History of the text of the Bible

Extracted text from History_of_Text.pptx:

Oral

Written

(scrolls, papyrus) Printed (books - Gutenberg)

 How

long oral? Systematic writing in Israel is unlikely until the reign of David. How

long authoritative? In the NT period the Oral Torah was still more authoritative than the written (Hebrew and Greek and Aramaic) versions of the Jewish scriptures.

 Which

version(s)? MT (Hebrew), Targums (Aramaic), LXX (Greek) Which

communities of faith? Jewish and Christian Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant

 How

long? From the time of David until 1440 (A.D./C.E). Scribes

made copies of copies of copies, with some quality control for the Hebrew text is particular (they retired texts that got old and/or were shown to be different than the majority).

 By

the time Bibles began to be printed, there were many copies of written manuscripts, and certain errors had crept in. of these are additions (scribes tend to add, not delete) and simplifications (scribes tend to make reading easier, not harder).

Most

 For

the texts of the NT, we can see the history of the errors by analyzing the families of the texts, as well as using other tests of age and knowing where the manuscripts came from.

Original

Copy A

Copy B

Copy A1

Copy A2

Copy B1

 KJV,

RVR, Almeida, etc.

These

versions depend on copies of manuscripts which are quite young (with more additions/errors).

Protestant Deuterocanonical Materials (Textus Receptus): Matthew 6.13: [For the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours forever. Amen.] John 7.53-8.11 The woman caught in adultery

 Modern

versions almost all use the critical text-since it is the closest we can get to an original.

Original

Copy A

Copy B

Copy A1

Copy A2

Copy B1

 For

the OT text, the situation is a bit different. theory of text-transmission

Geographical

(Frank Moore Cross)

Sociological

theory of text-transmission

(Talmon, Sanders, et. al)

 For

the first time since ancient times, we now have texts of the Hebrew Bible which go back to pre-NT times.

Before

this, the oldest Hebrew texts we had were from around 1000 A.D. Latin (Vulgate), with from around 400 A.D., was our oldest witness to the Hebrew before Qumran.

The

 1.

Jewish scribes copied very carefully (e.g. Isaiah scroll) Different versions of parts of the Bible existed from early times maybe from the beginning (e.g. Jeremiah scroll).

 Cain

said to his brother Abel, [Let us go out to the field.] Hebrew lacks the part in [ ], which is only in the LXX

The

 NRSV:

Saul was . . . years old when he began to reign; and he reigned . . . and two years over Israel. TEV: (blank) NIV: Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel forty- two years. CEV: Saul was a young man when he became king, and he ruled Israel for two years.