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In our study thus far we have proven that there is a God in heaven and that the original Bible is His Word. These conclusions naturally lead us to the question, "CAN WE BE SURE THAT OUR PRESENT BIBLE IS THE SAME AS THE ONE THAT GOD ORIGINALLY GAVE?" A study on how the Bible has come to us seems to be warranted at this time.

How can we be sure that we have the original message? First and foremost, God gave us His word. God promised that He would protect His message and keep it pure. Notice what He said. “...the word of our God stands forever," Isaiah 40:8

.“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away,” Matthew 24:35.

From these passages we must conclude that God protects His word. God protects the Bible in two ways: by His supernatural power and by the unique way that He had it written. As we carefully examine the scriptures we see that every major principle is taught several times and in at least three different ways. God teaches us by command, example and necessary inference. Therefore, though human error might change one passage, the rest of the Bible will expose that error.

A study of how we got our Bible will give us confidence that our Bible is the same as the one that God originally gave. Let us look at the key components in the development of the scriptures and see how these keys prove the purity of our Bible.

WRITING MATERIALS: Through the years there have been many different writing materials. Some of the Bible was written on stone (The Ten Commandments). Other parts were written on clay tablets. When these were baked in ovens their message could be preserved for 100's of centuries. Stones covered with wax served as scratch pads for students. Homework would be scratched in the wax and then after being corrected, the message could be blotted out and another message inscribed over the first. We find this idea touched on in Colossians 2:14, "Blotting out the hand writing of ordinances which were against us...." Probably the first major writing material was leather. Leather becomes brittle quickly and therefore the messages had to be constantly copied on to new leather sheets in order to preserve the message. When papyrus was invented it became the favorite writing material. Papyrus was made from the bulrush plant.[1] When the stock is wet, it can be straightened out and pressed flat. Another sheet is then pressed against the first with the direction being crossed. This process keeps the sheet from coiling up again. After the surface is polished it is ready for use.

There is an interesting story told about the development of vellum. Vellum is a refined leather which will remain durable for many years.[2] In Revelation 2:12 we read of the city of Pergamos. This city was the capital city of Asia. There was a library in Pergamos of 200,000 hand written papyrus books. King Eumenious wanted to have the largest library in the world so he invited the librarian from Alexandria Egypt to move to Pergamos and work for him. When King Ptolemy of Egypt, learned about the plot, he arrested his librarian and stopped all shipments of papyrus to Pergamos. Fighting for his literary survival, Eumenious invented vellum. Vellum was originally called the pergamian sheet or parchment[3] and as was said, vellum was durable. Vellum sheets have preserved their messages for over 2,000 years.

The Old Testament was originally and primarily written on leather;[4] however, papyrus was in use during Moses’ day.[5] The New Testament was mainly written on papyrus.[6] Like leather, papyrus also becomes brittle with age[7] and quickly decays; therefore we have no original copies of any of the Bible books. It is probably good that we do not have the originals. If we had the originals we would fight over them and worship them instead of their author.

ARRANGEMENT: The Bible is a library of books; in fact the word Bible implies a library for it comes from the Greek word Biblia which means "The Books." There are 66 books in the Bible. The Bible has been divided into two major sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. There are 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New. These books were written from 1,500 BC. to 100 AD., or over a space of 1,600 years. The Old Jewish commentary called the Talmud gives a list of the Old Testament books and it lists 24 books. Josephus, a historian in the time of Jesus, made a list of Old Testament books and he listed 22 books. The Protestant arrangement has 39 Old Testament books and the Roman Catholic arrangement has 49. It should be noted here that the Talmud, Josephus, and Protestant arrangements are exactly the same. The reason the number of books differ is because, in some places, two books are united as one, and at another place there are 12 books united as one. Again our Christian Old Testament has EXACTLY THE SAME books in it as the Bible used by the Jews of Jesus’ day. The Catholic Old Testament, however, includes ten books and several other additions that were never a part of the original Bible. It is interesting that the Catholic Church calls these additions, "apocryphal writings." Apocryphal means hidden or doubtful. Thus they admit that it is DOUBTFUL that these books were part of the original Bible, and if they were the proof is HIDDEN.

Not only is our Old Testament the same as the Bible used by Jesus, our New Testament is the same as all accepted New Testaments. It is the same as the Catholic New Testament.

FORM: Small books of the Bible, for example the book of 2 John, were likely originally written on a single sheet, but most of the books were written on scrolls[8] which were made up of many sheets glued together and rolled into a scroll. The book of Matthew would require a scroll of about 35 feet. The maximum usable length of a scroll was about 40 feet. The complete New Testament would require a length of about 200 feet. From this we can see why the Bible was not originally put together in one volume as we have it today. Instead of one volume, a large bucket like container was used to store the various holy scrolls.[9] Commentaries and other religious materials were also stored in these containers. This then is the provable explanation for the incorporation of extra materials, such as the Catholic apocryphal writings.

