The Bible by L. L. C.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 28, 1916

The Bible

By L. L. C.

The Manuscripts

WHEN a writer mentions the original manuscripts of the Bible, a false impression may be conveyed to the uninformed reader. In the sense of manuscripts written by the authors of the various books of the Bible, there are no original manuscripts now in existence. As now employed, the term “original manuscripts” refers to the oldest extant manuscripts, rather than to the original autographs.

The oldest dated Hebrew manuscript, the Codex Babylonicus Petropolitanus, goes back only to the year 916 A. D., though it is probable that some of the undated manuscripts belong to the ninth century. A comparison of all extant Hebrew manuscripts shows that they all represent the same text, the Massoretic. The Massoretes were a special guild of trained scholars whose aim it was to preserve and transmit the Hebrew text exactly as it had come down to them. Not only have they done this with remarkable accuracy, but they have also added to the consonantal text a system of vowel markings to indicate the proper pronunciation.

The nonexistence of any Hebrew manuscript older than the ninth century has been accounted for by some with the plausible explanation that out of reverence any manuscript which showed any signs of wearing out was destroyed by the Massoretes.

In the providence of God the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament were early translated into other languages, for it seems always to have been God’s purpose that his book should be available to all men in their own native tongue. These translations are called versions. In case of the New Testament the older manuscripts, such as the Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus, deserve precedence over all other old versions. The case of the Old Testament is somewhat different, for here some of the versions are older than the oldest extant Hebrew manuscript. Three of the most important versions are the Septuagint, the Syriac-Peshito, and the Vulgate.

The Septuagint translation was made for the benefit of the Greek-speaking Jews of Alexandria, Egypt, to whom the Hebrew was rapidly becoming an unknown tongue. This Greek Version was made about 250 B. C., and thus is fully twelve hundred years older than the oldest manuscript in Hebrew.

The Peshito is a Syriac version which may be assigned to the second century after Christ.

While portions of the Bible were early translated into the Latin language, it was not until the last quarter of the fourth century that Jerome made the Latin Version, the Vulgate, which has since become the standard Latin translation. This is the translation which the Catholic Church receives as final in the matter of Biblical authority.

The remarkable accuracy of most of the translations, as well as the pains taken in copying the Hebrew manuscripts, shows clearly God’s protecting care over his divine book.

Coming to the New Testament, we find that the manuscripts may be classified in two divisions, the uncials and the cursives, according to the kind of writing used in them. The uncials, however, are the older. It may be well to give some account of the five oldest uncial codices.

The Codex Sinaiticus, of the fourth century, was discovered by Tischendorf, part in 1844 and part in 1859, in the monastery of St. Catherine, on Mt. Sinai. It is now at Petrograd.

The Codex Alexandrinus, of the fifth century, was presented in 1628 to King Charles I of England by the patriarch of Constantinople, who had formerly been of Alexandria.

The Codex Vaticanus, of the fourth century, is preserved in the Vatican at Rome. It was long almost inaccessible to scholars, but was published in 1868.

The Codex of Ephraem, of the fifth century, is a palimpsest; that is, the original Bible text had the works of Ephraem the Syrian written over it. On this account it is in places scarcely legible. But its readings are considered very valuable, ranking next to those of the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus. It was published by Tischendorf in 1843-45, and is now at the National Library of Paris.

The Codex Beza, of the sixth century, was presented by Theodore Beza to the University of Cambridge, England, in 1581. This was the only one available to scholars who prepared the so-called King James or Authorized English Version. It was due to the subsequent discovery of these other early manuscripts that the English and American Revised Versions became necessary.

As one considers, however, the practical uniformity of all these manuscripts, one is impressed anew with the wonderful care God has had over his Holy Book, which has been preserved to us through the untiring zeal of those who copied by hand the Sacred Scriptures before the art of printing was invented. It is wonderful, indeed, to think of the number of Bibles that were produced in this laborious manner. It was, however, impossible for the Bible really to become the book of the common people before the time of the invention of printing by Gutenberg. L. L. C.