Preparation and Preservation of the Scriptures

LESSON 3

PREPARATION AND PRESERVATION OF THE SCRIPTURES

You are welcome to another edition of Insights from God's Word, a Bible study programme that is committed to sharing God's Word by allowing the Bible to speak for itself.

In this edition, we continue with our series on The Holy Scriptures. The topic for this study is: Preparation and Preservation of the Scriptures. In our previous study, we considered the characteristics and organisation of the Scriptures. In this study, we will consider issues in relation to the preparation and preservation of the Scriptures. The entire lesson has been divided into five sub-sections as follows:

1) PRODUCTION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

The Holy Scriptures were produced in a similar fashion just as other works of literature at the time they were written. Ancient leather (made from tanned animal skins) was the principal material that was employed in the writing of the Old Testament. On the other hand, papyrus served as the principal writing material in transcribing the New Testament. Moreover, the writing pens were made from finely beaten reed brushes (sharp-pointed reeds) with ink made from a mixture of soot, gum and water.

In the production of the Bible, we find that in several cases the Bible writers did their own writing. In other instances, they dictated to scribes or amanuenses (see Exodus 24:4; Jeremiah 36:4). Irrespective of whether the writing was done by the prophet himself or his scribe did not matter, for it was the correct transcribing of the words of Jehovah that was of the chief concern. And in this respect, all writers, whether the prophets themselves or their scribes, were led by the Spirit to meticulously set down in writing the words that have been entrusted unto them for the people of God. It is the supervision of the Spirit in the production of the Bible that makes the book different from all other works of literature even from ancient times.

2) EARLY PRESERVATION OF THE SCRIPTURES

When God chose the people of Israel, He gave them His laws, commandments, testimonies, statutes and judgments. In God's infinite wisdom, He saw the need for the people to write out the various messages He gave them, and set them aside for future generations (see 1 Corinthians 10:11). The first piece of writing that the Lord commanded the Israelites to set aside in a special manner was the Ten Commandments; the Law that He Himself had inscribed upon two tablets of stone. Concerning this law, the Lord commanded Moses, the following: "And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee" (Exodus 25:21). From Exodus 40:20, we learn about how Moses obeyed the Lord in this regard.

Besides the Ten Commandments, the Lord gave the Israelites several other laws through His servant Moses. The Lord required that these laws were also set apart in a proper manner by the side of the ark. From the book of Deuteronomy, we read the following in relation to this point: "31:24 And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,

31:25 That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying,

31:26 Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee."

(Deuteronomy 31:24-26) When Joshua took over the leadership of Israel, he also followed the practice of Moses by preserving the accounts of the people of God. From the book of Joshua, we read the following in relation to this point: "24:24 And the people said unto Joshua, The LORD our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.

24:25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

24:26 And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the LORD."

(Joshua 24:24-26) Commenting on this passage in Joshua, Ellen White wrote: "So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem." Having written an account of this solemn transaction, he placed it, with the book of the law, in the side of the ark. And he set up a pillar as a memorial, saying, "Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which He spake unto us; it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God. So Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance" (Patriarchs and Prophets, 524.3). Through the leadership of Moses and Joshua, we see how the sacred writings were set apart as deserving special regard. This practice continued from generation to generation. For instance when Samuel was a judge in Israel, we read the following concerning his work: "Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before the LORD. And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house" (1 Samuel 10:25).

From the passages above, we see how Moses, Joshua and Samuel carefully kept their sacred writings in the sanctuary of the Lord. This practice was continued from generation to generation as God moved upon the prophets to write out His messages for the people. The sacred writings were kept in the temple for safe keeping (see 2 Kings 22:8). Sometimes, they were also kept with priests and other religious leaders. As time progressed in the history of Israel, the sacred writings that the Lord had given to the people became enormous. The time came when the religious leaders saw the need to put all the sacred writings into a unit for the people.

