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Old Testament
Reliability
1. There
is uniqueness to the Bible that is unlike any other book in the history of Man.
This book has the ability to transcend teaching through time, geography,
culture, and language barriers. The Bible was written over a 1500 year span
with over forty authors. These authors, who all came to agree completely on
many complicated issues, were men from different classes and cultures.
a.
Political Leader – Moses
b.
King – Poet – Shepherd -
David
c.
Herdsman – Amos
d.
Military General – Joshua
e.
Cupbearer – Nehemiah
f.
Prime Minister – Daniel
g.
King – Philosopher – Solomon
h.
Physician – Luke
i.
Fisherman – Peter
j.
Tax Collector – Matthew
k.
Rabbi – Paul
l.
Personal Secretary – Mark
2. Through
the history of man the Bible has proved to be transmitted to men accurately and
consistently through the centuries. The Old Testament Text had many classes of
scribes that monitored the transmission
a.
Sopherim “scribes” – Jewish scholars and custodians of the
text between 5th-3rd B.C.
b.
The Zugoth “pairs” textual scholars 2nd-1st
century BC
c.
Tannaim “repeaters or teachers” 1st century BC-AD
200
i. Also worked on the Talmud
“instruction”
d.
Talmudists (A.D.100-500)
e.
Masoretes: Jewish scholars between A.D 500 – A.D. 950
(preserved the oral tradition (masorah) concerning the correct vowels and
accents). . Most famous Masoretes where the ben Asher
family (Tiberius) who produced the ben Asher text that is considered the
standard Hebrew text of today. This text was also bound together with the
Textus Receptus
3.
The confirmation of the Old Testament by hard evidence
uncovered through archaeology
a.
Famous Manuscripts
i. Cairo Codex (A.D. 895)
Located in the British Museum. Produced
by the Moses ben Asher family contains all the prophets (but none of the rest
of the O.T.)
ii. Aleppo Codex (A.D. 900+) Before it’s partial in 1947distruction it was the oldest complete Masoretic
manuscript of the entire O.T.
iii. Codex of the Prophets of
Leningrad (A.D. 915) contains Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor
profits
iv. Codex Babylonicus
Petropalitanus (A.D. 1008) –also located
in Leningrad. Earliest complete copy of
the Mesoretic text. It was prepared from
a corrected text of Rabbi Aaron ben Moses ben Asher A.D. 1000
v. British Museum codex (A.D. 950) contains part of Genesis through
Deuteronomy
vi. Nash Papyrus
vii. Dead Sea Scrolls- They are
dated about 1000 years earlier then the earliest Mesoretic manuscripts.
4.
Old Testament Archaeology.
a.
Sodom and Gomorrah – “The unexcavated town of Feifa
appears to be very similar to Bab edh-Dhra. Even surface evidence reflects the
fact that the city was destroyed in a fiery disaster. Spongy charcoal can still
be scooped from the surface by hand—this is also true at Numeira. Moreover,
adjacent to the town is a huge cemetery almost a mile in either direction that
also can compete with the Bab edh-Dhra cemetery both in size and usage.” [1]
b.
Jericho – “Finally, one Carbon-14 sample was taken
from a piece of charcoal found in the destruction debris of the final Bronze
Age city. It was dated to 1410 B.C.E., plus or minus 40 years,lending further
support to the view that the destruction of City IV occurred around the end of
the Late Bronze I period, about 1400 B.C.E.”[2]
[1] Have
Sodom and Gomorrah Been Found?.” Biblical Archaeology Review, Sep/Oct
1980, 26-36.
http://members.bib-arch.org/publication.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=6&Issue=5&ArticleID=2
[2] Wood,
Bryant G. “Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho? A New Look at the Archaeological
Evidence.” Biblical Archaeology Review, Mar/Apr 1990, 44-59. http://members.bib-arch.org/publication.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=16&Issue=2&ArticleID=5
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