Old Testament and Ancient Manuscripts
The Holy Bible — Old Testament
Relationship Between the Old and New Testaments
The Old Testament represents the old covenant relationship between God and man. It foretold of the coming of Jesus Christ and paved the way for the atoning sacrifice on the cross. The New Testament is the fulfillment of that covenant — Jesus came into the world to fulfill the promises that were previously made. The New Testament does not replace or make null the Old; they are both authoritative Scripture of God's Word to mankind.
Early Christian Perspective of the Old Testament
For the early Christians the Old Testament was of course already finished. The time of the prophets had ended around 430 B.C. with Malachi being the last prophet called by God. The Jewish scribes compiled the various writings of Moses and the Prophets together into what was called the Hebrew Bible, or the Tanakh.
The Tanakh
The word "Tanakh" was formed by the first Hebrew letter of each of the three divisions of the Old Testament:
- Torah — First 5 books of the Bible (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
- Nevi'im — Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos...)
- Ketuvim — Writings (Proverbs, Job, Psalms...)
The Greek-speaking Hellenistic Jews called these books "ta biblia," or "the books." The early Christians began calling it the "Old Testament" in the first couple of centuries A.D. There is not an exact date, but early Christian writers like Origen (who lived in the 3rd and 4th century) referred to it in his writings.
Acceptance of the Hebrew Old Testament
The Jews and the early Christians did not question the authority or canonization of the Hebrew Old Testament, nor did they question which books were considered inspired. They accepted all 39 books as we do today, however they counted them differently and reported 24 — combining several books together:
- Samuel, Kings and Chronicles were not separated into 1st and 2nd.
- Ezra and Nehemiah were one.
- The minor prophets were combined and known as "The Twelve."
The Apocrypha were never part of the Hebrew Old Testament — they were introduced later in the Greek translation called the Septuagint.
The early Christians had no trouble accepting the Old Testament. It was vouched for by the apostles and Jesus Christ.
Luke 24:44 — "Then He told them, 'These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you — that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.'"
In this passage Jesus referred to the three sections of the Tanakh: the Law of Moses (Torah), the Prophets (Nevi'im), and the Psalms (Writings/Ketuvim). The Apostles also quoted the Old Testament in numerous passages throughout their letters, generally quoting from the Greek (Septuagint). For the early Christians, the Old Testament was the authoritative and inspired Word of God.
The Origins of the Old Testament
The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew — the language of the ancient Israelites. While 99.9% Hebrew, a few passages were written in Aramaic (Genesis 31:47; Ezra 4:8–6:18; 7:12–26; Jeremiah 10:11). The Hebrew alphabet in its ancient form consists of 22 characters which were all consonants, written from right to left. Vowels were later added, but not until A.D. 500.
After the return of the Jews from the Babylonian exile in 538 B.C., they began to forget their native Hebrew and adopted Aramaic — a very common language also spoken during the time of Jesus. The learned scribes and scholars would have to interpret the Scripture for the majority of Jews because they could not read ancient Hebrew. This introduced what is known as the Aramaic Targums — interpretations of the Hebrew Scriptures paraphrased from the original Hebrew text. This was an oral tradition until it was written down in the Talmud in A.D. 200. The Hebrew language continued its decline as a spoken language and never fully recovered, though it was still studied and spoken by those responsible for teaching and reading the Scriptures.
Timeline of the Preservation of the Old Testament
2000 B.C. – 450 B.C. | The Levites
God used the Levites to preserve the Scriptures from the very beginning (Deuteronomy 31:24–26). It was their responsibility to ensure that the Scriptures were maintained for hundreds of years.
400 B.C. – 200 A.D. | The Sopherim Period
Beginning with the great scribe Ezra, there has been an order of scribes who served as Bible-text custodians. In 458 B.C., Ezra the scribe-priest took the lead in the preservation of Scripture (Ezra 7:6, 10; Nehemiah 8:1–9). Their job was to standardize a pure text from the Hebrew Scriptures using available manuscripts, with excruciating care to ensure that handwritten copies were accurate. To aid in the integrity of their copying process, they began counting all the words and letters of each book and appending the figures at the end — this way they could quickly determine if there were any errors in the transmission process. They only worked with the consonantal text (no vowels), as the vowel points were not added until A.D. 500 by the Masoretes. The vowels were maintained in an oral tradition known as the masorah.
