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