The Jewish Scriptures:
The Early Christian Bible

Preview

Food for Thought

Food for Thought #1: Are Personal Bibles a Good Thing?

We tend to assume personal Bibles—which didn’t become available until the early 16th century--are a blessing, but is that necessarily true? The argument in favor of them is that we can search the Scriptures ourselves instead of depending on ministers, who may or may not reporting faithfully what the Bible teaches. However ...

1-A. Personal Bibles May Undermine Koine

Before the 15th centuries, hand-copied Bibles were prohibitively expensive and unreadable by the illiterate masses. Religious instruction took place inside a congregational community.

For hundreds of years after Gutenberg, families had family Bibles that were the center of family worship.

Nowadays, personal Bibles can be read and interpreted outside a community or family by “Lone Rangers” who may never attend church or who outwardly attend church yet inwardly remain a denomination of one.

Is it possible that God values our being members of a family or the Body more than He values our individual Biblical fluency?

1-B. Personal Bibles May Over-Intellectualize Our Faith

Do personal Bibles cause Protestants to embrace a bloodless intellectual and analytical view of Christianity as a body of doctrine rather than a mystical walk with God? Is it possible that we are not walking in the Lord but are actually sleepwalking in the Lord?

Are Catholics at least partially right about the Mass, that the bread and the wine should be the center of public worship? I’m not advocating Transubstantiation; I’m juat saying Communion might be more than just the intellectual or sentimental remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice that it is for many Protestants. The early Christians risked death to meet together for a service that always included taking communion.

1-C. Personal Bibles May Lead to Further Division in the Church (Protestant Proliferation)

We Baptists can quickly and easily list the things we find wrong with Catholicism, but we might not know Catholics and Orthodox have their own list about Protestantism. One that concerns this present discussion is the proliferation of Protestant denominations. “Big Tent” Catholicism points out that each new century since the Reformation has Protestants dividing themselves again and again into more and more new denominations; we Protestants are a swelling number of Small Tents, some extremely hostile to everyone outside themselves. Personal Bibles bear some responsibility for this.

Is it possible that God values a loving spirit over a heavy-handed doctrinal purity?

1-D. Personal Bibles Can Create a Publican and Pharisee in the Same Person

Inside some Evangelicals is a Publican bewailing his performance in sackcloth and ashes ...

co-existing beside a Pharisee preening over the doctrinal purity setting him above others. Reminder: Our minds are just as fallen as our bodies and hearts!

1-E. Personal Bibles Can Simplify Bibliolatry (Worshipping the Bible Instead of God)

• Bibles as Talismans
• A relationship with a Book, not a Person
• Denying the work of the Spirit by nitpicking Scriptures (“You can’t heal on the SABBATH!!! You must be of Satan!”)

Food for Thought #2: The Hebrew Canon

When was the Hebrew Bible, the Scriptures used by the KJV and many later English translations, canonized? By canonized, I mean …

• All textual variants eliminated in favor of one fixed reading
• The vowel points added to make the text readable in only one way
• The categorization and ordering of the selected books
• The Masoretic Hebrew Text was canonized around __________ (Answer Below)

Food for Thought #3: Replace or Add To Your Old Testament?

Jesus, the Apostles, the New Testament Writers, and the Early Church did NOT use the Hebrew Bible we currently use for almost all of their OT references and allusions, devotions, and doctrine. They used the Septuagint.

This is such an important issue, we will spend a lot of tonight’s lesson considering the possibility of replacing your Old Testament with the Septuagint, or at least adding the Septuagint to your bookshelf.

Terminology and Concepts

Canon

“The word canon (from Greek, kanon, a loan word from the semitic languages, meaning ‘reed’ or ‘straight rod’) initially was used by the early church fathers for a norm or rule of faith (Latin, regula fidei, ‘rule of faith’). But by the fourth century, it referred to lists or tables and in this sense was applied to the books that were given canonical status by the church.” Patzia, p. 167

What Do We Mean By “Lower” Criticism?

