Evidences Class
Stones, Scrolls, and 2 Revolutions
The Bible Today
A Series of Revolutions and Evolutions
Where did Language Come From?
In the beginning, God created the heavens
and the earth. The earth was without form
and void, and darkness was over the face of
the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering
over the face of the waters. And God said,
"Let there be light," and there was light. And
God saw that the light was good. And God
separated the light from the darkness.
(Genesis 1:1-4 ESV)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God. All things were made through
him, and without him was not any thing made that
was made. In him was life, and the life was the
light of men.
(John 1:1-4 ESV)
λόγος – word, thought, mental faculty,
reasoning (communication and language).
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all
the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he
created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed
them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the
earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea
and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that
moves on the earth." And God said, "Behold, I have given you
every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and
every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And
to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and
to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the
breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was
so.
(Genesis 1:26-30 ESV)
Then God said, "Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness. (Gen. 1:26)
• Man has a soul
• Right and wrong
• Ability to think
• Language
• Communication of ideas
• Writing
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people
migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled
there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them
thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they
said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens,
and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face
of the whole earth." And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower,
which the children of man had built. And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one
people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what
they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for
them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may
not understand one another's speech." So the LORD dispersed them from there
over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its
name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all
the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the
earth. (Genesis 11:1-9 ESV)
Revolution of Writing
Papyrus
Scribes
The word Bible comes from the Greek, Ta
Biblia, meaning the scrolls because the Bible
began as a number of different scrolls later
combined into a single volume.
Biblos – The inner bark
of the papyrus
The Problem with Scrolls
Model of a
synagogue
in Nazareth
When Jesus entered the synagogue in Nazareth and read
from the prophet Isaiah (Luke 4:16-20), he did not read
from a Bible like those in current use. Jesus probably read
from a scroll nearly 3 foot tall and over 25 foot long that
contained just the individual book of Isaiah. In fact, Jesus
had to unroll the scroll some 23 feet in order to read from
Isaiah 61:1-2.
Hieroglyphics
Earliest Known
Writing
Cuneiform Writing
Marzeah Papyrus
 700 B.C.
 Earliest mention of Elohim
 Moabitic type script similar to Paleo-Hebrew
 Paleo-Hebrew is a pictographic language
 Hebrew of Moses, David, and Solomon?
Revolution of the Alphabet
Proto-Canaanite Alphabet
Aleph Bet - Alphabet
• The Hebrew word for Father
• The Greek form of this word is Abba
abba - abba
And going a little farther, he fell on the ground
and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour
might pass from him. And he said, "Abba,
Father, all things are possible for you. Remove
this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what
you will."
(Mark 14:35-36 ESV)
The best example of an early alphabetic script are
the so-called Proto-Sinaitic Inscriptions.
Consisting of a small group of rock-carved graffiti
and dating back to about 1500 B.C., these
inscriptions are located only about 50 miles from
the traditional site of Mount Sinai
Egypt
Papyrus and Scrolls
Midian
The Alphabet
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write this as a
memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua,
that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from
under heaven."
(Exodus 17:14 ESV)
At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful
in God's sight. And he was brought up for three
months in his father's house, and when he was
exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and
brought him up as her own son. And Moses was
instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and
he was mighty in his words and deeds.
(Acts 7:20-22 ESV)
Were the books of the Old Testament
originally written in Hebrew?
Did Moses write the first five books of the
Old Testament?
Do there appear to be scribal notes in the
Old Testament?
And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the
Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests
bearing the ark of the covenant had stood; and they
are there to this day.
(Joshua 4:9 ESV)
The Old Testament Text
(Before 1947)
 Leningrad Codex – Written in Cairo
in 1010 A.D.
 Aleppo Codex – 900 to 1000 A.D.
 Other Codices containing portions of
the O.T.
The Dead Sea Scrolls - 1947
Excavation at Q’umran
Essenes – a monastic Jewish group or
sect (Josephus, Philo, Pliny the Elder)
Qumran
Mikvah
Scriptorium
Qumran Dam
Cave 4
Cave 1
Cave 3 – Copper Scroll
The Isaiah Scroll
Notable Scrolls
1QIsa – Complete Isaiah scroll
Cave
Isaiah
Qumran
1st Isaiah Scroll
from Cave 1
1QIsb – Isaiah 41-59
4QSama – Portions of 1 and 2 Samuel
4QSamb – Parts of 1 Samuel (3rd Century B.C.)
4QpaleoExm – 2nd Century two-thirds of Exodus
Massorete Quality Control
 Numbered the verses, words, and letters
of each book
 Counted the number of times a letter was
used in a book
 They calculated the middle letter, and
word of the Pentateuch
 Calculated the middle verse of the
Hebrew Bible and of the Psalms