The Accuracy of the Scriptures
Between the Old and the New Covenants
Article III
The Hebrew Canon
The Great Synagogue
Following the return of the exiles from captivity, Ezra, the Jewish scribe and prophet led a group of 120 scribes and other prophets and formed “ The Great Synagogue ” to set up a “ Hebrew Canon.” Their position was to find and gather together the lost Holy Scripture scrolls of old and then compile them together to bring back to the temple in Jerusalem. During the time of the Jewish exile, however, various writings had come into being, with many claiming to have come from God. The challenge for the Great Synagogue then was to set up a standard of measurement to determine which writings were divine Truth and which came from the mind of man. This standard became known as the "Hebrew Canon"
The men of the Great Synagogue were allowed to enter into the archives of the temples of those who had conquered over them to find the missing Torah (Law), writings of the history of God’s people, as well as the writings of the early prophets that had been stolen from them. Slowly those scrolls were gathered together and became part of what we know of today as the Holy Scriptures or the Hebrew Canon. Some of the writings were compiled in chronicles or separated into various books (scrolls) as supportive scripture. Anything that was not written by a prophet of God or not beneficial for one's growth in God was discarded. Because the Jews held such an intense reverence toward their sacred scriptures, the scribes strove to preserve the absolute accuracy with an almost fanatical discipline. They followed an intricate system of safeguard which governed the copying and transcribing of the sacred scrolls against “scribal slips.” Each letter was checked and rechecked. If a single mistake was found, the entire page was destroyed. So exacting and meticulous were the scribes or copyists to where they counted the exact number of individual letters. They even measured the prescribed space between each letter and calculated the middle word and letter in each scroll. They continuously compared the cross-checked new copies with these calculations to make sure they were identical. If there was any discrepancy or miscount, they searched until they located the error and corrected it.
The Hebrew Canon
The Hebrew Canon
The Hebrew Canon came together in three steps: 1) Pentateuch, 2) the Law and the Prophets, and 3) the Hagiographa.
1. Pentateuch: The laws of God, known as the Torah, as incorporated within the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are known by the English word Pentatuech, meaning 5 or 50. This was the only divine document that God ordained as Truth until other prophets came forth who heard from God following the death of Moses. They were read at various feasts and sacrifices as a reminder that they were the words of the Lord.
2. The Law and the Prophets: Following the death of Moses, new prophets came forth who heard from God. When a prophet spoke, the people knew it was from God because they spoke the words of the Torah interpreted in a way they could understand within their time frame. These writings became known as the Writings of the Prophets. Often, however, these prophets were ignored and God’s people grew in the sins of those around them.
3. The Hagiographa: The Hagiographa, or Holy Writings were a collection of miscellaneous writings by various prophets of God. These books are: Psalms, Proverbs, Job; the five scrolls: Song of Solomon, Ruth Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. In addition, the books of Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles were added. These books were read at various feasts as a reminder of the Israelite's sin and captivity and how God had delivered them.
Additional prophetical writings
There were also prophets of God who were a part of the Great Synagogue who spoke for God during and after the exile. For those returning Jews, they needed to hear from God as well. God used these prophets, just like He used those before the exile. These latter prophets also added their writings to what God had revealed to them, as well as incorporated the history of those times to give accurate detail of the exiles and their return home. The Writings of the Prophets then consisted of the former (major) and the latter (minor) prophets. Over the next two centuries, the writings of the Hebrew Canon were copied for preservation.
It must be remembered that each book of the Hebrew Canon was either written by a prophet of God or public documents that were compiled by a prophet of God that was needed for historical purposes.
After this, the Hebrew Canon was considered complete, and it was closed.
After the closing of the Hebrew Canon
After the closing of the Hebrew Canon, the words of God were safely guarded while it resided in the newly re-built temple in Jerusalem. The Jewish people now had the Words of God to live by – it was their instruction in which they relied upon as God’s Truth and a way of life to follow.
For the next 400 years there would be no prophets who would come forth to speak on behalf of God. These years became known as the “silent years,” meaning “God did not speak to His people” - or most known today as the intertestamental period. – the period of time between the book of Malachi from the Old Testament and Matthew of the New Testament. While a lot of history went on during this time period, not one prophet spoke for God. God was “silent” toward His people.
