The History of the NT Greek Canon.

Papyrus was mostly used for more ancient books. It survived in warm, dry climates such as the Middle East, but became frail after repeated use.



Parchment or vellum, which became more used in the 4th century, was made from the skins of cattle, sheep, goats, antelopes, and was much more durable than papyrus, but more expensive.



At the close of the first century A.D. the codex or leaf form of book, came into use in the Church. This is the form of book that we have today.

Majuscules or Uncials were all capitol letters without spaces or punctuation. This was beautifully done in very old manuscripts and eliminated errors due to handwriting styles.



Minuscule was a script type of writing using lower case letters.
Since the minuscule handwriting made books cheaper, they were more available to people with limited means.



Greek manuscripts fall into these two major groups (majuscule or minuscule), having subgroups of being written on either papyri or parchment. Either material was used interchangeably depending on cost.

In English for example it would read: GODISNOWHERE.

In the 4th century, when Rome received Christianity, scriptoria were established to produce copies of the NT. Therefore, just because a manuscript is older, that does not mean that it’s necessarily more accurate.



God chose to preserve the NT by the very number of man’s mistakes. In other words, the mistakes preserve the original text.

There are over 5700 manuscripts catalogued of parts of the NT alone. Each having small differences, then the number of variants becomes high, however, by comparison of them all, the variants become quite clear and a wonderful rendering of the original text is possible.

Wescott and Hort indicated that about one eighth of the variants had any weight, the rest being trivial.

Philip Schaff estimated that there were only 400 variants that affected the sense of the passage, and only 50 of these were important.

Dr. A.T. Robertson, the greatest of Greek scholars, indicated that of real concern regarding textual variants amounted to but “a thousandth part of the entire text.”

Four categories:
Papyri………….116
Majuscules …….310
Minuscules……..2877
Lectionary………2432
5735

Codex Sinaiticus

At the age of nineteen, young Count Koinstantin von Tischendorf amazed his professors with his fluent knowledge of the classical languages and his knowledge of history.

This is how Tischendorf dis­covered the 129 pages of what is today known as the Codex sinaiticus, or the Codex Aleph.

Codex Sinaiticus is still one of the finest and most accurate texts available to us today, and it became the basis of many revisions and corrections of earlier editions of the Bible.

Actually, Codex Vaticanus, also known as Codex B was known to be some fifteen years older than Codex Sinaiticus (Codex Aleph). Vaticanus dated back to 325 or 350 A.D., and had probably been brought from the East by Pope Nicholas in 1448.

In 1809, when Napoleon exiled the Pope, it took about fifty wagons to transport the Pope’s library.

Tregelles, another great scholar and friend of Tischendorf’s, decided to investigate the Codex Vaticanus in the Vatican library.

A third very interesting manuscript, which very few people knew about, is the Codex Alexandrinus.
This Greek language manuscript had been written about 450 A.D. in Alexandria, Egypt.

In 1621, when Cyril Lucar became the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church, he transferred the manuscript to
Constantinople.

The beautiful document, Codex Alexandrinus, was presented at court in 1627, just fifteen years after the King James Version of the Bible had been completed.

The first thing that was printed was Jerome’s Latin Vulgate as it was the most popular Bible translation at the time, although by then Bibles had been printed in several languages of Europe.

No Greek NT had been “printed” until 1514 and was called the Complutensian Polygot. It was a magnificent edition of Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin texts. 600 were printed, of which 97 are preserved today.

However, the first Greek NT to be published (put on the market) was an edition prepared by the famous Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus in 1516.

Erasmus could not find a Greek manuscript that contained the entire NT. He used about a half dozen different, incomplete copies of the Greek NT. For most of the text he relied on two rather inferior manuscripts from a monastic library at Basle, one of the Gospels and one of Acts and the Epistles, both dating from the 12th century.

Said of this first edition, owing to the haste in production, the volume contains hundreds of typographical errors. Said of this first edition: “It is in that respect the most faulty book I know.” (Scrivener)

Erasmus made a second edition which became the basis for Luther’s German translation. Corrections were made but the text was still only based on a half-dozen Greek manuscripts.

Further editions were made for a total of five editions in all by 1535. The text of Erasmus’ Greek NT rests upon a half-dozen miniscule Greek manuscripts. The oldest and best of these (codex 1, a miniscule of the 10th century) he used the least because he was afraid of its supposedly erratic text.

It is Erasmus’ text (Textus Receptus: Received Text) that is the basis of the 1611 King James Version. This is not to say that the KJV is a terrible translation, but it is flawed as any other translation and it is not as good as RSV, NIV, or NASB etc.

