Be Still, and Know

Before the Bible was a single bound book, it existed as individual physical manuscripts.  The earliest biblical texts were written on two main writing surfaces: papyrus and parchment . Papyrus was made from the stem of the papyrus plant, mostly produced in Egypt. The plant was cut into thin strips, layered, pressed, and dried to create writing sheets. It was widely used across the ancient Mediterranean world. Parchment was made from animal skin, usually sheep or goat, processed and stretched to create a durable writing surface. A higher quality form of parchment, made from calfskin, is called vellum . Both materials were used for biblical manuscripts. The Dead Sea Scrolls give us a clear example. Roughly 80% of those manuscripts were written on parchment and about 20% on papyrus, showing that animal skin was already a common medium for Jewish Scripture before the New Testament period.  The original manuscripts themselves no longer exist, but the surviving copies show us wh...

To understand the original languages the Bible was written in, you have to take into account what time period each book was written in, and the language of the land from where it came.  The Old Testament was written starting from around 1400 BC to about 400 BC. The majority of the books were written in the ancient Semitic language Hebrew because that was the language of the Israelites at that time, and the historical root of Hebrew still used today. Adding to that, there are thousands of Hebrew manuscripts and fragments that show consistent script, grammar, and vocabulary, with one of the most significant discoveries being the Dead Sea Scrolls. It's really marvelous that we have this consistency for texts written over a thousand year period. In a couple of books namely Daniel and Ezra, some portions are written in Aramaic (also a Semitic language), and you can actually see the language shift on the page. This is where you need to take into account the audience.  During ...

Before the Bible became a book, it was written by people - not angels, not scribes in heaven, but real men, living real lives. Over forty authors contributed to Scripture across centuries.  Now here’s an important fact that often gets missed. Out of the sixty-six books of the Bible, roughly 80% to 90% have authorship that is either explicitly stated in the text or consistently preserved through ancient Jewish and Christian tradition. Books like Genesis through Deuteronomy are traditionally attributed to Moses. The prophets are named. The Gospels identify their authors. Paul’s letters openly bear his name. In other words, most of the Bible does not come to us anonymously. There are a smaller number of books where authorship is not directly stated or is debated. Books like Job and Esther do not name an author. The book of Hebrews is anonymous, even in the earliest Christian sources. In these cases, attribution comes from early tradition, historical context, and internal evidence — no...