How We Got Our Bible

The Old Testament

CONTENTS
(click title to go to subject)

Introduction
Early Translations
The 3rd-5th Centuries
The Masoretic Texts, Foundational Bodies of Work
Modern Versions of the Old Testament


INTRODUCTION

The Old Testament we use today has a long history, dating back around 3,400 years. That's a long time to be having a book (or scrolls). I was always taught that ancient books … like our Holy Bible … were first passed down orally, safeguarding learned information as it was handed on from generation to generation.

This may be true for other books. Societies of old, including the Hebrews, did have strong oral traditions. However, nothing could be further from the truth with regard to the books of the Old Testament.

The Old Testament is different. It tells the story of the Jewish people, whom God had selected as the people who would carry His message to the world. The books carrying that message were written over a long period—from 1400 BC to 400 BC.[1] So by 400 BC, all of the original Old Testament books had been written, collected, and recognized as official, or canonical.[2]

The formation of the Old Testament canon was more organic than council-approved. It existed from the very beginning. Think about it. If the Old Testament is truly the inspired word of God, then the canon MUST have begun to exist the moment the first book was written. This is different than ascribing a certain moment to an entire list that mankind determines is complete and authoritative.

This is simple for me, as a writer, to understand. When I wrote my first words in a purposely connected way, Eric's canon began. Each work I added to that, was added to my canon. When I'm satisfied this book on how we got our Bible is completed, it will become part of my canon. I don't wait around for somebody named George to decide I had completed a canon of work that, then, becomes Eric's authoritative canon. No, it was a canon of work from the very beginning.

Thats how the canon of the Old Testament came to be. The books Moses wrote were accepted right away. He received them as God-breathed and then gave them to the religious leaders, who received them as the will of God.

So Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. (Deuteronomy 1:9 NKJV)

There was no council to discuss if they should be accepted. Moses wrote, they received—immediate canon. When Joshua, then, wrote his book, it was received immediately as well. Most of the other books were added the same way. It was a living canon.

The paper used in ancient times to write down these words of God were scrolls, also called roll books, made of papyrus sheets glued together. This was paper-like material made from the pith of the papyrus plant, a wetland sedge.

The content of these scrolls was meticulously maintained by scribes. They were at first found only in the tabernacle and then in the Temple beside the Ark of the Covenant. Later, they could be found in synagogues to be read aloud during religious services. Because it was so painstaking to copy from one scroll to another, they were not easily available to the people.

Not all of the writings of the Old Testament were accepted immediately. With regard to the books of the prophets, there was a prophetic consistency test. New truths could not disagree with old truths. If a prophet was writing God's word—which was, and is, and is to be—he couldn't overwrite any previous word of God. God's word couldn't be overruled.

This is the exact opposite of almost all cults and false teaching, which propose to have "new truths." Old Testament prophets had to speak truths that were consistent with what had already been written, otherwise their words were ignored as prophetic and immediately excluded from the canon.

Prophets were also held to a "truth" test. Often they would make smaller, less important predictions that were short-ranged with regard to time. If these predictions came true, then they were accepted as a true prophet of God.

After that, an accepted prophet could make more important long-range predictions, often extending well beyond their lifetime. That is, as long as the consequence of those predictions stayed consistent as well. They couldn't say, "If this comes true, you shall all worship Ba'al."

We don't know what happened in 400 BC, but we accept the fact that the Jews believed the time of prophesy was over. It ended after Malachi and the building of the second temple.

One of the add-on books of the Apocrypha (more on what those are later), 1st Maccabees, about 150 BC says,

So there was great distress in Israel, the worst since the time when the prophets ceased to appear among them. (1st Maccabees 9:27)

So, the Jews, in the period between the books of the Old and New Testament, recognized that God was no longer speaking through prophets, though they were waiting for that to happen in the future. For the time being, they recognized the canon was complete because God had made it so. It's irrational to think that man-kind can make scripture by declaring it so.

So, an inspired canon was established well before Jesus showed up. When He did come, Jesus referenced this canon often, saying, "It is written." And He never quoted from any "lost book" nor from any of the add-on Apocrypha. By doing so, Jesus was, in fact, affirming the canon.

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EARLY TRANSLATIONS

Actually, it was the Hebrews themselves who became the first translators of God's Word. When a part of the population were carried off into captivity in Babylon, they began speaking in a new language—Aramaic. It was the official language of the Persian Empire, which replaced the Babylonian Empire.