ROM 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. KJV

ROM 8:4
That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. KJV

After Erasmus thousands of manuscripts of the Greek NT have been discovered as well as other ancient Greek texts that have aided in our understanding of the Koine Greek.

In fact the 26th edition of the Nestle-Aland Greek NT was published separately from the United Bible Societies’ Greek NT. Without communicating and by using different critical methods the two editions are identical.

5735 Greek manuscripts discovered and criticized over hundreds of years have reproduced God’s original Word to the writers of Scripture within 99.999% accuracy.


Grace Bible Church
Basic Training in Doctrine
April 8, 2008

Canonicity Definition, Origin, and the OT.

Definiton:
Canonicity is derived from the Greek word “kanon” which originally meant a rod or a ruler – hence a measuring stick or a norm.

The canon of Scripture is the divine absolute standard of God’s revelation to mankind.

Argument: We don’t have any of the originals and the originals have been copied over and over so there are bound to be mistakes. Answer: True

Argument: The Bible was written by men and not God.
Answer: True.

But over 40 different writers who wrote over a period of 1,500 years are in exact agreement about types, antitypes, prophecies, fulfillment of prophecies, timelines, stories, and history, and all without a single glitch.

God the Holy Spirit so directed the writers of Scripture that without changing their personality, their vocabulary, their frame of reference, God’s complete message to mankind was recorded in their own language and vernacular.

This is the doctrine of inspiration. The Bible is not human viewpoint, but it is the Holy Spirit’s use of human agencies to record God’s complete revelation to mankind through mankind.

The Origin of the Scriptures:

The Bible was inspired by God and it is now complete.

REV 22:18
I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book : if anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book;

1 Cor 2:10
For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God

1 Cor 2:16
For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

When we turn to the decree of Artaxerxes, made in his twentieth year, NEH 2:1-8, for the first time is permission granted to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. This prophecy fulfills the conditions of DAN 9:25

Therefore, 69 weeks of prophetic years of 360 days (69 x 7 x 360 = 173,880 days) = 173,880 days.

After this many days, from March 14th B.C. 445, one would arrive at the 6th of April, A.D. 32.

Luke 19:42
“If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace-but now it is hidden from your eyes. (NIV)

The Old Testament

For instance the original Greek of John 1:1 is as follows:

Now look at an OT verse in the Hebrew:
à áÌÀøÅàùÑÄéú, áÌÈøÈà àÁìÉäÄéí, àÅú äÇùÌÑÈîÇéÄí, åÀàÅú äÈàÈøÆõ.

In 280 B.C. 72 Alexandrian scholars got together and produced an amazingly accurate translation. This was called the Septuagint or “the Seventy” in honor of the translators.

:
The Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, although only a handful of chapters were written in Aramaic

Unlike the NT, the OT scriptures were kept among one people, the Jews, for centuries. Outside of the Septuagint it remained in Hebrew, was kept among people who spoke the same language, and the Jews were well trained copyists and preservers of the OT

Originally the OT was divided into 3 parts: The Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings

The Torah or the Pentateuch consists of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy

The second group, the Nabhim or Prophets which are split into two categories; the Former Prophets (before the Babylonian captivity) and the Latter prophets (after the Babylonian captivity). There are four books in each category.

The three Major Prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel

The Minor Prophets, which we divide into 12 separate books, are all one in the Hebrew Bible, called the Twelve. Apart from Daniel “The Twelve” includes everything from Hosea to Malachi

The third section of the Hebrew OT is called the Kethubim or “The Writings.” This was divided into 3 sections, The Poetical Books, The Five Rolls (also called the Megilloth), and The Historical Books.

Lastly there are the three Historical Books at the end of the Hebrew Canon: Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah (one book), and Chronicles.

Therefore, the Hebrew OT contains 24 books compared to our 39

This endorsement of Scripture takes us from GEN 4:10 (the first book) to 2CH 24:20-21 (the last book in the OT Canon)

The Apocrypha are books written after the close of the OT Canon in 425 B.C. The word Apocrypha means hidden or secret. Their addition was an attempt by the devil to infiltrate God’s Truth.

The Apocrypha teaches: Prayers and offerings for the dead (2 Macc 12:41-46). Suicide is justified (2 Macc 14:41-46). Salvation by giving money (Tobit 4:11). Cruelty to slaves (Ecclesiasticus 33:25-29). The soul is produced by parents (Wisdom 8:19-20).