"Textual Criticism has for its special object the ascertaining of the exact words of the original texts of the sacred books. Its method of procedure is to collate and compare ancient manuscripts, ancient versions, and ancient scripture quotations, and, by careful and discriminating judgment, sift conflicting testimony, weigh the evidences of all kinds, and thus endeavour to determine the true reading of every doubtful text. This science is often called the 'Lower Criticism.'" Terry

Lower Criticism and Biblical Inerrancy

• “We affirm that inspiration, strictly speaking, [1] applies only to the autographic text of Scripture, [2] which in the providence of God can be ascertained from available manuscripts with great accuracy. …” Chicago Statement, Article X
• Lower Criticism is the scholarly attempt to re-create as closely as possible those original autographs.
• Lower Criticism - Textual Variants/Textual Plurality
• Pre-Gutenberg synagogues and churches made do with the hand-copied texts they had. Your 1st Century synagogue’s version of Isaiah may contain a whole chapter the synagogue over the next hill lacks, or vice versa. (This is something confirmed by Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts.)
• The Bible we have today is the product of careful, scholarly study comparing hundreds of manuscripts (Lower Criticism) to ascertain the most accurate rendering possible. These agreed on texts are translated and then distributed letter perfect via printing press to their audience.

John 8:1-11 and Other Issues

• John 8:1-11, the story of the woman caught in adultery brought before Jesus, is italicized or marked in some other way as suspect in many Bibles. This story did not appear in some of the earliest found manuscripts; therefore, it may not be inspired Scripture but a later addition.
• The Dead Sea Scrolls indicate there may be many Old Testament stories that have a similar problem. There was a high degree of Textual Plurality. “In the years since the discovery of the scrolls, it has become clear that, when combined with the evidence from the Septuagint, instead of the same editions of biblical books containing many minor differences, there were different literary editions of no less than thirteen but possibly as many as fifteen of the twenty-four books of the Hebrew Bible: Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Daniel.” Law, When, Loc 571

The Masoretic Texts, 7th to 11th Century AD

• Eliminated textual variants
• Added vowel points (“qeren “horned” instead of the verb qaran “to shine.” Moses was thus given horns in some Jewish exegetical traditions”)
• Grouped the books and fixed their order (excluding the Apocrypha)

The Hebrew Bible

The Tanak

The Law, The Prophets, and the Writings

Tanak (Acronym for the 3 Parts), Mikra (Publicly Read)

• Torah (Law) – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
• Nevi’im (Prophets) - Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, The Twelve (Minor Prophets)
• Ketuv’im (Writings) - Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, Ruth, Esther, Lamentations, Song of Solomon, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles

Early Christian Hermeneutics and Exegesis

Hermeneutics

Principles, Strategy for Interpretation - “The science of interpretation…This science assumes that there are divers modes of thought and ambiguities of expression among men, and, accordingly, it aims to remove the supposable differences between a writer and his readers, so that the meaning of the one may be truly and accurately apprehended by the others.” Terry, 17

Exegesis

Application, Tactics of Interpretation - “The application of these [hermeneutical] principles and laws, the actual bringing out into formal statement, and by other terms, the meaning of the author’s words.” Terry, 19

(NOTE: Exegesis is drawing out the author’s mean from the source; Eisegesis is pushing your meaning into the source.)

The Early Church’s Christocentric Hermeneutic & Exegesis

• Theophanies – It was the Son and two angels who appeared to Abraham; the Son who wrestled with Jacob.
• Prophesies – Predictions of future events took a back seat to prophecies predicting the coming of Christ.
• Types & Antitypes
  • Typical Persons - Adam, Joshua, Melchizedek, the Disobedient Virgin Eve & the Obedient Virgin Mary
  • Typical Institutions – Passover, Sabbath, Sacrificial System
  • Typical Offices – Prophet, Priest, King
  • Typical Events – The Flood, The Exodus, Manna, Raising the Brazen Serpent, Jonah in the belly of the fish, the drowning of Pharaoh’s army prefiguring our deliverance from demons following Baptism

Hellenization

The Septuagint

• C. 285-200 BC, Usually dated 250 BC
• Pentateuch first, Other books added over next 100 years
• Translated at Alexandria (North Coast of Egypt)
• Septuagint = 70
• Frequently referred to as the LXX (Roman Numeral for 70)

Alexander the Great Turns the World Greek, 333 BC

Alexander followed a deliberate policy of Hellenization: .i.e., turning the world Greek. Theatres, gymnasiums, philosophical schools sprang up everywhere. The in-crowd adopted Greek dress; attended plays, poetry contests, and philosophical debates; and learned the Greek language.

