1. Part 1: The Old Testament Text
Biblical Apologetics
Part 1: The Old Testament Text

2. If the Old Testament is to be trusted…
There would be a paper trail that shows a chain of fidelity
It’s history would be accurate
There will be forensic evidence
There will be secondary historical support

3. “The Old Testament is the most accurately documented book from before the time of Christ.” –Holden & Geisler

4. An Ancient Paper Trail…
There are tens of thousands of OT manuscripts
Most of the manuscripts are in Hebrew though there are others in Greek, Syriac, Samaritan Hebrew, Latin and Aramaic.
The most famous: Dead Sea Scrolls (200 BC) and the Silver Scrolls (600 BC)

5. An Ancient Paper Trail…
The “Big Question” is how can a collection of documents passed down and copied for thousands of years be trustworthy?
How do we know that the words we read, albeit in English, are the actual words of the authors?

6. The Masoretes

7. The Masoretes…
The Masoretes were a group of medieval Hebrew scribes (6th-10th Centuries).
They were responsible for transmitting the Hebrew Text upon which all editions of the Hebrew Bible were based for almost a thousand years(including the first English Translations: Tyndale, Geneva & KJV).

8. The Masoretes…
Before the Masoretes, all the biblical Hebrew texts contained only consonants.
In English, that would be like seeing the consonants dg.
Without vowels, these could be read or pronounced as dig, dog, dug.

9. The Masoretes…
The Masoretes standardized the text by adding vowel marks, or Masora.
They also added the oral traditions they received into the margins.
They codified the oral criticisms and remarks on the Hebrew Text.

10. The Masoretes…
Their primary concern was the preservation of the sacred Hebrew Bible.
When Masorete scribes made errors while copying a manuscript—or when errors were discovered—the manuscript was immediately destroyed.

11. The Masoretes…
Their primary concern was the preservation of the sacred Hebrew Bible.
When Masorete scribes made errors while copying a manuscript—or when errors were discovered—the manuscript was immediately destroyed.

12. “The Masoretic Text is now the greatest witness to the original Hebrew Old Testament text.” –Holden & Geisler

13. The Masoretes…
The Codex Leningradensis (Samuel ben Jacob, Old Cairo, AD 1008)
Copied from an earlier manuscript (now lost) written by Ben Asher(one of the most well respected scholars of his day) 8 years earlier.
One of the oldest extant manuscripts containing the complete Hebrew Bible

14. The Masoretes… The Aleppo Codex (Shelomo ben Baya, Israel, AD 925)
earliest and most important of the Ben Asher tradition.
Vowel marks by Araron ben Moses ben Asher (Tiberias AD 930).
The most accurate existing manuscript of the Masoretic tradition we possess today.
Ben Asher was known to have put much effort in his work on the various details of the text, making many corrections on it for many years.
Upon examination of the pre-Masoretic texts that were preserved among the much earlier DSS, it was discovered that the Aleppo codex and the pre-Masoretic texts were practically identical.
It originally contined the whole Hebrew Bible, but during an anti-Jewish riot in Aleppo in 1947 portions of the text were lost.

15. The Dead Sea Scrolls

16. The Dead Sea Scrolls…
First discovered by a Bedouin goat herder in the limestone caves of Qumran in 1947
“The scrolls proved to be an important link in an unbroken chain of texts that contribute to establishing the textual reliability of OT Scripture.”

17. Hidden in Caves…
Of the caves excavated so far, 11 have been productive.
Over 800 biblical and non-biblical texts in complete, partial or fragment form.
Among them is a representation of every book of the Hebrew Bible except Esther.

18. So What’s in them…
Deuteronomy, Psalms and Isaiah have multiple copies that have been identified.
Portions of the Septuagint
Commentaries on books such as Habakkuk
As well as extra biblical and apochraphyal books such as Tobit, Enoch, Sayings of Moses.,

19. So What’s in them…
Only the Isaiah Scroll has been preserved in its entirety
The preserved writings date to around BC. Around years earlier than the manuscripts we had before!
As such, the Isaiah scroll remains the oldest complete manuscript of any book of the Bible.

20. A Testament to Preservation…
“The Dead Sea Scrolls provide the best test of how accurately the Old Testament was copied over the centuries since they provide a comparison of what the text was like about a thousands years earlier than the one we had before their discovery.”
Prior to their discovery, our earliest complete manuscript of the entire OT was dated to about AD 1000 (the 11th Century).

21. Divergences…
In comparison, the earlier texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls remarkably parallel the much later Masoretic Text.
The divergences between them are minuscule and do not alter the meaning of the text at all.

