Appendix to Session 2:

How Reliable Are the Documents of the Old Testament?

1        There was a translation of the whole Old Testament into Greek.  It’s called the LXX, and it dates from between the 3^rd and 2^nd centuries BC.  (So the Old Testament must have been finished before Jesus came, since there was a translation of it well before he came)

2        There is a record of the team being assembled to perform the LXX translation.  There were 72 translators (so technically, it should be the LXXII, but the LXX is easier).  This record gives us confidence in the date of the translation.

3        Until 1947, the only full Old Testament or full Old Testament books that we had in Hebrew (the original language) were copies dating from about 1000 AD (called the Masoretic Text, MT).

4        In 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.  These date from between the 2^nd century BC and the 1^st century AD.  They include a full copy of Isaiah in Hebrew.

5        So the Dead Sea Scrolls took us back 1000 years in our knowledge of some of the Hebrew originals.  The surprise was that the text from 1000AD was very close to the Dead Sea Scrolls of around 0 AD.  This increased our confidence in the MT (which we use to translate the Old Testament)

6        Further, portions of the LXX were found within the Dead Sea Scrolls.  This is an extra piece of evidence that the Old Testament was finished before the Dead Sea Scrolls were written.  (And thus evidence that the Old Testament was finished before Jesus)

7        So when we try to work out the original text of the Old Testament, we compare the LXX, the Dead Sea Scrolls (where relevant), the MT and a few other sources to check that we’ve got it right.  We’ve got quite a few checks available to us.

8        To work out the date of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the methods used included - handwriting styles, evidence from pottery and coins found with the scrolls, and carbon 14 dating of the linen coverings on the manuscripts.  This is typical of how such manuscripts are dated.

For the purposes of the course, point 1 is probably most important – we are extremely confident that everything in our Old Testament was written before Christ arrived, since we have the LXX.

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