The original Bible had no particular order. Our Bible today is not arranged in the order in which it was written, but rather it is arranged according to subject matter.

Bound books as we know them today were invented between 80-200 AD.[10] These books were first called codices.

LANGUAGE: The Bible was originally written in three different languages. Most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. About nine chapters, mostly from Esther and Daniel, were written in Aramaic. The New Testament was totally written in Greek with the exception of a few isolated words such as "mammon" which means riches, and "abba" which means father. These words are Aramaic. Isolated Hebrew words are also used in the New Testament.[11]

MANUSCRIPTS AND TRANSLATIONS: Technically the word manuscript means the original first writing. Since there are now no original writings of the Bible, the word manuscript has come to mean any copy of the Bible which is in the original language. The words manuscript and manuscripts are often abbreviated as MS. and MSS. A translation is a copy of a message from one language into another. A manuscript is generally more valuable than a translation because mistakes are much less likely to occur when copying into the same language, and manuscripts are likely to be older than the translations.

Jesus quoted from the Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament. The Septuagint version is the oldest of all Biblical translations. Seventy two scholars worked on this translation. It is called the LXX version and was written in Alexandria Egypt in 277 BC.

EARLY CIRCULATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT: The Apostle Paul, in writing to the church at Thessalonica said, "I charge you...that this epistle be read by all the holy brethren." I Thessalonians 5:27 And again in Colossians 4:16 Paul ordered, "When this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea." Thus we see that as soon as the books were received they were copied and then circulated through the neighboring congregations.

THE COLLECTION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS: Who collected the books? The Apostles were supernaturally guided by the Holy Spirit. John 14:26; 16:13 They had the power to bestow miraculous power on those they touched. "Then laid they their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost," Acts 8:17. Evidently the Apostles themselves and/or the people they laid their hands on, collected the books of our present New Testament. They did this under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

Near the end of the first century AD., the individual books of the New Testament were so well circulated that they had already been collected and translations were being made into other languages. About 80 AD. the Peshitta Syriac version was translated. This translation contained all the Old Testament books and all the New Testament books with the exception of II and III John, II Peter, Jude, and Revelation.[12] These last books were probably written after the Peshitta Syriac translation was completed. The inspired Apostle John is believed to have lived till nearly 100 AD. John could easily have had a voice in the collection of the New Testament books.

VALUE OF MANUSCRIPTS: Though the Peshitta Syriac translation is a priceless treasure in showing that the New Testament was collected under God’s inspiration before the end of the first century, translations have their limited value. As previously stated, it is difficult to take a message from one language into another, therefore manuscripts generally hold a greater value.

CARE IN COPYING: In the early days of the church, the scribes who copied the Bible generally lived in monasteries. These monasteries were purposefully built in the most out of the way places. Some examples are in the desert at Mount Sinai; in the desert at Qumran; in the desolate area of Mount Ararat; and clinging halfway up the shear face of the huge cleft west of Jericho. These monasteries could only be reached at the expense of hard, determined effort. The obvious purpose for this isolation was to prevent the scribes from being interrupted when performing their sacred work of accurately copying the Scriptures.

The earliest copies of the Bible were originally made by individual Christians. Later a new method was devised to produce multiple copies of the Bible at the same time. Scribes would gather in a room called a scriptorium and a reader would slowly read the Bible out loud, word by word. Each scribe would make his own copy of the message. In this way, as many copies could be made as there were scribes to make them. These scribes were very conscious of the importance of their task. A scribal note, in one of the manuscripts reads, "There is no scribe who will not pass away, but what his hands have written will live forever."[13]

Scribes did not trust their memory. They counted the words and even the letters in every copy, and then they immediately compared their copy with the original. If one incorrect letter was discovered the whole page was destroyed. They pronounced aloud each word before writing it and they wiped their pens before writing the word "God."[14] The scribes also washed their bodies before writing the word "Jehovah." Although wiping a pen and taking a bath in no way insures accuracy, it does illustrate the great importance these men placed on their work.

Even though the scribes were very careful, it is true that small mistakes have been made in coping. These mistakes were inevitable because the coping was not performed under God's inspiration, and no human hand is perfect.

By comparing the thousands of early copies of the Bible, minute differences can be discovered. The differences that have been found are in spelling, the omission of words, inverting sentences and incorporating footnotes. Most of the differences are those that are common to the eye and ear. An example of a copyist mistake can be seen in the genealogical list of I Chronicles 6:7-13. Here the copyist mistakenly repeated four names.

We need to be reminded that God has placed "safeguards" in the scriptures. He repeated every major principle and had it recorded in such a variety of ways that the truth can never be eroded away from the serious Bible student.

