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Copyright © By Dr. Adel Elsaie, Book Title: "Please Revise the Bible, Again" |
4.2 Ancient Manuscripts of the Bible
The average Christians believe that there is only one Bible and one version of any given verse of the Bible. They also believe that all verses of the Bible came from the “ancient manuscripts” and each verse was inspired by the Holy Ghost. These ancient manuscripts are Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, and Codex Alexandrinus (Codex: Latin for “book”). The inconvenient scrolls were replaced by the rectangular codices, the direct ancestor of the modern book. These Codices are dated back to the fourth and fifth centuries CE and after the establishment of the trinity by the first two Ecumenical Councils in the first half of the fourth century. The existing versions of the Bible (such as KJV, RSV, and NRSV) are the result of translation and copying of the ancient manuscripts. The Protestants are taught that there are 66 “truly inspired” books in the Bible, while the Catholics believe that there are 73 “truly inspired” books in the Bible.
Jesus most likely spoke Aramaic
which was the common language spoken in Palestine. Some words in the New
Testament are Aramaic. Originally the gospel of Matthew was probably written in
Aramaic then translated into Greek. From Alexander the Great onward Classical
Greek became the most important language. At the time of the New Testament an
easier "Koine" Greek was spoken and in which the
Ancient Manuscripts
of the
New Testament were written. Before other ancient Greek manuscripts were
discovered, it was thought that the New Testament was written in a special Holy
Ghost language. The ancient copies of
the Bible exist and are assumed to be
copies made from the original manuscripts.
There are about 5,000 Greek manuscripts which contain
part or all of the New Testament. There are
Papyrus and Vellum manuscripts. Greek manuscripts are divided
into two classes according to their style of writing: uncial and minuscule. Uncial writing consists of large capital
Greek letters without spaces between
words, while minuscule texts are small and connected Greek letters.