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 | | From: | admin | | Subject: | Preservation or Restoration #4 | | Date: | Sat, 13 Nov 2004 14:52:27 GMT |
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 | The following is a continuing post from the Book "Which Version is the
Bible" by Floyd Nolen Jones. Chapter 1, pages 7,8
Which Version is the Bible? Ó
Copyright 1995 · Floyd Jones Ministries, Inc.
All Rights Reserved. This book may be freely reproduced in any form as long
as it is not distributed for any material gain or profit; however, this book
may not be published without written permission.
GOD'S METHOD OF PRESERVING THE SCRIPTURES
In selecting Hebrew and Koine[1] (koinh = common or everyday) Greek for the
languages in which He would originally give the Bible, God revealed His
wisdom, foreknowledge and power. Both of these tongues became "dead
languages" within several hundred years after each respective canon was
established. By this, the words became "frozen in time". None of the words
or their meanings could change. They were, as Latin, dead languages from
which one cannot subtract or add. In contrast, English is a living language
and as such new words are constantly being added and old words remain in a
state of flux. Their meanings may change or take on new or different
connotations.
In Old Testament days, the Levitical priests copied and preserved the Living
Words of God. Throughout Scripture, the scribes were of the tribe of Levi
(Mal.2:7; Deu.3l:25; Deu.17:18). Ezra the priest was also "the ready
scribe" of Israel (Ezr.7:1-11). This method of preserving the text was
extremely successful as the Lord Jesus bore witness that not "one jot or
tittle" had been altered in the 1500 years from Moses to His day.
As to the accuracy of the Hebrew Old Testament in our day, Bishop Kennicott
did a study of 581 manuscripts of the Old Testament which involved
280,000,000 letters.[2] Out of that 280,000,000, there were 900,000
variants. Although seemingly large to the reader, it is only one variant in
316 letters which is only 1/3 of 1%. But there is more. Of those 900,000
variants, 750,000 pertain to spelling - whether the letter should be an "i"
or "u". This has to do with vowel points for the purpose of pronunciation
which were added c.600 A.D. by a group of Jewish scribes known as the
Masoretes. Thus we are left with only 150,000 variants in 280,000,000
letters or only one variant in 1580 letters, a degree of accuracy of .0006
(six ten thousandths). Indeed, most of those variants are found in only a
few manuscripts; in fact, mostly in just one corrupted copy.
The Dead Sea Scrolls of Isaiah agree with the Hebrew Masoretic Text (the
Hebrew Old Testament with the vowel points added to aid in pronunciation).
The earliest extant Masoretic Text is dated c.900 A.D. Almost no changes
have occurred in the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah 53, for example, contains only
one word of three letters which is in doubt after nearly eleven hundred
years of copying. In a chapter of 166 words, only 17 were different - 10
were spelling, 4 were conjunctions.
Actually, the Masoretic Text is the true text, not the Dead Sea Scrolls,
even though the Scrolls are more than a thousand years older. The Dead Sea
material was not written by Jews who were given the charge by God to protect
them. They were not of the tribe of Levi. They were Essenes, a Jewish cult
of ascetics whose teachings were rife with heresies.
Similarly, the Septuagint[3] manuscripts exhibit considerable significant
differences among them- selves and disagree with the Hebrew Masoretic Text
in many places. Both cannot be correct. As the Hebrew Masoretic text is
the inerrant, infallible Word of God - the Septuagint should be seen as
spurious and rejected. We cannot even be certain that the LXX which we have
extant today (c.350 A.D.) is a faithful reproduction of the c.260 B.C.
original (if such an early translation actually ever existed in the first
place).
But in the New Covenant, all become priests through the new birth in Christ
Jesus. As in the Old Covenant, God gave the New Testament text into the
hands of the priesthood of believers, both laymen and elders. The early
Christians copied, wrote and preserved it. Most of the early Christians
were not wealthy. They often wrote on paper which would be comparable to
that of a daily newspaper. Most were not trained scholars or scribes, but
they copied with fear in their hearts. They knew that God had warned four
times that there would be a curse on anyone who added, subtracted or altered
in any way the Word of God (Deu.4:2; Prov.30:5-6; Psa.12:6-7; Rev.22:18-19).
As believers, they would never deliberately alter the Holy Scriptures for
they would have believed in the curse that these verses proclaimed. The
only persons who would deliberately change the true text would be
blasphemers who did not believe the warnings. In context, these verses
forewarn not so much of accidental miscopying but of willful alterations.
Although the New Testament scribes may have left out a "thee" or an "and" as
they copied, they copied as carefully and meticulously as possible for they
believed with all their hearts and souls that these were God breathed words.
They had made a commitment to follow the Lord Jesus under great persecution
from the emperors. Many of the scribes gave up their very lives as well as
the lives of their whole families, keeping that commitment while being
crucified, fed to the lions, etc. For modern scholars who sit comfortably
in air conditioned surroundings to accuse these dedicated souls of
deliberately altering the Scriptures is almost unforgivable. Poor writers,
some may have been, but the high degree of accuracy found in their work is
not present in those writings which are being put off on the church today as
being the "oldest and most reliable" manuscripts.
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[1] A dialect of the Greek language that flourished from the time of
Alexander the Great to the barbarian invasions which overtook the Roman
Empire after the 4th century A.D. It was replaced by "Byzantine" Greek
until 1453 at which time the "Modern "Greek stage superseded it. Koine is
singularly the language of the N.T.
[2] Rene Pache, Inspiration and Authority of Scripture, (Chicago, IL:
Moody Bible Institute, 1969), pp. 189-190.
[3] Floyd Nolen Jones, The Septuagint: A Critical Analysis, 3rd ed., rev.
& enlarged, (Collingswood, NJ: Bible For Today Press, #2161, 1994). A
spurious Greek Old Testament supposedly written for the library of Ptolemy
II Philadelphus, 285-246 B.C. The story of its origin abounds in legend.
It is often designated by LXX after the 70 translators reputed to have
produced the translation.
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