Part Two: Source Material

Any handwritten copy or part of the Bible is called a manuscript. The can range in size from tiny fragments and scrolls in Hebrew or Greek to codices that contain entire books in multiple languages. There are manuscripts for both the Tanakh (TNK)/Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and the New Testament. The study of these manuscripts is known as textual criticism.

Textural criticism in Biblical interpretation is not about critiquing or diminishing holy scripture but is about attempting to restore manuscript texts as close as possible to their original form. These texts are written or inscribed on paper, parchment, papyrus, stone, or other materials, even tiny silver scrolls! The scripture that the textural critic is attempting to recreate is known as its autograph.

Typically, the autograph of Scripture refers to the finished work that the author sends out to readers/hearers. Consider it a published edition—and only this published edition can be called an autograph. There are no known autographs of TNK, the Apocrypha/ Deuterocanon, or the letters, gospels, and writings that comprise the New Testament in existence today. But what we do have are tens of thousands of original, New Testament manuscripts dating from the second to the fifteenth century and Old Testament ones from around the seventh century BCE to the fifteenth century. These original language manuscripts originate from several different locations.

The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh
The Hebrew Bible is called the Tanakh and commonly spelled TNK. It stands for Torah—the Books of Moses—Nevi’im—the Prophets—and the Ketuvim—the Writings. Torah are the first five books of the Bible and is followed by book of Prophets. The Nevi’im are divided into the Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) and the Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve Minor Prophets). The third part of Tanakh, the Ketuvim, contains everything else (Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Ester, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles). These are the same books found in the Old Testament, but there they are arranged by subject matter. In fact, this is the same order used in the Septuagint (LXX)—the Greek translation of TNK originating a few centuries before the time of Christ.

These are the oldest extant manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint:

The oldest biblical text is on the Hinnom Scrolls. They are two silver amulets that date to the seventh century BCE. The scrolls were unrolled and translated—revealing the Aaronic Blessing from Numbers 6:24-26, “May the LORD bless you and keep you; May the LORD cause his face to Shine upon you and grant you Peace.” It is the oldest reference to the LORD found outside of the Bible. These scrolls predate the earliest Dead Sea Scrolls by a large margin.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of over 900 manuscripts discovered in the caves around Qumran near the Dead Sea between 1947 and 1956. A variety of scrolls and fragments were discovered in eleven caves: These included copies of every book of the Old Testament except for Nehemiah and Esther. The manuscripts date from between the third and second centuries BCE to the first century CE—sometime around the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. Some of the earliest date to the early Hellenistic era, c.250 BCE.

Based on linguistic analysis, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, was completed sometime in the middle of the 3rd century BCE for the Torah—with the rest being translated in the 2nd century BCE. According to legend, seventy-two translators completed the project—six from each tribe working independently to translate the whole TNK. It was said that each team produced identical copies. There are over 2,000 manuscripts of the Septuagint known to exist.

The Papyrus Rylands 458 was the oldest known copy of the LXX—until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls—and dates from somewhere in the middle of 2nd century BCE. The papyrus is fragmentary and what survives is from Deuteronomy. (23:24-24:3; 25:1-3; 26:12, 17-19; 27:15; 28:2, 31-33) The most complete copies of the LXX are found in the Codex Vaticanus and the Codex Sinaiticus—both more-or-less complete copies of the New Testament and dated to the around the 4th century CE.

The Nash Papyrus is a manuscript discovered in Egypt in 1902. Written in Hebrew and dating to the 2nd century BCE it was the oldest known Hebrew manuscript prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It contains the 10 commandments from the book of Exodus, and the Shema Yisrael prayer (“Hear, O Israel: the LORD God, the LORD is one”) from Deuteronomy. The document consists of four fragments.

