0. Lesson 5: Ancient Versions: the New Testament
How We Got the Bible
Lesson 5:
Ancient Versions: the New Testament

1. How We Got the Bible, 3rd ed.2
How We Got the Bible, 3rd ed.
by Neil R. Lightfoot
This material is from Neil R. Lightfoot, How We Got the Bible, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2003)

2. “Bible” Greek = Papyrus ~ “biblios” Greek = Papyrus scroll ~ “biblion”
Greek = Papyrus scrolls ~ “biblia”
English = is from “biblia” ~ Bible

3. Time Separated Language Original Writing Autographs Transmission
Manuscripts
Separated
Original Writing
Autographs
Translations
Versions
Language

4. The ancient versions of the NT
The versions are translations: hence the English translations called
KJV[ersion],
ASV[ersion],
RSV[ersion],
NIV[ersion],
ESV[ersion]
“Something is always lost by way of translation”

5. The ancient versions of the NT
However, they are very important as secondary witnesses to the text of the New Testament
As the church expanded throughout the world, Christians (whether skilled or not) began translating the Scriptures into the local languages

6. The ancient versions of the NT
Thus, the versions are an independent line of evidence to the text of the New Testament
Three Early Translations ….
Syriac
Coptic
Latin

7. Syriac versions Spoken in regions of Syria and Mesopotamia
Much like Aramaic
One of the earliest translations

8. Syria

9. Tatian’s Diatessaron Means “four” = the four gospels
Combined the four gospels
About 170 A.D.
Widely used in Syria
Condemned by many
Removed in the 5th century

10. Tatian’s Diatessaron in Greek
First half 2nd cent. A.D.; fragment of heavy parchment; 4 1/8 by 3 3/4 inches; found at Dura Europos, a Roman border-town destroyed A.D. 256 by the Persian troops of King Shapur I; only surviving Greek witness of Tatian’s Diatessaron, an edition of the four Gospels in a continuous narrative; Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven
Bruce M. Metzger, Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: An Introduction to Greek Palaeography (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981), pl. 8

11. Ephraem’s “Keep Watch”
To prevent his disciples from asking the time of his coming, Christ said: About that hour no one knows, neither the angels nor the Son. It is not for you to know times or moments. [words from the Diatessaron] He has kept those things hidden so that we may keep watch, each of us thinking that he will come in our own day. If he had revealed the time of his coming, his coming would have lost its savor: it would no longer be an object of yearning for the nations and the age in which it will be revealed. He promised that he would come but did not say when he would come, and so all generations and ages await him eagerly.

12. Dura-Europas
Many important discoveries come from an ancient town on the eastern edge of the Roman frontier
H.E. Hahn, “Dura-Europos,” The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. 1: A-D (rev. ed., Geoffrey W. Bromiley, ed.; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1979), 996.

13. Tatian’s Alterations
The visit of the wise men [Matthew 2] is described as taking place in Nazareth, not Bethlehem.
The account of Christ’s baptism contains a strange element because he relates that after the baptism the Jordan was suddenly illuminated by a mysterious light.

14. Tatian’s Alterations
The Genealogies of Jesus are omitted. [Matt. 1 and Luke 3]
Matt. 19:4-6 is different. It says: “And Jesus answered them thus: ‘Have you not read that in the beginning, when God had made male and female, he joined them together; and Adam said, “Because of this bond shall a man leave father and mother, …”

15. Tatian’s Alterations
Luke 2:36 is made to read as though Mary remained a virgin for seven years with her husband instead of Anna the prophetess.
Tatian founded a sect or group called “Encratites”.
Rejected Marriage as adulterous
Tatian said marriage is “whoredom and corruption”

16. Tatian’s Alterations
In Luke 15 when the prodigal son returns home, his father kisses him on the mouth.
Early fathers opposed to Tatian’s Harmony
Labeled as a False apostle.

17. Tatian’s Diatessaron
Main value is that it proves there were four gospels in the early years

18. Syriac versions The Diatessaron The Curetonian Syriac
Gospels th Century 80 Leaves
British Museum
Dr. William Cureton
Includes Long Ending of Mark 16:9-20

19. Syriac versions The Diatessaron The Curetonian Syriac
The Sinaitic Syriac

20. Identified a document now known as the Sinaitic Syriac
Two women on a mission
Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis Mrs. Margaret Dunlop Gibson
Identified a document now known as the Sinaitic Syriac

21. St. Catherine’s Monastery
Mt. Sinai

22. A Syriac Manuscript Syriac Manuscript depicting Moses before Pharaoh

23. Syriac versions The Diatessaron The Curetonian Syriac
The Sinaitic Syriac
Does not include long ending of Mark
The Peshitta (“common” Syriac)
5th Century
More than 350 copies

24. Coptic versions Coptic - Aigypt or Egypt
Egyptian written in an alphabet based on the Greek.
Many Dialects - Two most Important
Sahidic Version
Bohairic Version

