Turning Points mission is to deliver the unchanging Word of God to an ever-changing world. This digital resource is one way we are fulfilling our God-given mission. For more on the ministry of Turning Point, visit our official website at DavidJeremiah.org A Roman emperor named Constantine and a German student of ancient Bible texts named Tischendorftwo actors in the sometimes-hard-to-believe drama of how we got our Biblelived 1,500 years apart, yet were connected by events neither could have foreseen. The story began with the Roman emperor Diocletian. In 303, Diocletian initiated the last great persecution of the Christian Church in the Empire. More than the emperor feared Christian buildings or beliefs, he feared the copies of their sacred book. He knew if the Scriptures survived, the Church could survive! So he destroyed all the copies he could fnd. But the Bible 3 was then, and still is, a survivor. Through the ages, Gods Word has fed the people of God and kept the Church alive. When Constantine became emperor of Rome in 324, he made Christianity the offcial religion of the Empire. But, as a result of Diocletians actions, he discovered that the churches of Constantinople had no Bibles. So he commissioned a scholar named Eusebius to produce 50 vellum Bibles for the churches: . . . volumes, that is to say, of the Holy Scriptures, the provision and use of which is, as you are aware, most necessary for the instruction of the Church. Diocletian tried to get rid of Gods Word but Constantine brought it backand a young German scholar named Tischendorf helped bring it into the modern era. Constantine AND KONSTANTIN Unfortunately, not a single one of those 50 vellum Bibles produced by Eusebius exists today. But once Christianity was made the offcial religion of the Roman Empire, the preparation of Bible copies increased signifcantly. One of the ironies of biblical history is that Emperor Constantines efforts were recognized by a young Bible student who bore the emperors name: Lobegott Friedrich Konstantin von Tischendorf. His adventures in search of ancient copies of the Bible read like an Indiana Jones adventure. But its not fctionits fact. 4 T
ischendorf spent years blowing dust off ancient manuscripts in Europe and the Middle East trying to fnd long-forgotten copies of the sacred text. In 1844, he visited a monastery near Mount Sinai in Egypt. While in the monastery library, he saw a trash bin next to the freplace flled with pages of an old manuscript about to be used as kindling. When Tischendorf examined the pages, to his horror he realized he had found 129 leaves of the oldest Bible manuscript he had ever seenprobably a copy of one of the 50 Bibles Constantine had commissioned centuries earlier. When he explained to the monks what he had discovered, they quickly confscated all but 43 of the pages, which Tischendorf was allowed to take with him. Haunted by the memory of the rest of the pages he had left behind, Tischendorf visited Saint Catherines again in 1853, but came away empty-handed. On another visit in 1859, he was more low-key, not mentioning ancient Bibles until the last night of his visit. A monk took him to his room and pulled down from a shelf a bundle wrapped in a red cloth. As Tischendorf looked on breathlessly, he saw the remaining pages of the manuscript he had pulled from the trash in 1844much of the rest of the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, the entire New Testament, and two nonbiblical letters written by early church leaders. 5 Through Tischendorfs diplomatic efforts, this manuscript eventually made its way to Cairo, then to the Imperial Public Library of St. Petersburg in Russia. Today, Codex Sinaiticus is one of the three largest, earliest, and best-preserved copies of the Bible in existence. (Incidentally, another 3,000 manuscripts were discovered at Saint Catherines Monastery in 1975, including more pages of Codex Sinaiticus!) I ask you: Is the Bible not a survivor? Think about it: one of the three most important biblical manuscripts in the world sitting in a trash can, destined for the freplace, in a remote monastery in the Sinai wilderness! Who can doubt that the hand of God was at work to cause a young scholar to happen on the scene at just the right moment to save it from destruction? In this article we want to focus on the preservation of the Word of Godthe amazing and miraculous story of how God has preserved the record of the revelation of His redemption for all the world to read. To be sure, preservation is the right word. Given the way other ancient literature has vanished from the world stage, the preservation and propagation of the Bible can be attributed to nothing except the providence of God throughout history. Providence AND THE BIBLE Without doubt, providence is the key word in the Bibles survival story. What is providence? The Westminster Shorter Catechism 6 Through the ages, GODS WORD HAS FED THE PEOPLE OF GOD AND KEPT THE CHURCH ALIVE. SHARE:
defnes it this way: Gods works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful [acts of] preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions. Or, in the words of Scripture itself, providence is the outworking of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will ( EPHESIANS 1: 11) . Probably not a week goes by that we dont hear someone say (maybe we say it ourselves!), I caught a lucky break, or He was so fortunate, or What a coincidence, or Good luck to you! When we use such language, we refect a secular worldview that says life is the result of chance events coinciding randomly sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad. But the doctrine of providence says the opposite: Life is not a pinball machine; events dont bounce off one another in random fashion. Instead, the Bible teaches that God orders the events of this world to accomplish His divine plan and purposes ( PROVERBS 16: 1- 9) . And that includes the preservation of the Bible from the time of its writing until the end of the ages. Gods providence includes things like Tischendorf showing up at Saint Catherines Monastery just in time to rescue a fourth-century copy of the Greek Bible from the fames. Looking at the preparation and preservation of the Bible can be like looking at our own lives. On any given day, events can seem unrelated, random, or without reason. But over the course of time we can see purpose and divine providence at work. For instance, the Bible is a collection of 66 books written by 40-plus authors 8 over a period of a thousand years. By the second century B.C., the Old Testament books had come together; and by the ffth century A.D., the New Testament was gathered together. It was not always a tidy process, but it was one superintended by the providence of God. In 1500 B.C. there was no Bible, but in A.D. 500 there was. Between those two dates is a story of drama, debate, and