2024-04-07 Doctrine 6 - Preservation of Scripture

Doctrine - Preservation of Scripture

Intro:

There have been times that I have lost things, in fact it seems often. Once I lost my car keys for a week. I found them while driving down the road with my spare key. The sun was bright and I flipped the sun visor down. They fell into my lap unexpectedly but the scare was welcomed. At that moment my recollection came back. I sat in my car with a friend and we talked. Not paying attention to what I was doing, I put my keys above the sun visor which i never do.

Once I lost my plumbing hand tools. I looked high and low. About 12 months went by and one day I was looking in a toolbox and found them all. It then came back to me that I had indeed switched them from a tool bag to a toolbox and I had forgotten.

Link: Now, loosing things like this, its not fun, but the joy when you find it is thrilling. Today were talking about the doctrine of the Preservation of Scripture.

Although we have not lost it by any means over the millennia, some often ask:

Did it change over the millennia?

Did someone write the Bible in the past 600 years and lie about its date, etc.

Today will see the preservation of Scripture. Its not just that its been preserved but God promised it would be, that nothing that Satan or man does can ever eradicate His Word, The Bible.

Review of Doctrines:

Today: We will be looking at the last doctrine in the section of “God’s Revelation.” Preservation of the Scripture.

1. Preservation of Scripture:

God has chosen to reveal Himself to humanity through the text of Scripture, having inspired it and directed it to be free from error. God has also acted providentially throughout the course of history to ensure the biblical text is faithfully preserved for future generations. Our belief in the preservation of Scripture is supported by investigation into ho the canon of Scripture was formed and how manuscripts were faithful transmitted throughout the centuries.

Psalm 119:89 “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.”

The MacArthur Bible Commentary Outline

God’s Word will not change and is always spiritually relevant.

Be Exultant Lamedh (vv. 89–96)—Change and the Changeless

Ever since Satan asked Eve, “Indeed, has God said …?” (Gen. 3:1), the enemy has been attacking the Word of God. Atheists, agnostics, philosophers, scientists, and garden-variety sinners of all kinds have ignored the Bible, laughed at it, and tried to do away with it, but it still stands. Though born in eternity, God’s Word is rooted in history and speaks to every generation that will listen. The Word is “founded forever” (v. 152) and will endure forever (v. 162). (See Matt. 24:34–35.) Build your life on the Word of God and you will weather all the changes of life!

Psalm 119:152 “Concerning Your testimonies, I have known of old that You have founded them forever.”

Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.”

How the Bible was copied and preserved over the years:

Scribes

• When the Old Testament writers finished their scrolls, there were no copying machines or printing presses to duplicate their writing for the public. They depended on scribes - men who patiently copied the Scriptures by hand when extra copies were needed and when the original scrolls became too worn to use any longer. The scribes attempted to make exact copies of the original scrolls, and the scribes who followed them attempted to make exact copies of the copies.

• By the time Jesus was born, the most recent Old Testament book (Malachi) had been copied and recopied over a span of more than four hundred years; the books that Moses wrote had been copied this way for more than fourteen hundred years. Yet during that time the scribes guarded the Old Testament text very well.

Sopherim

Jeremiah is the first to mention the scribes as a professional group in Jeremiah 8:8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise, And the law of the Lord is with us’? Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood.”

• The Hebrew word sopherim literally means "the counters”; the early scribes earned this title because they counted every letter of every book of Scripture to make sure they didn't leave out anything.

• Before he began his work each day, the scribe would test his reed pen by dipping it in ink and writing the name Amalek, then crossing it out (cf. Deut. 25:19). Then he would say, "I am writing the Torah in the name of its sanctity and the name of God in its sanctity."

• The scribe would read a sentence in the manuscript he was copying, repeat it aloud, and then write it. Each time he came to the name of God, he would say, "I am writing the name of God for the holiness of His name." If he made an error in writing God's name, he had to destroy the entire sheet of papyrus or vellum that he was using.

• After the scribe finished copying a particular book, he would count all of the words

and letters it contained. Then he checked this tally against the count for the manuscript that he was copying. He counted the number of times a particular word occurred in the book, and he noted the middle word and the middle letter in the book, comparing all of these with his original. By making these careful checks, he hoped to avoid any scribal errors.

Several Manuscripts have been found over the years

In 1890, In the Cairo Synagogue attic store room alone were discovered some 200,000 MSS and fragments. 10,000 of these are Biblical.

In Cairo Egypt

The attic room for many years was only accessible by a latter put on a woman’s balcony.

For many years the building was not used as a Synagogue.

In 2023 it was restored and is once being used again.

The Dead Sea Scrolls discovered between 1947 and 1960 in a cave on the western Dead Sea shore near a ruin called Khirbet Qumran. Eleven caves from the Qumran area have since yielded manuscripts, mostly in small fragments. These date between 200 B.C. and A.D. 70, mostly around the lifetime of Jesus.

Both discovered historical documents comprise of three main kinds of literature:

1. Copies of Old Testament books, the oldest we now possess;

2. Some non-biblical Jewish books known from elsewhere (such as First Enoch and Jubilees);

3. The Essenes community's own compositions, including: biblical commentaries (for example, on Habakkuk and Nahum), which interpret biblical prophecies as applying to the community and its times; rules of community conduct; and liturgical writings such as prayers and hymns.

The new is in the old contained, the old is in the new explained.

Fulfilled Prophecy (Examples below)

Genesis 3:15 “Seed of a woman” Luke 2:7 & Galatians 4:4

Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.” “Humble entry on a donkey” John 12:13–14 “took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ The King of Israel!” 14 Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written:”

Psalm 22:16 “For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet;” Hands & Feet Pierced” John 19:23-24 “Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments and made four parts, to each soldier a part, and also the tunic. Now the tunic was without seam, woven from the top in one piece. 24 They said therefore among themselves, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be,” that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says: “They divided My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.” Therefore the soldiers did these things.”

Of course there are many more examples but just in these three we can see how the OT predicted the NT. Jesus validated the OT in his words and in his actions.

Matthew 5:18 “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”

Again as we saw 2 months ago as we studded this, not one jot or tittle will pass away until the law is fulfilled.

Even the smallest markings in the original language, they won’t pass away.

We should respect Gods Word by:

Respecting the Book itself

Reading it

Obeying it

Allowing the H.S. to challenge and change us by it.

To share it

Unsaved: God gave us His word, to communicate with us of our need of a Savior because of our sin. ABC Acts 16:31 “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Saved: As a child of God, He wants you to spend time with Him, getting to know Him better by reading and studying His Word.