3) CANONISATION OF THE ANCIENT HEBREW SCRIPTURES

The English word 'canon' is derived from the Greek word 'kanon' which basically mean "a rule or standard for testing straightness"*. The canon of Hebrew Scriptures describes the set of the sacred books which the Jews accepted as authoritative Scripture. In regard to the work of assembling the authoritative Scriptures of the Jews, God had prepared the hearts of men such as Ezra and Nehemiah. Concerning Ezra, the priest and scribe, the Scriptures testify: "For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments" (Ezra 7:10). Jewish history makes it clear that it was during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah that the sacred writings of the people of Israel were assembled, and placed into a unit. In fact, when the Messiah walked among the Jews, the people were unanimously united in the writings that formed the Holy Scriptures; for Christ could affirm the authenticity of the Scriptures through the words: "that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me" (Luke 24:44).

Even though the people of Israel were earlier united on the writings that formed the Scriptures, it was not until AD 90, at the council of Jamnia, that the Jews took a more formal approach to acknowledge and unite on the writings that they regarded as authoritative Scriptures. In the compilation of this Jewish canon of sacred Scriptures, there are some writings which are mentioned in the Old Testament [such as The Book of the wars of the Lord (Numbers 21:14, 15); The Book of Jasher or the Upright One (Joshua 10:13); the records of Nathan the prophet and the records of Gad the seer (1 Chronicles 29:29); the records of Shemaiah the prophet (2 Chronicles 12:15); the annals of the kings of Israel (1 Kings 14:19); the annals of Jehu (2 Chronicles 20:34) etc.], yet were not included in the canon. Moreover, the Old Testament Apocrypha comprising of various books which were written during the inter-testamental period were also excluded from the Jewish canon. Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the leaders of the Jews were able to select the sacred writings that were to constitute the Holy Scriptures for the people of God in succeeding generations.

4) CANONISATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES

Unlike the Old Testament, several of the writings of the New Testament gained immediate acceptance with the disciples of Christ. These writings include the Gospels, Acts and Paul's letters (see Colossians 4:16). The general epistles and the book of Revelation however took a much longer time to be accepted into the body of inspired New Testament writings. As the Christian faith grew and expanded to diverse regions, the church was harassed with several uninspired gospels and writings (commonly referred to as pseudepigrapha). As this negative development began to plague the early Christian church, it became necessary for the leadership of the church to assemble together the body of truly inspired New Testament writings. Through the first four centuries after Christ, the Holy Spirit moved upon faithful men in the church to begin to distinguish, and set aside the inspired books of the New Testament from those that were not inspired. The men who worked on the New Testament canon utilised the criteria below to separate the inspired writings from those which were not inspired:

a) Was the writer one of the apostles of Christ?

b) Was the writer a companion of an apostle?

c) Was the book internally consistent?

d) Did the content of the book harmonise with other Scriptures?

e) Did the book conform to expected Christian experience?

Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, these men assembled together the 27 books that form the New Testament of our current Scripture. The Lord led them to see through the various writings which were written without the stamp of the Holy Spirit, and thus removed them from the canon of the New Testament Scriptures.

From archeological discoveries such as the Dead Sea Scrolls which were discovered in 1947, it is interesting to learn about how the Jewish canon of 24 scrolls which were made up of the Torah (Law), the Nevi'im (Prophets) and the Ketuvim (Writings) parallels our modern Old Testament Scriptures that we use today. Moreover, the over 5,000 ancient manuscripts containing various portions of the New Testament available to scholars also parallel our modern New Testament that we hold in our hands today. Obviously, the Lord has done a mighty work of preserving His Word. No human effort, however meticulous, would have been able to preserve the Holy Scriptures from the ancient times until now.

5) PRESERVATION OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THE MIDST OF TERRIBLE PERSECUTION

The Holy Scriptures in a unique way have seen several calculated attempts to put it out of existence. Yet, somehow, the Scriptures always survived the cruel tyranny of those who hated it, and wanted to put it out of existence. The hand of God has preserved His Word; for over the thirty-four centuries when the writing of the Scriptures was begun by Moses, the Scriptures have been preserved in an amazing way.

