How We Got the Bible
Based on the book by
Neil R. Lightfoot
The Making of Ancient
Books
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The Bible did not just happen nor has it
been preserved by mere chance
The story of the Bible is preceded by the
making of ancient books
Writing was well established in some
countries before the establishment of the
Hebrew nation in Palestine
– The Bible is not the oldest book in the world
Ancient Books
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Clay tablets uncovered reveal writing in
Mesopotamia by at least 3000BC
Counting Egyptian hieroglyphs on monuments,
temples and tombs it goes further back
Somewhere between Egypt and Mesopotamia about
1750BC some Semetic persons developed the
alphabet
The Proto-Sinaitic Inscriptions are rock carvings
dated 1500BC and located about 50 miles from Mt.
Sinai
– Bible critics have said that Moses could not have written
any of the Bible because writing was unknown in that area
and time. Until the finding of the Proto-Sinaitic carvings.
Writing Materials
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Stone – Siloam Inscription
– 700 BC told of in 2Kings 20:20 and 2 Chronicles
32:30
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Moabite Stone
– Found in the area of the Dead Sea
– Thirty-four lines of Cannanite script
– Only inscription outside of Palestine that
mentions YHWH
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The earliest writing material mentioned in
the Old Testament is stone
Writing Material
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Clay
– Most common in Mesopotamia
– 500,000 clay tablets have survived to modern
times
– Official correspondence between pharaohs of
Egypt and rulers in Palestine, Syria and
Mesopotamia from 1350BC have been preserved
– Nebuchadnezzar put on clay his rebuilding of
Babylon
– Belshazzar from the Book of Daniel left clay
cylinders and of prayers and tablets on various
subjects
Writing Material
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Wood and Wax
– Num 17:2-3; Ezek 37:16-17 make reference to writing on
wooden rods and sticks
– In Greek and Roman times a whitened wood board was
used for public notices and was called an “Album”.
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Metal
– Exodus 28:36 refers to Gold as writing material
– In Greece and Rome government records, treaties etc..
Were done on bronze
– Roman soldiers at the time of their discharge were given a
small bronze tablet called a “Diploma”. These granted
them special privileges and citizenship based on their
service
Writing Material
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Ostraca
– Basically broken pottery called potsherds
– Two have been found with the name of Narmer
the first Pharaoh of Egypt on them (3100BC)
– Others have been found with the Hebrew
alphabet
– When the little kingdom of Judah was under
attack potsherds have been found with “May
YHWH cause my lord to hear tidings of peace”
– Twenty-five Ostraca have been found with short
passages from the New Testament on them
Writing Material
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Papyrus
– Book of Job 8:11 “Can papyrus grow where
there is no marsh?”
– All of the other materials had limitations
– Papyrus is flexible and was used by Egyptians as
early as 3000BC
– Universally used for books
– Papyrus is the root word for paper
– The word biblos was a Greek term for papyrus,
Biblion meant papyrus roll, Biblia is plural for
papyrus rolls and meant “the Books”, later it
came to mean “the Book” of Sacred Scripture
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The word “Bible” goes back to the origins of the
Papyrus plant
Writing Material
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Leather and Parchment
– Animal skins were in use in Egypt as far back as 2500BC
– The word Parchment is derived from the area where its
use was perfected Peragamum (king Eumenes II)
– “Vellum” is another type of skin: related to the English
word veal
– The Dead Sea Scrolls were mostly written on leather
– Jewish Talmud (code of traditional laws) requires the
Torah to be copied on prepared skins
– We can assume that when Paul in 2 Tim 4:13 requests
that “parchments” be sent to him that he is speaking of
portions of the Old Testament
– Leather and Parchment are similar but differ in how the
skin is prepared. Parchment gained ground over Papyrus
as it became less available: Through the Middle Ages
parchment was the primary means of writing the
word of God
Summary of Writing
Material
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Practiced hundreds of years before the time of
Moses
The material used depended on the time and the
place
Leather was most important for the Old Testament
The early New Testament was written on Papyrus
and then later Parchment in about the fourth
century
Most surviving New Testament manuscripts are of
parchment or vellum
Discussion
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What information is available to show that writing
was practiced before the time of Moses?
– Clay tablets, stones, hieroglyphics
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What material is most important for the Old
Testament?
– Parchment/Leather
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What is the significance of Papyrus as a writing
material and for the early New Testament?
