1. The New Testament is the best attested book of the ancient world.
2. This fact however does not preclude the existence of thousands of variant readings in the manuscripts.
3. We will deal primarily with the New Testament in this survey.

I. The making of the New Testament. It was written over a period of about 45 years, AD 50 – AD 95.

A. The first New Testament writings were the epistles of Paul.

1. Paul’s epistles to the Thessalonians were written about AD 50-51.

2. They were written in response to reports received from Timothy concerning the status of the church, and some problems they were having.

3. Almost every one of Paul’s epistles were written in response to a need in the church or with individuals (Timothy, Titus, and Philemon).

B. The Gospels. They are anonymous, and we have to depend on external sources for information concerning their authorship. There are nine anonymous writings in the New Testament; Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Hebrews, I, II, III John.

1. Papias, c. AD 135, spoke of the Gospels, identifying the authors.

2. He told us that Matthew was written to the Jews, Mark to the Romans, Luke to Theophilus, and John to the Greeks, probably at Ephesus.

3. They were probably written between AD 70 and 90, Mark probably being the first to be written and John the last.

II. The formation of the Canon of the New Testament. The word “canon” means a measure or standard. Therefore when a writing is spoken of as “canonical” it means that it “measured up.”

A. Gathering the books together. The New Testament canon.

1. We have evidence that the four Gospels were gathered together during the early second century, and were recognized as authoritative.

2. The writings of Paul, referred to as the Pauline Corpus were brought together during the early second century as well, and they too were generally recognized as authoritative.

3. Hebrews, the General Epistles, and Revelation had a more difficult time being generally accepted. Approval by the church of these writings goes on into the third century, and with Revelation, into the early fourth century.

4. The early church writers (called patristic writings, or church fathers) from about AD 95 forward (Clement of Rome) quoted, alluded to, and paraphrased all of the books of the New Testament as we have them. They also quoted from many other religious writings.

5. As early as the early third century AD we have papyrus manuscripts of the four Gospels, as well as papyri of the Pauline epistles dating about the middle of the same century.

a. We also have the Muratorian Fragment dating from about the mid second century listing most of the books of the New Testament, along with a few other writings such the Shepherd of Hermas, stating that it is worthy to be read in churches. Hermas’ Shepherd however did not seem have the same standing as the New Testament books listed in the fragment.

b. In disputes with heretics certain Christian writings were cited which were considered authoritative. These quotations help us see which books the second and third century church recognized as canonical or authoritative.

c. In persecutions, attempts were made to destroy Christian Scriptures. This forced Christians to proclaim what was Scripture and what was not. Although this does not define a canon, it does show something about the limits of the canon.

6. Various writers through the third century list the “generally accepted” books, but all fall short of listing the complete 27 books as we have them in our New Testament.

a. In AD 367 Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria gives the first list of all 27 books as we have them. Shortly thereafter, other writers are known to have listed the same books.

b. The fact that these lists did not come until the middle of the fourth century should not alarm us when we remember that thousands of quotations are in the writings of the early church fathers (AD 95 – 325).

c. Further, we have partial manuscripts of the New Testament dating back to the third century.

7. We should remember that the early Christians were accustomed to using a book of Scripture, the Old Testament, so for them to look to writings of the New Testament would be a natural step.

III. Materials we have to work with.

A. A look at the Old Testament.

1. It was written over a period of about 1,000 years (1400 B.C. to 400 B.C).

2. The writers were primarily from the nation of Israel. Job is an exception since there is no evidence that he was a Hebrew, although he was a believer in God.

3. The Old Testament, especially the Law was considered authoritative by the Israelite nation during the time of Christ.

4. With the exception of the Law, the earliest date for the beginning of an organized assembly of books of the Old Testament is in the time of Ezra, about 400 B.C. The Law was probably assembled prior to this.

5. The Jews divided the Old Testament into three parts. The Law (our first five books, Genesis through Deuteronomy), the prophets (former prophets Joshua through II Kings, and later prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets), and the writings (Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Daniel, and Esther).

