24. An Assured Text for the Old Testament - in our previous posts we have discussed briefly the authenticity of the Massoretic text even though its best exemplars: the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codexes date no farther back than to the tenth and eleventh centuries. However, we have other witnesses that take us back over 1,000 yeas and these texts confirm absolutely the Massoretic text. These witnesses are: The Dead Sea Scrolls - were discovered in March 1948 in caves in the vicinity of the Dead Sea. Since that time over 900 manuscripts have been collected and 40% of them represent texts from the Hebrew Bible and many of these are our earliest known surviving manuscripts; dated between 408 BC and 318 AD. The finds contain fragments (anything from a few verses to whole books) from virtually every Old Testament book and the vast majority are closely akin to or are virtually identical with the Massoretic Text. Samaritan Pentateuch - is not a translation but is a form of the Hebrew text itself and its beginning can be traced back to about 400 BC when the Samaritans separated themselves from the Jews and built their own sanctuary on Mount Gerizim. As a result the Samaritans adopted their own form of the Hebrew Scriptures and counted as authoritative only the five books of Moses. Aramaic Targums - Targums are essentially an oral paraphrase of Scripture. After the period of the Jewish exile in Babylon, Aramaic became the spoken language of the Jews, so in order for the people to understand the reading of Scripture in public worship, it was necessary for it be translated or paraphrased in Aramaic. That is, in the synagogue the honoured Hebrew text was always read and then the oral Targum spoken but of course over time the Targums we rewritten down and many have survived. Syriac Peshitta - the Aramaic Targums were written in a dialect called Western Aramaic - the language spoken at the time of Christ - other translations were made in the dialect of Eastern Aramaic called Syriac. There were several Syriac versions of the New Testament, mainly one has survived in the Old Testament, the Peshitta, that is, the simple version from the first century AD. Latin Vulgate - with Latin versions, there are two main types, the Old Latin and the Vulgate. The Old Latin dates back to about AD 150, but it has definite limitations because it is based on the Septuagint (see below). The Latin Vulgate, commissioned by Jerome in 384 AD, on the other hand, is more valuable because it goes back to the original Hebrew. The Septuagint - is one of the most important Bible translations ever made - the translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek. Known in manuscripts as according to the seventy, we generally refer to it by its Latin name, Septuagint or sometimes just LXX and dated around 300 BC. Much of the New Testament vocabulary comes right out of the Septuagint, including word like apostle, atonement, covenant, forgiveness, glory, law, peace, redemption, righteousness, and truth. It as in Gods providence that the Septuagint language and vocabulary would open up the way for the gospel in a world dominated by Greek. This post is based on the following very readable introduction to Bible transmission. Lightfoot, N. R., (2010) How We Got the Bible, Baker Books, 3e, ISBN 978-0801072611
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 22:11:36 +0000
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