The Jewish Diaspora Was Hellenized

Over time, fewer and fewer of the Jews living outside the Holy Land would have spoken Hebrew.

By the 1st century BC, most synagogue services throughout the Diaspora would have been conducted in Greek using the Septuagint.

The Septuagint was translated by Jews and used by Jews for about 400 years. Around the 2nd century, the Jews rejected it as being for Christians, not real Jews. The Jews didn’t immediately go back to Hebrew though; they created new Greek versions: Aquila's, Symmachus's, and Theodotion's.

“Every Sabbath Day He Is Read Aloud in the Synagogues”

“For since ancient times, Moses has had those who proclaim him in every city, and every Sabbath day he is read aloud in the synagogues.” Acts 15:21 CSB

This verse is incredibly significant for our study. It points towards God’s preparation for the Gospel. The Old Testament was spread throughout the entire Roman Empire, not in an unfamiliar Hebrew or Aramaic, but in Greek, a language most people groups surrounding the Mediterranean could read or speak.

The Holy Land Was Hellenized

• The Book of Maccabees complains about Levitical priests ignoring their duties to work out in the gymnasiums
• Maccabees also tells the story of a high priest named Jason, NOT a Jewish name
• Nicodemus, another Greek name, was a member of the Sanhedrin
• Though Aramaic, a Hebrew dialect, was the first language of Jesus and the Apostles, some or all of them would almost certainly have been able to communicate in Greek.
• Pilate posted an inscription on the Cross of Christ that covered all the language bases: “And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was Jesus Of Nazareth The King Of The Jews. This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.” John 19:19-20

Was Jesus Hellenized, i.e., Did Jesus Also Speak Greek?

I have always heard or read that…

1. Jesus spoke in Aramaic
2. His words were translated into Greek
3. The Greek words were translated into English
4. There were two layers of language between Jesus and us. This study has started me wondering if Jesus actually spoke Greek and some of the NT has one of those language layers removed.

Reasons for Believing that Jesus Also Spoke Greek

1. Sepphoris, 5 miles from Nazareth, had been the Roman capital of the region till Tiberias was built. (About 1” under the A in Galilee)

2. Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed…” This is the Septuagint version of this verse, not the Hebrew.
3. Matthew 4:25 “Large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.“
4. Mark 5:1,20 “They came to the other side of the sea, to the region of the Gerasenes… So he [the formerly demon-possessed man] went out and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him.” (Did Legion also speak Greek?)
5. Mark 7:24 “He got up and departed from there to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, but he could not escape notice.” Tyre, a coastal city, had been the starting point for the Phoenician empire and had always one of the most cosmopolitan cities of the ancient world.
6. There is no mention of a translator anywhere in the accounts of Jesus’s trial by Pontius Pilate. Was the translator just left out of the story as TMI or did Pilate and Jesus converse directly in a common language? Logically, that language would have been Greek, the lingua franca of the Roman world and a language which I think I’ve demonstrated is one that Jesus probably both read and spoke.

The Septuagint

The Septuagint Legend

It was believed that 72 different translators were locked in separate cells and did 72 separate translations of the Pentateuch. These 72 different translations were reportedly word-for-word identical.

Because of this legend, many Jews believed the Septuagint was verbally inspired, as is the case with some modern Christians who believe the King James version is the only accurate and trustworthy version of the Scriptures.

The More Believable Story Behind the Septuagint

Some scholars deny Aristeas’s letter was genuine, but according to Aristeas, the high priest Eleazar convinced the Greek ruler of Egypt, Ptolemy II (maybe Ptolemy I), to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek in order to add them to Ptolemy’s library at Alexandria. Possibly on the grounds of the Alexandrian lighthouse itself (one of the the 7 wonders of the ancient world), a team of scholars worked for months to produce a translation of the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses. Over the next 100-150 years, the other OT books were translated and added, as were the Apocryphal books. The Jews used the Septuagint enthusiastically and unquestioningly FOR ALMOST 400 YEARS until rejecting it because of its wide use by Christians.