When they were allowed to return, these returning Jews often no longer understood the original Hebrew. So, translators stood by the podium of the Priest while he read from scripture, giving a narrative translation. These men were called turgmen.

After the Persian Empire came the Greek Empire. Their language soon became the common tongue. In order to succeed, people had to learn to speak it. This time it was not oral translations spoken by turgmen that was required, but written translations.

In the 2nd-3rd Century CBC, the first acknowledged Old Testament translation was made into Greek. It was called the Alexandrian Text, designate OG, for "Old Greek." Old Greek was Koine ("common") Greek, though to call the Alexandrian Text "Old Greek" was probably misleading. By the time the Hebrew translation into Greek was completed, Koine Greek had already undergone substantial changes. Still, the designation remained.

According to some ancient texts, in the 3rd century BC, the Greek King of Egypt, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, asked 70 (later amended to 72) Jewish scholars to translate the Torah (the Law) from Hebrew to Greek for inclusion in the Library of Alexandria. However, many scholars believe this to be more myth than fact. The Torah and the other books of the Old Testament were most likely translated by the middle of the 2nd century BC, before the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus.

Regardless, the OG Alexandrian Translation had been made, though it contained 39 books—Hebrew Bibles contained only 24 books. It was the exact same content, just organized differently. Some books were expanded into two volumes, but the biggest difference was that the minor prophets, contained in one book called The Twelve, were each given their own volume (see chart below). All Christian Bibles in the future would have 39 books.

It also included additional Jewish religious books written in Greek since the time of Malachi. These books were: 1st and 2nd Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Cyric or Ecclesiasticus, Baruch including the Epistle of Jeremy or Jeremiah, 1st and 2nd Maccabees, Prayer of Manasseh, the Song of the Three Children, and some additions to Daniel and Ester. This is what later would be called The Apocrypha.

The OG Alexandrian translation in Greek—supposedly produced by these 72 scholars that would eventually be called the Septuagint (but not now)—was the text used by the early church missionaries and the writers of the New Testament. Christ and the Apostles, as well, often referred to it, quoting the Hebrew Scriptures about a quarter of the time, a few times out of their head, and the rest of the time from the Greek text. Though Christ's native tongue was Aramaic, He was also fluent in Greek.

In fact, most of the words Christ spoke, even those from the cross, were in Aramaic. This is important for us to realize because it reminds us that almost all of the words Christ spoke were translations into Greek by the gospel writers. All of Christianity, reading the words of Jesus, have already read them as a translation of a translation (Aramaic→Greek→English). It's wise to keep this in mind.

In 150 AD, a Hellenistic Jewish Scholar named Theodotion developed the Theodotion Greek translation. His translation was widely copied in the early Christian Church. He used caution dealing with Hebrew words for plants, animals, vestments, and other words of uncertain meaning, maintaining their Hebrew names rather than translating them to Greek. This, incorrectly, gave him a reputation of being unlearned.

Meanwhile, Latin translations, probably made by Roman converts to Christianity in the 2nd-3rd centuries AD, had accumulated piecemeal in the Vetus Latina (“Old Latin”). They were not translated by a single person or group, nor were they uniformly edited. Individual books varied in quality of translation and style. It's likely that a version of the Vetus Latina existed by as early as 180 AD.

Of note are three Alexandrian Latin codices[3] of the 3rd-4th century—Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, and Alexandrinus. They remained unknown from the time of their writing until the 15th-19th century. They will play a critical role in the translation of most modern English Bibles, and as such, become the focal point of controversy. For now, we will leave them sitting in their quite obscurity,

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THE 3RD-5TH CENTURIES

Sometime in the 3rd Century AD, An elder of the Alexandrian Church named Origen worked to clear up copyists’ errors that had crept into the text of the OG Alexandrian translation, which by then varied widely from copy to copy. A number of other scholars consulted the Hebrew texts in order to make it more accurate.

Origen's belief system seemed to lean toward Greek philosophy, and possibly Gnosticism. Though the latter remains unsubstantiated, there is no doubt that Origen tried to marry Christianity and Geek Philosophy. Some scholars believe that his revision of the OG Alexandrian Text was corrupted with heretical beliefs—Alexandria, Egypt was a hotbed of not only Platonism[4], but Gnosticism[5].

