Page 42 - Bible Doctrine Survey I - Student Textbook (3)

The NT was written in the common language of the day when Christ was on earth: Greek. Because of
Alexander the Great’s conquering of the middle east, the culture and language was Hellenized (made
Greek), and Greek became the language of choice. The common Greek was called “Koine”. It is a highly
organized and very precise language. It was God’s choice of language for the NT because of the clarity
of thought expressed in the choice of words and verb tenses. Greek is a technical language, and more
precise than Hebrew or English.

Greek is easier to learn as many parts of our language is based upon it, so we can recognize much of the
alphabet and many of the words. Example: Philos = friendly or loving, Adelphos = brother Philos +
adelphos = Philadelphia “City of Brotherly Love”

Hebrew is another story. Hebrew looks like a chicken walked across the screen. The Hebrew of the OT
was a very ancient language (probably the language of Adam). It is concrete in tone. What it says, it
says, and does not contain the ability to express shades of meaning as either English or Greek.

The Hebrew of the OT does not contain vowels like our language, and more modern Hebrew has added
dots or “vowel pointings” to help better read and understand it. OT Hebrew did not contain these vowel
pointings.
If the oldest Hebrew manuscripts (before consideration of the Dead Sea Scrolls) are dated around A. D.
1000, how can we be sure they accurately reflect what the original writers of Scripture wrote centuries
earlier?

Methods of Copying the O.T

A. 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
the accurate transmission of the Old Testament text” (Lightfoot, pp. 97-98).

Confirmation of the Dead Sea Scrolls “With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, scholars have Hebrew
manuscripts one thousand years earlier than the great Masoretic Text manuscripts, enabling them to
check on the fidelity of the Hebrew text. The result of comparative studies reveals that there is a word-

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