Early Manuscripts

While we often hear and speak of the "original manuscripts" of the Bible, it is a remarkable fact
that there is not one original manuscript_either of the Old or New Testament_ now in existence,
so far as is known. In some cases, when these precious documents became old, they were
reverently buried by the Jews, who used reliable copies in their stead; others have been lost during
the wars and persecutions by which God’s ancient people have been recurringly oppressed.

But while the actual original documents have all been lost, there is, happily, no need for alarm as
to the basis of our faith. There are in existence today many thousands of Hebrew and Greek
manuscripts which have been copied from earlier manuscripts by Jewish scribes from time to time.
These are the documents generally referred to when the "originals" are now spoken of. These
existing manuscripts may be divided into the following classes:

1. Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament which date back to the eighth century, A.D.

2. Greek manuscripts of the Old Testament (known as the Septuagint), translated from the Hebrew
about 277 B.C., which date back to the fourth century, A.D.

3. Greek manuscripts of the New Testament which date back to the fourth century, A.D.

In making copies of Hebrew manuscripts which are the precious heritage of the Church today, the
Jewish scribes exercised the greatest possible care, even to the point of superstition_counting, not
only the words, but every letter, noting how many times each particular letter occurred, and
destroying at once the sheet on which a mistake was detected in their anxiety to avoid the
introduction of the least error into the sacred Scriptures which they prized so highly and held in
such reverence.

The highest authorities assure us that in spite of the countless number of times the Scriptures have
been copied through the centuries, the variations of any importance introduced by copyists into
the Greek documents of the New Testament amount to less than one thousandth of the entire text,
and the Hebrew documents of the Old Testament show even less variation!

Since there are, in the good providence of God, so many ancient manuscripts available, a mistake
in one is, as a rule, detected by the accumulated evidence of the correct reading of the same
passage in many of the other documents. So it may be safely said that with the possession of these
thousands of manuscripts, we are practically able to arrive at the exact words of the Scriptures as
they originally came from God through His prophets and apostles.

Translations of the Bible

The following is a concise chronology of the more important translations of the Holy Scriptures
made from the aforementioned "original manuscripts." Second Century, A.D. The Latin Vulgate

Version.

This was a Latin translation made from the Septuagint version of the Old Testament and the
original Greek of the New. This appears to have been England’s first Bible, having been brought
to that then pagan land by early Christian missionaries. In the fourth century, this version was
revised by Jerome who had access to ancient Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament.

1250 A.D. Division into Chapters.

A certain man named Cardinal Hugo was the first to divide the Bible into chapters. He did this
while preparing a concordance for the Vulgate. The divisions, while very convenient for
reference, are sometimes far from happily arranged. However, they have been followed in every
future translation to the present day.

1382 A.D. First English Bible.

The first translation of the whole Bible into the English language was made by John Wycliffe. It
was made from the Latin Vulgate and took him about 22 years to complete.

1450 A.D. Division of the Old Testament into Verses.

A learned Italian Jew named Mordecai Nathan published a concordance of the Hebrew Bible, and
for convenience, added verses to the chapters arranged by Hugo two centuries earlier. This
arrangement of verses remains to the present day.

1525 A.D. First Printed English Testament.

Following the invention of the printing press in Europe by Gutenberg about 1450, William
Tyndale published the first printed New Testament in English. He translated much of the Bible
out of the Hebrew and Greek rather than the Vulgate.

1551 A.D. Division of the New Testament into Verses.

Robert Stephens published a Greek New Testament in which he divided the chapters into verses.
Nine years later an edition of the English Bible was prepared in Geneva, Switzerland by reformers
who had fled from England during the persecutions under Queen Mary. This was the first whole
Bible which was divided into verses.

1611 A.D. The "Authorized Version" or "King James Version."

This is a translation based on the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts. It was commissioned by King
James 1 and prepared, in five years of careful labor, by some fifty Church of England and Puritan
scholars. It has been revised several times since then, so that a modern copy of the Authorized
Version is quite changed from the original 1611 edition. In this version, the marginal references
from one passage to another, so useful to Bible students, were adopted.

1881 A.D. The New Translation by John Nelson Darby.

God was pleased to enable this man of God to translate His Holy Word most faithfully from the
best Hebrew and Greek sources into English, French, and German. This translation is unexcelled
in its close adherence to the most authoritative manuscripts, many of which were unknown to the
King James translators. It is remarkably superior to the King James Version in many respects,
including its much narrower and consistent selection of English words to express the same Greek
or Hebrew word. To the serious Bible student who desires an English translation which most
accurately renders the inspired Word of God, this translation by J. N. Darby is highly
recommended.

(Adapted by the editor from the following sources:All About the Bible, and Forty-four
Translations of the English Bible.)