LARGE QUANTITY OF MANUSCRIPTS: Though we have none of the original manuscripts of the Bible, we do have more than 5000 copies of these original writings.[15] When we compare these copies with each other we can quickly see if, or where, the tiniest differences occur.

The earliest copies of the New Testament were written on papyrus, in all capital letters (uncials), with no spaces or punctuation, and in the scroll form. About the end of the first century the book form changed from scrolls to bound volumes (codices). Shortly thereafter vellum was used instead of papyrus, a running hand form of letters (cursive) took the place of the uncials, and still later, spaces and punctuation became popular. Because of these successive inventions we are able to date the manuscripts and determine which are oldest and most reliable.

There are in existence today 120 New Testament manuscripts written on papyrus, 252 New Testament manuscripts written in uncials, and 2,533 New Testament manuscripts written in cursive, plus hundreds of Old Testament manuscripts.[16]

In ancient times, when all books were hand written, every piece of literature was considered to be of great value. When copies of the Bible and other writings became old and brittle, these copies were replaced and the old ones were carefully stored in large boxes. When the boxes became full they were buried. Many boxes that were buried in dry countries, such as southern Israel and Egypt,[17] have been preserved in good condition and have been discovered in recent years. From these dry lands we have discovered not only hundreds of copies of the original Bible, but also great quantities of legal documents and personal letters which were written during the same time period as that of our New Testament. By comparing these letters to each other and to the New Testament, definite definitions of words have resulted. These personal letters also give us a beautiful understanding of the history and culture of the New Testament period.

APOSTOLIC FATHERS: The term "Apostolic Fathers" is a term that is universally used to refer to the Bible scholars of the early church, especially those whose writings have been preserved.

These early writers, though not inspired by God, wrote about Christianity in their day. Some of these writings go back to the time of the apostle John. Virtually the complete New Testament could be rewritten from the many quotes and comments that these early Bible scholars made.

THE PRINTING PRESS: The invention of the printing press by John Gutenberg in 1450 has been a significant aid in assuring that no other additions or subtractions be made to the Holy Scriptures.

MODERN HELPS: Great scholars of the Bible have given us many books that can aid the serious Bible scholar in attaining an accurate understanding of God's word. The complete Bible is available in interlinear form. These interlinear show the original Hebrew or Greek message on the top line, and the literal English translation below each original word. With this tool, even the novice can know exactly how the original sentences were constructed.

Complete concordances are available. These concordances list every single time that every word is used in the Bible. With this tool the student can easily locate any verse of which he is even slightly familiar.

Bible dictionaries give us the exact meaning of words just as they were used in Bible times.

Another type of Bible dictionary gives us the history and general background for every Biblical event.

Many commentaries on the Bible have been written. These commentaries give explanations for every verse in the Bible.

Various translations phrase the Bible in different ways to aid the reader toward the gaining of a more accurate understanding.

PROOF OF OLD TESTAMENT ACCURACY: Our study of evidences has shown us that the Bible is a book from God. This being true we must conclude that the God who gave us this marvelous book would keep it pure. No important inaccuracy has ever been discovered in either the Old or New Testament. The Old Testament predicts many events found in the New Testament. The New Testament quotes many Old Testament passages. Thus the one testament establishes the message of the other.

The Dead Sea Scrolls also establish our Old Testament's accuracy.[18] In 1947 a Bedouin boy saw one of his goats go into a cave on the side of a hill. The boy wanted his goat back but didn't want to climb the hill so he threw stones in the opening of the cave. The boy was hoping to hit the goat and drive it out. When the stones were thrown the boy heard pottery breaking. He went up to investigate and found tall jugs filled with hundreds of ancient documents. In this collection there were found portions of every Old Testament book but the book of Esther. Incidentally, the book of Esther happens to be the only book in the Old Testament that does not mention the name of God. Among these books in the Dead Sea scrolls collection was an ancient copy of the book of Isaiah. This copy was written about 200 B.C. and was the best preserved of all the books. Thousands of fragments of other books, found in these caves, are still being put together. As these fragments reveal their messages they unlock great mysteries about the people who left these documents behind. Most important, however, these fragments are reaffirming biblical accuracy.

THE NEW TESTAMENT CAME IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME. Galatians 4:4 says, "...when the FULLNESS of time was come, God sent forth his son..." The first century was the best time for Jesus to come and for the New Testament to be written.

COMMERCIALLY: The best roads and sea travel that ever existed were in use at this time.

LINGUISTICALLY: Alexander the Great made a law requiring everyone to speak the Koine Greek language. This type of language transition always takes about 100 years to be accomplished. The Greek language is the most colorful, descriptive language ever spoken. A few years after the Greek language became the world language, the Roman empire followed the Greek's example and made a law requiring everyone to speak Latin. This language transition again took about another 100 years. These laws made the Koine Greek language a dead language. Dead languages never change their meaning. This dead language is a marvelous asset in helping us to be able to pin point the exact meaning of the New Testament words.

