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Comma Johanneum

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Original Texts and
Early Translations of Scripture

by Todd Elder

Original Writings

Hebrew Old Testament

The Old Testament writings were made in the Hebrew language on scrolls. The ealiest of these date back to the time of Moses (about 3500 years ago) and the most recent come from the time of Malachi (about 2400 years ago). The scrolls were primarily made of animal skin though in later times papyrus was coming into common use.

The Hebrew canon had 24 books which are the same as the 39 books of the Greek Old Testament. The difference in number is accounted for by Samuel, kings, and Chronicles each having one book instead of two and also Ezra, Nehemiah, and the twelve minor prophets were all one book. One of the tests used in canonization was whether the book was quoted in the New Testament. Most of the Old Testament books are quoted in the New Testament. The Apocryphal books are seldom quoted and are not used in an authoritative way.

Some passages in the books of Daniel, Ezra, and Jeremiah appear to be originally in Aramaic.

Apocryphal Inter-testamental

What is included in the Apobryphal books will vary between denominations. Generally speaking, though, it refers to about 14 books that were written from 400 BC to 0 BC which covers the time between Malachi and Matthew. The inspiration of these writings by the Almighty has been in question since early on in the canonization of the modern Bible, hence Protestantism removed them in the 1880's while Catholicism retained 12 of them. As this was the time of the Hellenist Empire, they were appearantly written in Greek.

Greek New Testament

The New Testament writings were made in the 1st century AD. The existing copies are written in Greek though some books may have had a Hebrew origin. These were made on papyrus and were often bound together much like modern day books. Such a book from this time is called a codex. The three oldest known codices date back to approximately the early 4th century AD.

The New Testament canon was not made by ecclesiastical pronouncement so much as it grew by the needs of the church. By the end of the second century, the four gospels were in official use and no others. The book of Acts and Pauls epistles were accepted early on also. Other books were debated and many lists were made suggesting which should be included in the canon. The Council of Laodicea listed the new testament as we know it today except it was missing Revelation. The Council of Carthage listed the 27 books as we know them today.

Latin

None of the original writings were made in Latin. Yet for approximately 1,000 years the Scriptures were only produced in the Latin language and any translation efforts made during this time or shortly thereafter we done from the Latin text.

Early Copies

Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947 in the caves next to the Dead Sea in Israel. These are the oldest known Hebrew manuscripts coming from the first century BC. These are from the Qumran library and likely were the work of the Essene Sect. Although mostly fragmented, the texts show the careful way the text was transmitted through the centuries.

Papyri

Although parchment copies began to exist in the early AD's, papyrus Scrolls continued to be used for a few centuries more. The Bodmer Papyri came near the end of the second cenutury AD and the Chester Beatty Papyri came in the early or mid third century AD.

Codex

In the second century AD, Christians began using the codex (book) form. This would save considerable space and would fit into one volume rather than in many scrolls. The earliest known codices of Scripture came soon after. The Codex Sinaiticus contains the entire New Testament and the Codex Vaticanus goes through Hebrews 9:13. Both came in the fourth century AD. The codex Alexandrinus followed in the fifth century AD.

Early Translations

Greek Septuagint

The Septuagint was a Greek translation of the Old Testament made about 250 BC during the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt. He hired large group of Jews fluent in both Hebrew and Koine Greek to produce the translation. Different sources suggest between 15 and 72 translaters, but the name septuagint itself suggests 70. This is the first translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into another language. This became a wide spread version that would be used by Greek speaking Jews and Early Christians. It was the basis for the Old Latin translations. It is still used by the Eastern Orthodox. The oldest known copies come from the fourth century AD and are the oldest surviving, nearly complete manuscripts. Fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls tend to agree with the Septuagint text rather than the Masoretic Text.

Various Languages

The Christian church spread through the world, even into place where Greek was not spoken. Because of this, translations were made into Latin, Syriac, Egyptian, and many other languages. In fact, by the end of the fifth century AD, the Scriptures were translated into over 500 languages.

Latin Vulgate

Jerome started translating from earlier latin versions of the Scriptures, however he finally went bak to the Greek in the New Testament and Hebrew text preferred to Septuagint in the Old testament when he could. Jerome translated the new testament from Greek into Latin around 382 Ad. The Council of Trent made the Latin Vulgate (vulgate means vulgar or common) the official Roman Catholic Bible. In 405 AD the Apocryphal (ecclesiastical) books were distinguished from the canonical books. By 600 AD, the only church was the Roman Catholic Church and the Scriptures were restricted to one language, the Latin Vulgate, under the threat of execution. At this time only the priests were allowed to understand Latin which gave the church ultimate power.

Hebrew Masoretic Text

The Masorites existed from about 600 - 950 AD. They standardized the Hebrew text and added accents and vowel points. The surviving copies are from the ninth century texts. The Masoretic Text is approved for use in Judaism and is also commonly used in Protestant Bibles. It is similar to the second century text but has differences when compared to versions of the Septuagint.

Aleppo Codex

From approximately the tenth century. It is, perhaps, the first complete copy of the Masoretic Text in one manuscript.

CSE Citation Elder T W. Exploring Creation [Internet]. Livingston (TX): Exploring

Creation; 2011 Apr. 6. [cited your access date]. Available from:

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MLA Citation Elder, Todd W. Exploring Creation. Ed. Todd Elder. 6 Apr 2011.

Exploring Creation. your access date

http://www.exploringcreation.info/scripture/comma.htm