Portion of the Dead Sea Scroll
Codex Sinaiticus: Gospel of John 350 A.D.
Old Testament Scroll
Ark of Scrolls
Key Terms
Apocrypha: The word means, “hidden.” It generally references 7 additional books recognized by the Catholic Church as being inspired.
Bibliology: The doctrine or study of the Bible.
Canon: Canon is another term for the Christian scriptures. The Canon consists of the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament, making a total of 66 books total in the Protestant bible. At the Council of Trent the Roman Catholic Church added the Apocrypha to their cannon, making a total of 73 books in the Catholic Bible. The Canon is closed which means there is no more revelation to become Scripture.
Codex: A Codex is an early book form made from papyri leaves cut, folded, and sewn together in the middle to make a book. First used in the second century.
Dead Sea Scrolls: The Dead Sea Scrolls were documents found in Judean Caves in 1947. These documents, written in Hebrew and Aramaic, were probably written by the Essenes in the Qumran area around 250 B.C. to A.D. 70. Included in these were the book of Isaiah, along with Deuteronomy and Psalms. Illumination: the process by which God's Holy Spirit enables us to understand His word and apply it to our lives. (John 16:13)
Inerrancy: The teaching that since the Scriptures are given by God, they are free from error in all their contents, including doctrinal, historical, scientific, geographical, and other branches of knowledge.
Majority Text: The Majority Text, also known as the Byzantine and Ecclesiastical Text, is a method of determining the original reading of a Scripture by discovering what reading occurs in a majority of the manuscripts.
Masoretes: The Masoretes were rabbis who made it their special work to correct the faults that had crept into the text of the Old Testament during the Babylonian captivity, and to prevent, for the future, its being corrupted by any alteration. The Hebrew text of the Old Testament is called the Masoretic Text because in its present form it is based upon the Masora—the Hebrew, textual tradition of these Jewish scholars.
Inspiration: Greek “theopneustos” meaning “God Breathed” Inspiration is the doctrine that the Bible is divinely inspired and was written by the influence of God and is without error. It is accurate and authoritatively represents God's teachings (2 Tim. 3:16) as well as historical events including the sins of people and the works of the demonic realm. As such, it is a revelation from God which implies direct knowledge about God, creation, man, salvation, the future, etc. (2Peter 1:21) Papyrus: It is a plant growing along the Nile in Egypt during Biblical times. It was used as writing material. Papyrus scrolls were made by cutting and pressing sections of the papyri plant together at right angles. The typical maximum length of a scroll was about 35 feet. We get the word "paper" from this word. Many of the Biblical manuscripts were on papyrus.
Pseudepigrapha: The pseudepigrapha are the books that attempt to imitate Scripture but that were written under false names. These include: The Gospel of Thomas, The Epistles of Barnabas, The Books of Enoch, and many more.
Revelation: This means the disclosure of something that was unknown. God in giving the Bible to man was communicating what He wants us to know. (Hebrews 1:1)
Septuagint (LXX): The Greek Translation of the Hebrew Old Testament.
Sinaiticus (Aleph): a large codex, with 400 pages (or leaves) comprising about half of the Old Testament in the Septuagint version and the full New Testament. It has been dated to the second half of the 4th century and has been highly valued by Bible scholars in their efforts to reconstruct the original biblical text.
Sola Scriptura: Latin for “Scripture Alone” part of the five Solas of the Reformation. Sola Scriptura is the teaching that the Scriptures contain all that is necessary for salvation and proper living before God. Sola Scriptura means that the Scriptures--the Old and New Testaments (excluding the Catholic apocrypha)--are the final authority in all that they address (1 Cor. 4:6) and that tradition, even so-called Sacred Tradition, is judged by Scriptures.
Textual Criticism: the process of attempting to ascertain the original wording of a text.
Textus Receptus: Latin for “received text.” It is a Greek New Testament that is the basis for many translations during the Reformation period including the King James Bible.
Vaticanus (B): a codex comprised of 759 leaves and has almost all of the Old and New Testaments.
Variant: any differences found between manuscripts, from spelling to punctuation are considered textual variants.
Verbal Plenary: View that says inspiration of Scripture extends to the actual words (verbal) and to every part (plenary) of the Bible.