Accuracy & Impact of the Bible: Printing Press

The following is a lesson in a historical and faithful study
beginning at 7:00 pm on Wednesdays.
at the church of Christ in Carthage, Missouri, south of the Ford dealership
PLEASE JOIN US!

The Big Questions
​Our focus for this study hinges on answering these two big questions.  The goal is to get closer to the answers each week in our class.

How did we we get the Bible?

Is the Bible accurate and dependable?

Does God Communicate with Us Outside of the Bible?

We contend that the Bible and everything it contains is supported by:​​

• textual claims
• origins of the text
• extrabiblical history
• the faith of martyrs
• ​logic​

• archeology
• geography
• geology

• chemistry

• astronomy
• biology

• physics
• mathematics
• and more

One cannot expect the Gospel to spread without making copies.  In this lesson, beginning with the sixth chapter of our text - How We Got the Bible - we learn more about some of these copies.  Since to text provides much of our information, the following simply serves to illustrate that text more completely.

Syriac Versions

The Diatessaron
We begin with the Diatessaron, the first attempt to harmonize the four Gospels.  The Diatessaron was edited and arranged into a single connective narrative by a man named Tatian, who was a student of Justin Martyr.  Tatian did this work around A.D. 150.  This manuscript constituted approximately half of the leaves of a volume of Syriac writings that had been catalogued in 1952 in the library of the Coptic monastery of Deir es-Suriani in Wadi Natrun, Egypt.  It was the standard Gospel text in the Syrian Middle East until about ad 400, when it was replaced by the four separated Gospels.

Tatian, student of Justin Martyr

The Syriac Bible of Paris, Moses before Pharaoh

Old Syriac
​Written in Syriac and signed and dated in 463-464, this an important early copy of the first five books of the Bible.  According to the British Library, "This is believed to be the oldest dated manuscript of any portion of the Christian Bible."

The two chief manuscripts of the Old Syriac are the Fifth Century Curetonian Syriac and the Sinaitic Syriac.  Each of these was discovered in the 19th Century

Page from the Syriac Bible

Rabbula Gospels, Eusebian Canons

The Peshitta
The word Peshitta means "simple."  Our text tells us, "It is a revision of the Old Syriac, based on Greek manuscripts that attest to an early form of the Bysantine-type text.  There are more than 350 manuscripts of the Peshitta..."

Naturally, as we dig deeper into the manuscripts, we continue to discover the vast numbers and wide distribution of copies of the Bible.  It is to be noted that these particular manuscripts rank as secondary as witnesses to the text.  One should understand that these are translations.  They still attest to the wide range of devotion that existed in the young church.

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Coptic (Egyptian) Versions

Coptic - Copt is defined as "a member of Egypt's indigenous Christian ethno-religious community."  The terms Copt and Coptic are variously used to denote either the members of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the largest Christian body in Egypt, or as generic terms for Egyptian Christians; this article focuses primarily on the former definition.  ​From Wikipedia:  Coptic has no native speakers today, although it remains in daily use as the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church and of the Coptic Catholic Church. Innovations in grammar, phonology, and the influx of Greek loanwords distinguish Coptic from earlier periods of the Egyptian language.

Sahidic - From Encyclopedia Brittanica:  "Sahidic (from Arabic, aṣ-Ṣaʿīd [Upper Egypt]) was originally the dialect spoken around Thebes; after the 5th century it was the standard Coptic of all of Upper Egypt. It is one of the best-documented and well-known dialects."

Bohairic - From Merriam-Webster:  "Coptic [is the] dialect formerly spoken in the northwestern Nile delta region including Alexandria and surviving in Coptic Christian liturgical use and as the language of the official Bible version of the Coptic Church."

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Latin Versions

There is a great deal that we will not cover in this course, including the rich history of a man named Jerome.  Jerome is the man who produced the Latin Vulgate.  See more about his story on pages 70 and 71 of our text, How We Got the Bible.  Jerome's Vulgate underwent several revisions through the years, but in 13th Century Paris, with the need for a Bible that could be more easily used, another man, Stephen Langton, arranged the Vulgate into the modern chapter divisions still in use today.  Our book outlines the transitions from Old Latin to the Latin Vulgate on page 73, culminating with:​

Eventually the Vulgate was made the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church, and so it remains today.  The result is that the Roman Catholic Bible in English is a translation of a translation and is not a translation from the original languages.

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The Printing Press

Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany, wasn't the first to use a press, but he was instrumental in "mass" producing copies of the Vulgate, producing the "Gutenberg Bible" in 1456.  Three hundred years later, Benjamin Franklin was in the printing business, his 18th Century press and processes very similar to those of the 15th Century.  For more about printing and the Gutenberg Bible, refer to these videos:

Incidentally, our terms upper case and lower case in regards to the alphabet and capitalization come from this manner of the printing process.  The capital letters were stored in the upper chambers of the case and the other letters rested in the lower part of the case, ready to be retrieved and placed onto the press for inking.

​Application Question

​How important is it?

Is it important to you that the Bible comes from reliable sources, or is it just a collection of wise sayings and advice for living?  Many atheists agree that there is wisdom in the teachings of Jesus Christ, but they do not believe that Jesus is a Messiah, that He performed miracles, that He walked out of His own grave, or that He prepares a place where His faithful disciples will be rewarded for eternity.

​So how important is it to you that the Bible can be proven true?  Do you believe there is irrefutable evidence to its validity?  Is proof something that strengthens your personal faith in the existence of God?

Should faith alone be enough to drive you to drive you to your knees?  Is "blind" faith a stronger kind of faith?  If so, then why did God provide so much evidence?

Go forward with us - or in this case, back to the beginning - as we continue our study next time.