Through strategies such as the rebellion of ancient Israel towards God, and its associated retributions of various catastrophes and captivity, Satan hoped to destroy the sacred writings. Yet, the Lord in a special manner preserved His Word amidst even the sinful conditions and judgements that came upon His chosen people. When Satan inspired cunning men to write out their own version of "sacred Scriptures" through which he sought to confuse the people of God, the Lord opened the eyes of His people to see through these false Scriptures, and separate them from the genuine ones.

When the early Christian church grew and expanded to new territories, Satan utilised the leaders of the then Roman Empire to obliterate the Holy Scriptures. One particular Roman emperor that hated Christ and His church was Diocletian. Diocletian reigned from 284 A.D. to 305 A.D. During the latter part of his reign, Diocletian began to fiercely persecute the Christians in his empire as they refused to succumb to the idolatrous practices of the Roman Empire. In 303 A.D., Diocletian gave the command that all those who possessed copies of the Scriptures should surrender it to the authorities to be burned. Defaulters of this command were to be killed. Concerning this terrible time, Eusebius, the historian wrote: "royal edicts were published everywhere, commanding that the churches be leveled to the ground and the Scriptures destroyed by fire" (Church History, Book VIII, Ch. 1). "All these things were fulfilled in us, when we saw with our own eyes the houses of prayer thrown down to the very foundations, and the Divine and Sacred Scriptures committed to the flames in the midst of the market-places..." (Church History, Book Vlll, Ch. 2). After Diocletian's edict had been in force for two years, the monarch proudly boasted: "I have completely exterminated the Christian writings from the face of the earth!" (Rimmer, Seven Wonders of the Wonderful Word, p. 15). But friends, this was an empty boast. From Newman, the historian, we read that: "Multitudes . . . hastened to deny the faith and to surrender their copies of the Scriptures; many more bore the most horrible tortures and refused with their latest breath to surrender the Scriptures or in any way to compromise themselves" (Newman, Church History, p. 169). Despite the satanic zeal that accompanied Diocletian in his work, the Bible could not be stamped out. Several copies of the Scriptures were hidden by God's faithful people who had come to love God and His Word more than life itself. It is interesting to learn that Diocletian, who wanted to see the end of God's Word, was rather brought to an end by a severe illness in 313 A.D. Ironically, Constantine the Great, the emperor who came after Diocletian became a 'Christian', and requested that copies of the Bible be made for all the churches.

God's Word has triumphed over the gates of hell, but Satan was not discouraged in his warfare against the Holy Scriptures. During the late Middle Ages, the devil waged another war on the Scriptures through the established church of the day. The papacy, a system that was seen by the world to be a Christian organisation, and as such a friend of the Scriptures, began to wage a cruel war against the Holy Scriptures. Through religious and secular laws, the papacy ensured that people were prohibited from owning their own copies of the Holy Bible. For instance, from The Roman Catholic Church Council of Tarragona 1234 A.D.; 2nd Cannon, we read the following order: "No one may possess the books of the Old and New Testaments, and if anyone possesses them he must turn them over to the local bishop within eight days, so that they may be burned" (Source: D. Lortsch, Histoire de la Bible en France, 1910, p.14). Religious groups such as the Waldenses that decided to hold on to the Scriptures despite such man-made laws were excommunicated by the church, deemed as heretics, and grievously persecuted. One would ask why a Christian organisation like the Catholic Church would wage such a hostile attack on the Scriptures. You see friends, the papacy (the antichrist of Bible prophecy) found it critical to destroy the Scriptures in the past because of the numerous pagan traditions that they have substituted for the Word of God. They knew that a plain reading of the Scriptures would open the eyes of the people to resist the order of the society. Thus, they took the Bible from the hands of the common people, lest their deceptions would be uncovered. It is sad to learn that besides gathering the Holy Scriptures from the masses to be burned, the papacy also ensured that the Bible became accessible only through the scholarly Latin language so that only the priests could read, and interpret it to the people.