The Greek Conquest
The conquest of Alexander the Great
As a brief recap from the last article: In 722 B.C. the Assyrian Empire conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel in its battle to conquer other counties in that part of the world. As a result, Assyria became the major power over Egypt - becoming the largest empire in the “civilized” world. The cruel Assyrians took many captives into exile, including the Jews from the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Only 150 years later, the Babylonian Empire expanded its territories by conquering the Assyrian Empire. This time the Southern Kingdom of Israel (Judea) was conquered, and those who survived went off into exile into various camps around Babylonia. Then around 70 years later, the Persian Empire conquered over the Babylonian Empire and their borders grew immensely. The Persian power, however, allowed a small group of Jews to return back to their country.
In 350 B.C., in what became known as the intertestamental period in history, one of the most major historical events took place. A new warrior and empire came on the scene. Alexander of Macedonia took his troops from country to country conquering for the Greek Empire. Within a few short years, he had conquered the whole Persian Empire, consisting of the former Babylonian, Assyrian, and Egyptian Empires. Alexander (known as Alexander the Great) conquered the expanded kingdoms for the purpose of hellenizing the “civilized” world into the Greek culture.
Hellenize
A revolution of change to the Greek culture, learning and speaking the Greek language, and the worship and serving of the Greek gods.
Through military power, the world was forced to learn the Greek language, worship and serve the Greek gods, and adapting to the Greek philosophy of life. In an amazing short period of time, the known world became the Greek Empire and was “Hellenized” to the Greek culture of life.
The Septuagint
In time, the Hebrew language became almost obscure with the people of God, having Greek as the vernacular (meaning common) language of the people. Many, however, who came out of the exiles of Assyria and Babylonia remained Aramaic in their vernacular; however, Greek had become the primary language throughout the new Greek Empire. Thus, the Hebrew Canon became useless to God’s people. The only ones who knew Hebrew were the few remaining Hebrew scholars. In order, then, to have the Scriptures available in the common language of the people, a new translation of the Scriptures were written. It was during this time that the Septuagint translation of the Scriptures was formed in Alexander, Egypt.
Named after Alexander the Great, Alexander, Egypt became a prominent cultural, intellectual, political, and economic metropolis. Alexander the Great, having died in battle had become immortalized by the populace of the people.
Hebrew scholars used the old Hebrew Canon Scriptures to translate into the Greek language. They, however, had the same challenge that the men and prophets of the Great Synagogue had earlier in that other writings had come along which many thought should be included as diving Truth. Sadly, this time these extra writings were included as part of the Septuagint, whereas in the Hebrew Canon, any extra writings were excluded. These additional scrolls never claimed to be divine, but were added because they gave some historical value to the times the people lived in. Some of them, sadly, contain doctrinal error that violated the Scriptures of Hebrew Canon. These additional writings became known as the Apocrypha.
Septuagint
(LXX)
The Greek translation of the Hebrew Canon, along with the added writings of the “Apocrypha.”
A group of 70 (LXX) Hebrew scholars were summoned to Alexander, Egypt for the translating of the Scriptures. They used the same meticulous method that was so customary for the Jews. Every “jot and tittle,” meaning stroke and mark, had to be exact as they translated the Hebrew Canon into the Greek language. As the work of translation continued, and the new writings were added to the collection, the compass of the Greek Bible grew into a collection of writings instead of the Holy Scriptures. Among some of those extra writings included the Maccabees, Esdras, Judith, Tobit, Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Ben Sira and others. Additional information was also added to the old scrolls of Daniel and Esther. All in all, there were a total of 14 additional writings that were added to the Greek translation of the Hebrew Canon called the Septuagint. God’s Word to His people had now become a collection of historical books instead of divine Truth from the mouth of God. Regardless, the scrolls of the Septuagint were referred to as the Holy Scriptures and placed in the “Royal Great Library” - the largest library in the world at that time in Alexandria, Egypt. The Hebrew Canon remained obscure in the temple in Jerusalem.
The only translation for several centuries
For the next several centuries, the Septuagint was the only translation of Scripture that the Jews had at their disposal. Because so many of the Jews either remained in their exile or had migrated to other parts of the world, the Septuagint became the Holy Scriptures for the Jews. Eventually the Apocraphal writings came to be considered as divine Truth just because of the nature of them being included with the Scriptures. All scrolls of the Septuagint then became recognized by its readers as divine Scripture.
