Truth That Transforms: How Did We Get the Bible? - DJ Dickerson

In our last lesson in our series truth

that transforms,

we asked the question, what is the

Bible?

Uh we learned that the Bible is not

merely a record of mankind searching for

God. It is the record uh of God

revealing himself to mankind.

We talked about how creation reveals the

fingerprints of God.

But scripture reveals the voice of God.

That God has not remained silent.

That he spoke through the prophets. He

He spoke most fully through his son. He

guided the apostles uh through the Holy

Spirit. And his message was written so

that the succeeding generations

could know,

understand his will.

But

that naturally raises another group of

questions that stem from the question

that we're endeavoring in a study of

this morning.

Now,

the question that we're asking, and

again,

even put yourself in a a Bible study

with someone right now,

and someone's saying, "Okay, you have a

Bible. You believe that that is God's

word."

Okay, we went through a lot of that

again last Sunday morning. But then

we're asking the question, "Well, how

did we get the Bible?"

And so, "Well, didn't we answer a lot of

that already about the Holy Spirit and

and and just a lot of those things?"

Well,

there's some other parts that we're

going to be considering because if the

Bible is God's word,

how did these writings come together?

Uh

who determined which books belong in the

Bible?

Uh were the books selected by a

religious council hundreds of years

after Christ?

What happened to the original documents?

How were the scriptures copied before

the invention of the printing press? You

know, that might be a question that

comes up.

Did copyists ever make mistakes?

Have people changed the Bible through

the centuries?

What about books that were supposedly

removed?

And can we trust the translations we

possess today? And you're like, if we're

covering all of those questions today,

we're going to be here a while.

This is a This is a really long study

uh that that certainly I'm I'm I'm

giving you

parts this morning.

And and I will say that all of those

questions, those are all fair questions.

Those are all fair questions.

These are not questions that Christians

should fear

because truth has nothing to fear from

honest investigation. We kind of use

that word investigation a couple times

throughout this series. And think about

it from an investigating mindset,

you know,

I've learned that finding a piece of

evidence, again, that's only the

beginning. I shared that earlier uh in

this series. But before that evidence

can be presented confidently in court,

there's certain questions that must be

answered. I'm going to give you some of

these. This is This is kind of the stuff

that happens in the court, the chain of

custody stuff. So, here here's some

questions that's asked to establish the

integrity of evidence. So, we're going

to follow this kind of same idea uh this

morning.

Like question one, where was it found?

Who collected it?

Who handled it?

Where was it stored? Was it tested? Was

it altered? A lot of that has to do with

digital evidence. Is this item being

presented in court the same item that

was originally collected? And friends,

again, that's the process called the

chain of custody. That's why you know

you see the evidence bag up there and

there's all kinds of things, evidence

logs, and you got to write your name,

you got to put all the other details in

there because that's you give it to

somebody else, you know what you got to

do? They got to sign off for it and it's

got to go chain of custody. Who had it?

So, imagine for a moment when you look

at all those questions and that an

attorney enters a courtroom carrying an

important piece of evidence and

announces, "This proves our case."

I've heard that before.

We're like, "Oh, great."

And so, the opposing attorney would

likely ask this.

Question, where did it come from? That's

important to know. Who handled it? Who

Who handled it? How was it preserved?

How do we know it has not been changed?

And again, those questions do not

necessarily disprove the evidence,

but what those questions do is they test

its worthiness, all right? That's what

we're talking about. It's

trustworthiness. And so, in a similar

way, people ask, "Well, wait a second.

You talk about the chain of custody

here, how does that relate to the

historical chain of custody of the

Bible?" I think that's an important

question. I think it's it's definitely

worth us

investigating. All right? Where did its

message originate? How were its books

recognized? How was its text

transmitted? And how did it reach us in

English?

Or any other, right?

All right. So, what we're going to do

this morning as we talk about this

chain, you kind of see a chain that I

have here for us to kind of go by. And

when you're looking at those questions,

each one of those links are going to be

really important that we're going to be

that we're going to be looking at.

Again, only briefly, there's a lot more

digging that you could go into and study

on this,

but we're going to use these words for

our links

in our chain of custody of the Bible

historically.

It's number one, it's going to be

revelation. Because what revelation

does, revelation answers where the

message originated.

Okay?

Second one is going to be recognition,

which answers the question, well, which

writings belonged among the scriptures?