The Septuagint and the New Testament

“While the majority of the Old Testament quotations rendered by the New Testament authors are borrowed directly from the Septuagint, a number of times they provide their own translation which follows the Hebrew text against the Septuagint.” Brenton

“In some cases we can see how the Septuagint provided the perfect phrase—different to the same passage in the Hebrew—for them. The apostle Paul, for example, builds much of his magnum opus, the Book of Romans, with quotations from the Septuagint, not the Hebrew Bible.” Law

Major Septuagint and Hebrew Scripture Differences

“The Greek text varies at many points from the corresponding Hebrew text; The order of the Biblical Books is not the same—the threefold division of the Hebrew canon into the Law, Prophets, and Writings is not followed in the LXX Several books not found in the Hebrew are included in the LXX …the Apocrypha;” Brenton

Hebrew Version and the Septuagint Version

“In the Hebrew Bible the story of David and Goliath takes up eighty-eight verses, but in the Septuagint the story spans only forty-nine. This is a shorter text by almost half, and some parts are missing altogether. Has the Hebrew Bible expanded upon a shorter story or has the Septuagint translator shortened a longer text?” Law, When, (Kindle Locations 612-614)

EARLY View on the Poor Quality of the Septuagint Translation

“The variety of the translators is proved by the unequal character of the version: some books show that the translators were by no means competent to the task, while others, on the contrary, exhibit on the whole a careful translation. The Pentateuch is considered to be the part the best executed, while the book of Isaiah appears to be the very worst.” Brenton

Daniel was also so poorly translated, a later, alternative Greek translation was plugged into the Septuagint.

LATER View on the Quality of the Septuagint Translation

“Those were the two basic options for understanding the Septuagint, and most scholars chose the first route [previous slide]. But when the Dead Sea Scrolls showed these divergent text forms in Hebrew, and when some of these were represented verbatim in translation in the Septuagint, the calculus suddenly changed. Now that we had the Dead Sea Scrolls, we knew the Septuagint translators were in many of these cases translating actual biblical texts.” Law, ,

Should You Switch/Add the Septuagint

(The Apocrypha is a totally separate issue which we will be discussing in the months ahead.)

Sources

• Benner, Jeff A. “A History of the Masoretic Hebrew Texts.” Jul 6, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO2RlMAmo8w Retrieved Oct 25, 2019
• Brenton, Sir Lancelot C. L. “Preface” and “Introduction.” The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English.
• Constantinou, Dr. Jeannie. (July 26, 2008) "Introduction to the Bible - Lesson 8." [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from Search the Scriptures: Practical Bible Study for Busy People. Ancient Faith Podcasts.
• Law, Timothy Michael. “Why Should We Care About the Septuagint?” July 22, 2013.. https://blog.oup.com/2013/07/septuagint-christianity-bible-dead-sea-scrolls/ . Retrieved Oct 20, 2019.
• Law, Timothy Michael. When God Spoke Greek: The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible. Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
• Museum of the Bible. "How the Biblical Canon Was Formed." May 8, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFEBwfYZBJY . Retrieved Oct 25, 2019. GREAT VISUALS!
• Patzia, Arthur G. The Making of the New Testament: Origin, Collection, Text & Canon. Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, 2011.
• Peck, Fr. John A. "Masoretic Text vs. Original Hebrew." Aug 31, 2015. https://preachersinstitute.com/2015/08/31/masoretic-text-vs-original-hebrew/ . Retrieved Oct 25, 2013.
• Pixner, Fr. Bargil. With Jesus through Galilee According to the Fifth Gospel. Rosh Pina: Corazin Publishing, 1992. (The 5th Gospel alluded to here is the geography of the Holy Land, not a document.)
• Post-Apostolic Church. “I. Introduction to the Septuagint.” Feb 8, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wczieIcwRys. Retrieved Oct 23, 2019.
• Post-Apostolic Church. “II. History of the Septuagint.” Mar 4, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3f82WxIx5Q . Retrieved Oct 23, 2019.
• Post-Apostolic Church. “III. Notable Differences between the Masoretic and the Septuagint.” May 13, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ottD9bt8t44 . Retrieved Oct 23, 2019. Post-Apostolic Church. “IV. New Testament Quotations that Follow the Septuagint.” Jul 15, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe4R9ThNA5g . Retrieved Oct 23, 2019.
• Spiro, Ken. Crash Course in Jewish History: The Miracle and Meaning of Jewish History from Abraham to Modern Israel. Kindle Edition.
• Terry, Milton S. Biblical Hermeneutics: A Treatise on the Interpretation of the Old and New Testaments. Hunt & Eaton: NC, 1890.