6. At the Council of Jamnia, AD 90, these books were officially recognized as canonical by the Jewish Council.

a. It is interesting that this is about the same time that the last books of the New Testament were being written (Gospel of John, I, II, III John, and Revelation).

b. Jerusalem had been destroyed in AD 70, and the Jewish nation was in danger of loosing its religious identity. This probably prompted the Council of Jamnia to define the Jewish canon of Scripture.

7. Although we have thousands of manuscripts and fragments of the New Testament, we have only a few manuscripts of the Old Testament, and they are relatively late.

8. The Old Testament Hebrew manuscripts come from a community of Jewish scribes called the Massoretes.

a. The word Massoretes comes from a Hebrew word meaning “tradition.” The Massoretes then were a group of “traditionalist” scribes who faithfully copied the Old Testament text.

b. The Massoretes date from about 500 AD, and the Massoretic manuscripts date from about AD 930 forward.

c. The Massoretes were most notably in Palestine (Tiberias) and Babylon. The Palestinian group were the most important. They had very strict rules for copying the Old Testament books. They were required to have a prescribed number of lines per column (48-60), and a prescribed number of letters per line (30). Only black ink could be used, and not a single letter could be written from memory. Various other restrictions were in place regulating their practices of copying the text.

d. Any copy which did not meet these criteria was destroyed.

e. Massoretic manuscripts extant date from about 930 AD, (the Moses ben Asher manuscript). One of the most important of these manuscripts is the Leningrad manuscript which can be accurately dated 1008 AD because of a note found in the manuscript.

9. However, the Old Testament text is strongly attested by the Greek translation called the Septuagint. It was probably translated in Alexandria, Egypt during the third century B.C., possibly around 250, during the reign of Ptolemy II (285-245 B.C.). The earliest copy of the Septuagint which we now have goes back as to the early fourth century AD in the Codex Vaticanus.

10. The Dead Scrolls, discovered in 1946-47 have the complete book of Isaiah, and fragments of almost every other book of the Old Testament. These date back to the first century B.C. to the first century AD.

B. Materials for the New Testament.

1. The autographs. This refers to the original documents written by the writers themselves.

a. There are no autographs extant.
b. These were probably written on papyrus, and were very perishable.
c. The first copies of the New Testament books were also probably made on papyrus.

2. The Greek manuscripts.

a. There are a few papyrus manuscripts dating from the third century, and one fragment of the Gospel of John which dates back to the early or mid-second century.

b. The parchment or vellum manuscripts date from the early fourth century.

c. These are manuscripts made of lamb or antelope skins, and were very durable.

d. Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, and Codex Alexandrinus are among the most important of these manuscripts.

3. The Ancient versions.

a. Just as people today want the Bible in their own language, the ancient Romans, Egyptians, Syrian, etc. also wanted it in their language.

b. We have copies of some of these. The Latin, Syriac, Sahidic, and Bohairic languages are some of the most important. These translations were made as early as the second century, but the earliest copies we have come from the fourth century.

c. The Old Latin Version gave way to the Vulgate in about 390 when Jerome was commissioned by Damasus, Bishop of Rome to make a new translation from the Greek and Hebrew. This is still the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church.

4. The Patristics.

a. These are the writings of the ancient church fathers, in which the writers quoted or alluded to various passages in the New Testament.

b. Scholars use these to compare readings just as they do with the Greek manuscripts.

c. Some of these are in Latin, but most are in Greek.

5. The Lectionaries.

a. These are the old church books, used to read Scripture in the worship services.

b. Scribes would copy into separate books the blocks of Scripture passages to be read in church for the year.

c. These become separate evidence for the text.

IV. The development of the English Bible. It should be noted that Gutenberg’s printing produced the first printed Bible between 1450-1455.

