Page 45 - Doctrine and History of the Preservation of the Bible revised

You ask, isn’t that a problem? No, not really. Since we have so many texts to look at over the more than
3700 years of copies, we can ascertain when an addition or a subtraction occurred by comparing
manuscripts. Of course, we have many more copies of New Testament books than Old Testament
books. Finding the Dead Sea Scrolls really solidified the reliability of the manuscripts we do have from
the Old Testament.

Since God is the author of all the Scriptures, God promised that His Word would be preserved
throughout the ages. Consider these passages of Scripture:

Matthew 5:17-18 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to
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abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota,
not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Psalm 119:89 Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.

Psalm 12:6-7 The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the
ground, purified seven times.7 You, O Lord, will keep them; you will guard u] from this generation
forever.

Isaiah 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

As we look through the thousands of copies we have of the early manuscripts, we can clearly see how
God preserved the word He wrote so that the Bible we have today is truly God’s Holy Word as penned
by the original authors.

Meticulous care of Jewish Scribes

The lack of manuscript evidence could be a cause for alarm if it were not for the extreme care of the
Jewish scribes who made copies of the Old Testament. The Jewish scribes conscientiously sought
perfection in the transcription of the text. According to the Talmud, rigid regulations were laid down for
making copies of Old Testament texts:

1. The copyist was required to sit in full Jewish dress after a complete bathing.
2. Only a certain kind of ink could be used.
3. Rules governed the spacing of words.
4. No word or letter could be written from memory.
5. Lines and letters were methodically counted.
6. If a manuscript was found to have even one error it was destroyed. (This helps explain why only a few
manuscripts survived.)
7. During the copying process, any two words touching each other warranted destruction of that page,
and the page before it (because it had touched that page).

“This strict set of regulations which governed the early Jewish scribes is a chief factor which guarantees
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the accurate transmission of the Old Testament text”.

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