Beloved, with the Bible restricted from the common people, the consciences of the masses became darkened. The people lived long in a dark age. But God did not suffer His people to grove in darkness forever. The Spirit that had inspired the writing of the Scriptures, inspired faithful men to enter upon a labour that would redeem the Word of God from the control of the corrupt church of the day. The first person that the Lord called to enter upon the labour of bringing the Scriptures to the common people was John Wycliffe, a renowned priest of the Catholic Church, and professor of Divinity at Oxford University.

Wycliffe was led by the Spirit to question why the Bible should only be in the form of scholarly languages, and kept away from the common people. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, John Wycliffe resolved to translate the Bible from the scholarly Latin Vulgate to the English language so the common man could read. He knew that the work he ventured upon would bring the full hatred of Rome upon him. Yet, inspired by the Spirit of God, he could not back down on such a great work. Even though faced with great opposition from the pope, bishops and kings, John Wycliffe lived to offer the English people the Word of God in their own native language in 1382. His work marked the beginning of the reformation that would open the eyes of God's people to the truths of God's Holy Word.

Friends, Rome's hatred toward the work of John Wycliffe knew no bounds. The papacy decided to make him an example of all who would dare to question the authority of the church. But the work of the reformer was finished, and God ensured his protection until he fell asleep in death through a short illness. The action of the church towards the remains of Wycliffe shows their abhorrence towards the Holy Scriptures. From the pen of inspiration, we read the following: "The papists had failed to work their will with Wycliffe during his life, and their hatred could not be satisfied while his body rested quietly in the grave. By the decree of the Council of Constance, more than forty years after his death his bones were exhumed and publicly burned, and the ashes were thrown into a neighboring brook" (The Great Controversy, p 234, par. 2). Beloved, despite this public hatred towards Wycliffe and his work, the work of reform was to go forward in various countries. In 1440, God inspired Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith and craftsman, to invent a mechanical movable type printing press. Out of this printing press soon came out in mass production, "The Gutenberg Bible" in 1455. Even though the world hailed Gutenberg's invention, the papacy soon sensed a great danger with the new technology. History records that in 1462, Archbishop Adolphus broke up the printing establishments of Gutenberg and Schoeffer in order to prevent their circulation (see The Huguenots, page 7 cited in Truth Matters by Walter J. Veith).

Despite this attack on Gutenberg's work, the onward march to set God's people free from the powers of darkness continued with renewed vigour. In the 1500s, Martin Luther, who was a Catholic priest and professor of Theology at Wittenberg University, was inspired by God to expose the pagan traditions of the Catholic Church in Germany. The reform work of Luther flew on the wings of Gutenberg's innovation of printing to multitudes in diverse regions of Europe. The light of Scripture now flooded many hearts. But Martin Luther was summoned to Worms in Germany, where he was asked to recant all that he had written against the Catholic Church. Luther refused to recant, and was excommunicated, and regarded as a heretic by the Catholic Church. Hidden from his enemies in the Wartburg Castle in Germany, Martin Luther translated the New Testament into the German language in 1522. In 1534, Luther crowned his life work by giving to the German people a vernacular translation of the entire Bible.

Friends, even though the papacy influenced the kings of Europe to set strict laws in relation to the translation of the Holy Scriptures, like a mighty army, the work of translation was still to move forward. Following in the steps of Wycliffe and Luther was William Tyndale. In April 1524, Tyndale left England to Germany where he hoped to secretly translate the entire Scriptures into the English language. After translating the New Testament and some portions of the Old Testament, he was betrayed by Henry Phillips, an Englishman who pretended to be his friend, unto his enemies. Tyndale was arrested in Belgium, where he was long-imprisoned, ill-treated, and was finally brought to the stake on the 6th of October, 1536 for daring to translate the Bible so the common person could access its contents.

Tyndale's last words before he was strangled to death, and then burned were those of a bold martyr: "Lord, open the king of England's eyes". Satan has been successful in cutting short the work of Tyndale, yet his dying request to God was honoured in a most significant manner. The Lord did open the eyes of king Henry VIII of England such that in less than three years after the death of Tyndale, this king licensed English Bibles to be placed in the parish churches of England. Moreover, the work that Tyndale had left uncompleted was to be finished in a most significant manner through an official order from a king of England. In 1604, King James VI assembled a team of scholars to officially translate the entire Bible for the Church of England. Interestingly, the translation work of Tyndale served as an important reference work for this team of scholars. And so it was, that in 1611, the translation of the King James Version of the Bible was completed and published; a majestic translation of the Holy Scriptures that would serve as a clear light for God's people through various generations.