Number three question, that's going to

be the transmission part of it. That

answers how the text was copied and

preserved for us even today that we

have. And then the fourth chain that we

find going to be translation. Well,

again, talking about how did the message

move from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek

into the language that we have today?

Again, these are all fair questions.

And when we examine that chain, we

discover that the Bible did not appear

mysteriously

as one completed volume. It didn't just

show, well, there it is.

That's not That's not how it all

happened, okay? We're going to work

through that a little bit.

But God revealed his word through real

people

within real history, and his message was

preserved

through an abundance of witnesses.

All right?

So, let's start with this number one.

God calls his revelation to be written.

We got to We got to make sure to

understand

uh before discussing really how the

biblical books all came together, we

must understand why God has why he

caused his revelation to be written.

Think about it. I mean, God did not

intend his message to depend entirely

upon human memory.

Oral teaching was important in the

ancient world.

Think about how that works. Parents

teach their children. Remember

Deuteronomy chapter 8, Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 8 · chapter mention Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6 even, all of that talks about

how, you know, parents are to teach

their children diligently. Remember all

we we discussed that just just a while

back.

Prophets, what they would do, they

delivered messages publicly.

In the book of Acts, what do we find

about the apostles even? What were the

apostles doing? They were preaching from

city to city.

But although you definitely have the the

oral teaching that's important,

God also commanded that his word be

recorded. Now, I have several verses I

want to give you and and again this is

just again proving the point here about

what was written down.

Uh you go to Exodus chapter 17 and verse

Exodus 17 · chapter mention

14, you're going to find this

language, right, okay?

W R I T E there. The Lord said to Moses,

"Write this for a memorial in the book

and recount it in the hearing of Joshua

that I will utterly blot out the

remembrance of Amalek from under

heaven."

Now,

this is again following Israel's battle

with Amalek. This is what God told

Moses.

What does that tell us?

That God wanted the event remembered

and the message preserved.

Okay?

Later, when uh Moses completed the words

of the law, well, if you go over to

Deuteronomy chapter 31 and you look at

Deuteronomy 31 · chapter mention

verses 24 through 26,

you're going to find what scripture

tells us here.

So, it was when Moses had completed

writing the words of this law in a book,

when they were finished, that Moses

commanded the Levites who bore the ark

of the covenant of the Lord saying,

"Take this book of the law and put it

beside the ark of the covenant of the

Lord your God that it may be there as a

witness against you."

What does that tell you about the

written word?

The written word served as a permanent

witness.

Israel would not be able to say, "Well,

we didn't know what God commanded."

Y'all see how that works?

His will had been recorded.

You know, I got to thinking about this.

How important it is to write things

down.

I started thinking, "Well, maybe I

should do that with our children." I

should have been doing that along with

the children is keep a book of all the

commands in the house.

Right? Say, "There it is. Chapter 1,

Isaiah 1:2

verse 2."

You know, DJ, Kinsey, you know, those

those types of things. Because again, we

we say, "I don't remember you saying

that." You know.

Let's get the book.

>> [laughter]

>> Centuries later, okay? Centuries later,

God told Jeremiah in Jeremiah 36 and

verse 2. Look at it.

"Take a scroll of a book and write on it

all the words that I have spoken to you

against Israel, against Judah, and

against all the nations from the the day

I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah

even to this day."

You see, it's just over and over again.

Well, let's Habakkuk chapter 2 and verse

Habakkuk 2 · chapter mention

2. There it is again. "The Lord Then the

Lord answered me and said, 'Write the

vision and make it plain on tablets and

he may run who reads it, that he may run

who reads it.'"

The point that I bring out in just

giving these uh very few scriptures here

is this.

"The Lord answered me."

That's probably something What does that

say to you? God spoke.

Uh what else do we have? The word write.

We've noticed that several times

already. What does that tell you? His

servants wrote what God spoke.

What else do we find even from this

verse? Is that others would read it.

See, we can say that makes that makes

perfect sense because through reading

people separated by distance, by

generations,

separated by time

could still know what God had said.

Now, if we think that it just

you know, disappeared there in the Old

Testament. And so, well, all we got in

the Old Testament says all this write

and read and all this. Well, guess what?

You go to the New Testament. The New

Testament follows that same exact

pattern.

Luke 1:3-4, look at that one. Look what

Luke 1:3–4

Luke 1:3-4.

Luke 1:3–4

It seemed good to me also, having had

perfect understanding of all things from

the very first to write to you an

orderly account, most excellent

Theophilus, that you may know the

certainty of those things in which you

were instructed.

