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1) How did we get the Bibles we have today? 2) Can we trust the Bible? 3) Why are Bible Translations different?
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Original languages of Hebrew and Greek (not English)
Our Bible’s – OT and NT, Leather, Thumb index, concordance, cross references.
Papyrus was an inexpensive material Dried Papyrus plant was overlapped and “glued” together Could write on both sides
Church didn’t use scrolls . It is possible the originals were written on scrolls
Used a “codex” or a “book” Made from Papyrus – similar to notebook paper
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Uncial or Majuscule All Caps No Spaces No Punctuation
9th century (800s) Minuscule manuscripts took over Lower case Spaces punctuation
In my office I have 19 Bibles
The majority of Christians never had personal copy of the Bible Individuals maybe had a book of the Bible
Prior to 1440’s – Printing press– every Biblical manuscript was hand written.
To get a copy of any portion of the Bible: Pay a professional to copy it Copy it yourself
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Copying is time consuming and humans are prone to error. So they will undoubtedly make mistakes Textual variants
You are risking your life just to make the copy. Peter writes to persecuted Christians in the early church around 60 AD
Transmission –copying manuscripts to preserve them for future generations and distribute them for greater use.
You didn’t have to be a scribe to copy the Scriptures.
Christians wanted the Gospel to spread so they would allow their Scriptures to be freely copied.
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Multifocality Multiple Authors Multiple Locations Multiple Audiences Multiple time frames There was no central location where the manuscripts were stored.
No one could gather all the manuscripts in order to change or falsify them.
The manuscript evidence we have is not identical but its in agreement and its coherent.
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Muratorian fragment End of 2 nd century (180AD) Earliest list of NT books :22 of 27 Did not include: Hebrews, 3 John, 1 or 2 Peter, James
Manuscripts are already being translated from Greek to other languages End of the 2 nd Century – Latin, Syriac, Coptic
313 AD – Edict of Milan Christianity was now a legal religion Vellum – animal skins used instead of papyrus
Council of Nicaea 325 AD – Deity of Christ Constantine did not create the doctrine. Christianity vs Arianism How to calculate the date of Easter No discussion of what books were in the Canon
Constantine moves Capital to Constantinople 330 AD
380 AD – Emperor Theodosius Christianity the religion of the Empire
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Jerome –started in 382 AD and finished in 405 AD From Hebrew and Greek into Latin The average person in the west no longer spoke Greek Translated the Apocryphal books because they were included in the Greek Septuagint. Jerome agreed with the Jews that these books were not Scripture
Latin Vulgate was the Bible of the Western Church (what would eventually become the Holy Roman Empire) for the next 1,100 years.
Reproduction of Greek manuscripts diminishes in the west but continues in the east.
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750
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Latin was the language of the Church and the Latin Vulgate was the Bible of the Church
Church forbid personal Bible ownership – punishable by death
The Church forbid the translation of the Bible into any language except Latin
John Wycliffe translated the Bible into English 1382 (written manuscripts)
1450’s Gutenberg Bible (first printed Bible)
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Roman Catholic Priest
Goal of new Latin Translation
Novum Instrumentum (New Instrument) Diglot (Latin & Greek) 1st Printed Greek Text 1516 4 revisions 1519-1535 Erasmus’ Greek text forms the basis of the Textus Receptus Based on 7 Greek manuscripts
Robert Estienne Theodore Beza (Stephanus) 9 revisions 4 Revisions 1598 most popular 1550 most popular
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Began 1604 finished 1611
Did not use individual Greek Manuscripts
They used 7 printed editions of the Greek New Testament Erasmus’ 5 editions Stephanus 1550 Beza 1598 These were all based on 7 manuscripts that Erasmus was able to get his hands on in Basel Switzerland
These Greek Texts are not identical – though they are not vastly different
Latin term for “Received Text”
The Elzevir brothers created the term TR (1633) as an advertising term in the preface of a Greek text they published.
At this time the TR referred to basically any and all of the Greek texts of Erasmus, Stephanus, and Beza, and Elzevir brothers (approx. 30).
In 1881 Scrivener created what is now universally recognized as the TR. He created a Greek text from the English text.
There are no Greek manuscripts in existence that read like the TR.
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No major discoveries until late 1800’s Codex Siniaticus approx. 350AD Codex Vaticanus approx. 350AD
These 2 texts were the basis of the Wescott and Hort Greek NT in 1881 The original “critical text” ASV 1901
Follow the Modern Critical texts Nestle Aland United Bible Society
These texts take into account the entire manuscript tradition 5800+ Greek Manuscripts Papyrus – more than 130 found since early 1900’s Siniaticus, Vaticanus, etc Byzantine & Majority text manuscripts
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