Beloved, just like in England, Satan made another attempt to destroy the Scriptures in France. Through the influence of infidels such as Voltaire, Christianity was outlawed in France, and many copies of the Holy Scriptures were publicly burned. In 1776, Voltaire made the following bold prediction: "One hundred years from my day, there will not be a Bible in the earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity-seeker." But just like his predecessors who had made their attempt at destroying God's Holy Word, Voltaire made his exit out of the world before the Holy Scriptures. Fifty years after his death, the very printing press upon which Voltaire had printed his infidel literature in his bid to annihilate Christianity and the Scriptures was being used to print copies of the Bible. In fact, the very house in which Voltaire had lived was literally stacked with Bibles prepared by the Geneva Bible Society.

Besides the accounts we have gone through above, there are several other places where the Bible was regarded as a forbidden book, taken from God's people, and its circulation strictly restricted. But despite the numerous attacks that Satan brought upon God's Word in order to annihilate it, the Lord has miraculously preserved His Word. In the early 1800s, the Lord set in motion a work that will forever make it impossible for Satan to take the Bible from the hands of His people. This work was the formation of Bible societies in various countries. The divine objective of the Bible societies was to ensure that every child of God would own a copy of the Bible in his or her own native language at an affordable price. With this objective in view, the Bible Societies have worked assiduously to circulate the Bible to the ends of the world. Today, the Bible is the most common, translated and bestselling book in the world. As at October 2019, out of the 7,350 languages in the world, the Bible has been translated into 692 languages used by 5.6 billion people. This statistic is so heartwarming. Yet, the old adage "familiarity breeds contempt" has become unfortunately true in regard to the Bible.

The Bible has become so common that we tend to forget the enormous sacrifices that early Christians have made so we can have the Word of God in the various translations and formats that are available to us today. Sometimes when I go to church and find people who have placed their Bibles on the bare floor, I cringe. My dear friend, when you are tempted to treat the Bible like any other book, remember that many people have laid down their lives so you could obtain it today. The work, courage and sacrifice of these pioneers should inspire us to cherish the Bible, revere its sacred pages, and spend time studying it so we can be transformed into the image of God's dear Son. Concerning the Holy Bible, Rimmer poetically echoes the following sordid facts of history: "Men have died on the gallows for reading it, and have been burned at the stake for owning it. Tortures too fiendish to describe have been visited upon delicate women and tender children for looking on its pages. Yet in spite of the strongest forces that Hell could unleash and in the face of the animosity of tyrants and despots, there are more Bibles in the earth today than there are copies of any other book ever written by the hand of man!" (Rimmer, op. cit. p. 15). Exhortation: From what we have gone through so far, it is clear that the Spirit of the Lord has been active in the preparation as well as in the preservation of the Scriptures. Satan's numerous attacks against the Scriptures could not succeed because the Scriptures had declared the following concerning its sacred pages:

i) "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever" (Isaiah 40:8).

ii) "Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away" (Mark 13:31).

iii) "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" (Matthew 5:18).

* Reference: Bible Canon by Professor M. M. Ninan

NB: For a detailed exposition on how the Catholic Church fulfills all the characteristics of the antichrist power as outlined in the twin prophetic books of Daniel and Revelation, please request for our end time Bible prophecy series dubbed: The Final Events of Bible Prophecy through any of the WhatsApp numbers at the end of this study.

In our next study, we will consider the topic: How to Study and Understand the Scriptures. The Bible Study references for this study are Isaiah 28:9, 10; John 7:17, 2 Timothy 2:15, 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 and 2 Peter 1:20. Please do well to go through these passages before the next study is released.

Stay blessed and keep shining for King Jesus.

Maranatha!

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