Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

“From God to us” chain -

Inspiration - God gave His message to the prophets who received and recorded it

Canonization - the inspired books were recognized and collected by God’s people

Transmission - the process of copying, transmitting, and translating of the autographs into manuscripts over thousands of years

Translation - God’s word comes to us in modern translations

Objectives in this lesson

Learn about some of the most important Bible manuscripts that were instrumental in the transmission of the Bible into modern translations

Understand why there are more English translations today than there are in the past

Understand how the discovery of more manuscripts benefits the believers today

Key questions

how was the Word of God transmitted over the years

what elements were instrumental in the transmission of the Bible

Key elements in the transmission of the Bible are -

Language

Writing materials

Development of Textual Criticism

Language

The Old Testament books were originally written in Hebrew, with some portions of it in Aramaic

Hebrew is the language of the nation Israel

Aramaic - the lingua franca of the Near East region in the 6th to 4th century B.C.

in Jesus time, it was local language of the land of Palestine and Syria

The New Testament books were all written in Koine Greek

Greek became widespread when Greece became an empire in the time of Alexander the Great

Writing Materials

On mount Sinai, God had made it clear that His words were to be written in some form or another -

He wrote His 10 commandments on 2 tablets of stones

The earliest books of the Bible were written on papyrus.

This was the beginning of the scrolls

Later other materials were employed such as vellum and parchment, which are basically animal skins.

these materials made it possible to write on both sides, and later arrange the pages in the format of modern books.

These are called codices (codex)

The Manuscripts

Manuscripts are handwritten copies of the autographs.

direct copies of the autographs

copies of other manuscripts

A manuscript is a handwritten literary composition, in contrast to a printed copy.

An original manuscript is the first one produced, usually called an autograph.

There are no known extant original manuscripts of the Bible.

However, the abundance of manuscript copies makes it possible to reconstruct the original with complete accuracy.

Kinds of Manuscripts

Uncial manuscripts - similar to the modern capital letters, from 3rd to 7th centuries; also known as book hand;

Minuscule manuscripts - from 9th to 15th centuries; also known as running hand, cursive

Old Testament manuscripts

Nash Papyrus

Nash Papyrus Besides those unusual finds, which are about a thousand years older than most of the earliest Old Testament Hebrew manuscripts, there is extant one damaged copy of the Shema (from Deut.

6:4–9) and two fragments of the Decalogue (Ex.

20:2ff.;

Deut.

5:6ff.).

It is dated between the second century B.C. and the first century A.D.

Orientales 4445

Orientales 4445 This British Museum manuscript is dated by C[hristian] D. Ginsburg between A.D. 820 and 850, the Masora notes being added a century later.

But Paul E. Kahle argues that both consonantal Hebrew texts and pointing (the added vowel points or marks) are from the time of Moses ben Asher (tenth century).

Because the Hebrew alphabet consists only of consonants, Hebrew writing normally shows only those letters, with a few of the letters being used in varying degrees to represent some of the vocalic sounds.

This manuscript contains Genesis 39:20–Deuteronomy 1:33 (less Numbers 7:47–73 and Numbers 9:12–10:18).

Codex Cairensis

Codex Cairensis A codex is a manuscript in book form with pages.

According to a colophon, or inscription at the end of the book, this Cairo Codex was written and vowel-pointed in A.D. 895 by Moses ben Asher in Tiberias in Palestine.

It contains the Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 2 Kings) and the Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve).

It is symbolized C in Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS).

Aleppo Codex

Aleppo Codex of the Whole Old Testament.

This was written by Shelomo ben Baya’a, but according to a colophon it was pointed (i.e., the vowel marks were added) by Moses ben Asher (c.

A.D. 930).

It is a model codex, and although it was not permitted to be copied for a long time and was even reported to have been destroyed, it was smuggled from Syria to Israel.

It has now been photographed and will be the basis of the New Hebrew Bible to be published by the Hebrew University.

It is a sound authority for the Ben Asher text.

Codex Lenigradensis

Codex Leningradensis (B 19A) According to a colophon, or note at the end, this was copied in Old Cairo by Samuel ben Jacob in A.D. 1008 from a manuscript (now lost) written by Aaron ben Moses ben Asher c. A.D. 1000, whereas Ginsburg held it was copied from the Aleppo Codex.18

It represents one of the oldest manuscripts of the complete Hebrew Bible that is known.

Babylonian Codex

Babylonian Codex of the Latter Prophets (MS Heb.

B3) This is sometimes called the Leningrad Codex of the Prophets or the [St.]

Petersburg Codex.21

It contains Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve.

It is dated A.D. 916, but its chief significance is that through it punctuation added by the Babylonian school of Masoretes was rediscovered.

Reuchlin Codex

Reuchlin Codex of the Prophets Dated A.D. 1105, this is now at Karlsruhe.

Like the British Museum manuscript Ad. 21161 (c.

A.D. 1150), it contains a recension of Ben Naphtali, a Tiberian Masorete.

These have been of great value in establishing the fidelity of the Ben Asher text.

Cairo Geniza manuscripts

Cairo Geniza Manuscripts Of the approximately 10,000 biblical manuscripts and fragments from the Geniza (storehouse for old manuscripts) of the Cairo synagogue now scattered throughout the world, Kahle identified more than 120 examples copied by the Babylonian group of Masoretes.

In the Firkowitch Collection are found 14 Hebrew Old Testament manuscripts dating between A.D. 929 and 1121.

Kahle contends also that the 1,200 manuscripts and fragments of the Antonin Collection come from the Cairo Geniza.

Erfurt Codices

Erfurt Codices (E 1, 2, 3) These are listed in the University Library in Tubingen as Manuscript Orientale 1210/11, 1212, 1213.

Their peculiarity is that they represent more or less (more in E 3) the text and Masora of the Ben Naphtali tradition.

E 1 is a fourteenth-century manuscript containing the Hebrew Old Testament and the Targum.

E 2 is also of the Hebrew Old Testament and Targum Ontelos, probably from the thirteenth century.

E 3 is the oldest, being dated by Kahle and others before A.D. 1100.

Dead Sea Scrolls

The most remarkable manuscripts are those of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which date from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D. They include one complete Old Testament book (Isaiah) and thousands of fragments, which together represent every Old Testament book except Esther.

Before showing how the amazing new evidence from Qumran bears on the state of the Hebrew text, a word should be said about the discovery of the scrolls, which are viewed by W. F. Albright as “the greatest manuscript discovery of modern times.”

The first discovery was made in March 1947, and subsequent explorations produced amazing finds through 1956.

In all there were eleven caves containing scrolls and/or fragments excavated near Qumran between February 15, 1949 and February 1956.

Much material of interest to the archaeologist was discovered, but the discussion here is limited to the manuscripts that bear on the text of the Old Testament.

New Testament manuscripts

The N.T. test is preserved in some 5366 partial and complete manuscript portions that were copied by hand from the 2nd through 15th centuries.