See, Luke here is you know, he's

explaining why he wrote this gospel.

He's not writing religious fiction.

He carefully investigated the events

surrounding Jesus Christ and recorded an

orderly account so that his reader could

possess certainty.

Look at John chapter 20 and verse 30 and

John 20 · chapter mention

31.

John 20:30-31.

John 20:30–31

John explained here the really the

purpose he's talking about of his

written gospel.

John 20:30-31. And truly, Jesus did many

John 20:30–31

other signs in the presence of his

disciples, which are not written in this

book. But these are written that you may

believe that Jesus is the Christ, the

Son of God, and that believing you may

have life in his name.

You know, we look at that and we

understand John did not record every

event in Jesus' earthly life.

Um

he recorded what the Holy Spirit

determined was necessary to produce

faith.

Because where does faith come from?

Romans 10:17.

Romans 10:17

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by

the word of God.

Writing though, the point that I'm I'm

wanting us to understand is writing gave

permanence

to the message.

There's some There's some

language that's used in report writing

and those types of things. One of the

things we say documentation.

It's always been said if you didn't

write it, it didn't happen.

Kind of a kind of has a idea to it,

doesn't it?

But

the apostles

would eventually die. The eyewitnesses

would pass from the scene. Congregations

would spread across nations. Languages

and and cultures would change.

But the written word could be copied,

carried, read, translated, taught, and

obeyed.

God caused his revelation to be written

because he intended his truth to reach

beyond one generation.

Let that sink in.

You look back to Old Testament, the

importance of the law in it being passed

from one generation to the next.

Very significant. Same today.

God's written word, his revelation to

us.

Now,

with that being said, we talk about the

book of the Bible the books of the

Bible.

They were recognized as scripture.

So, this kind of brings us to a word

called canon.

Again, you could I'm I'm talk I'm trying

to draw a lot of this down into one

sermon, so y'all bear with me.

Canon. Now, I remember when I was a kid

that when I heard the preacher up there

and said, you know, canon of scripture,

canon of scripture, this is what I

pictured in my mind.

That's what I thought is a canon was

shooting scripture out. And I so, if

there's any kids that's thinking the

same thing, that's not it. So, I'm going

to clear that up early cuz they never

cleared that up for me early.

But, that's that's what I first thought

as a kid. But, the word originally

carried the idea really of a measuring

uh rod or standard. That's that's what

the very thought of canon means.

Uh

when applied to the Bible, the canon is

the collection of books recognized as,

look at this,

authoritative scripture.

That's important to note.

Now,

with all that,

there's an important distinction that

has to be made.

Okay?

A council

did not take ordinary religious books

and turn them into inspired scripture.

No council possessed the power to make a

human document the word of God.

If a writing came from God, it possessed

divine authority from the moment that it

was given.

Keep in mind, the church did not create

the word of God.

Rather, the word of God brought the

church into existence.

And the task of God's people was not to

give authority to these writings,

but to recognize the authority that they

already possessed.

I mean, use that fingerprint

illustration couple times already in

this series.

Think about when a fingerprint examiner

identifies a latent print.

Okay?

The examiner does not create the

identity of the person who made it.

Y'all see what I'm saying?

That's not what the fingerprint examiner

does.

Not the It's not creating the identity

of the person who left it because the

fingerprint already possesses that

identity.

The examiner simply recognized what was

already true.

In the same way, early believers did not

make inspired books authoritative,

they

recognized

writings that bore the authority of

God's prophets and Christ's apostles.

And we can see the recognition occurring

within scripture itself. Do you know

that? You can see that recognition

happening happening in the scriptures.

Look at this. Daniel 9 and verse 2.

Daniel 9 and verse 2.

In the first year of his reign, I Daniel

understood by the books the number of

the years specified by what? The word of

the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet

that he would accomplish 70 years in the

desolations of Jerusalem.

Did y'all notice that? Daniel recognized

whose writings?

Says

Jeremiah the prophet. Oh, but

it's the word of the Lord, wasn't it?

Daniel recognized Jeremiah's writings as

the word of the Lord, and and and one

prophet acknowledged what? One prophet

acknowledged the divine authority of

another prophet's written message. Go to

the New Testament.

Second Peter chapter 3.

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

New Testament, we have Peter here in 2

Peter 3 and verse 16. Look at that

passage.

As also in all his epistles speaking in

them of these things in which are some

things hard to understand which untaught

and unstable people twist to their own

destruction as they do also the rest of

the scriptures.

