S3 E6 TRANSCRIPT
MANUSCRIPTS AND TRANSLATIONS
INTRODUCTION
Hello everyone and welcome to Spirit-Led Hope. My name is Glenn Erichsen, and in this episode, we are looking at:
MANUSCRIPTS AND TRANSLATIONS
In the last episode we talked about how Scripture has been preserved over time through copying of the Biblical text. We looked at a simple example of lower textual criticism and said that we can determine what the authors of the Bible wrote because we have enough copies. Although we did not go into any detail, I also mentioned that we have other writings that quote the Bible. These extra-Biblical writings give us additional support.
In this episode, we are going to give examples of some of the copies of Scripture that have survived. I want to say up front that we are not going to go deeply into this topic. Doing it justice would take many, many podcast episodes. In fact, multiple seasons could be spent on this topic alone.
When you start looking at how we arrived at the Biblical text we use today, there are accounts that sound almost like something you would see in an Indiana Jones movie. The full story involves discoveries of manuscripts in caves and the rescue of ancient documents from the dusty shelves of monasteries. Some of the oldest writings were literally snatched from being tossed in a fireplace. The stories are fascinating. There is intrigue and there is some, well, questionable behavior. I encourage you to do your own study if that interests you.
I also want to admit that I am not an expert in pronouncing Hebrew, Greek, or Latin words, so please bear with me if I butcher any names. Here is my confession, my family teases me because I struggle to speak with any accent that would help me pronounce foreign words. Usually, when I try to put the right inflection on a foreign word or speak with an accent, what comes out of my mouth is something that sounds like a combination of Swedish with an American southern drawl…if you can imagine that. If I say something that sounds awkward, feel free to laugh at me! I will not be offended.
THE OLD TESTAMENT
Let us start by looking at some, but not all, of the most important manuscripts and versions we have of the Old Testament. To clarify, when we talk about the Bible it is common to use the word “manuscript,” when we are talking about a text that is written in the original language. Translations and versions refer to copies made in another language from the original.
Prior to 1947, the oldest complete manuscripts of the Old Testament were the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex. You may recall that a codex is a document written in book form. Both books were written around 1000 AD, with the Aleppo Codex recognized as being the oldest. The Aleppo Codex was probably written closer to 930 AD and the Leningrad Codex closer to 1010 AD…about 100 years apart. Something like that.
Unfortunately, part of the Aleppo Codex was destroyed in 1947 by mobs when they burned down synagogues in response to the UN partitioning of Palestine. That makes the Leningrad Codex the oldest known complete Old Testament in book form. Again, we are talking about the complete Old Testament and not portions that may be older.
So, think about that for a minute. We talked in the last episode about the preservation of Scripture. We know the Old Testament was finished around 435 BC. That is a gap of about 1400 years. That seems like a big gap that might have us wondering if these two copies accurately represent the original writings.
We will get to that in just a minute, but first I want to point out a few things about these two manuscripts. Both books are examples of the Masoretic text written by the Masoretes. The Masoretes were Jewish scholars alive between the 6th and 10th centuries. You can go online and see examples of these manuscripts. They are meticulously written in beautiful capital Hebrew letters.
The Masoretes were passionate when it came to preserving the Hebrew scriptures. They developed a set of rules to make sure that when a scribe copied Scripture, it would be accurate. They did this by careful arrangements of columns and word counts. In fact, when you compare the Aleppo Codex to the Leningrad Codex, you will see they are in high agreement. Yes, they do have some minor differences, much like we talked about in the last episode. Where there are differences, the Aleppo Codex is generally considered to be the more accurate. Why? Because it is the oldest.
What is unique about the Masoretic text is the addition of vowel points. Old Testament Hebrew was written using only consonants. That may seem odd to us, but that worked for a long time while Hebrew was spoken. As Hebrew became less spoken, the Masoretes were concerned that the correct pronunciation of the words would be lost. Using their knowledge and traditions, the Masoretes invented a clever way to add points above and below the lines of text to indicate how to pronounce the words. And this was clever because their method did not require any changes to the sacred text.