100 A.D. – 500 A.D. | The Talmudic Period
The line of scholars continued to keep the Scriptures intact. During this time period the oral tradition of the Jews was committed to writing in the Talmud. This is NOT Scripture — it is in separate writings outside of the Bible.
500 A.D. – 950 A.D. | The Masoretic Period
This is the last group of Jewish scholars responsible for the preservation of the Scriptures up until 950 A.D. We enjoy the fruits of their work today as the source for our translations of the Old Testament. In addition to preserving the written text, they took the oral preservation of the vowels and accents (masora) and created vowel points on the original Hebrew consonantal text, providing the exact pronunciation and grammatical form. They also provided a moderate level of textual criticism — they did not change any of the original consonants but placed them in the margin and inserted the vowel points into the original text.
The Masoretic Text
The results of the work of the Masoretes have been preserved in the work of the Ben Asher family — the most accomplished group from the Masoretes, whose work is the most complete and accurate. Today the Hebrew Old Testament is commonly referred to as the Masoretic Text (MT). This is the source text for most modern-day translations used within the Protestant church. (The Greek Septuagint is used in some Catholic Bibles and various Orthodox churches.)
One thing we know for sure is that God was involved with the preservation of His Scriptures. We can take comfort knowing that the Hebrew text we have available today is the same as when God commanded it to be written — proof of this is given in the Qumran evidence (Dead Sea Scrolls), which shows how the text from 200 B.C. is the same that we have today.
Masoretic Text Sources Used for Translations
Aleppo Codex — 950 A.D.
The Aleppo Codex is the oldest incomplete manuscript of the Masoretic/Ben Asher Text presently available. It is called a "codex" because it is a handwritten book. It is mostly intact but some of its contents have been lost or damaged. It can be viewed online at aleppocodex.org.
Leningrad Codex — 1008 A.D.
The Leningrad Codex is the oldest complete manuscript of the Masoretic/Ben Asher Text presently available. This is the standard text for Hebrew scholarship today, used for translating the Old Testament.
Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia
This is a copy of the Leningrad Codex made for mass production and scholarly research. This is what you will commonly find cited in the front of your Bibles as a source text.
Summary of Preservation
Original writings given by God → Preservation by the Levites → The Sopherim period (Ezra and his scribes) → The Talmudic period (continued preservation by Jewish scholars) → Masoretic period (Ben Asher Text/Masoretic Text) → Aleppo/Leningrad Codex → Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia → Modern day translations (NKJV, HCSB, etc.)
The Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient copies of biblical texts, hymns, prayers, rules, laws and commentaries. They date from 300 B.C. to 135 A.D., which for the first time gave us a view into ancient Hebrew text 1,000 years prior to the Aleppo Codex (950 A.D.). These scrolls were discovered in 1947 by a group of Bedouin shepherds within a cave east of Jerusalem near the Dead Sea, identified today as Qumran. The story goes that a shepherd left his flock to look for a stray and stumbled upon the cave, throwing a rock inside to hear the sound of breaking clay pots — setting in motion the greatest discovery of ancient biblical texts.
Over 200 biblical manuscripts containing texts from all books of the Hebrew Bible (except Esther) were found in the caves, ranging from fragments to nearly complete books. Perhaps the most significant find was a nearly complete copy of the Book of Isaiah from 125 B.C. — the only known intact biblical book to have survived over two millennia. This scroll was found wrapped in a linen cloth and stored inside a jar, measuring 24 feet long and containing 54 columns of text over 17 pieces of sheepskin sewn together.
Upon scholars examining the various biblical texts, they found that the existing Aleppo and Leningrad Codices were accurate. There were some minor textual differences but nothing that "changed" the Scriptures. The work of the Jewish scholars in preserving the Hebrew Scriptures proved to be a success — the hand of God was at work to make sure that His Word was preserved forever.
Isaiah 40:8 — "The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever."
We can be confident that the integrity of the Scriptures has been maintained.