desire to collect the revelation of God to man and put it together for all to read. Miraculously, the English Bibles we read today (and the same goes for the Bibles in other languages) are faithful representations of what men moved by the Holy Spirit ( 2 PETER 1: 21) wrote in their original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words. In fact, almost all Bible scholars agree that, regarding matters of faith and salvation, there is no doctrine central to the Christian faith that can be questioned due to an issue of the accuracy of the copies we possess of the original biblical writings. I hope you are as thankful as I am for the providence of God in the preservation of the Bible for generations past, present, and future. Preservation AND THE BIBLE Think about some of the ways God worked in biblical days to bring us the Word He wanted us to have: MOSES AND PICTURE DRAWINGS. Moses, the Bibles frst author, learned to write as a child in 9 Egyptin hieroglyphics, those strange shapes and symbols we see on the walls of Egyptian burial tombs. Sometime later, probably in Midian before going to lead the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt, he learned to write with the letters which became the Hebrew alphabet (consonants only; no vowels). It is amazing to think that the clear English words we read in Genesis, In the beginning . . . , Moses originally wrote in squiggly picture-letters thousands of years ago. But Gods providence ensured that His words were preserved. SOLOMON, SONGS, AND SAYINGS. Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs and wrote 1,005 songs ( 1 KINGS 4: 32) . If he spoke the proverbs (undoubtedly on more than one occasion), someone had to be writing them down. We know that the scribes in King Hezekiahs court several generations after Solomon copied some of the collection of Solomons proverbs ( PROVERBS 25: 1) . God gave Solomon wisdom ( 2 CHRONICLES 1: 7- 12) which has come to us as two books of the Bible. Gods providence controlled the speaking, writing, choosing, and collecting for our beneft. JOSIAH AND THE LOST LAW. Josiah became king of Judah when he was eight years old. Because his father had allowed the kingdom to deteriorate dramatically, the scrolls of the Law were nowhere to be found. Until, that is, workers who were rebuilding the temple found the Book of the Law. When Josiah had it read to him, he tore his robes in grief over how they had ignored 10 Gods Word. Was it lucky that the workers found the scrolls? No, it was providential. EZRA AND EVERYTHING ELSE. Ezra is probably the faithful scribe who began collecting all the Old Testament writings after the captivity of Judah in Babylon. He was a man who loved Gods Word ( NEHEMIAH 8: 1- 9) . After the books were written, God raised up a man with the skills to collect them and preserve them together. SEVENTY SCRIBES IN ALEXANDRIA. The king of Egypt (third century B.C.) wanted a Greek translation of the Old Testament books for the library in Alexandria, Egypt. According to tradition, 72 Jewish scholars went to Egypt from Israel and prepared a Greek version of the Old Testament. Because Greek had become the common language of the Mediterranean world due to Alexander the Greats conquests, this Greek version of Scripture made Gods Word accessible to the Mediterranean, Greek-speaking world. Coincidence? No, the providence of God at work in the heart of the king of Egypt. SANDY SCROLLS ON THE SEASHORE. Just prior to the birth of Jesus, a group of Jews, the Essenes, lived on the shore of the Dead Sea in a community called Qumran. They specialized in making copies of Jewish scriptures and had an extensive library of manuscripts. They abandoned their community with the Roman occupation of the region in A.D. 70, and their manuscripts disappeared for nearly nineteen-hundred years. In 1947, a 11 shepherd boy discovered a cache of clay jars in a cave near Qumran. This discovery ultimately produced around 800 ancient manuscripts, including all the Old Testament books except Esther. The magnifcent scroll of Isaiah was found to be almost identical to the Hebrew texts used to prepare our modern Bibles, showing how carefully the text of Gods Word has been preserved through the centuries. It was nothing but providential that the Essenes valued their texts and hid them carefully in caves, only to be discovered when archaeology and textual studies could best appreciate their great value. PAULS LOST LETTER. Did you know that Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthian church in addition to the two we have in the New Testament (1 and 2 Corinthians)? He refers to this letter in 1 Corinthians 5:9, but we have never seen it. Was it unlucky that it was lost by a careless scribe or pastor in the frst century? On the contrary, its an indication that the letters which God wanted preserved for the Church through the ages were kept safe. Its likely that the lost letter was meant for the Corinthians eyes only. I hope Ive whetted your appetite for recapturing a passion for the sacred text. Its one thing to take for granted the various and modern versions of the Bible we all possess, but quite another to think soberly about the path that book has taken over the last 3,000 years. 12 And I hope Ive encouraged you to apply the lessons of Gods providence with the Bible to your own life. Everything that happened in the Bibles life was for a reason, and everything that happens in your life is for a reason as well. Gods book and Gods children who need that book are survivors together through the ages! No other book in the world has been prepared and preserved like the Holy Scriptures, and no other book in the world deserves our sacred honor and devotion. 13 NO OTHER BOOK IN THE WORLD HAS BEEN PREPARED AND PRESERVED LIKE the Holy Scriptures. SHARE:
For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. 2 PETER 1: 21 ( NASB) All Scripture is breathed out by God and proftable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. 2 TIMOTHY 3: 16 ( ESV) The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fne gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. PSALM 19: 7- 11 ( ESV) PROVIDENCE of SCRIPTURE [the Bible is the Word of God] The grass withers, the fower fades, But the word of our God stands forever. ISAIAH 40: 8 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. MATTHEW 24: 35 Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven. PSALM 119: 89 For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. REVELATION 22: 18- 19 PRESERVATION of SCRIPTURE [Gods Word stands forever] ABOUT THE AUTHOR David Jeremiah is the senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, California. A best-selling author, his popular syndicated radio and television Bible-teaching program, Turning Point, is broadcast internationally. David and his wife, Donna, have four children and eleven grandchildren.