Ancient Bible Texts
Quick answers
Answers and Facts about Ancient Manuscripts
* About Originals & Copies
* How long it took to duplicate & what was used
* Deadsea Scrolls & their importance
*Oldest Manuscript copies found & were in usage during Apostles lifetime, not 100 years later.
Ancient Bible Texts point to the historical reliability of it. It has been preserved by God through time, and He is Soverignly able to do so as God. It is not something hard for God.
History of Scriptural usage in the past.
Common sense points out that originals wore out. The original and 1st copies Wore Out from Usage. They were given by God to be taught from and learned from. So...what it was written on gets damaged by touching, rolling, moving, and fades or deteriorates in time. It is why copies are made. It is why today museums have things preserved in glass, use special lighting and controlled temperatures, which wasn't how the Bible and OT manuscripts were used in ancient times. It was in daily usage. So, copies were made.
Scribes Careful Reverent Copying of Manuscripts
Copies were carefully made by scribes who spent months or years creating a complete copy -without errors. Those with errors were thrown out (buried) and started all over from scratch. It took a loooong time. Plus add in daily life, chores, family and cultural duties, it took time. They didn't just sit there 8 hours a day.
Up to three mistakes on any page could be corrected within thirty days. If more mistakes were found or if mistakes were not fixed within thirty days, the entire manuscript had to be buried. If a single letter was added or a single letter left out, the manuscript had to be fixed or buried. They didn't have presses, typewriters or computers back then. It was all done slowly with ink and by hand.
Takes a estimated 44 hours of solid work to make just 1 copy of "just the 4 Gospels". If we account for taking breaks, rests and other factors, it may be reasonable to assume a scribe could copy the 4 Gospels in about 2 weeks. It's estimated it took scribes an average of 15 months to copy 1 book in Old Testament Scripture. And remember some books in the Bible are much longer than others.
In modern times, around 2013 a man in New York spent 4 years copying the Bible, working up to 14 hours per day. But for Scribes to do the OT seems it would take longer with ink quills and various types of material used besides cow skins. This is why Scribes were continually writing because by the time they finished, it was already time to replace the manuscript that was in use in the Temple or Church.
The scribes after AD 70 when the Temple was destroyed, used various things to write Scripture on to create a copy, to use in real life, and to preserve it. (See process) Once they finished 1 copy, they would start making another copy. Because the manuscripts were in daily usage and wore out.
These are the reasons we dont have the originals. But as you will see just from this one location below, of all the places across the world where earliest copies of the Scriptures and by historians and followers of John, we compare them and find they all agree to a very very high degree of accuracy, regardless where they were found. It is reliable.
Fun fact: The Bible for everyone - it took Gutenberg 5 years to print the 1st Bible on the printing press.
Ancient Bible Texts
About the Old Testament
The Dead Sea Scrolls were first discovered in 1947 in caves near Qumran, a site on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. The many OT manuscript scrolls were hidden in caves during the Second Jewish Revolt (AD 132–135) under Bar Kokhba. These oldest Old Testament manuscripts (2nd century BC) were likely written way way before they moved there and were smuggled there, and preserved in the caves for safety. (*see below)
Only about 20 scrolls were discovered in fairly good or complete condition. By comparison, about 80,000 fragments of scrolls were found, mostly from Cave 4, the richest of the caves. The scholars were able to arrange these fragments into about 20,000 larger fragments, based on similarities of parchment, handwriting, and content. Researchers then determined that all these originally came from about 900 different scrolls.
So basically 900 OT manuscript scrolls were found around 1947. Due to the sheer size and difficulty of the task, of piecing 80,000 fragments together (back then), it was not until the late 1980s that worldwide scholarly pressure forced the not-yet-published material to be made public. Every fragment was finally published by 2002, and by now most can also be accessed digitally in the internet era.
Most of the Dead Sea Scrolls were written on the skins of animals, such as sheep, goats, ibex, and calves. However, some were written on papyrus, and one highly unique Copper Scroll was incised on rolled sheets of copper. Most scrolls were written in Hebrew, with about one-sixth of the total in Aramaic and a small minority in Greek. The Hebrew of many texts follows a transitional form between the language of the OT and the rabbinic Hebrew of the Mishnah and Talmud. Handwriting comparison indicates that the scrolls were written by hundreds of scribes, certainly more than just those who could have lived at Qumran. This suggests that many scrolls were composed elsewhere and brought to Qumran, rather than being written there.
Biblical scrolls, amounting to approximately one-quarter of the total Qumran scrolls, are manuscript copies of books from the Hebrew Bible (i.e., the OT). Among the biblical scrolls, the three most frequently attested OT books are Psalms, Deuteronomy, and Isaiah, which correspond to the three OT books most commonly quoted in the NT. Every book of the Hebrew Bible has been discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls, with the apparent exception of Esther. Some biblical scrolls date to as early as the third century BC, making them the earliest known copies of OT books.
