11. Manuscripts were written in-1. Uncials-Capital letters,2. Cursives-Small letters
5300 Manuscripts of New Testament
Most complete Vellum [parchment] are VATICAN, SINIATIC AND ALEXANDRIAN
They are complete or almost complete copies of the New Testament and have almost all of the Old Testament.
VATICAN [CODEX B]– 4TH CENTURY-IT IS IN VATICAN LIBRARY IN ROME-CONTAINS ALMOST ENTIRE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS IN GREEK-MOST EXACT COPY OF NT.
SINIATIC [ALEPH]-4TH CENTURY-IN BRITISH LIBRARY NOW-VELLUM-OLDEST COMPLETE MANUSCRIPT OF NT AVAILABLE TODAY
ALEXANDRIAN [CODEX A] – IN BRITISH MUSEUM-CONTAINS MOST OF OT AND NT
Hebrew Manuscripts Of The Old Testament are
ALEPPO CODEX-NAMED AFTER CITY IN SYRIA-CONTAINED THE ENTIRE OLD TESTAMENT-10 TH CENTURY
LENINGRAD CODEX-OLDEST COMPLETE MANUSCRIPT OF OT, BECAUSE ALEPPO CODEX WAS PARTIALLY DESTROYED-11TH CENTURY
12.What happened to manuscripts before this?
Jewish scribes wrote the Old Testaments on skin of clean animals. These were copied from one generation to another with strict rules regarding the copying. Jews respected Scripture so much that they buried damaged or defective manuscripts.
Massoretes- Jewish scribes esp. from Tiberias who carefully copied the OT beginning 500AD.
13. Dead Sea Scrolls-1948-in caves on mountain behind Qumran near the Dead Sea.
800 scrolls with thousands of fragments.
Shrine of the Book-Museum to house several scrolls is in Jerusalem
One of the scrolls is the Great Scroll of Isaiah-24 feet long, dated 100 BC
In these scrolls almost all OT books are found
Scrolls are 1000 years older than manuscripts but teach the same thing.
The texts are written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Nabataean . The scrolls have traditionally been identified with the ancient Jewish sect called the Essenes. The Dead Sea Scrolls include three types of documents: the earliest existing copies of books from the Hebrew Bible, known in Hebrew as the Tanach; copies of other early works that are not part of Tanach; and works related to a specific sect that existed among the Jews at the time of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
14. Septuagint-6 Jews from each of 12 tribes translated OT to Greek in 2BC
Septuagint means 70 or LXX in Roman numerals
It was the Bible of early Christians till NT was completed
NT writers quoted OT from Septuagint
15. The first English translation was done by John Wycliffe in 1382 A.D. During the last years of his life, with the assistance of his students, the Bible was translated from Latin into English. This work was completed in 1382 A. D. and was the first translation of the complete Bible into English.
William Tyndale
Tyndale is called by some as the “Father of the English Bible”
He translated from original Greek and Hebrew to English.
William Tyndale finished his New Testament in 1525 A.D. 90 percent of Tyndale’s translation was carried over into the KJV.
The Council of Trent in 1545 declared the Latin Vulgate to be the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. Latin Vulgate Of OT-400 AD- Jerome translated OT to Latin
16. Early English Versions include: Coverdale Bible in 1535, Matthew’s Bible in 1537, Great Bible in 1539 (first Bible to be authorized by the king of England), Geneva Bible in 1560, Bishops Bible in 1568, Rheims-Douay in 1582. KJV came into being in 1611, the work of almost 50 translators.
17. The first English Bible printed in America in 1782 was the King James Version.
18. Few Newer Versions– Revised Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, New International Version, New King James Version, Good New