THE TRUSTWORTHY WORD

SUMMER QUARTER COUPLES/FAMILY CLASS - 2011

THE SECOND QUESTION (PART 2 OLD TESTAMENT)

Are you sure the original manuscripts of the Bible were copied accurately from generation to generation? Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away (Mark 13:31 ESV).
The integrity of the text of the Old Testament is incredibly important. One of the main reasons we know Jesus is the Son of God, our Savior is the way his birth, life, death and resurrection fulfills the more than 300 Old Testament Messianic prophecies. From the Middle-Ages to the 20th Century, the Hebrew source for our Old Testaments was only the Masoretic text which dates to the 9 th Century A.D. This led many skeptics to doubt the authenticity of our Old Testaments. Then the Dead Sea Scrolls were found which date to as old as 200 B.C. One of the most important contributions of the Dead Sea Scrolls is the numerous Biblical manuscripts which have been discovered. Until those discoveries at Qumran, the oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures were copies from the 9th and 10th centuries AD by a group of Jewish scribes called the Masoretes. Now we have manuscripts around a thousand years older than those. The amazing truth is that these manuscripts are almost identical! Here is a strong example of the tender care which the Jewish scribes down through the centuries took in an effort to accurately copy the sacred Scriptures. We can have confidence that our Old Testament Scriptures faithfully represent the words given to Moses, David and the prophets. Over six hundred scrolls and thousands of fragments have been discovered in the 11 caves of the Qumran area. Fragments of every Biblical book except Esther have been found, as well as many other non-Biblical texts. Other sources of evidence for the integrity of our Old Testaments come from ancient versions like the Septuagint (named for the seventy Alexandrian Jews who translated it from the Hebrew), other ancient translations, and the accuracy of the claims of the text itself. There is no good reason to

ARE YOU SURE?

Are you sure our Old

Testament is the same as

written by Moses and the prophets? Three types of evidence backing the Old Testament: (1) Hebrew texts (Masoretic & Dead Sea Scrolls); (2) The

Septuagint (LXX) & other

ancient versions; (3) Accurate historical information in the books. The Septuagint (or the LXX) is a translation of the Old Testament into ancient Greek. It dates

to the couple of
centuries before Christ & is the version quoted by the NT writers. Even in texts like Daniel 5, doubted for centuries, have been proven historically accurate. Are you sure?

WE AFFIRM THE BIBLE HAS BEEN COPIED ACCURATELY FROM

doubt the accuracy of any part of your Bible. There is no denying the Old Testament predates Jesus by centuries. The details of prophecies concerning him form a convincing reason to put faith in him.
(Source of quotes: christiananswers.net)

GENERATION TO
GENERATION.

July 17, 2011 Part 4