Here understanding Peter referred to

Paul's letters and warned that unstable

people twist them, distort them.

Now, you take Peter's uh

Peter placing Paul's writings alongside

and and that's what this means when you

see the rest of the scriptures. Y'all

see that?

What does that mean? Well, Paul's

letters were already being circulated

and received as authoritative during the

apostolic period.

That's what he's referring to the rest

of the scriptures.

How's the scriptures many times? Paul

with with that of Colossae. How how did

he instruct the Colossae the Colossians?

Colossians chapter 4 and verse 16.

Colossians 4 · chapter mention

He uses the word epistle.

Now, when this epistle is read among you

see that it's read also in the church of

the Laodiceans and that you likewise

read the epistle from Laodicea.

So, he's instructing that this word

again

is being taken

to other locations.

He also charged the Thessalonians in 1

Thessalonians 5 and verse 27. I charge

you by the Lord that this epistle be

read to all the holy brethren.

So,

what that tells us when we read these

passages

is that these writings were not intended

to remain as some type of private

correspondence, okay?

They were read publicly, they were

copied, they were shared among

congregations.

And again, the key point that you're

seeing with all this is their authority

was connected to the apostles and

prophets whom Christ authorized.

You remember what we noted in our last

lesson and what Jesus had promised his

apostles because again, he wasn't trying

to have the apostles remember,

you know, everything

that Christ had done and Christ had

taught.

There was more, obviously, that they

were going to be guided in and that's

the key word, guided. What did they

have? Who did they have? Well, John 14

and verse 26 we talked about last last

lesson.

Recognized as the helper, the Holy

Spirit, whom the Father will send in my

name, Jesus said. He will teach you all

things and bring to your remembrance all

things that I said to you. Not some

things, not maybe see,

all things.

We taught and all things we brought to

remembrance

of what Jesus had said to them.

Same thing in John 16 and verse 13.

Jesus said, "However, when he, the

Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide

you into all truth. He will not speak on

his own authority, but whatever he

hears, he will speak and he will tell

you things to come."

You see, that's how all of this is

built. And you really got to have that

foundation part, don't you? To have that

understanding of how the message was

transmitted

even, right?

I mean, think about Ephesians 2 and

verse 20.

We have that idea of a foundation that

Paul talks about many times in in in in

the epistles.

Ephesians 2 and verse 20 says, "Having

been built on the foundation of the

apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ

himself being the chief cornerstone."

Paul is here describing the church as

having been built on the foundation of

the apostles

and prophets with Jesus Christ himself

being the chief cornerstone.

So, therefore, when early Christians

evaluated a writing,

they

well,

as we've been going through already,

they naturally asked important

questions.

What are those questions that we've been

talking about? Well, was it written by

an apostle or by someone closely

connected to apostolic testimony?

They'd ask questions like was its

teaching consistent with the truth

that's already been revealed? See,

that's important.

Was it known and used among

congregations from the earliest period?

Did it bear the marks of an authentic

prophetic or apostolic witness? These

are all very important questions that

would be asked because recognition was

not a matter of choosing whichever books

were most convenient.

It was a matter of identifying the

writings that came through God's

authorized messengers.

And I believe we see that.

That's why we don't have we we don't see

where there's one book over here is

contradicting another.

See?

They're united

that one purpose.

Let's talk about the Old and New

Testament books,

how they came together through

recognition.

Lot of times we we automatically go and

say, "Well, you know, we ask the

question, how many books are in the Old

Testament?" And we go and say, "Up, 39."

Right? 39.

But, you know, the Old Testament did not

begin as 39 books bound together in one

volume.

You break it down and you think about

the law, you have the historical books,

the Psalms, the wisdom writings, the

prophets. They were all produced among

across many centuries.

Now, God entrusted these writings to the

Jewish people. And you know, Paul even

wrote to to that

very thought in Romans 3:1-2.

Romans 3:1–2

What advantage then has the Jew or what

is the prophet of circumcision? Much in

every way, chiefly because to them were

committed what?

The oracles of God.

Old Testament, the priest taught the

law, the prophets delivered God's

message, the scribes, they copied the

sacred writings, families would teach

them to their children, and synagogues

would read them publicly.

There in the synagogue, that's where you

hear them read publicly. By the time of

Jesus,

note this,

by the time of Jesus, there was an

established body of Jewish scripture.

