Their value to the credibility of our Bible is that amazingly, there is virtual agreement between these Hebrew texts and the ones dated 1,100 years later! This proves how accurately the scribes copies for all those years.Įxample of Isaiah in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Through all the years of copying, the text of Isaiah remained virtually identical. They include many Bible portions, including some complete books. These well-preserved Hebrew text fragments date back to 100 B.C. Most significant are the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered in caves in 1947 by an Arabian shepherd boy. But there are portions that date back farther. 1000, that’s a long time after the originals were written (1450-400 B.C.). Since the oldest complete copy of a Hebrew Old Testament in existence is dated about A.D.
It provides evidence that the Hebrew Bibles were copied extremely well for all the years between the Septuagint translation (2nd/3rd century B.C.) and our best existing Hebrew copies (A.D.
This was the common Hebrew Bible used and quoted by Jesus and the apostles (who lived in a Greek culture, of course).Īlthough written in Greek, scholars can generally determine what Hebrew words were being translated in the Septuagint. There are about 300 existing copies of the Septuagint. The Septuagint is a translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into the Greek language which was made in the 2nd or 3rd century B.C. These copies were made between about A.D. There are 4 or 5 really significant Masoretic manuscripts that are the basis of the best Hebrew Bible available today. We actually have very few complete or nearly complete Old Testament manuscripts existing today. They knew the middle letter of each book so they could count back and see if they had missed anything. They were so meticulous that they counted all the paragraphs, words and even letters, so they could know by counting, if they had done it perfectly. The scribe could not write God’s name with a newly dipped pen (lest it blotch) and even if the king should address him, while writing God’s name, he should take no notice of him. No individual letter could be written down without having looked back at the copy in front of them. They had specific rules on the type of ink and the quality and size of parchment sheets. God used their almost obsessive respect for the text to preserve the text’s accuracy. 500-1000) in charge of the Old Testament manuscript copying used a very meticulous system of transcription and had a deep reverence for the text. As the books of history (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, etc.), the books of poetry (Job, Psalms, etc.) and the prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.) were written and gathered together, scribes began to copy the scriptures for use in various synagogues and for private purchase and study. For many years, even the copies of the Law were lost, until they were found during Josiah’s reign (2 Kings 22:8-23:3). The copying process of the Old Testament (originally written in Hebrew)Īt first, during the Old Testament era, the only copies of the scriptures were kept at the temple (At first only the 1st 5 books – the Law). To inscribe on these materials a variety of tools were used, including stylus, chisel, pen and ink. Papyrus (made by pressing and gluing two layers of split papyrus reeds to form a sheet) – perhaps mentioned in 2 John 12 (“paper”) and Revelation 5:1 (“scroll/book”)Īnimal skins (vellum – calf or antelope, parchment – sheep or goat, leather – cow or bull) – 2 Timothy 4:13 mentions parchment.ī. The original writings of scripture were done on a variety of materials. Since there were no copy machines, the texts had to be copies by hand. The term “transmission” describes the ancient process of copying Hebrew and Greek manuscripts to preserve them for future generation and to distribute them for greater use.
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