The Roman Conquest
In 63 B.C. the Romans, led by Pompey, conquered over the Greek Empire expanding the Roman Empire borders to include the eastern part of Europe, parts of Africa, Egypt, and the Mid-east. In other words, the Roman Empire expanded its borders to include the majority of the countries that surrounded the Mediterranean Sea.
Latin was the language of the people around the area of Rome; however, its usage was not wide spread at that time. With the increase of Roman political power, the Latin language began to spread throughout Italy. Since hellenization was already so saturated throughout the former Greek Empire, the Roman victory simply combined the entire empire into a Roman/Greco culture. The Romans had pagan gods similar to that of the Greeks, except they carried different names. The Romans simply applied the Latin names to their gods. Greek, however, was still the common language of the people throughout most of the empire - it would take some time before Latin would become the official language of the entire empire.
Jesus nor His disciples ever quoted from the Apocryphal Writings
Christ was multi-linguistic
The Greek language of the people during the time of Christ was called “Koine” (meaning the common Greek language of the people). Only the upper-Jewish of society in Israel had any knowledge of the Hebrew language, but only as a literary and liturgical. Only the Hebrew rabbis, scribes and scholars knew the language fluently. We know that because the Torah was read in the synagogues in the original Hebrew language during the 1st century A.D. - similar to how some Catholic churches today read Latin in their Scriptural readings. The Greek Septuagint was the primary Scriptures used by the Jews, followed by Aramaic, which was primarily used outside of Jerusalem.
Jesus grew up in a multi-cultural and multi-linguistic society, although He, Himself, spoke Aramaic as His native tongue. Aramaic was the vernacular language of the Jews in and around Galilee.
Aramaic was an ancient Semitic language related to Hebrew and used by the Assyrians.
The Hebrew people came to know the language during the Assyrian and Babylonian exile some 500 - 700+ years prior.
Because Jesus helped His father in the carpentry business, He probably knew some Greek because it was needed in a multi-cultural and linguistic society. Many Greek-speaking Gentiles lived around Nazareth, especially in the large city of Sepphoris that was within reasonable walking distance from Jesus' hometown. [i] The Gospels also point out that Jesus conversed with people who spoke Greek as a primary language and who may not have known Aramaic. He also spoke Greek in some of His teachings, as well as responded back to Pontius Pilate in Greek before His crucifixion. [ii]
It is also believed that Hebrew was Jesus’ second language because it was needed to read and understand the Torah. The Gospels tell us that Jesus spoke fluently and intelligently with the scribes at the temple when He was only 12 years old. He also debated theology with the learned Jewish Sadducees and Pharisees who probably spoke Hebrew.
Jesus never quoted from the Apocryphal writings.
Jesus never quoted from any the Apocryphal writings in any of His teachings - only what was a part of the Hebrew Canon. None of His apostles or disciples quoted from the Apocryphal writings as well. There are no references throughout any of the New Testament writings that point to any of the Apocryphal writings. Remember, none of the Apocryphal writings originally claimed to be divine.
Christ, nor any of His disciples (or writers of the New Testament Canon), referred to any of the Apocryphal writings. They only referred to that what was part of the Hebrew Canon.
The Essenes and the Dead Sea Scrolls
There were a special group of Jews of the Essene sect (denomination of the Jews) that came on the scene from the 3rd century B.C. to the 1st century A.D., who copied the Hebrew Scriptures for preservation.
The Essenes were known for their careful observance of the Law of Moses, believing it was the most authoritative next to God. Their original source was the Hebrew Canon, not the Septuagint. Expecting the world to end at the hand of the Romans, most of the latter-day Essenes went off in the desert by the Dead Sea to escape the depravity and corruption of city life. Having in their possession copies of the original ancient manuscripts of the Hebrew Canon, their preservation of the Hebrew Canon writings were exquisite. Every jot and tittle had to be exact in their copying. If any error was made, the whole page was discarded and they had to start anothe r. As one scholar noted, “It may safely be said that no other work of antiquity has been so accurately transmitted.”
When fear of the Roman invasion came upon the Essenes in 66 A.D., they hid their scrolls in jars in the Quamron caves near the Dead Sea in the deserts of Israel and fled for their lives. For almost 1900 years, the scrolls remained hidden to the world until one day in 1947 they were discovered.
Click here for the next article in this series
End Notes
[i] http://www.markdroberts.com/htmfiles/resources/jesuslanguage.htm
[ii] ibed