The En-Gedi Scroll
In 1970 a parchment of the Book of Leviticus was found in Ein Gedi, Israel, within a Torah Ark (storage for scrolls) within an ancient synagogue. This has been carbon dated to the third or fourth century CE/A.D. What is remarkable about this is that the text was found to be identical to the Masoretic Text dated nearly 600 years later — further evidence that the Scriptures have been well preserved.
The Greek Septuagint
The Septuagint was a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible translated by 70 Jewish scholars in Alexandria, Egypt in 200 B.C. It is also known as the LXX, attributing the 70 Jewish scholars. The Septuagint was absolutely necessary and was used by Jesus and the apostles to reach the audience of their day. When the Old Testament is quoted in the New Testament it was from the Septuagint. The Septuagint also included the Apocrypha — additional books not included in the original Hebrew Bible.
Use of the Masoretic Text Over the Septuagint
Translators and scholars of Protestant Bibles use the Hebrew Bible as their source text. If we base our translation from the Greek, then we are making a translation of a translation, which would be prone to error — it is best to use the original source. Additionally, unlike the Jewish scribes, the Greek scribes did not maintain the same stringent rules of literal and meticulous accuracy, resulting in inadequate preservation of the Septuagint.
The Apocrypha
The Apocrypha are 12–15 books (depending on grouping) that Christians today disagree on whether they were "inspired" Scripture. The Roman Catholic and various Orthodox churches accept a portion of them as inspired, while Protestants reject them. These books were not part of the Hebrew canon but were introduced in the Septuagint. They were written after the closing of the Hebrew canon and before Jesus, between 400–200 B.C. — during what Protestants refer to as the "intertestamental period" (the 400 silent years from Malachi to the Gospels), when there were no prophets or apostles to write God's inspired Scripture.
Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians refer to this period as the deuterocanonical period — literally "of the second canon." They see it as the second canon of Scripture after the Hebrew Bible. This term was first used in 1566 by the Catholic theologian Sixtus of Siena. The larger canon including both Hebrew and the Apocrypha is called the Alexandrian Canon (named after the location of the Septuagint translation in Alexandria, Egypt). In comparison, the Hebrew Text is referred to as the Palestine Canon.
Books of the Apocrypha
1 and 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Additions to Esther, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah, Prayer of Azariah, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, Prayer of Manasseh, 1 and 2 Maccabees.
Books Accepted by the Roman Catholic Church in 1546
Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Additions to Esther and Daniel (Prayer of Azariah, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon).
Reasoning Used to Accept the Apocrypha
Some argue that Jesus and the apostles referred to the Septuagint in their teachings. However, neither Jesus nor the apostles ever quoted or directly alluded to the Apocrypha. While the Hebrew Scriptures are called out — "the Scriptures say," "as it is written," or "thus says the Lord" — the same is not true of the Apocrypha. Some early Christian writers also voiced support, but very few put them on the same level as the rest of the Scriptures. Augustine vouched for them but put greater importance on the Hebrew Canon and would not commit to them being canonical as the Hebrew Scriptures. Jerome (who translated the Latin Vulgate) included the Apocrypha but did not recognize them as having equal authority.
Problems with the Apocrypha
When comparing the Apocrypha with the rest of Scripture, there are many discrepancies and contradictions — they simply don't "fit." Key issues include:
Time of writing — They were written 400–200 B.C., between the closing of the Jewish canon and the beginning of the New Testament, when there were no prophets called by God. A passage from 1 Maccabees even states this, giving further proof that they were not written by a prophet:
1 Maccabees 9:27 (NRSV) — "So there was great distress in Israel, such as had not been since the time that the prophets ceased to appear among them."
Condoning the use of magic — Tobit 6:5–7 speaks to burning the heart of a fish to ward off evil spirits.
Salvation by works — Tobit 4:11: "For alms deliver from all sin, and from death, and will not suffer the soul to go into darkness." Also Tobit 12:9: "For alms delivereth from death, and the same is that which purgeth away sins, and maketh to find mercy and life everlasting."
Money for a sin offering — 2 Maccabees 12:43–45 speaks of making atonement for the dead through a monetary offering.
Because of these errors and inconsistencies, most Protestant churches reject the Apocrypha and choose to solely use the original Hebrew Bible.