25. Egypt

26. Mississippi Coptic Codex II
VK 783, Mississippi Coptic Codex II,
4th century

27. Coptic versions Sahidic Version Southern Egypt - Thebes
Documents dating back to 3rd / 4th century
Dozens of these manuscripts

28. Coptic versions Bohairic Version Northern Egypt - Alexandria – Delta
Documents from 4th to 5th century
Hundreds of these manuscripts

29. Latin versions
Old Latin
Latin Vulgate

30. Rome

31. Old Latin Speratus – what do you have in the chest?
“books and letters of Paul, a just man”
A.D.
If the letters of Paul then likely had the gospels as well

32. Codex Bobiensis a palimpsest; 4th-5th cent.; Old Latin
01 Bobiensis.jpg

33. The Shorter Ending of Mark
Following Mark 16:8 in Codex Bobiensis
And all that had been commanded them they told briefly to those around Peter. Afterward Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation. (NRSV)

34. Codex Bezae
Portion of the page; Mark 16:15-20; Greek on left, Latin on right

35. Codex Laudianus (Ea) Acts 8:36-38; Greek on right, Latin on left
Bruce M. Metzger, Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: An Introduction to Greek Palaeography (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981), plate 22

36. The Latin Vulgate 4th to 5th century A.D.
Vulgatus - “common” “commonly accepted”
Jerome
Age 12 sent to Rome Latin & Greek
Became an Ascetic
Devoted his life to study of scriptures

37. Jerome (c. 345-c. 419) Albrecht Dürer on “Jerome in the Wilderness”

38. Codex Amiatinus (late 7th cent.)
The oldest extant copy of the Latin Vulgate
amiatinus.jpg

39. The value of the Vulgate
The Old Latin was the first to be made in the Latin tongue, important for Latin-speaking Christians and important wherever they carried the gospel.
As for its kind of text, the Old Latin is typically “Western.”

40. The value of the Vulgate
The Vulgate now numbers 10,000 or more manuscripts.
It has been copied more than any other book in the Christian era.
Historically speaking, it ranks next to the Septuagint as the most important translation ever made.

41. The value of the Vulgate
The Vulgate New Testament was not based on the Greek.
It was Jerome’s assignment to revise the existing Old Latin, but thankfully he did check the Greek manuscripts.
We do not know what these manuscripts were, but in the Gospels, for example, he seems to rely mainly on a text similar to that of the Vatican and Sinaitic Manuscripts.

42. The value of the Vulgate
The Vulgate reigned as the Bible of Western Europe for a thousand years.
When at the end of the Middle Ages demand for the knowledge of Scripture increased dramatically, it was the Vulgate that was first translated into the languages of the people.

43. The value of the Vulgate
The Vulgate was the first book of importance to be printed.
About 1450 Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany, perfected the use of movable type.
In 1456 the “Gutenberg Bible” was issued. It was a beautiful Latin Bible, whose appearance marked a new epoch.

44. The value of the Vulgate
The Vulgate for English-speaking people remains of special interest.
Many words used in English translations are due to the Latin Vulgate.
A short list of such terms includes “congregation,” “consecration,” “conversion,” “exhortation,” “justification,” “ministry,” “sanctification,” “testament,” even “Olivet” and “Calvary”

45. The value of the Vulgate
Eventually the Vulgate was made the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church, and so it remains today.
The result is that the Roman Catholic Bible in English is a translation of a translation and is not a translation from the original languages.

46. An illuminated Vulgate
Close-up of vellum leaf from an illuminated Medieval Manuscript Italy; Early 14th Century Latin Text; Transitional Rotunda Script by 17 cm
manuscripts/vulgate_bible19.html

47. A comparison of documents
Three Latin versions. Left: The final page of k (Codex Bobiensis), showing the "shorter ending" of Mark. Middle: Portion of one column of Codex Amiatinus (A or am). Shown are Luke 5:1-3. Right: The famous and fabulously decorated Book of Kells (Wordsworth's Q). The lower portion of the page is shown, with the beginning of Luke's genealogy of Jesus (Luke 3:23-26).

48. Latin versions
Old Latin
Latin Vulgate

49. The ancient versions of the NT
Three Early Translations ….
Syriac
Coptic
Latin
Other ancient versions
Armenian, Gothic, Ethiopic
Georgian

50. Questions for review
How important is the evidence of the ancient versions?
What three languages were most important in the translation of the Bible?
Why is the Vulgate important for English speaking people?
G. Questions for review
1. What was revolutionary about the codex?
2. Who was the first author of books of the Bible?
3. How are the books of the Bible arranged?
4. What are the original languages of the Bible?
5. Why were scribes important in the ancient and medieval worlds?

51. Questions for review What was the Diatessaron ?
A translation is called a _________
G. Questions for review
1. What was revolutionary about the codex?
2. Who was the first author of books of the Bible?
3. How are the books of the Bible arranged?
4. What are the original languages of the Bible?
5. Why were scribes important in the ancient and medieval worlds?

52. The Text of the New Testament & Significance of Textual Variations
Next week
Lesson 6:
The Text of the New Testament & Significance of Textual Variations