The Masoretes were brilliant and methodical. They also added notes in the margins to clarify their work. Depending on the Bible which you use, you may read a preface or footnote with reference to the Masoretic text. If you do, your Bible is acknowledging the work done by these scribes whose lives were dedicated to preserving Scripture.
In March of 1948, there was an incredible discovery…possibly the greatest archaeological discovery of the last century. The story is told that a boy was looking for a lost goat when he discovered a cave. In the cave he uncovered some old leather scrolls which were eventually sold and purchased partly by a member of a monastery and partly by a member of a university. The two men who purchased the scrolls understood the significance of what the boy and goat had found. This was the beginning of the discovery of what we know as the Dead Sea scrolls.
Since that first discovery, hundreds of scrolls and thousands of fragments have been located. Many of these scrolls and fragments contain books and portions of the Old Testament. Why is this so important? It is important because the Dead Sea scrolls were written before Jesus was born.
This means that we can compare the writings of the Dead Sea scrolls to the Masoretic text which was written a thousand years later. Within the Dead Sea scrolls are portions of every book of the Old Testament except for Esther. By comparing the Dead Sea scroll text to the Masoretic text, we have direct evidence showing how well the Old Testament was preserved.
As an example, the Dead Sea scrolls contain the entire book of Isaiah. We can compare this to the Masoretic text of Isaiah and see that the words have been faithfully preserved over a thousand years. The basic difference between the Dead Sea scroll text and the Masoretic text, is the addition of the vowel points by the Masoretes. The words themselves have been faithfully preserved. Are there some differences? Yes, there are. But none of the variations give us any reason to doubt what we have written in our Bibles today.
Here is a quote from the late Jacob Weingreen who was a professor of Hebrew for many years at Trinity College in Dublin…here is what he said:
“…when we survey the Hebrew Bible as a whole, the incidence of copyists’ errors is statistically very few indeed. Even allowing for the intrusion of occasional errors in the received Hebrew text, it is remarkable how faithfully it was transmitted.”
That is quite a statement. In addition to the manuscripts we just mentioned, there are other preserved portions of the Old Testament, as well as translations. One of the most important translations is the Septuagint. (Now I have often heard this pronounced Septuagint, but I believe the most accurate pronunciation places an emphasis on the first syllable. But, as I have confessed, I could be wrong.)
There is a bit of legend surrounding the Septuagint. Supposedly, 72 scholars from Palestine translated the first five books of the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek in 72 days. Somehow, that number 72 got rounded to 70, and that is why it is called the Septuagint, which means 70. If you see a note in your Bible with the Roman numerals LXX, that is a reference to the Septuagint.
The actual translation of the whole Hebrew Bible into Greek, most likely took about 100 years with the work finished in 180 B.C. I find it interesting that this was probably the oldest attempt to convert a major book from one language into another.
The Septuagint is important because this was the Bible of the early church, which was composed primarily of people who spoke Greek. We see the Septuagint quoted by the authors of the New Testament. Some of the words that we use today came out of this translation. Words like “faith,” “forgiveness,” and “righteousness” are legacies of the work done by the translators. These words helped provide the framework for the early Church to evangelize the Greek and Roman worlds.
THE NEW TESTAMENT
Let us move now from the Old Testament to the New Testament. Because the New Testament was written much later than the Old Testament, many more manuscripts have survived that were written much closer in time to the originals. This increases our confidence in knowing the original text.
Most of the originals were probably written on papyrus and most likely did not last more than a decade or so. But the early Christians were motivated to make many copies which they could circulate. These original manuscripts were written in Greek.
There are over 5500 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. That is a lot for an ancient book. Only about 10 or 20 manuscripts are normally required to determine if an ancient text is genuine.
It is important though, to recognize that most of these manuscripts do not contain the entire New Testament text. The early Christians often distributed the writings into groups like the four Gospels, the writings of Paul, and Acts and the general epistles. They also circulated Revelation as a single document.
There are about 50 copies that were written between the second and fourth centuries. These oldest manuscripts are considered the most reliable sources of the New Testament text. Three of the most highly regarded manuscripts are the Vatican, Sinaitic, and Alexandrian. These are names that you may see if you have a Bible study resource, or if your translation of the Bible mentions some of its root sources.