VELLUM: This was the time that the new durable vellum was invented. Vellum was the material which was able to preserve copies of the written Word all the way from the first century down to the twenty first century.

CODEX: This was the time that bound volumes were first made. What an asset this is in the handling of the scriptures.

PUNCTUATION: This was about the time that punctuation was invented. The value of punctuation is obvious.

SUMMARY: We can have complete confidence that our Bible is really the book that God originally gave us for the following reasons:

· First, the study of evidences has proven conclusively that God is the author of our Bible.

· Next, logic would demand that since God gave man His word, that He would give that word Divine protection to keep it pure.

· Third, we have God's promise. He said, "The word of the Lord stands forever" (I Peter 1:25).

· Fourth, every important principle of the Bible is repeated in several ways. This safeguard protects God's message.

· Fifth, the Old Testament predicted much of the New, and the New Testament quotes much the Old, thus the one testament establishes the other.

· Sixth, we have 5,000 copies of the Bible in its original language. When we compare these copies, we find the message to be almost exactly the same.

· Eighth, the New Testament was written in the Koine Greek which is the most descriptive language ever invented. Pin point accuracy can be given to the definition of these words.

· Ninth, the Koine Greek is now a dead language and the definitions of words in a dead language never change.

· Tenth, the many literary inventions developed in the first and second centuries make it easy to determine which of the manuscripts are the oldest and most reliable.

· Eleventh, the Peshitta Syriac translation proves that at least 61 of the 66 Bible books were collected during the days of the inspired Apostles.

· Twelfth, the extreme care of the scribes in copying the Bible, insured against inaccuracy.

· Thirteenth, the Apostolic Fathers quoted virtually the entire New Testament, therefore we can check the manuscripts against their writings. This effort helps prove accuracy.

· Fourteenth, personal documents from that era give us precise definitions of words and details of the New Testament history and culture.

· Sixteenth, the invention of the printing press assures purity in recopying from that point forward.

· Seventeenth, modern helps permit even the new Bible student to have access to all the ancient writings, definitions, and culture.

[1] James Orr, General Editor, International Standard Bible Encypedia, Wm. B. Eerdman’s Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI., p 242.

[2] Webster’s New World Dictionary, New York, NY., p 654.

[3] James Orr, General Editor, International Standard Bible Encypedia, Wm. B. Eerdman’s Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI., p 2247.

[4] Neil R. Lightfoot, Ph.D., How We Got Our Bible, (Filmstrip 1-18), Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI., p 13.

[5] S.I. McMillen, None Of These Diseases, Spire Books, Fleming H. Revell Company, Old Tappan, NJ., pp 9,10.

[6] Neil R. Lightfoot, Ph.D., How We Got Our Bible, (Filmstrip 1-19), Gospel Services, Inc. Houston, TX.

[7] Neil R. Lightfoot, Ph.D., How We Got Our Bible, (Filmstrip 2-7), Gospel Services, Inc. Houston, TX.

[8] Lightfoot, Ph.D., How We Got Our Bible,(Filmstrip1-21), Gospel Services, Inc. Houston, TX.

[9], Neil R. Lightfoot, Ph.D., How We Got Our Bible, (Filmstrip # 1-23), Gospel Services, Inc. Houston, TX.

[10] Neil R. Lightfoot, Ph.D., How We Got Our Bible, (Filmstrip # 1-24), Gospel Services, Inc. Houston, TX.

[11] Neil R. Lightfoot, Ph.D., How We Got Our Bible, (Filmstrip # 2-5), Gospel Services, Inc. Houston, TX.

[12] The New Analytical Bible, John A Dickson Publishing Co., Chicago, IL., p 5.

[13] Neil R. Lightfoot, Ph.D., How We Got Our Bible, (Filmstrip # 2-32), Gospel Services, Inc. Houston, TX.

[14] James D. Willeford, How We God Our Bible, Quality Printing Co., Abilene, TX., p 9,10.

[15] Neil R. Lightfoot, Ph.D., How We Got Our Bible, (Filmstrip 1-39), Gospel Services, Inc. Houston, TX.

[16] The New Analytical Bible, John A Dickson Publishing Co., Chicago, IL., p 7.

[17] Neil R. Lightfoot, Ph.D., How We Got Our Bible, (Filmstrip #4), Gospel Services, Inc. Houston, TX.

[18] Neil R. Lightfoot, Ph.D., How We Got Our Bible, (Filmstrip #3), Gospel Services, Inc. Houston, TX.

HOW WE GOT OUR BIBLE