I've referred to this passage numerous

times, like that of

Luke 24:24.

Luke 24:24

What Jesus said those men.

These are the words which I spoke to you

while I was still with you that all

things must be fulfilled which were

written where?

In the law of Moses and the prophets and

the Psalms concerning me.

So, really,

when you see that, you know, we think

about the law of Moses, the prophets and

the Psalms, these actually were the

three major divisions of the Hebrew

scriptures. Right there of what Jesus

said in Luke 24:44.

Luke 24:44

And the Hebrew Bible traditionally

counted 24 books. Do y'all know that?

24 books. And you're like, wait a

second, we have 39. How did they have

24? Well, let me explain that.

The difference is primarily

really one of arrangement and division.

And And when I say that,

we we we divide up Samuel, don't we? We

have Samuel's first and second Samuel.

Kings, we have first and second Kings.

We have first and second Chronicles. But

in the Hebrew, guess what?

Those were one book.

Those were one.

And then you also have the 12 minor

prophets that we think of. They were

actually grouped as one collection.

So,

that the material, again, was

substantially the same,

but it was organized differently.

And Jesus and the apostles repeatedly

treated those writings as the

authoritative word of God.

And what did Jesus say? John 10:35,

John 10:35

"If he called them gods to whom the word

of God came, and the scripture cannot be

broken."

The scripture cannot be broken.

What did What did Jesus use when Satan

tempted him in Matthew chapter 4?

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

Each time Each time he was tempted,

three times he was tempted,

he answered and said, "It is what?"

Written.

"It is written."

What that tells us about Jesus is that

Jesus treated the Old Testament not as

some uncertain religious tradition, but

he was treating it as the dependable

word of his father.

The New Testament writings

arose

during the first century as the gospel

spread.

We break that up. Four gospels testify

concerning Jesus. Acts records the

growth of the church, the very pattern

we talk about pattern of the church.

Paul, Peter, James, Jude, John wrote to

congregations and individual Christians.

And Revelation was sent to seven

churches in Asia.

But because these writings that we're

talking about came from the apostles,

who are the apostles?

They are authorized.

They were copied and they were

circulated.

So some books were recognized broadly

and very early and a smaller number

received more discussion in certain

regions.

And And that shouldn't be something that

we we say, "Oh, wait a second." Or

something that should frighten us.

It demonstrates that early Christians

did not accept every religious writing

carelessly.

They examined claims of authorship and

distinguished apostolic writings from

later imitations.

By the 4th century,

Athanasius recorded the same 27 New

Testament books contained in our Bibles

today.

But he did not make those books

inspired, friends. He documented the

collection that had become recognized

that through long-standing use among the

churches.

Now, there's a popular claim that

there's this Council of Nicaea and in AD

325, it says, "Well, that council is the

one who held a vote and they decided

which books belonged in the Bible." That

is fake news. That's false. All right?

The surviving historical evidence does

not show

any council establishing the biblical

canon that we're talking about.

Its principal controversy concerned the

nature of Christ, not a contest among

competing gospels.

And someone says, "Oh, wait a second,

DJ. Now, let's talk about these lost

books. What about these lost gospels

that that's out there?" People talk

about that.

Let me tell you, a document does not

become apostolic simply because someone

attaches an apostle's name to it.

What are our important questions in our

chain of custody? Do you all remember

what those are?

When was it written?

Who actually wrote it?

Was it connected credibly to the

apostles?

Was it received among the earliest

congregations? Was its message

consistent with the gospel proclaimed

from the beginning?

See, those are important questions that

have to be examined.

And I'll tell you

that many later writings failed those

tests.

They failed them.

Because they appeared too late, they're

they claimed authorship that was

unreliable, their teachings differed

from the apostolic message.

That's important to note.

Cuz God's not the author of confusion.

And they were not received broadly among

first-century churches. Now,

understand the New Testament was not

created by suppressing dozens of equally

reliable versions of Christianity.

The books that we possess were

recognized

because of their connection to the

witnesses Jesus personally authorized.

We cannot lose sight

of that.

Cannot lose sight of that.

I told you I had a lot this morning.

Let's talk about the scriptures.

How they are transmitted through

handwritten copies for a moment.

Once the scriptures were written, we

understand that they didn't have a copy

machine.

All right?

We have that I have a nice thing called

a copy machine in my office. You know

what? I love throwing it in you you you

and that's nice.

That's not what they had. They had to be

copied in a different way.

