The Origin of the Bible by F. F. Bruce & J. I. Packer & Philip W. Comfort

Author:F. F. Bruce & J. I. Packer & Philip W. Comfort [Bruce, F. F. & Packer, J. I. & Comfort, Philip W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Religion, Christian Life, Biblical Studies
ISBN: 9781414379326
Google: iABr33VRXIgC
Amazon: 1414379323
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2012-04-15T11:05:29+00:00

THE METHODOLOGY OF OLD TESTAMENT TEXTUAL CRITICISM

The search for an adequate methodology to handle the many variant readings found in manuscripts is inseparably intertwined with our understanding of the history of transmission. The basic issue in textual criticism is the method used to decide the relative value of those variant readings. Many factors must be evaluated in order to arrive at a valid decision.

Dating Manuscripts

The date of a manuscript is important because it places that text within a historical framework, a factor that can often decide the primacy of one variant over another. The process of dating the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Wadi Qumran serves as a good case study for the various methods employed by scholars today.

Early conclusions about the antiquity of the first Dead Sea Scrolls were not accepted by everyone. Some scholars were convinced that the scrolls were of medieval origin. A series of questions relate to the dating problem. When were the texts at Qumran composed? When were they deposited in the caves? Most scholars believe the manuscripts were placed in the caves by members of the Qumran community when Roman legions were besieging Jewish strongholds. That was shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

Careful study of the contents of a document sometimes reveals its authorship and the date when it was written. An example of using such internal evidence for dating a non-biblical work is found in the Habakkuk commentary. It gives hints about the people and events in the days of the commentary’s author, not in the days of the prophet Habakkuk. The commentator described the enemies of God’s people as the Kittim. Originally that word denoted Cyprus, but later came to be more generally the Greek islands and the coasts of the eastern Mediterranean. In Daniel 11:30 the term is used prophetically, and most scholars seem to identify the Kittim with the Romans. Thus the Habakkuk commentary was probably written about the time of the Roman capture of Palestine under Pompey in 63 B.C.

Another important item to consider when dating a manuscript is its copy date. Although the vast majority of manuscripts are undated, it is often possible to determine when a manuscript was written by paleography, the study of ancient handwriting. That was the method initially employed by Trever when he compared the script of the Isaiah Scroll with the Nash Papyrus, thus dating it to the pre-Christian era. His conclusions were confirmed by the late William F. Albright, then the foremost American archaeologist. During the time of the Babylonian captivity, the square script became the normal style of writing in Hebrew (as well as in Aramaic, a cousin of Hebrew). The evidence of paleography clearly dates the majority of the Qumran scrolls in the period between 200 B.C. and A.D. 200.

Archaeology provides another kind of external evidence. The pottery discovered at Qumran dates from the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods (200 B.C.–A.D. 100). Earthenware articles and ornaments point to the same period. Several hundred coins were found in jars dating from the Graeco-Roman period.

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