The Vatican Manuscript is stored, as you might guess, in the Vatican Library in Rome. One of the interesting things about the Vatican Manuscript (or Codex) is that it is written in Greek and contains most of the Old and New Testaments. That makes it a manuscript of the New Testament and a translation of the Old Testament.
The large number of New Testament documents, plus the shorter time between the original and copies, allows us to have an even greater confidence in the New Testament text than the Old. Of course, there are still some variations among copies which can make it difficult to know the original text. In some cases, just like the example I gave last episode, some copies include sections not found in other copies. This presents an interesting dilemma for modern day Bible translators.
For example, some of the earliest manuscripts do not contain Mark 16:9-20. These verses include an account of the resurrected Jesus seeing Mary Magdalene and the disciples, they include a form of the Great Commission, and a statement that believers will speak in new tongues and not be harmed if they pick up serpents or drink poison.
When you examine these verses in Greek, the style of writing does not seem quite like the rest of Mark. It feels like these verses may have been added. For this reason, some modern Bible translations either no longer include Mark 16:9-20, or they give some indication that these verses might be disputed.
My ESV Study Bible surrounds these verses with double square brackets and has a note that says, “Some of the earliest manuscripts do not include 16:9-20.” In addition, one of the footnotes says to read these verses with caution. I think that is a reasonable approach. These verses are still available because many older translations include them, but the translators are honest about their concerns.
I do find it interesting that this section of verses is used by some extreme Pentecostals to justify picking up rattlesnakes as a way of demonstrating their faith. Could that be indicator showing these verses were not inspired? I do not know! But I have wondered about it.
The main takeaway from all of this is that just like the Old Testament, we can have confidence that the text of the New Testament has been preserved.
THE BIBLE IS TRANSLATABLE
How does all of this relate to a Spirit-led life? I want to take us in a slightly different direction as we end this episode.
In this episode we talked briefly about translations, but one thing we have not yet covered is how many different languages the Bible has been translated into. The complete Bible has been translated into several hundred languages and the New Testament into over 1500 languages. When we make a translation, assuming the translators are being faithful to do a good job, Christians believe the translation still conveys the heart of God. In other words, if you are reading the Bible in something other than Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek, you are still reading God’s words.
This is not the case for all religions. I was in a restaurant and noticed some Arabic text over my booth. When I asked the owner what it said, he became flustered. He blushed and almost looked ashamed. He said that it was his sacred scripture and that because he did not naturally speak the language, he was unqualified to tell me the meaning.
I want each one of you to know, that if you are empowered by the Holy Spirit, you are qualified as an ambassador for Jesus. The Apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5:20 was talking about the ministry of reconciliation with God, and he said this:
…we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.
2 Corinthians 5:20 ESV
It does not matter which language you speak, your race does not matter, nor does your age, your gender, your financial worth, your intelligence, whatever label you want to come up with…it is the Holy Spirit living within you who qualifies you to be an ambassador for Jesus.
As you study what God has conveyed to us in the Bible, and allow the Holy Spirit to teach you, and help you, you will become not only closer to God, but you will make a difference in the world around you. Your life, where you live, and your life experience, makes you uniquely qualified to reach a people that I will never reach. In a sense, as you help others learn about God, you are a living translation. You are helping people hear the heart of God towards them.
I hope you understand what I am saying. I am not saying that we replace the Bible, but our lives should help others see the truth of the Bible.
Do not think that you are unable, or unworthy. The Holy Spirit within you is willing, and more than able to help you.
CLOSING
In our next episode, we are going to look at the canon of Scripture. And no, we are not talking about something that shoots big iron balls.
As always, if you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, please email me at glenn@spiritledhope.com, or simply use the Contact Form at spiritledhope.com. That is spiritLEDhope.com. I look forward to hearing from you.
If you find these episodes useful, please share them with your friends, leave a good review on your podcast app, and make sure to follow the podcast so that you are notified when the next episode is published.
And now, as you set about your day to be an ambassador for Christ:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Until next episode, take care.
Copyright 2024 Spirit-Led Hope
Acknowledgement
A very useful book for this Season has been the third edition of “How We Got the Bible” by Neil R. Lightfoot.