The Aleppo Codex, the oldest Hebrew Bible in existence today, is so named because it was housed for half a millennium in Aleppo, Syria. The codex, also known as the Crown of Aleppo, was written by scribes called Masoretes in Tiberias, Israel, around 930 CE. The Aleppo Codex is considered to be the most authoritative copy of the Hebrew Bible. While the Dead Sea Scrolls are older and contain most of books from the Hebrew Bible, the scrolls lack vowel markers (as was the tradition in ancient Hebrew) and marginal notations that help clarify word meanings. The Aleppo Codex features both vowel markings and marginal notations.

Appearing in Aleppo, Syria, sometime in the second half of the 15th century, the Aleppo Codex was preserved nearly intact in a synagogue for centuries—until the 20th century. After the 1947 United Nations vote to partition Palestine and create independent Arab and Jewish states, riots broke out in Aleppo, and parts of the Aleppo Codex were destroyed. Prior to these riots and its subsequent disappearance, the Codex contained the entirety of the Hebrew Bible on 487 pages; upon its return only 294 pages remained. What remained of the codex was smuggled out of Aleppo and brought to Israel in 1957. The Aleppo Codex is now kept at the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum.

The Leningrad Codex (also called Codex Leningradensis) is the oldest complete edition of the Hebrew Bible currently in existence. It dates to around 1000 CE. Since the Leningrad Codex is the oldest intact, complete, edition of the Hebrew Bible, it is frequently used as the basis for modern editions of the Hebrew Bible. For instance, BHS (Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia), BHQ (Biblia Hebraica Quinta) and BHL (Biblia Hebraica Leningradensia) are all based on the Leningrad Codex. However, the Leningrad Codex, although complete and carefully hand-written, has corrected against the Aleppo Codex, which remains the best quality manuscript available. Nevertheless, comparing the Leningrad Codex to modern Hebrew Old Testaments proves how accurately the Hebrew scriptures have been preserved.

The term Masoretic Text refers to the authoritative Hebrew manuscript of the Old Testament. The name comes from the word masora, the Hebrew textual tradition of the Hebrew Masorites (or Masoretes). These Masorites were Jewish rabbis who took extreme care to copy the Hebrew text of the Old Testament without error.

The Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible that is used today is largely based on the Leningrad Codex, a complete Hebrew Bible located in St. Petersburg, Russia. However, examples of the Masoretic Text style can also be found in the Aleppo Codex of the Hebrew Bible from the 900s and can also be found in manuscript fragments as early as the 9th century.

The New Testament

The way in which the New Testament took shape is very different than how the Old Testament did. In the beginning, we Christians did not have the benefit of centuries—if not millennia—of Masorites dedicated to transcribing scripture exactly. Passing on Christian scripture was the responsibility of individual churches as they copied and then shared what they had received from the Spirit with other members of the Christ’s Church. Paul often tells those to whom he is writing to pass on to other believers what they have received from him. This results in there being far more numerous Christian texts known to exist than Jewish ones but also in less homogeneity. This is in no way saying that there are major discrepancies between these known sources just that differences are more numerous. These are known as textual variants.

There are around 5,800 known Greek manuscripts and over 18,000 non-Greek ones. These are divided into Text Types of documents with similar qualities and characteristics. The five major text types are the Alexandrian, Byzantine/Majority, Western, Caesarean, and the Textus Receptus.

Alexandrian texts are the oldest texts of scripture that have been discovered. As the name suggests, these texts have been discovered in Egypt. They are commonly called the Critical Texts because they are the ones that most textual critics use in their attempt to rediscover the New Testament’s autographs. There is more variation between them than what is present in the other text types. They use fewer words—resulting in a succinct and sometimes choppy text, but they utilize a more complex grammar. These texts were written from the second to the fourth centuries. The Nestle–Aland Novum Testamentum Graece (NU) is drawn from multiple Alexandrian text type manuscripts.