The original documents you talked about

that were written by Moses, Isaiah,

Luke, Paul, other biblical writers

are no longer known to exist. Before the

printing press, each copy had to be

produced by hand.

And you're like, "Wow."

And you thought writing, you know,

several sentences when you got in

trouble in school were was tough. Okay?

A scribe copied the words onto papyrus,

parchment, or or later paper, okay?

And

so, some people raise this question, and

this is one you might run into. Well,

could a copyist make a mistake? How do

we answer that? Well, no.

Well, hold on a second, okay? Let's be

fair.

Let's be fair.

Yes, copyists were humans.

Uh one might accidentally omit a word or

line.

Another might repeat a phrase. A scribe

could reverse the order of two words,

may maybe use a different spelling or

substitute a familiar expression for an

unfamiliar one.

But here's the thing. Acknowledging that

fact does not destroy confidence in the

Bible.

God inspired the giving of the original

message. He did not promise that every

person who later copied a manuscript

would also be inspired. So, we think

about copying differences that that are

to be identified.

Um

and I would tell you that that's that's

done through uh the multiplication and

and comparison of manuscripts.

Um

and I was trying to figure out how to

put it in in in

the way that I'm I'm thinking of this

is is suppose only one witness observed

the crime.

If that witness made a mistake,

how difficult do you think it would be

to detect the error?

Okay, you see what I'm saying?

It'll It'll be difficult.

But suppose many witnesses observe the

event from different locations.

So then suppose investigators and we

talk about possess photographs,

surveillance recordings, telephone

records, physical evidence and written

statements. You see what happened there?

Cuz if one witness makes a mistake, the

other evidence helps expose it.

Friends, the abundance of witnesses does

not weaken the case.

It strengthens our ability to examine

it.

And that's similar to the manuscript

evidence for scripture.

We do not possess only one handwritten

Bible maintained by one religious

institution.

We possess manuscripts from different

centuries, different geographic regions,

and different textual

traditions.

But what is so amazing is that you can

place them side by side and compare.

That if one scribe omitted a phrase,

other copies may preserve it.

If another repeated a line,

comparison reveals the repetition.

The copying differences become visibles

precisely because so many witnesses

exist.

Preservation does not mean

every ancient copy is perfectly

identical.

It means through evidence

and enough evidence remains to identify

differences and determine the text with

strong confidence.

That is so important, so important.

So about ancient manuscripts

how they provide a broad body of

evidence, and they definitely do that.

Uh,

I know that this has been circulating

and and and many have talked about this

is in in in one of the most important

discoveries involving the Old Testament

began near the Dead Sea in 1947.

Scrolls and and manuscript fragments

were discovered in caves, and and and

and among them were some of the oldest

surviving copies of biblical text.

Now, before their discovery, in my

understanding, many of the principal uh

complete Hebrew manuscripts used by

scholars came from the medieval period.

Uh, the Dead Sea Scrolls, commonly

referred to, provided biblical witnesses

many centuries later.

Now, the question that's on everybody's

mind is, "Okay, what

did they reveal?"

They showed substantial continuity in

the transmission of the Old Testament is

what they did.

The scriptures had not been invented or

rewritten re-rewritten during the Middle

Ages.

The scrolls also contained the the kinds

of differences expected among

handwritten manuscripts. Like I

mentioned a moment ago, like differences

in spelling or or or wording in textual

form.

So, the evidence does not require us to

claim that every ancient copy was

identical in every single letter.

It allows us to say that the Old

Testament text was preserved

substantially and can be studied

carefully through the surviving

witnesses.

And the New Testament

really the same thought.

The New Testament likewise possesses a

large manuscript tradition.

And you go and you study further on

this, but I'll give you some that

approximately 5,800 Greek New Testament

manuscripts have been cataloged.

Although the the precise number changes

manuscripts are discovered,

reclassified, and and cataloged more

accurately.

But most do not contain the whole New

Testament.

Some preserve a collection of books,

some contain one book,

and others consist of uh a few pages or

small fragments.

In addition to the Greek manuscripts,

there are ancient translations that

we're talking about that into languages

such as Latin, Syriac,

and Coptic.

Early Christian writers

also quoted New Testament passages

extensively.

I mean, you find that uh one important

witness is is Codex Sinaiticus, a

4th-century Greek manuscript containing

the earliest surviving complete copy of

the New Testament.

And you know, I bring all that up, and I

know it's a lot of stuff this morning,

but

these witnesses, as I'm calling them,

these witnesses do not place the

original page written by Paul into our

hands.