– The Greek meaning for papyrus is where we got the name
the bible and the availability and prevalence of the
material made it easy to spread the word
The Birth of the Bible
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The books of the Bible came together separately and under
varying conditions so it is not possible to pinpoint the exact
origin
Codex
– In the days of papyrus and leather the form of a book was in a
roll or scroll and in the case of papyrus they glued the sheets
end-to-end and usually the writing was on one side only
– The writing was arranged in columns about three or four inches
wide, the rolls limited to thirty-five feet
– This is important for the New Testament because a roll of thirtytwo to thirty-five feet would be needed for a lengthy book like
Matthew or Luke or Acts
– If follows then that Luke and Acts must have been written
separately because of this limitation and that the Gospels and
some of the longer letters would have to circulate individually as
long as the papyrus rolls were in use
The Birth of the Bible
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The roll form gave way to the Codex which is a
roman term for writing tablet and also a term for a
book with leaves (a book in the modern sense)
The Codex was much easier to use, could be bound
and the papyrus could be written on both sides
– The book could be carried about and several books could
be combined
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Christians found this handy because they could bind
the Gospels together, then the letters, and
eventually the whole Bible
– Codex was first papyrus and then parchment
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The earliest extant texts of the NT are in Codex
form (must have existed before A.D. 90)
Early form of the Bible
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When it came time for God’s divine communications
to become a permanent record he inspired Moses
who is the first person mentioned as writing
anything and it was as early as 1500B.C.
Moses wrote: (1) the memorial concerning Amalek
(2) the covenant made at Sinai (3) the Ten
Commandments (4) the journeys of the children of
Israel in the wilderness, Num 33:2 (5) the Book of
the Law to be kept with the Ark of the Covenant,
Deut 31:9, 24 (6) the Song found in Deuteronomy
32 1-43 and Deut 31:22
The first five books of the Bible (Pentateuch). Also
held by Jewish law as true
Confirmed by: Josh 8:31, 2 Kings 14:6, Ezra 6:18,
Mark 12:26, Luke 2:22, John 7:19
Early form of the Bible
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When divine revelation was written down it became
natural for other revelations and events to be
written down
– Joshua refers to “in the book of the law of God”
– This became the practice of other men who wrote history
and prophecy
– Later generations are found consulting the writings of their
predecessors Dan 9:2, Neh 8:1
– In this way the Old Testament grew and became
assembled and accepted collection about the time of Ezra
(400 B.C.)
– The Jewish authority Josephus said that no book was
added to the Hebrew Scripture after the time of Malachai
Early form of the Bible
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The NT came into being gradually although
it was written in a short period of time (A.D.
50-100) generally because Paul wrote about
80% of it during his lifetime
The books were mostly letters by inspired
men to different churches and people
– They were considered authoritative writings and
read in public assemblies (1 Thes 5:27)
– Soon afterward the Churches began exchanging
the letters (Col 4:16)
Early form of the Bible
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The central events of the life of Jesus were
first told orally but eventually a written
record was needed
– Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Luke with Acts
which told the story of the infant church and
then as a climax came John with Revelation
– The result was that a new community of people
was developed and they had cherished writings
of their own just like the Old Covenant
The Form of our Bible Today
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Divided in two major sections: Old Testament and
New
– A more accurate translation from the Greek would be
“covenant” not testament
– The basic structure of the Bible hinges on the idea that
God has made two significant covenants with his people
and that the New Covenant has displaced the Old
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Old in English Bibles: (1) five books of Law,
Pentateuch; Genesis-Deut (2) twelve books of
history; Joshua-Esther (3) five books of Poetry; Job
to Song of Solomon (4) seventeen books of
Prophets; Isaiah to Malachai sometimes divided into
five book of Major Prophets and twelve books of
Minor Prophets
This arrangement is derived from the Latin Vulgate
which is derived from the Septuagint or Greek
version
The Form of our Bible Today
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The Hebrew Bible grouped differently:
– Law: Gen, Ex, Lev, Num, Deut
– Prophets: Former; Josh, Jud, 1/2 Sam, 1/2 Kings
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Latter Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Book of
the Twelve – minor prophets
– Writings: Ps, Prov, Job, Song of Sol, Ruth, Lam, Ecc,
Esther, Dan, Ezra, Neh, and 1 and 2 Chron
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If we compare this arrangement we see that there
are three division: Law, Prophets, Writings and the
Twelve minor prophets are put in one book
Also Joshua, Judges, and the Books of the Samuel
and Kings as Former Prophets
– We regard these books as historical but they are known to
be prophetic because written with a prophetic outlook by
men who were likely prophets
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Irrespective of arrangement it is important to note
that in the English Bible the books are precisely the
same as those found in the Hebrew Bible
Books of the New Covenant
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(1) five books of history; Matthew – Acts (2) twenty-one
books of Doctrine; Romans – Jude (3) one book of Prophecy;
Revelation
– The books of History may be divided into the Gospels and Acts
– The first three Gospels are the “Synoptic Gospels” because of
their similar content
– John was probably written later and presupposes some
knowledge of Jesus life; also edited.