Byzantine/Majority texts represent the bulk of extant New Testament manuscripts. In most cases, these texts are the opposite of those originating in Egypt. They are easier to read and their grammar more approachable and fluid; these texts are also very consistent with one another. They came to prominence beginning in the fifth century, however there is evidence that many early Church Fathers quoted scripture found in the Byzantine text type. By the 800s most Christian texts were Byzantine.

Despite differences between these two main text types, all extant manuscripts of all these types are at least 85% identical and most of the variations are non-transferrable to English, such as word order and spelling. There are times when the Alexandrian and Byzantine texts do have more significant differences, but these rarely if ever impact anything doctrinal. One example is 1 Timothy 3:16. The Byzantine texts read "God was manifest in the flesh", whereas Alexandrian texts, with support from the Old Latin, Vulgate, Peshitta, Western text-type and many early church fathers read "He was manifest in the flesh".

To give a feel for the difference between the Byzantine form of text and the Alexandrian text of 800 variation units in the Epistle of James collected by the Institute for New Testament Textual Research, the Byzantine and Eclectic texts are in agreement in 731 of the places (a rate of 92.3%). Many of the 69 disagreements involve differences in word order and other variants that do not appear as translatable differences in English versions. According to the preface to the New King James Version of the Bible, the Textus Receptus, the Alexandrian text-type and the Byzantine text-type are 85% identical.

Only two of the major translations today draw from the Textus Receptus for their translation of the New Testament: the KJV and the NKJV. Textus Receptus (Latin: Received Text) is the name given to the first Greek text of the New Testament to be printed with movable type. It was compiled by Desiderius Erasmus for his translation of the Bible into Latin, and later used as the basis for the translation of the New Testament in the King James Version. The Textus Receptus is classified by scholars as a late Byzantine text. The selection of manuscripts available to Erasmus was quite limited, being confined to a few late medieval texts. Erasmus was often forced to make his own interpretations—back-translating from the Vulgate.

The first edition was published in 1519, and the name Textus Receptus is from the publisher’s preface for the 1633 edition which contains the phrase "textum ergo habes, nunc ab omnibus receptum", roughly translated as "thus you have the text now received by all".

The Western and Caesarean text types are not utilized to much extent. Western texts were scriptures utilized by certain Church Fathers. They tend toward longer passages and are frequently augmented with glosses, additional details, and paraphrases of longer, original material. Caesarean texts focus only on the gospels and are mildly paraphrastic. They have unique details that set them apart from the other text types. For example, in Matthew 27:16,17, the bandit released by Pilate instead of Jesus is called “Jesus Barabbas” rather than—with all other surviving witnesses—just “Barabbas”. This type is primarily found in the area around Antioch.

The Oldest Christian Texts

The oldest discovered Christian text is Papyrus: P52, a fragment dated from around 100-125 CE. It is an Alexandrian type of John 18:31-33.

Papyrus 98 is a manuscript fragment containing verses from Revelation 1. It was copied most likely from the autograph just after P52 would have been.

Papyrus 90 & 104 are manuscript fragments containing portions of John 18:36-19:7 and Matthew 21:34-37 with parts of verses 43 and 45, respectively. They date from around the same time as P98.

The Magdalen Fragments (P64 & P67) of the gospel of Matthew and may have been authored in the latter part of the 1st century.

The Chester Beatty Papyri (P46) is the oldest and mostly complete copy of the Pauline Epistles. It is around the same age as the Bodmer Papyri.

Bodmer Papyri (P66 & P75) are manuscripts containing almost complete copies of John and Luke + half of John, respectively. They are dated to early 200 CE. These are the oldest, mostly complete copies of a gospel. Also included is most of the Psalms in Greek and both 1 Peter and 2 Peter.

The only complete copies of the Bible to have survived ancient times are found in Great Uncials. They contain the Old Testament in Greek—the Septuagint—and the whole of the New Testament, along with some of the Apocrypha. They are the Codex Vaticanus (c.325 CE), the Codex Sinaiticus (c.350 CE), the Codex Alexandrinus, and the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (c.400 CE).