A. Earliest English translations.

1. John Wycliffe, 1356.

a. He had written against the abuses of the Catholic Church, and was in the forefront of religious controversy.

b. He (probably with the help of others) produced a translation of the New Testament in 1382. This was more than 70 years before the invention of the printing press. Wycliffe’s translation was from the Latin Vulgate of Jerome.

c. When Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, many scholars from the Eastern (Orthodox ) Church fled to the West.
Some of these scholars found their way to Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England, and they greatly influenced the investigation of the Greek text of the New Testament. Until this time western scholars had a relatively poor knowledge of New Testament Greek.

2. William Tyndale, 1490-1536.

a. It was during Tyndale’s lifetime that both Cambridge and Oxford Universities became centers of study of the Greek New Testament.

b. While he was at Cambridge, Tyndale argued for the translation of the Bible into English, but met with great opposition. To one of his opponents he said, “The time will come when the boy who driveth the plow will know more Scripture than thou doest.”

c. Tyndale wanted to do his work under the patronage of the Catholic Church, but was not successful. In 1524 he left Cambridge and went to Hamburg, Germany to continue his translation. This was very shortly after Martin Luther had nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg (1517), setting off what came to be known as the Protestant Reformation.

d. Attempting to minimize the influence of Tyndale’ work, the Catholic Church purchased most of his first edition in order to keep it out of the hands of the public. This action however had the opposite effect, because Tyndale used the proceeds of all the sales to finance a revision and republication of his translation.

e. Tyndale made his translation from Greek rather than from the Latin Vulgate.

f. In 1536 he was burned at the stake. His famous last words were, “Lord open the King of England’s eyes.”

B. Others early English Translations.

1. Miles Coverdale, 1530.

a. He did not know Greek, and made his translation from German (Luther’s translation) and Latin (Vulgate).

b. He dedicated it to King Henry VIII, the king who broke with the Catholic Church to marry Ann Boleyn. This was the first Bible to circulate in England without hindrance from the Catholic Church.

c. Coverdale was the first one to separate the Apocrypha from the canonical books of the Old Testament.

2. The Great Bible, 1539-1541.

a. This was a revision by Miles Coverdale of his Bible, and it enjoyed wide circulation.

b. It was called the Great Bible because of its size, 133/4” X 91/2”.

c. Because of availability of better paper and more sumptuous printing, it was decided to have this Bible printed in France. Tensions between the two countries, and the influence of the Inquisition forced Coverdale to take the print, the presses, and some of the pages already printed back to London for completion.

d. It gained extensive acceptance among the masses, and became the “official” Bible of the Churches in England.

e. It also was purchased and used privately.

3. The Geneva Bible, 1557-1560.

a. At the close of the reign of Henry VIII, and his son Edward VI (1547), “Bloody Mary” came to the throne. She was a devout Catholic, and there was a strong reaction against the Reformation. As a consequence, strong opposition arose to the circulation of the Bible.

b. Tyndale’s Bibles were publicly destroyed, and private reading of the Bible was forbidden.

c. Protestants came under severe persecution, and many fled to the continent. A rather sizeable number went to Geneva.

d. A new translation of the Bible was undertaken under the guidance of Theodore Beza, the most prominent Biblical scholar of the day, and a strong supporter of John Calvin. He supervised a group of scholars in the translation.

e. This was an excellent translation, and became the household Bible for most families. This is the Bible of the Puritans when they came to America.

4. The Bishops’ Bible, 1568.

a. Upon the death of Bloody Mary in 1558, Elizabeth became queen. She strongly supported the Reformation, and many of those in exile on the continent came back to England.

b. The Great Bible had become the official Bible for the English churches, but those returning to England from the continent brought the Geneva Bible back with them.

c. The superiority of the Geneva Bible made it the favorite for most people, and to some extent threw discredit on the Great Bible.

d. The Archbishop of Canterbury, assembled a group of scholars to make a new translation. It immediately replaced the Great Bible, but the masses of people still preferred the Geneva Bible.