One of Origins most controversial beliefs was the pre-existent of souls. According to Origen, God's first creation was a collection of souls of which all but one, the human soul of Christ, fell away. In the end, however, all humans and every spirit, even the devil, would be saved, returning to a state of "pure mind".

Regardless of his quirky beliefs, Origen wrote thousands of treatises in multiple branches of theology. Of particular note was The Hexepla ("six-fold"), compiled sometime before 240 AD. It was a complex word-for-word comparison of original Hebrew Scriptures with the OG translation and other Greek translation in a six-columned parallel format. It was a massive undertaking and stood as a wonder of biblical scrutiny.

Even though Origen was a prolific writer, In 543 AD, Emperor Justinian I condemned him posthumously as a heretic and ordered all his writings to be burned. At the second council of Constantinople, He pressed the bishops to condemn his doctrines, but they did not ratify his proposal. However, his teachings on the pre-existence of souls were eventually rejected by the Church. Today, he is remembered as a prominent Church Father.

Whether the OG version of the Greek Old Testament was corrupted remains a subject of continual debate.

It was later, during the time of St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD), that the Greek translation of the OG Text began to be called by it’s Latin name, the Septuagint, from versio septuaginta interpretum ("of the seventy interpreters”). This translation in the 4th to 5th century was designated OG, LXX.

Today, the Eastern Orthodox Church is the only church that uses the Septuagint as the basis for translating the Old Testament into other languages. It also uses the untranslated Septuagint where Greek is the liturgical language. Critical translations of the Old Testament which use Hebrew texts as their basis, still consult the Septuagint and other versions to reconstruct the meaning of the Hebrew text only when it is unclear, corrupted, or ambiguous.

Meanwhile, the Latin Old Testament, which still relied on the Vetus Latina well into the mid-300s AD, was about to change. Pope Damascus assigned his secretary, St. Jerome Eusebius Hieronymus of Aquilia (347-420 AD), the task of translating a Latin Bible using the nest available Latin versions and the superior Greek version. By about 382 AD, Jeromes Latin translation was completed and came to be known as the Vulgate (“common”), designated L.

The translation was only partially St. Jerome’s work since he used several unrevised books of the Vetus Latina, the Greek Septuagint, Theodotion’s text, and some Aramaic versions for a few Old Testament books. However, He translated most of the Old Testament from Hebrew on his own.

The Vulgate would stand as THE Latin translation used by the Catholic Church for century upon century. It was the book that scholars studied and theologians used. Today, there are twice as many copies of the Latin Vulgate as there are greek manuscripts. It would not be until the 1600s AD when a fresh translation into Latin would be made. today,

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THE MASORETIC TEXTS, FOUNDATIONAL BODIES OF WORK

As time went on, older scrolls of the original Hebrew manuscripts would get faded, torn, and otherwise rendered useless. In addition, the final Jewish revolt against Rome in 135 AD signaled the beginning of the end for the Hebrew language. Most Jews forgot the language. A group of Jewish scribes and scholars decided to preserve the Bible in the Hebrew language, as much as possible. These were the Masoretes.

The original scrolls of the Hebrew Old Testament contained no vowels, which was typical of Hebrew writing. So, these Masoretes selected, copied, and annotated biblical scrolls, adding vowels and accents to the ancient Hebrew consonants in the process. They dedicated their lives to standardizing and preserving the exact words of the Hebrew texts, and they outlawed the Septuagint in order to preserve their faith. The texts were called the Masoretic texts, designated MT, and were written between 500-700 AD.

There were several other groups of Masoretes that had their own system of pronunciation and grammatical guides. For example, a Masoretic group called the ben-Asher family of Tiberias, a city in Galilee, used a distinctive set of sounds and accents. This eventually became the standard, authoritative text of the Hebrew Bible for rabbinic Judaism and was developed in the 10th century AD.

Catholic and most Protestant translators still use this version as their source of the Old Testament today. The oldest surviving Masoretic text is the Aleppo Codex (ca. 930 AD), though it’s no longer completely intact. The oldest complete Masoretic text is the Leningrad Codex (1009 AD).

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MODERN VERSIONS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

The men that began to translate the Word of God into English are best discussed in the chapters on the New Testament, since that was there focus. It's not that the New Testament was more important, but the long foundation laid down for the Old Testament that stretched back centuries, were scholarly solid and extensively authoritative with investigations extent. There was not much more work to be done on them, though there was some.

