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"The History Of The Bible"
The Bible is the name given to the revelation of God to man contained in sixty-six books or pamphlets, bound together and forming one book and only one, for it has in reality one author and one purpose and plan, and is the development of one scheme of the redemption of man.
1. Its Names, (1). The Bible, i.e., The Book, from the Greek “ta biblia,” the books. The word is derived from a root designating the inner bark of the linden tree, on which the ancients wrote their books. It is the book, as being superior to all other books. But the application of the word Bible to the collected books of the Old and New Testaments is not traced farther back than the fifth century of our era. (2). The Scriptures. i.e., the writings, as recording what was spoken by God. (3). The Oracles, i.e., the things spoken, because the Bible is what God spoke to man, and hence also called (4). The Word. (5). The Testaments or Covenants, because it is the testimony of God to man, the truths to which God bears witness: and is also the covenant or agreement of God with man for his salvation. (6). The Law, to express that it contains God`s commands to men.
ll. Composition. The Bible consist, of two great parts, called the Old and New Testaments, separated by an interval of nearly four hundred years. These Testaments are further divided into sixty-six books, thirty-nine in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New. These books are a library in themselves, being written in every known form of literature. Twenty-two of them are historical, five are poetical, eighteen are prophetical, twenty-one are epistolary. They contain logical arguments, poetry, songs and hymns, history, biography, stories, parables, fables, eloquence, law, letters and philosophy.
There are at least thirty-six different authors, who wrote in three continents, in many countries, in three languages, and from every possible human stand point. Among these authors were kings, farmers, mechanics, scientific men, lawyers, generals, fishermen, ministers and priests, a tax-collector, a doctor, some rich, some poor, some city bred, some country born, thus touching all the experiences of men, extending over 1500 years.
lll. Unity. And yet the Bible is but one book, because God was its real author, and therefore, though he added new revelations as men could receive them, he never had to change what was once revealed. The Bible is a unit, because
(1). It has but one purpose, the salvation of men. (2). The character of God is the same. (3). The moral law is the same. (4). It contains the development of one great scheme of salvation.
lV. Original Languages. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, a Shemitic language, except parts of the book of Ezra (5:8; 6:12: 7:12-26) and of Daniel (2:4-7: 28), and one verse in Jeremiah (10:11), were written in the Chaldee languages. The New Testament is written wholly in Greek.
V. Ancient Manuscripts of the Original. There are no ancient Hebrew manuscripts older than the tenth century, but we know that these are in the main correct, because we have a translation of the Hebrew into Greek, called the Septuagint, made nearly three hundred years before Christ. Our Hebrew Bibles are a reprint from what is called the Masoretic text. The ancient Hebrew had only the consonants printed, and the vowels were vocalized in pronunciation, but were not written. Some Jewish scholars living at Tiberias, and at Sora by the Euphrates, from the sixth to the twelve century, punctuated the Hebrew text, and wrote in the vowel points and other tone marks to aid in the reading of the Hebrew: and these, together with notes of various kinds called the Masora (tradition), hence the name Masoretic text.
Of the Greek of the New Testament there are a number of ancient manuscripts. They are divided into two kinds, the Uncials, written wholly in capitals, and the Cursives, written in a running hand. The chief of these are, (1). the Alexandrian (codex Alexandrinus, marked A), so named because it was found in Alexandria in Egypt, in 1628. It dates back to A.D. 350, and is now in the British Museum. (2). The Vatican (codex Vaticanus, B), named from the Vatican library at Rome, where it is kept. Its date is A.D. 300 to 325. (3). The Sinaitic (codex Sinaitcus), so called from the convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, where it was discovered by Dr. Tischendorf in 1844. It is now at St. Petersburg, Russia. This is one of the earliest and best of all the manuscripts.
Vl. Translation. The Old Testament was translated into Greek by a company of learned Jews at Alexandria, who began their labor about the year B.C. 286. It is called the Septuagint, i.e. the Seventy, from the tradition that it was translated by seventy (more exactly seventy-two) translators. The Vulgate, or translation of the Bible into Latin by Jerome, A.D. 385-405, is the authorized version of the Roman Catholic Church. The first English translation of the whole Bible was by John de Wickliffe (1324-1384). Then followed that of William Tyndale (1525) and several others.
As the sum and fruit of all these appeared our present Authorized Version, or King James Version, in 1611. It was made by forty-seven learned men, in two years and nine months, longer. These forty-seven formed themselves into six companies, two of whom met at Westminster, two at Oxford and two at Cambridge. The present English edition is an improvement, in typographical and grammatical correctness, upon this revision, and in these respects is nearly perfect.
A Revised Version of this authorized edition has been in process of preparation by eighty American and English scholars, of various denominations, the English committee having been appointed in 1870 and the American in 1871. This revision was necessary because of the changes in the English language during the last 270 years, and because much light has been thrown upon the original Scriptures and upon all matters pertaining to biblical studies. The Revised New Testament was published simultaneously in this country and in England in May, 1881, and in less than six months more, four million copies had been issued.
Vll. Divisions into Chapters and Verses. The present division of the whole Bible into chapters was made by Cardinal Hugo de St. Cher about 1250. The present division into verses was introduced by Robert Stephens in his Greek Testament, published in 1551, in his edition of the Vulgate, in 1555. The first English Bible printed with these chapters and verses was the Geneva Bible, in 1560.
Vlll. The MASSORAH. All the oldest and best manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible contain on every page, beside the Text (which is arranged in two or more columns), a varying number of lines of smaller writing, distributed between the upper and lower margins. This smaller writings is called the Massorah Magna or Great Massorah, while that in the side margins and between the columns is called the Massorah Parva or Small Massorah.