5. The Rheims-Douai Bible, 1582-1609.

a. The Catholic Church was forced into competition with the Reformers, and came up with a translation of the New Testament in 1582. It was begun as the English Seminary at Douai, France. When the Seminary moved to Rheims in 1578 the work continued there. Because of a lack of funds the Old Testament was not completed until 1609. This version was not generally successful, and did not enjoy wide circulation.

b. The Rheims-Douai Version was translated from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate. Thus it was a translation of a translation.

c. For many years, this was the only Catholic English Bible.

C. The King James Version.

1. In1604, King James summoned the bishops of the Anglican church and a group of Puritans to Hampton Court to discuss religious differences and toleration, and try to clear them up.

a. The conference didn’t accomplish any of its goals, but a suggestion was made by Dr. Reynolds, president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford that there is a need for revision of the English Bibles because there were inaccuracies in the existing translations.

b. Remember, there were a good many translations around at this time.

2. James liked the idea, and he himself set out certain guidelines to be followed. Two of the most important guidelines were:

a. No comments were to be made in the translation.

b. It was to be done by the best scholars from Cambridge, Oxford, and Westminster.

c. About 47 scholars took part in the translation, each checking the translation of the others.

d. It was published in 1611 with the following statement: “Appointed to be read in Churches.” It was authorized by King James, and became known as the “Authorized Version,” or A.V.

e. It should be noted that the King James Version was translated during the Elizabethan period, and its language with the “thee’s and thou’s was the ordinary usages of their day. It was, in fact, a “modern language” translation.

D. The Living Oracles.

1. This is a translation made by Alexander Campbell during the first quarter of the nineteenth century.

2. He substituted the word “immersion” for the word “baptism” as found in other English translations.

3. It has had very limited circulation, and is confined almost entirely to our own fellowship.

E. Other English versions.

1. The English Revised Version, 1881-1885.

a. Between 1611 and 1860 various new Greek manuscripts were discovered, and the science of textual criticism had developed to a much finer point.

b. Among the manuscript which came to light were the Vaticanus and the Sinaiticus, the two manuscripts which became the Greek basis of almost all New Testament translations after the King James Version.

c. About 101 of the best scholars in England and America wanted to revise the King James Version using the new manuscript discoveries.

d. This resulted in the English Revised Version. The New Testament was completed in 1881 and the Old Testament in 1885.

e. The American scholars helped in this translation, but did not always agree with the British scholars as to the best way to translate certain words and phrases. This included English words which have different meanings under American usage, and English words which are not used at all in America. Their differences were published in an appendix, with the prohibition that the Americans could not publish a revision for 14 years.

2 . The American Standard Version, 1901.

a. Before the 14 years had passed the American scholars had been working on an American Revision. It was finally published in 1901.

b. This resulted in a strongly literal translation which uses the word Jehovah instead of Lord in the Old Testament.

c. Many scholars thought it would be the generally accepted American Bible for many years to come, and predicted that it would have wide circulation. However, its language was perceived as somewhat stiff, and it had lost the linguistic beauty of the King James Version. For these and other reasons its use was limited, and it did not receive the wide acceptance expected.

3. The Revised Standard Version, 1946-1952.

a. The Thomas Nelson Company had the copyright on the American Standard Version, and it was about to run out.

b. An offer was made to the International Council on Religious Education to revise the American Standard Version.

c. The committee was told to preserve the linguistic qualities of the King James Version but bring the language up to date, and make the language more lucid than the American Standard Version.

d. The New Testament was published in 1946 and the complete Bible in 1952.

e. Although some conservative religious leaders strongly criticized this version, it was generally accepted, and enjoyed wide circulation.

F. Newer versions.

1. The New American Standard Bible, 1960.

a.This was first published by the Lockman Foundation.
b.It attempts to update some of the language of the American Standard Version of 1901, and to revise the word-for-word literalness of that version where modern English idioms more perfectly communicated the message.

2. The New World Translation, 1961.

a. This is a translation made for the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

b. There are defects in this translation (it has some mistranslations of John 1 in reference to the deity of Christ). It is generally thought to be one of the poorest translations.

