How We Got The Bible

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How We Got The Bible

• Its Transmission
• Thru the Ages

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Lesson 17
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Dead Sea Scrolls

• Dead Sea is 15 miles E of Jerusalem
• As deep as 1,000 feet
• 1,300 feet below sea level
• Very arid area - perfect for preservation
• Sodom and Gomorrah were nearby
• Masada is on the SW edge

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Qumran

• A community that was on the NW edge of the sea
• Maybe the same as the Essenes
• The ruins of the settlement are still there
• The caves are generally near
• Qumran had been occupied for close to 200 years
  (130 BC - 70 AD)

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Qumran and surrounding area
En-Gedi
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Aerial Photo of Qumran
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Sandals-Qumran
Inkwell
Writing pens
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The Scrolls

• Most are parchment, some papyrus and one copper
• Most are in Hebrew or Aramaic, but there are also
  some in Greek
• Probably hidden during the First Jewish Revolt
  (67-70 AD)
• First ones found in 1947

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The Caves

• Cave 1 found in 1947
• Israeli state began 1948
• In 1952
• Caves 2 (Feb) and 3 (Mar - copper scroll)
• Cave 4 (Sep) just 200 yards from the ruins, the
  biggest find
• Caves 5 and 6 also about this time
• 1955 - caves 7-10 were found
• 1956 cave 11 was found
• 1967 the 6 Day War and Israel gained control of
  the area

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The Discovery

• Around Feb of 1947 a Bedoiun boy was searching
  for a lost goat and found cave 1
• The boy found jars which contained scrolls
• The other caves did not have jars
• Over the next 10 years 10 more caves were found
  containing scrolls
• About 40,000 fragments have been found
• From about 800 scrolls
• From about 500 books
• From about 200 OT books

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Cave 1
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OT Scrolls

• 63 MSS of Psalms
• 29 MSS of Deuteronomy
• 21 MSS of Isaiah
• 17 MSS of Exodus
• 15 MSS of Genesis
• No copies of Esther
• We dont know why

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Cave 1

• Cave 1 contained the following
• The Great Isaiah scroll
• A second fragmentary Isaiah scroll
• A commentary on Habakkuk
• The Manual of Discipline
• Thanksgiving Psalms
• The Rule of War
• Naming convention
• 1QIsa means cave 1, Qumran, Isaiah, scroll a

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The Great Isaiah Scroll found in cave 1
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2nd Isaiah Scroll from Cave 1
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Special Scrolls

• 1QIsa is the Great Isaiah scroll
• Dates 50-1 BC
• Contains chapters 41-59
• 4QpaleoExm
• Old Hebrew script (paleo-Hebrew)
• 40 columns of original 57 remain
• 4QSama
• 1st century BC
• 10 of I II Samuel

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Special Scrolls-2

• 4QSamb
• 3rd century BC
• Several parts of I Samuel

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Cave 4
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Inside Cave 4
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More of cave 4
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One of the Psalm Scrolls Scroll b from cave 11
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Part of the copper scroll from cave 3
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Hosea from Cave 4
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Sun dial Qumran
Scroll Jars
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Qumran toilets
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Next Oldest OT MSS

• Pre-date all other Hebrew OT copies by almost
  1,000 years
• Aleppo Codex (900s AD)
• Leningrad Codex (OT Prophets, 916 AD)
• 2nd Leningrad Codex (1010 AD, complete OT)

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Aleppo Codex 900 AD
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Page of the Leningrad Codex of the complete OT
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Next Oldest OT MSS-2

• Two at Oxford, England
• Almost complete copy, 10th/11th century AD
• Pentateuch copy, 9th century AD
• Codex in Cairo of the Prophets, dates around 895
  AD

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Why nothing older?

• Jewish Rabbis venerated the OT copies
• They buried old worn out copies
• Prior to burial they keep them in a genizah (a
  hiding place)
• Late 1800s in Cairo a still full genziah was
  found
• Some older than those noted earlier
• None as old as the Dead Sea scrolls

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OT Text Qumran

• The Hebrew text of the OT Dead Sea scrolls is
  remarkably close to that of the Masoretic text
• Masoretic text is what we see with Aleppo and
  Leningrad, etc.
• Show less variance than Greek NT MSS
• The DSS did not leave us a list

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OT Text Qumran-2

• They do clearly treat the Law and the Prophets as
  scripture
• From what they left, we cannot know what they
  thought about The Writings
• Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon
• Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes
• Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah
• I and II Chronicles

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OT Text Qumran-3

• None of the additions to Daniel were found there
• Also had copies of
• Jubilees, 1st Enoch, Tobit
• Ecclesiasticus, Letter of Jeremiah
• Works unique to their community

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New Testament?

• No NT documents were found among the Dead Sea
  scrolls
• Some claim a few fragments from cave 7 are NT,
  most doubt this
• Some found at Khirbet Mird
• These date 5-8th century AD
• A Christian monastery
• Not from the Qumran period
• Unlikely NT documents got to Qumran by 70 AD

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Lesson 18
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Nag Hammadi

• Discovered in Dec 1945
• Nag Hammadi is 50 N of Luxor (ancient Thebes)
• 13 documents in a sealed jar
• 12 intact
• 1 fragmentary
• Gnostic, semi-Gnostic, non-Gnostic, secular
  (Platos Republic)

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Nag Hammadi-2

• Provide us with much more knowledge of Gnosticism
  than we had
• Only complete copy of the Gospel of Thomas and it
  is damaged

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Nag Hammadi Manuscripts
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The Gospel According to Thomas
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The Dialogue of the Savior __ Nag Hammadi
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