THE BIBLE -A STORY OF SURVIVAL

How the Bible Came to Us

The Author and the Originator of the Bible is also its Preserver. He is the One who caused this statement to be recorded:  

"The Word of our God endures forever." -Isaiah 40:8. 

That statement is true, even though no original Bible manuscript of the Hebrew and Aramaic Scriptures  or  of the Christian Greek Scriptures has survived to our day.  Therefore, how can be we so certain that the contents of the Bible we have today truly reflect the original inspired writings? 

COPYISTS PRESERVE GOD'S WORD 

Regarding the Hebrew Scriptures, part of the answer lies in an ancient traditon that was established by God, who said that the text should be copied.  For example, Jehovah instructed the kings of Israel to make  their own copies of the written Law and teaching it to the people.  (Deuteronomy 31:26; Nehemiah 8:7) After the exile of the Jews to Babylon, a class of copyists, or scribes (Sopherim), developed.  (Ezra 7:6) Over time, those scribes made numerous copies of the 39 books of the Hebrew Scriptures. 

Through the centuries, scribes meticulously copied these books.   During the Middle Ages, a group of Jewish scribes known as the Masoretes carried on that tradition.  The oldest and complete Masoretic manuscript is the Leningrad Codex, which dates from 1008/01009 C.E.  However, in the middles of the 20th century, some 220 Biblical manuscripts or fragments were discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Those Biblical manuscripts were more than a thousand years older than the Leningrad Codex. A comparison of the Dead Sea Scrolls with the Leningrad Codex confirms a vital point:  While the Dead Sea Scrolls contain some variations in wording, none of those variations affect the message itself. 

What about the 27 books of the Christian Greek Scriptures?  Those books were first penned by some of the apostles of Jesus Christ and by a few other early disciples.  Following the tradition of the Jewish scribes, early Christians made copies of those books.  (Colossians 4:16) Despite attempts by Roman Emperor Diocletian and others  to destroy all early Christian literature, thousands of ancient fragments and manuscripts have been preserved until our day.

Christian writings were also translated into other languages.  Early translations of the Bible include those in such languages as Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Latin, and Syriac.

Next time: THE BIBLE -A STORY OF SURVIVAL/ESTABLISHING THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXTS FOR TRANSLATION

From The Watchtower magazine