3. The New English Bible, 1961.

a. This was begun prior to World War II, but work on it was suspended because of the War. After the War the Church of Scotland took up the project and completed it.

b. Their aim was not to revise either the English Revised Version or the King James Version, but to make an entirely new translation.

c. One goal was to attract “younger readers” to the Bible, since it was claimed that the English Revised Version was “lulling them to sleep.”

d. The translation did not receive very wide acceptance because its style didn’t “sound like the Bible,” and lacked the beauty of language.

4. The Living Bible, 1962 – 1967.

a. This is not really a translation, but a paraphrase by Kenneth Taylor.

b. Many people like it because it is easy to read, and puts the sense of the text into modern day language.

5. Good News for Modern Man, 1966.

a. This was published by the American Bible Society, but was not considered to be a very good translation.

b. It was widely circulated for a few years, but its popularity diminished, and it is not used very often today.

6. The New International Version, 1978.

a. This was undertaken by a group of college and seminary scholars from America, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, and sponsored by the International Bible Society.

b. Their objective was to produce a completely new translation that would accurately reflect modern day English.

c. Some objections to this translation are that it frequently uses words and phrases which are not in the original languages, but reflect what the translators believed was the sense of the word or phrase.

d. It is one of the most widely used versions in America today.

7. The New King James Version, 1984.

a. This revision of the King James Version was an attempt to retain the beauty of the language, but update archaic words.

b. In addition, it takes advantage of the manuscript discoveries made after the King James Version was first translated in 1611.

c. For the most part, it has done away with the thee’s and the thou’s of the old King James Version.

d. It has enjoyed a good measure of success, but has not taken a strong position with the public.

G. One-man translations.

1. The New Testament in Modern English, 1958.

a. J.B. Phillips, a New Testament scholar, made this translation and issued it first in England, then in America.

b. Although he considers it a translation, it really is a cross between a translation and a paraphrase.

c. Phillips believes that a translation should deal primarily with the sense of Scripture rather than an attempt to reproduce its words.

2. Through the years other New Testament scholars have produced translations of their own, some of which have enjoyed good acceptance from the public. For the most part, these have not been designed to displace any previous versions.

3. Some of these are: Weymouth (1903), Smith and Goodspeed (1923), Moffat (1926), the Berkley Version (1959), Lattimore (1963), and Barclay (1969).

4. These are good for comparison reading. Their weakness is that the translators, in some cases, take excessive liberty with the text. Where there is a group of scholars doing the translation there is the expectation of better scholarship, since a variety of theological views tend to balance one another.

CONCLUSION:

1. The need for new translations will continue for each generation because language and word usage continues to change.

2. Many English words and phrases have changed since the King James Version was published. Notice a few of these from the King James Version.

a. “I do you to wit” in II Corinthians 8:1.
b. “I was let hitherto” in “Romans 1:13.
c. “We shall not prevent them” in I Thessalonians 4:15.

3. Look these up in your New International Version or other version later than the King James and you will be able to see the differences in the readings.

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Comparisons of English Texts
In
Different Translations

Matthews 3:4. Read the King James Version and compare with New International. There is very little difference in the reading or meaning.

John 3:16. Read the King James Version and compare with New International. There is very little difference in the reading or meaning.

Acts 2:38. Read the King James Version and compare with New International. There is very little difference in the reading or meaning.

Romans 1:13. What is the definition of the word “let?”
“I was let hitherto.” What is the meaning of let in this passage?
Read it in the New International. “but have been prevented.”

II Corinthians 8:1. What does “do you to wit” mean in modern English?
“Moreover brothers we do you to wit of the grace of God.”
Read it in the New International. “And now brothers we want you to know about the grace that God has given . . .”

I Thessalonians 4:15. What does “prevent” mean in modern English?
“...we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.”

Read it in the New International. “shall certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.”

Acts 8:34-37. Read the King James Version and compare with New International. Note that verse 37 is left out.

These passages give us an idea of why we constantly need new translations of Scripture.