MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron
I became a Christian while in high school, and began studying the Bible and reading Christian authors. Sixty years later, I continue to find there’s so much more to learn and understand. It’s exciting to see how God reveals so much through His Spirit, and how he uses the Word to give context and help us apply truths. “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that [we] may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
With the birth of a baby in Bethlehem, the Word came in flesh to the world. Christianity emanated out of His life, death, and resurrection. Early Christian believers included Jews from the Judean area, plus Hellenistic Jews from other places, and non-Jews from many nations. We can look back and see how God was preparing the world for such a time as this, through Greek language and influence, through Roman rule and roads, and through the inclusive, powerful message and person of Jesus.
The apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 4:4, “When the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son,” to be the promised Messiah and deliverer. God had been preparing for this since Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden, since He spoke to Abraham, since He called His people out of Egypt.
History and the future are very much comprised of evidence found in the written record. The Jews were the chosen people, but their language, Hebrew, was difficult and not widely understood. Jewish peoples had been dispersed to Rome, North Africa, Syria, Mesopotamia, moves which God either allowed or orchestrated. Today we’ll take a look at some of the ways scripture traveled with them.
The Septuagint was the Pentateuch (first five books of the Old Testament), translated more than 200 years before Jesus was born, from Hebrew to Greek by 72 scholars sent from Jerusalem to Alexandria in Egypt. Though Egyptian Jews remained true to their religious practices, Greek replaced Hebrew and Aramaic as their language.
The Dead Sea scrolls, an astounding discovery by Bedouins in the mid-1900s, were stored in jars of clay by a sect whose scholars collected and produced copies of scriptures for more than 400 years before and after Jesus. Fragments found include portions of all the Old Testament books except Esther. These scholars at Qumran were aware of the Masoretic (Hebrew) text, the Greek Septuagint, and translations by the Samaritans, though they viewed the Temple Scroll (Hebrew) as authoritative or God-given. According to Professor James H Charlesworth, a standardization of the Hebrew scriptures was not complete until after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.
Some Christian authors in Mesopotamia in the late first century CE composed their works in Syriac, a form of the Aramaic language. By the second century, collections of scrolls of the Greek New Testament were circulated. By the third and early fourth century, both Jews and Christians shared an allegiance to the Old Testament, mostly depending on the Greek Septuagint. Some Jews used a Greek translation by Turkish proselyte Aquila which was completed around 140 CE. His work was also used by Church fathers Origen in the 3rd century, and St. Jerome in the 4th and 5th centuries.
Throughout Europe, until after the fall of Rome, Latin served as the primary language for communication, scholarship, and administration. So, by the 4th and 5th centuries CE, Latin translations of scriptures began to appear.
The next big change in scripture didn’t come for centuries down the road, with the start of the Protestant Reformation in 1517. Martin Luther translated the Gutenberg Bible into German, using Latin, Hebrew, and Greek scriptures. It was printed in quantity and distributed beginning in 1534, making it one of the first times the Bible was available to common people to form their own opinions.
In 1611, the King James Version was made available to the English-speaking world, and many still know and love that translation. It retains the poetic language, and inspires many works of art, music, and literature. As the British Empire spread, making English a common language of commerce, missionaries carried the King James Version around the world. It is still the most widely used Bible.
Today, there are many translations, paraphrases, and some which go so far as to include “new revelation”. But we’re warned in Revelation 22:18-19 not to pay attention to anything which can lead to cults or gross misunderstanding. My personal preference is a more literal translation from the Greek, such as the New American Standard Bible 1975 version.
I thank God for caring enough to give Himself, and to share truth as the Word (scripture) and the Word (Jesus). In the fulness of time, Jesus the predicted Messiah came and lived among us. His sacrifice provides a means for forgiveness; His resurrection assures us of newness of life. He will come again to establish His final kingdom. In the meantime, we can take advantage of the written Word that will lead us to Christ every day, through the help and presence of the Holy Spirit. In our nation, it’s all here and available for us to discover and understand.
