mss increases the number of scribal errors, it increases proportionately the means of correcting such errors, so that the margin of doubt left in the process of recovering the exact original wording is not so large as might be feared; it is in truth remarkably small. The variant readings about which any doubt remains among textual critics of the NT affect no material question of historic factor or of Christian faith or practice” NT Documents: Are They Reliable? 19-20).

Bible Is Best Attested Ancient Writing For Caesar’s Gallic War (composed 58 and 50 BC) there are only 9-10 good mss. The Histories of Tacitus (AD 100) depends upon only 2 mss. The History of Thucydides (460-400 BC) has 8 mss from 9th AD (1300 yr gap). Herodotus’ History has 8 mss, all dated 1350 years after it was penned! Demosthenes has 7 mss , all 1300 yrs after its writing.

Bible Is Best Attested Ancient Writing Even Plato’s great works depend on 8 mss from 1300 yrs later! Would anyone doubt we have these writings in essentially their original form? There are over 5,366 mss of the NT alone; some dated within 50 years of writing!

What Is The Real Issue? When disparagers claim we do not have the actual writings of the biblical writers, they are not being either reasonable or scientific. They are attempting to disparage the Book itself. They are trying to undermine the AUTHORITY of the Bible. That is the real issue!!!