We understand that.

They provide a broad, geographically

dispersed body of evidence that can be

compared and examined.

Because again, when you look at it from

a standpoint of

supposing one damaged copy of an

important letter survived,

reconstructing its precise contents

could be difficult.

But imagine possessing hundreds or

thousands of copies from different

regions and periods.

Small differences, yes, would exist, but

comparison would allow the earlier

wording to be identified with much

greater confidence.

So, the large number of biblical

manuscripts creates more recorded

differences because there's more

documents to compare.

But, it also supplies far more evidence

for evaluating those

differences.

Somebody says, "Oh, there's textual

variants. I mean, you're you're talking

about textual variants. So, that

discounts the entire Bible."

No.

Textual variants do not mean that the

message has been lost.

Uh

a difference between manuscripts is

called textual variants.

Um

when skeptics hear that many variants

exist, they sometimes conclude that no

one knows what the Bible originally

said.

But, but the number of variants is not

the same as the number of places where

the meaning is genuinely uncertain. I

know all the points I have up here

already cuz you'll see this. If one

manuscript says Jesus Christ, while

another says Christ Jesus, that's

counted as a variant.

Because, what happened to the words?

Well, they're swapped.

A difference in spelling is also a

variant.

If there's an inclusion or omission of a

small word, that's all all considered a

variant.

And then, what happens is each

difference is cataloged even when it

does not alter the meaning of the

sentence.

And most manuscript differences are

minor, and they're easily recognized. I

mean, you know, cuz the word swapped,

somebody just goes, "Oh, that one says

Christ Jesus versus Jesus Christ, so we

can't I mean

It It sounds silly, doesn't it?

But, a small number affect how a phrase

or passage should be translated.

Responsible modern translations often

acknowledge significant questions in

their footnotes. If you have footnotes

in your Bibles, depending on

translation, if you have ESV or what

have you,

those notes, you you know, you'll find

at the bottom. You might see one right

now, wherever you're at. You might find

a find a note, a footnote that says,

"Some manuscripts read, other ancient

authorities omit, some manuscripts add."

A and I were having Bible study with

preparing for for we

Acts study that the

kids are learning in in Kyle's class

there there in Sunday morning.

And

in the book of Acts, you know what? We

were we were there in Acts chapter

eight, and interestingly enough, guess

what? He was using the ESV and I'm using

NKJV, okay?

And guess what? His His had some

footnotes on it. Mine did, too.

And again, those notes are not proof

that translators cannot trust the text.

They demonstrate openness. They They

allow readers to see where there's some

manuscript differences that did exist.

And certain passages have a a more

complicated textual history, and honest

students, we should be aware of them.

But you know what's important? Even the

ones we were studying last night, guess

what? It didn't change.

It didn't change the central message of

Christianity.

Because that's it. The central message

of Christianity does not depend upon one

seriously disputed phrase. The deity of

Christ does not rest upon one verse.

And the resurrection does not depend

upon one single manuscript.

The teachings concerning faith and

repentance and baptism, worship, holy

living, judgment, and eternity appear

throughout the whole entire biblical

record.

And again, the abundance of manuscripts

allows textual differences to be located

for us to study them and to evaluate

them.

We don't need to pretend that copyists

never made mistakes.

We can acknowledge

that human copying process while

maintaining strong confidence

that the biblical message has been

faithfully

transmitted.

It's important to note those things.

But then we get to translation

that brings God's ancient word into our

language.

I'll go quickly on this.

Thinking about the Old Testament was

written primarily in Hebrew with some

portions in Aramaic.

The New Testament was written in Greek.

And because most of us do not read those

language fluently, maybe you do, I don't

know. Uh, let me know afterwards. I'd

like to talk with you.

Uh,

I struggle with names a lot of times.

Y'all see that. We we rely upon

translations, okay? Uh,

and so translation

is the process of expressing the meaning

of one language

in another. Languages do not always

correspond word for word. If you took

Spanish, you can understand some things

probably too on that.

An expression that sounds natural in

Hebrew or Greek might sound confusing if

referred mechanically into English. Like

if I would say the red dog in Spanish,

it's backwards. But people speak Spanish

and they're like, "No, you got it

backwards." You know, see how that

works.

But languages do not always correspond

word for word.

Translators must consider

several things, like vocabulary,

grammar, figures of speech, context, and

historical usage.