The first would have been the Douay-Rheims English version of the Latin Vulgate, abbreviated D-R, DR. This version was an attempt by the Catholic Church to answer the popularity of the English versions that had come out in the 1500s and 1600. The Protestant Reformation had up until then dominated Elizabethan academic religious debate, so the Catholic church commissioned members of the English College to work on a version of the Vulgate in English.

The English College was a Catholic seminary in Douai, France (also spelled Douay), which was associated with the University of Douai. The New Testament portion was published first in 1582 at Rheims, France. The Old Testament portion was published in two volumes. The first volume covered Genesis through Job and was published in 1609; the second covered Psalms through the apocrypha books of the Vulgate and was published in 1610.

Marginal notes took up the bulk of the volumes, offering insights on issues of translation, and on the source texts of the Vulgate.it’s pur. However, there were substantial nots that supported the Catholic Counter-Reformation movement, upholding Catholic tradition in the face of the Protestant Reformation.

The Douai-Rheims was reprinted several times in the next few years, though thereafter no changes were made for a century. The problem with the text was that it was overloaded with ponderously Latin vocabulary, making it difficult to read. So in 1750, Bishop Richard Challoner undertook a new translation—the Old Testament portion (minus the apocrypha) being completed in 1750. It was called the Douay-Rheims Challoner, designated DRC.

Although retaining the title Douay–Rheims Bible, the Challoner revision was a new version, taking as it’s primary source the King James Version (and by extension the Tiberian Masoretic Text), rigorously checked and extensively adjusted for consistency with the previous editions of the Vulgate. The Challoner revision of the Douay–Rheims often remains the Old Testament of choice among more traditional English-speaking Catholics.

For the Maoretic texts, they remained relatively unchanged for several centuries. In 1977, the Biblia Herbraica Stuttgartensia (“Bible collection, Stuttgard, Germany”) produced the 4th edition of the Masoretic text preserved by the Leningrad Codex with input from the Dead Sea Scrolls that were discovered in 194. A 5th edition known as the Biblia Herbraica Quinta is currently being worked on, though portions have been available since 2004.

So, through the two millennium following the time of Christ, the long-standing versions of the Old Testament were the ben-Asher Masoretic Text in Hebrew used as a source for modern
Protestant English translations, the Vulgate in Latin with it's accompanying English Douay–Rheims and used by the Western Catholic Church, and the Septuagint in Greek used by the Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church.

It was rather simple to follow the evolution of the Old Testament, which is why I separated it from the evolution of the New Testament. That was far more complex, as we'll see in the following chapters.

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[1] Terminology that is viewed by some as being more neutral and inclusive of non-Christians is to call our current era as the "Common Era" (abbreviated CE), instead of AD, which stands for anno Domini, "In the year of our Lord." The era preceding this, then, is referred to as "Before the Common Era" (abbreviated BCE), instead of BC, meaning "Before Christ." However, since the Bible centers around Christ, the terms BC and AD will be used. ^

[2] Canon is a term that derives from the Greek kanon, meaning "rule." The concept is very broad, though in the religious sense, refers to a group of official, authentic or approved scriptural texts, accepted as universally binding. ^

[3] A codex (pl. codices) is the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum (calf skin), papyrus, or other materials. The term codex is often used for ancient manuscript books, with handwritten contents. Much like the modern book, it is bound by stacking the pages and securing one set of edges by a variety of methods over the centuries, yet in a form analogous to modern bookbinding. ^

[4] Platonism practices certain philosophies of Plato. It had a profound effect on Western thought, affirming the existence of abstract objects, which Plato asserted to exist in a third realm distinct from both the external world and from the internal world of consciousness. ^

[5] Gnosticism was a competing belief of Christianity in the early centuries following Christ. It's a collection of religious ideas that emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis). It sees a distinction between a supreme, hidden God and a malevolent lesser divinity (sometimes associated with the God of the Hebrew Bible) who is responsible for creating the material universe. Consequently, Gnostics considered material existence flawed or evil. The principal element of salvation is direct knowledge of the hidden divinity, attained through mystical insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment. Mystical insight was valued over acknowledgment of sin and redemption, hence there was no need for a divine Christ. In fact they denied Christ was coequal with God in the Trinity, but rather an ordinary man adopted by God for a short time, who was taken into union with God, given the “Christ Spirit” or “Christ Principle” beginning with his baptism until it left him at the cross. Their efforts were to weaken and remove the divinity of Christ, often separating the name of Jesus and Christ. ^