– Acts is a continuation of the Gospels detailing the early church
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Thirteen of the twenty-one books of Doctrine were written by
Paul: The Pauline letters are of two groups; before two-years
imprisonment in Rome and after (1 and 2 Tim and Titus)
these are called the Pastoral Epistles
The book of Hebrews is sometimes attributed to Paul but no
one knows for sure
The one book of Prophecy or Apocalypse, Revelation is
suitably at the end of the Bible since it summarizes in
symbolic language the principles revealed in the preceding
books while giving a prophetic look forward
Languages of the Bible
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Understanding the languages of the Bible provides a link to its
history
– Three original languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek
– Hebrew spoken in Israel, Aramaic spoken in Syria and others, Greek all
over the Mediterranean
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Almost all of the Old Covenant written in Hebrew which comes from
a family of languages called “Semitic”
Hebrew is written right to left and has no vowels
– Modernists had to add a system of vowel points
– Not always a help: new Hebrew is printed without vowels
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Aramaic is similar to Hebrew and became common after the exile
(500 B.C.) Neh 8:8 is read in Aramaic because people did not know
pure Hebrew
Aramaic was spoken by Jews several centuries before Christ so some
of the Old Covenant is written in Aramaic
The longest Old Covenant section in Aramaic starts at Dan 2:4 where
the first part is Hebrew and then it switches to Aramaic with the
response of the Chaldeans “O king live forever”
– The Dead Sea Scrolls produced a segment of Daniel and in the middle of
Dan 2:4 the Hebrew stops and Aramaic begins just as in our Bibles twothousand years later
– The Hebrew writing begins again at the end of Dan chapter 7 and the
Dead Sea Scrolls confirm this as well
Languages of the Bible
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Jesus spoke Aramaic: “Abba” is Aramaic for
father
Maran atha is Aramaic “our Lord come” (1
Cor 16:22)
Greek: Although Aramaic was the spoken
language our books comprising the NC were
written in Greek
Greek was known throughout the
Mediterranean and was the universal tongue
The NC was not written in classic Greek but
more literary yet common or “Hellenistic”
and with a Semitic element because most of
the writers were Jewish and wrote with
Semitic idiom
Praise of Ancient Scribes
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In Mesopotamia and Egypt the trained scribe was highly
prized
– Books were being dictated and sold all over the Greek and then
Roman world
– The earliest copies of Christian writings were probably done for
local churches by congregation members
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As Christianity grew it was necessary to have more copies in more
languages
– Scribes would work in Scriptoriums and listen to the reader read
aloud from a text
– We know that Origen had a scriptorium in Caesarea and had a
team of stenographers
– This is how the great Christian library at Caesarea came to be
– Monasteries all had scriptoriums to preserve and foster the word
– Scribes sometimes wrote notes in the margins or at the end to
tell us of their work
– Scribes would not sit at a desk: they likely sat on a bench or
stool with something to hold up their legs. They used a stylus, a
reed pen, a sponge, carbon ink, and a pen-knife to sharpen the
reed, and a pumice stone to smooth the reed or the Codex
Summary
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Our Bible is a collection of extraordinary books
written over a period of fourteen or fifteen hundred
years
The Bible gradually grew until its completion near
the close of the first century A.D.
The order of books in our English Old Covenant
basically goes back to the Greek which was widely
used in the early church
Our NC writings are arranged logically not
chronologically
The OC is predominantly Hebrew but by the first
century Greek was a world-wide language which is
why the NC was written in Greek
For Discussion
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What is a Codex?
– A bound book
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Who is mentioned in the Bible as being the first author of
anything?
– Moses
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At about time were the books of the NC written
– A.D. 50-100
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Are the books of the English OC the same as the Hebrew?
– Yes, although arranged differently
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What are the three main divisions of the NC?
– Five books of history, twenty-one books of Doctrine, one book of
revelation
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Which writer is responsible for the largest group of NC books?
– Paul
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Name the three original languages of the Bible
– Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek
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What language was normally spoken by Jesus? How do we
know?
– Aramaic, because of his use of Aramaic words to call out and
describe things