INTRODUCTION

The word Bible comes from the Greek word "biblos" meaning book. The Bible we use today comes from a collection of manuscripts written by inspired men on animal skins and papyrus. These manuscripts were written in the original language of the Bible (these languages will be mentioned later in the lesson).

The Bible was written between 1500 B. C. and 100 A. D. by 40 different men who were moved by the Holy Spirit, I Peter 1:21. The Bible is a collection of 66 books (39 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books). Within these books we learn how the world began, God's relationship with man, what we need to do to be saved, and other valuable lessons. The first lesson in this Bible Study Series will concentrate on answering the question "Where did the Bible come from?" or "How did we get the Bible?"

THE OLD TESTAMENT

The first 39 books of the Bible are called the Old Testament. The majority of the Old Testament is written in the Hebrew language. There is a minor portion written in the Aramaic language (portions of the book of Ezra, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Genesis).

There are no original manuscripts of the Old Testament in existence today. During the time the original manuscripts were written copier machines and computers had not been invented. The only means they had of copying the original text was by hand. The people that took on this responsibility were the Jewish scribes. Their job was to make hand written copies of the original writings of the Old Testament. Whenever a scroll/manuscript became worn out the scribes would start the job of rewriting the text from the worn out scroll.

These scrolls did not last long and only a few of the first written manuscripts from 1400 B. C. survived.

Until 1947 the oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament dated back to the 9th and 10th century. In 1947 some Arab shepherds found the Dead Sea Scrolls in a cave close to the Dead Sea. These scrolls were from the library of a Jewish religious group that lived around the same time that Jesus walked the earth. These manuscripts contained copies of all the books of the Old Testament except for Esther. When these manuscripts were compared to manuscripts from the 9th century it was proven that the scribes did a fantastic job in "accurately passing on the sacred writings." Based on this we know that the Old Testament that we use today is similar to the one used by the Christians in the 1st century.

According to Jewish tradition the scribe Ezra, who wrote the book of Ezra, put the Old Testament books together. But, there is no evidence to prove that theory. However, it should be mentioned that the Old Testament books were already grouped together before the time of the apostles and before Jesus walked the earth. It is these grouping of books that make up our Old Testament today.

Lawrence Robinson
Travis Air Force Base, Ca.

Works Cited

Overby, Coleman (1937), Scriptural Surveys (Austin,
                TX: Firm Foundation Publishing House).

Jackson, Wayne (1986), Background Bible Study
                (Montgomery, AL: Apologetics Press, Inc.).

Jackson, Wayne (1974), Fortify Your Faith
                (Montgomery, AL: Apologetics Press, Inc.).