The Lost World of Scripture: Ancient Literary Culture and Biblical Authority by Walton John H. & Sandy Brent

Author:Walton, John H. & Sandy, Brent [Walton, John H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2013-11-30T21:00:00+00:00

In the centuries following the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish scribes became increasingly focused on copying manuscripts as they received them, leading up to the work of the Masoretes (sixth to ninth centuries A.D.). The Masoretes were the most careful of any ancient copyists in transmitting Scripture. But until that point, as Eugene Ulrich notes, “small additions, omissions, and rearrangements are characteristic of the biblical text throughout its history up to the second century C.E.”9 Hence, the changes in copying procedures introduced by the Masoretes earned them a wide reputation, and as a result their manuscripts (dated to the ninth to eleventh centuries) have been the basis for the majority of modern Bibles. But the Masoretic manuscripts could only be as good as the manuscripts that were passed down to them.

Before proceeding, we should pause and ask, Is the trustworthiness of the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls compromised by interpretive additions and variants that translators and scribes introduced into the texts? Or—against all logic, unless we understand their logic—is it possible that the additions actually enhanced the traditions being passed down? The answer depends on which cultural lens we are using. If our modern sensitivities and expectation of exact wording control our thinking—and admittedly it’s difficult not to think this way—then we are likely to despair because the translators/scribes did not precisely preserve the exact words.

On the other hand, if we put ourselves in the sandals of people immersed in ancient oral culture—who had confidence in faithful leaders of their communities to pass along the text in the best form possible—it probably wasn’t an issue. Only if the truth were invalidated by too much variation (an unlikely occurrence) would there be reason to question the trustworthiness of the texts. Translators and scribes were accountable to the communities they served by their labors of translating and copying. Quoting Waltke, “Scribes of this era were still the authorized revisers of the text and not just copyists. They continued to expand portions of the OT and to alter it to such an extent that their production might easily be considered as distinct literary editions rather than as copies.”10

New Testament use of the Old Testament. We come then to a third phase of the transmission of the Old Testament, the quotations of the Old Testament in the New. While a goldmine for understanding the New Testament, the quotations are equally a minefield of interpretive challenges. To be sure, the Old Testament was an authoritative and indispensable source for the presentation of the gospel message, since the truths of the old covenant laid the groundwork for the progressive development of divine revelation. The Gospels in particular show that Jesus carefully interpreted the Old Testament—if not clarified its true meaning—and he certainly fulfilled it. Further, the logical arguments in the letters of Paul, Peter and others were often dependent on wording from the Old Testament.11

But determining what the sources were for the quotations of the Old Testament, along with comprehending the significance of the quotations, has posed many problems for New Testament scholars.

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