The Dead Sea Scrolls refer to the Qumran assembly as the Yahad, or “community.” Most scholars agree this is the same group of Jews that the first-century-AD authors Flavius Josephus and Pliny the Elder labeled as “Essenes.”
Many of the Essenes were priests from Jerusalem who had given up their power, influence, and comfort for the harsh life of the Judean wilderness, though others remained in Jerusalem. This community seems to have been composed of mostly younger, idealistic men critical of the established Jerusalem temple authorities. Desiring to reform the temple and waiting for the divine intervention of God, they were a kind of purified temple community in voluntary exile. Believing that the predestined end of days was at hand.
1st century Jewish historian Josephus noted subsequent to the revolt, there were divisions among Jewish sectarian groups (esp. Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes), with literature discovered at Qumran likely representing the Essene reaction against Hasmonean leaders who proclaimed themselves high priests.
Most scholars agree that the site of Qumran was used by the community who composed the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The time period also corresponds: the main settlement periods at Qumran were from the mid-second century BC to AD 68, matching the eras represented by the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Which was within Apostle John's lifetime. 🌟👈
And it was just before the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. Plus, we have the Magdalen fragment from Matt. 26 believed to be within a few years of Jesus' death; so another one during the Apostles lifetimes.
Much of the excitement about the Dead Sea Scrolls has to do with their connections to the Bible. Two areas can be noted: the text of the Hebrew Bible itself, and the possibility of links with persons mentioned in the NT.
The biblical texts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls are 1,000 years older than the Leningrad Codex and the Aleppo Codex, which otherwise are the earliest extant manuscripts of the full Hebrew Masoretic Text and hence of our OT. The scrolls by and large agree with these later codices. All in all the agreement of the scrolls with much later copies of the OT attests to the careful preservation of the biblical text over the millennia.
NT connections to Qumran community &
the Dead Sea Scrolls
Some scholars have attempted to find connections between various teachings in the Dead Sea Scrolls and persons who appear in the NT. For instance, John the Baptist echoes some traits similar to those of this community: he was a separatist Levite who maintained a rigorous diet and lifestyle, was active in the general vicinity of Qumran, and spoke strongly against the temple authorities. Some of Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount can be compared positively to some of the sayings in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The early church ate common meals and shared property (Acts 2:46–47; 4:32–35), something reminiscent of this community. The apostles Paul and John spoke in terms that echoed some of the emphases of the Dead Sea Scrolls, including sinfulness and purity, light and dark, and the danger of false teachers. What must be kept in mind, however, is that because Jesus, his disciples, and the members of the Yahad community were all Jews living in the Roman province of Judea in the first century AD, it is quite natural that they would share much of the same language when speaking about the things of God.
The Dead Sea Scrolls have helped scholars better understand the connections between Judaism and early Christianity. They have also placed Jesus and his followers more firmly into the Jewish context of the first century. For these reasons the scrolls are an important part of NT studies.
Some notes & sections of info are above are from Archeology Bible article (get a copy, full of amazing archeology on the Bible).
Update:
In 1979 an amazing discovery was found in a burial site in Jerusalem. Pieces of Scripture on silver scrolls. It dates wayyy earlier to 7th century BC. During 1st Temple era, Solomons Temple, during the era of the prophet Jeremiah. Find out about it here, (video).
THEN In early 2021, after over 60 years since Dead Sea Scrolls were found, Israel Antiquities Authority (of Dead Sea Scrolls unit) excavated the Cave of Hoar in Jerusalem (where Jews hid from soldiers). The excavation found a bunch more early 2nd century Scriptures, & the discovery was captured on video film. (As of this article), The fragments cleaned and translated so far are from Isaiah and Nahum and Zechariah in the Old Testament. The name of God was written in Hebrew. And fragments spoke of the coming Messiah.
Another fragment found (2021) was "these are the things you are to do, speak the truth to one another, render true and perfect justice in your gates, and do not contrive evil against one another " (Zechariah 8:16) which in the current English Bible says the same
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Related Resources:
Archeology finds related to Bible history :
Archeology find related to Jesus link
Caiaphus the High Priest who condemned Jesus to die link
Evidence of Jesus link
Biblical Archeology Importance link
Israeli discovery link
Ancient Israel link
Mountian of evidence that wont be seen in your lifetime, [without ai help (?)] Link
Scientific archeologic discovery verifies God's Word link
Short info on reliability of the Bible.
Manuscript evidence from archeology video
The earliest manuscripts we have today (thru 2022)
Further research on the Scrolls, the Scriptures and deeper research can be found inside the sections on Investigating the Evidences.
More Archeololical Evidences:
Here
Here
More added soon
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