The word Massorah is from the root masar, to deliver something into the hand of another, so as to commit it to his trust. Hence the name is given to the small writing referred to, because it contains information necessary to those into whose trust the Sacred Text was committed, so that they might transcribe it, and hand it down correctly. The text itself had been fix before the Massorites were put in charge of it. This had been the work of the Sopherim (from saphar, to count, or number). Their work, under Ezra and Nehemiah, was to set the Text in order after the return from Babylon: and we read of it in Nehemiah 8:8
So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. Compare, Ezra 7:6 This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him. Ezra 7:11 Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandments of the LORD, and of his statutes to Israel. The men of “the Great Synagogue” completed the work. This work lasted about 110 years, from Nehemiah to Simon the first, in 410-300 B.C.
The Sopherim were the authorized revisers of the Sacred Text: and, their work being completed, the Massorites were the authorized custodians of it. Their work was to preserve it. The Massorah is called “A Fence to the Scriptures,” because it locked all words and letters in their places. It does not contain notes or comments as such, but facts and phenomena. It records the number of times the several letters occur in the various books of the Bible: the number of words, and middle word: the number of verses, and the middle verses: the number of expressions and combination of words, &c. All this, not from a perverted ingenuity, but for the set purpose of safeguarding the Sacred Text, and preventing the loss or misplacement of a single letter or word.
This Massorah is not contained in the margins of any one manuscripts. No manuscript contains the whole, or even the same part. It is spread over many manuscripts, and Dr. C.D. Ginsburg has been the first and only scholar who has set himself to collect and collate the whole, copying it from every available manuscript in the libraries of many countries. He has published it in three large folio volumes, and only a small number of copies has been printed. These are obtainable only by the original subscribers.
When the Hebrew Text was printed, only the large type in the columns was regarded, and the small type of the Massorah was left, unheeded, in the manuscripts from which the Text was taken.
When the translators came to the printed Hebrew Text, they were necessary destitute of the information contained in the Massorah: so that the Revisers as well as the Translators of the Authorized Version carried out their work without any ideal of the treasures contained in the Massorah: and therefore, without giving a hint of it to their readers.
This is the first time that an edition of the Authorized Version has been given containing any of these treasures of the Massorah: that affect so seriously the understanding of the Text. A vast number of the Massoretic notes concern only the spelling in accord with accepted usage, and matters that pertain to the Concordance. But many of those which affect the sense, or throw any additional light on the Sacred Text, are noted in the margin of The Companion Bible.
Some of the important lists of words which are contained in the Massorah are also given, those that have the “extraordinary points.” Readers of The Companion Bible are put in possession of information denied to former generations of translators, critics, and general Bible students.
It is written in (2Timothy 2:15
Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.). God has instructed His people to study His word. Do you know that when you study, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it? The right way is to dig down deep into the original languages, and to follow subjects and objects. Pay attention when a figure of speech is being used. You must always check out what someone teach you. The wrong way is, “if it feels good, believe it”. You must go back to the original languages to rightly divide God`s word.A quote by Jay P. Green, Sr., author of the Interlinear Bible, “After nearly forty centuries of desperate failure, has Satan, aided and cheerfully abetted by deceitful and desperately wicked men (Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? ), finally succeeded in destroying the written word of God, the Bible, as a single voiced witness to his great arch enemy, our God and Savior Jesus Christ? Has the old Devil, like a sleight of hand shell game artist, finally brought us to the point where we are searching desperately for the true word of God? Are we to believe that it can not now be intact after all this time, having run through the shredder of unholy hands and heads? Let it not be said! For not only has God warned us that, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God,” (Deuteronomy 8:3: Matthew 4:4), but has provided us with the very words that we are to live by, and He has most certainly also preserved for us the very words by which we are to live. Else, how could He plainly say, (John 12:47-48 And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.)?Our English Bible has many errors in it. You can not take the Bible verbatim. If you take the Bible verbatim, it will seem as if it was contradicting itself. There is no contradiction it the Word of God. The translators made the flaws during some point of translation. The original 1611 Kings James Version has an, “13 page letter”, to the reader, which states, “We did the best we could, but some imperfections and blemishes may be noticed.” (See, Letter from Translators to Readers).
These are the key tools which are needed to study our Father`s word:
(1). The Strong`s Exhaustive Concordance Of The Bible.
(2). The King James Version Of The Bible.
(3). The Companion Bible.
(4). Smith`s Bible Dictionary.
(5). Green`s Interlinear Bible.
Let me give you a quick example. It is written in Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. This verse tells us, that at sometime in the eternal ages past, “God created the heavens and earth.”
Genesis 1:2
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. The word was in the Hebrew is haw-yaw' become). The earth became without form and void, for God did not create it that way.
And then, that at sometime, in some manner, for some reason it became a ruin, empty, wasted, desolate, and overwhelmed with water. This is the interpretation.
If you had the Strong`s Exhaustive Concordance Of The Bible, you could check me out, by going to the Hebrew word “(1961)”.
God`s own word will verify itself. It is written in Deuteronomy 32:4
He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. Isaiah 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. 2Peter 3:5-7 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.The first occurrence of the number three is in Genesis 1:13, And the evening and the morning were the third day. The third day was the day on which the earth was caused to rise up out of the water, symbolical of that resurrection life which we have in Christ, and in which alone we can worship, or serve, or do any good work. Check me out, read the first chapter of Genesis again.
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