22. Divergences…
These divergences/variants are largely those of word order and spelling errors, being confined only to individual words and even letters.
Isaiah 40:12 MSS: mayim (waters) DSS: me yam (waters of the sea).
Others are grammatical
Grammatical—word order, spellings, forms of names etc. It must be noted that until Noah Webster published his dictionary in 1806 English did not have a definitive standardization of spelling. Even today in the US we spell COLOR and ARMOR and in the UK they are spelled COLOUR and ARMOUR.
Also, until that time we often spelled long “s” with a character that looks like an “f”. So if one were to take a KJV of 1733—like this one here—and one published today, you would find 100,000s of variants because of spellings etc.

23. Divergences…
“…the Isaiah Text proved to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95% of the text. The 5% of variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variation of spelling.” --Old Testament expert Gleason Archer

24. Conclusions…
The DSS show that even centuries before the Masoretes, much care had already been given to a system in which the biblical text was well preserved.
While private copying did occur, much of what was one was by professionals who took great pains to preserve the biblical text.
Especially for those scriptures used in public worship—done by professional copyists whose reputation was at stake over everything they did—they signed each manuscript with a colophon.

25. The Silver Scrolls

26. Ketef Hinnom…
In 1979, a set of silver amulets were found in the Ketef Hinnom tomb complex (pre-exilic, 7th Century BC).
These amulets were carefully unrolled at the Israel Museum and the first scroll measures1”x 3.75” and the second 1/2”x1.5”.
These tombs were often raided and used as quarries for stone but due to the roof collapsing in on chamber 25 of tomb 24, these artifacts were kept safe and intact through the millennia.

27. The First Scroll…
YHW…the grea…the covenant and…raciousness towards those who love…and those who keep…the eternal?...blessing more than any…re and more than Evil. For redemption is in him. For YHWH is our restorer…rock. May YHWH bles…you and…keep you…YHWH make…shine…

28. The Second Scroll…
May be blessed…by YHW…the warrior (or helper) and the rebuke of…vil: May bless you, YHWH, keep you. Make shine, YH-H, His face…you and g-rant you p-ce…

29. Small but Significant…
These are written in a paleo-Hebrew script that dates prior to the Babylonian captivity.
They contain phrases reflected in several passages of the Old Testament.
They date to about 600 BC—400 years earlier than the DSS!
Paleo-Hebrew was rounded characters not the more square like, blocky script we often think of today.
The passages reflected in them are Exodus 20:6, Deut 5:10, 7:9 & Numbers 6:24-26.

30. Small but Significant…
As such, they are the oldest copies of biblical passages in the world.
They contain the oldest extant biblical passages that reference the Lord’s name YHWH.
YHWH: The word refers to the proper name of the God of Israel, particularly the name by which He revealed Himself to Moses (Ex. 6:2, 3). The divine name has traditionally not been pronounced, primarily out of respect for its sacredness (cf. Ex. 20:7; Deut. 28:58). Until the Renaissance, it was written without vowels in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, being rendered as YHWH. However, since that time, the vowels of another word, ʾaḏōnāy (136), have been supplied in hopes of reconstructing the pronunciation. Although the exact derivation of the name is uncertain, most scholars agree that its primary meaning should be understood in the context of God’s existence, namely, that He is the “I AM THAT I AM” (Ex. 3:14), the One who was, who is, and who always will be (cf. Rev. 11:17).
This speaks against the theory that the OT was constructed during the Hellenistic age (4th-3rd centuries BC).
These amulets were worn as protection from Evil and as such show the belief that the words were powerful, they were authoritative, they were the words of God.
The use of God’s name points that it likewise was not a later creation and that the priestly blessings using his name give evidence to the fact that the priestly worship was not developed after the Babylonian captivity like some scholars think but rather is consistent with scriptural depictions of a thriving priestly order during and since the time of Moses.

31. Canonicity

32. Why these books… Text had to meet three criteria: Inspired by God
Recognized as inspired by men of God
Collected and preserved by the people of God

33. Why these books…
The books inspired by God and written through men possess a self-authenticating nature.
They are not authoritative because they are in the canon

34. Why these books…
Rather, they were recognized by the Israelite nation as possessing divine authority
Therefore, they were included in the canon and preserved as such.
Much like a greatest hits album for any famous musician—there are certain songs that everyone almost instantly recognizes as being special, influential etc. as being the “greatest”. Bruce Springsteen—Born in the USA, Glory Days Queen—We are the Champions, another one bites the dust Beetles—All we need is love, I want to hold your hand etc. It is not a community voting on what is canon, but simply recognizing the books for what they are.
Jesus himself unabashedly endorsed the canon and divine authority of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible as he quoted it often and referred to it in his ministry (John 5:39, Matthew 27:46, Luke 24:45-46, Matthew 22:45, 5:17-18).

35. Part 1: The Old Testament Text
Biblical Apologetics
Part 1: The Old Testament Text