Preservation (Part 3)

Review

Turn to Romans 3

We have seen that God has promised to providentially preserve His Word. His promises are the foundation for what we believe concerning this doctrine.

We have seen that the New Testament includes hundreds of references to the Old Testament. Every time Jesus or one of the New Testament writers referred back to the Old Testament, they assumed that it was authoritative and preserved.

We have seen that the Bible has been indestructible throughout history. Man cannot destroy God’s Word.

Tonight I want to introduce you to some of the people that God used to preserve His Word.

Introduction

Read Romans 3:1-2

The 20th Air Force is a group of US military personnel that are divided into three missile wings. You may not hear of them on a regular basis, but what they do is critical to ensuring the ongoing safety of our nation.

Why?

Because the 20th Air Force oversees the security, maintenance, and operation of our land-based nuclear missile sites. They help provide the strategic deterrence to discourage other nations from striking us in the first place.

The missileers who monitor and control our intercontinental ballistic missiles are the unknown and unseen agents of our protection. Their task is to do their job well so that we don’t hear about them and don’t notice them. Their greatest reward is not accolades or recognition, but that our nuclear deterrence is quietly maintained and our nation is kept safe.

In like fashion, God has used different agents of protection as the human means of ensuring that the Scriptures have been preserved.

Paul tells us in verses 1-2 that the Old Testament was entrusted to one specific group of people.

Who was it? The Jews.

So who were the Jews that God used to write the Old Testament?

See handout - “Writers of the Old Testament”

Some of the Old Testament books do not mention who they were written by, therefore, we are dependent on Jewish tradition for indicators of the human writers.

Torah / Pentateuch (First 5 Books)

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy → Traditionally attributed to Moses

Historical Books

Joshua → Joshua

Judges → Samuel

Ruth → Samuel

1 & 2 Samuel → Samuel, with Gad and Nathan

1 & 2 Kings → Jeremiah

1 & 2 Chronicles → Ezra

Ezra & Nehemiah → Ezra (Nehemiah’s memoirs included)

Esther → Mordecai (and/or Ezra)

Poetical / Wisdom Books

Job → Unknown (some traditions say Moses or Job)

Psalms → David, Asaph, sons of Korah, Solomon, Moses, Ethan, Heman

Proverbs → Solomon, Agur, Lemuel

Ecclesiastes → Solomon

Song of Solomon → Solomon

Major Prophets

Isaiah → Isaiah

Jeremiah → Jeremiah (with Baruch)

Lamentations → Jeremiah

Ezekiel → Ezekiel

Daniel → Daniel

Minor Prophets (The Twelve)

Hosea → Hosea

Joel → Joel

Amos → Amos

Obadiah → Obadiah

Jonah → Jonah

Micah → Micah

Nahum → Nahum

Habakkuk → Habakkuk

Zephaniah → Zephaniah

Haggai → Haggai

Zechariah → Zechariah

Malachi → Malachi

We know that the original manuscripts of the Old Testament books began with this list of men. These books were entrusted to the care of the Jews as a whole. But how did it get from them to us?

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The Jews immediately began making copies

Moses delivered his copy of his writings to the priests - Deuteronomy 31:9.

Joshua made a copy of the law of Moses - Joshua 8:32.

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Joshua 8:32 KJV 1900

And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.

Kings were commanded to make a personal copy of the Torah - Deuteronomy 17:18. The king made a copy from the scroll that was entrusted to the care of the priests and Levites.

Hezekiah commissioned scribes to copy portions of Scripture

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Proverbs 25:1 KJV 1900

These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.

Even after Jerusalem was destroyed (586 BC) and the Jews were taken into captivity by the Babylonians, copies of the Old Testament Scriptures were taken with them to Babylon. How do we know this? Because Nehemiah lived in modern-day Iran yet he knew the Scriptures!

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Nehemiah 1:8 KJV 1900

Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:

This leads us to another key agent of protection that God used to preserve the Old Testament: Ezra the scribe.

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Ezra and the Sopherim continued the scribal tradition

In Ezra 7:6, Ezra is described as being “ a ready [skilled, expert] scribe in the law of Moses.”

Jewish tradition is that “Ezra, in unison with other distinguished men of his time, completed the collection of the sacred writings” These scribes, or “sopherim” as they were called, were a distinct group of professional copyists from the time of Ezra until about 200 BC. By the time of Christ, the Old Testament text was established.

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The Masoretes: copyists of the Old Testament

Around 600 AD, a large group of conservative Jewish scribes called the Masoretes rose to prominence because of their carefulness in copying the word of God. The Masoretes existed as an important movement in Judaism for the next four centuries. They wrote many commentaries on the Old Testament, but were especially known for their exact copies of Scripture.

“The Masoretic text that resulted from their work shows that every word and every letter was checked with care. [...]” When a section of Scripture was completed, the “Masoretes not only counted and noted down the total number of verses, words, and letters in the text but further indicated which verse, which word, and which letter marked the centre of the text.”

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Dead Sea Scrolls: a confirmation of the scribes’ work

In 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in some caves near the Dead Sea in Israel. These scrolls were made approximately 1000 years before the Masoretes began as a movement, but these ancient scrolls proved the consistency and exactness of the Masoretes’ work.

The Old Testament of the King James Version was translated from the Masoretic Text. God has kept His promise and has preserved the Old Testament for you today, just like He promised.

Conclusion

Read Romans 3:1-2

What advantage did the Jews have over Gentiles, Paul asks.

Was it that they had the Law?

Was it that they had the manifest presence of God at the Temple?

Was it that they had the land given to them by God?

No, the greatest advantage of the Jew was that he had God’s written word. That was his greatest blessing! That was the greatest gift that God could give the Jewish people - not dreams, not visions, not prophets, not miracles, not a place of worship, not a system of sacrifices, but the Written Word!

Let that sink in, because the Written Word is exactly what God has given to us!