And when you go from translation in

translations, there's some that attempt

to preserve the wording and structure of

the original languages as closely

as understandable English permits.

And others place greater emphasis upon

expressing the thought in natural

contemporary language.

Every translation involves decisions.

Modern English translations are are

generally not produced by merely reading

an older English

um

modern

uh and when you're talking about these

comparing of several Bible translations,

that's why I said it can be helpful

earlier.

Uh but translation committees work from

scholarly editions of Hebrew, Aramaic,

Greek text uh developed through the

comparison of ancient manuscripts. And

again, they they examine difficult They

they study all of those things I talked

about of grammar and word usage and and

available witnesses that they compare

and review one another's works.

So, no translation reduces every feature

of the original which is perfect because

as stated, no two languages match

perfectly.

But that does not mean our translations

are trustworthy.

Because across reliable translations,

the

central message remains unmistakable.

God created the world, humanity sinned,

God worked through Israel, Jesus came in

fulfillment of the promise.

He died for our sins, he was buried and

rose from the dead. The gospel

>> So friends, I'm telling you choose that

reliable translation.

Look at the footnotes

translation and wording difference.

Study those passages.

Because our goal is not is not merely to

defend I preferred English

wording.

Our goal is to understand

that God originally communicated.

That's what we're doing.

Now,

I know that you're thinking

I ain't know what I wrote.

This video will be available on YouTube

and most likely will have a transcript

with it.

So that will hopefully help.

Uh now how Google Translate or how

YouTube translates my voice, I do not

know.

So you will have to do some comparisons.

You'll see how what I did there?

All right, so we're going to conclude

the lesson with this. Have

And I'm going to break

this.

revealed his will.

People recognize

writings.

Scribes

text.

Congregations circulate the books.

Manuscripts multiplied across regions

and centuries.

Ancient translations carried the message

into additional languages. Scholars

compared the surviving witnesses.

Translators wrote

Hebrew

and Greek into words we can understand.

>> be evaluated.

And through it all, the voice of God

continues to speak.

As Matthew 24 and verse 35, Jesus said,

"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my

words will by no means pass away."

And even our scripture reading this

morning that brother Aiden Mosey read

for us

in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 5, the

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

first part, "BUT THE WORD of the Lord

endures forever."

Friends, we don't worship paper

and ink or leather or one particular

English translation. We worship the God

who spoke.

But because he has spoken, we treasure

the message that has been placed into

our hands.

The question is no longer, can we know

what God revealed? The question becomes,

what will we do with the word that he

has preserved for us today?

That's title of this series, truth that

transforms.

Today we have followed the biblical

message from Revelation to recognition

and from handwritten manuscripts to

modern translations. That's what we did.

But God did not merely

preserve his word to satisfy our our

historical curiosity. That's not what he

did.

He preserved it so that it could be

heard.

He preserved it so that faith could be

produced as Romans 10 verse 17 says. He

Romans 10:17

preserved it so sinners can learn about

Christ.

He preserved it so that lost souls

could discover the way of salvation.

Because what do the latter part of 1

1 Peter 1:25

Peter 1 verse 25 say?

Now this is the word

which by the gospel was preached to you.

The word that has endured through

centuries brings us to Jesus.

He is the son of God. He died for our

sins. He was buried. He rose from the

dead.

Salvation is found in him and we must

respond.

And it tells us how.

So perhaps you believe that Jesus is the

Christ but have never obeyed his gospel

message.

The preserved word calls you to turn

from sin

in repentance, confess your faith in

Christ Jesus

and be baptized for the forgiveness of

your sins. You can do that this morning.

Perhaps you have obeyed the gospel call

in the past but have wandered from the

way and the word does this, calls you

home.

Perhaps you need prayers, strength,

encouragement of your church family and

God's invitation remains open.

Cuz we have the word, we can trust the

word, but merely possessing the word is

not enough.

Be doers of the word and not hearers

only, deceiving yourselves.

James 1:22.

James 1:22

God has spoken, his message has been

preserved, his truth has reached us.

Now, friends, let truth

transform you.

Let that truth

transform you. I certainly appreciate

your kind attention. You have certainly

been gracious and very very attentive

during this lesson and this study, and I

appreciate you spending this time with

me in the study of God's word

and these questions that we have been

endeavoring.

The invitation is now open is for you to

respond. If you're subject to the

invitation call with whatever spiritual

need you may have, won't you come as we

stand and sing the song that's been

selected for us.

>> Now