Believe it or not , but we have no originals of the biblical books. Authentic text of the Bible , written thanks to the painstaking research work of many ancient manuscripts kept in museums and libraries. However, oddly enough, today the text of many books of the Bible more reliable than the works of such ancient authors as Homer, Aeschylus or Plato surviving manuscripts of the IX-XI centuries by R. X. - i.e. in the texts, written through 1400-1700 years after the creation of the original, while the manuscript was at the heart of the Bible is separated from the primary sources are much less extended time frame.

Just for today, according to 1989, it is known the following number of different catalogued species ancient manuscripts of the New Testament:

Papyrus ( It was the writing material "poor man", and before he began to use in the form of a code (in book form), it was used as a scroll, written on both sides) - 96

Uncial manuscripts (Codes and parchments where the text is cut out large (capital) letters of the Greek alphabet) - 299

Minuscule manuscript (or the italics uppercase letters of the Greek language and Dating from the ninth to the sixteenth century) - 2812

Lectionary (Service books for Church services These texts contain "lessons" or "fragments" of Scripture).- 2281

Total - 5488

For comparison I will bring the number of extant manuscripts of some works of ancient authors: from Euripides came to our time only 2 manuscripts, from the annals of Tacitus - 1, from Plato - 11, Aeschylus - 50, Virgil and Sophocles - about 100.

Sinai codes. All of them are dated (paleographically, i.e. on the basis of the style of handwriting" ) IV century A.D. Language codes Greek. The analysis of these codes and developed the main text of the New Testament available to every theologian.

Vatican code - hit the Vatican around 1475, the first mention of it in the Vatican library otnositsya to 1481 before its history is vague. It was written in the period 350-370 gg BC, supposedly in Italy, and for eleven centuries have been preserved in good condition. This manuscript, written on fine parchment (i.e. tanned skin of animals) and contains 759 pages, size 10/10,5 inch (or 25.4/26.6cm), each of which contains three narrow column on forty-one row in each column. 8 the Manuscript includes the book of Barnabas" and the Apocrypha. In the opinion of Tishendorf, Vatican manuscript was written by the same person who wrote the Sinai, however, the Pope States that Sinaiticus (Aleph) was written earlier, according to the sections in the Gospels. 11 In the Vatican manuscript is missing passages from Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 46:28, Psalm 106 in Psalm 138, Heb. Matthew 16:2-3, Romans 16:24, Paul's Epistles, revelation, and the Epistle to the Hebrews Hebrews 9:14.

Alexandria code presented in 1628 English king Charles I. Patriarch Kirill Locarion written in 733 parchment pages, size 26,3/31,4 cm, two columns with the text of Scripture by forty-one line. 24 there are no passages In. 6:50-8:52; 2 Cor. 4:13-12:6; 3 cars. 12:20-14:19; Matt. 1:1-25:6; Genesis 15:1-5; Life. 14:14-17 and Genesis 16-19. It also contains the remains of the "Epistles of Clement" (presumably Dating back to 95-100 gg BC). He tentatively written about 400-450 A.D.

The Codex Sinaiticus was discovered in the nineteenth century by Constantine Tischendorf and it deserves a separate story. His parchment inferior in the thick parchment Vatican manuscript. This is the only uncial manuscript, which contains almost all of the New Testament ( except Jn. 5:4, 8:1-11; Matt. 16:2-3; Rome. 16:24; mark 16:9-20; 1 Jn. 5:7; acts. 8:37 ). He takes the book "the Shepherd of Army" and "Message to Barnabas," in the New Testament, and originally it still contains the portion of the book "Didache". It was written about 350-370, ad 147 a half sheets of parchment, on four columns of the forty-eight rows on each page. 13 the Size of each page 15/13,5 inches (38/34,3 cm).

There were found fragments of the new Testament writings, and earlier than the Codex Sinaiticus. Thus , in December 1945 in Upper Egypt, near the ancient settlement of Chenoboskion (modern district of the Nag Hammadi) local farmers accidentally discovered the oldest library containing books of the New Testament, Dating from 2-4 for centuries.

The most ancient "material evidence" is a piece of papyrus palm-sized, discovered in Egypt in 1920 by Dr. B. Grenfell, which, however, gave it no special value. Only in 1934, another scientist Dr. C. H. Roberts, examining the papyri so-called Manchester libraries ... Ryland (the owner of the collection of papyri), drew attention to it. After the studies he realized that he had found an ancient papyrus containing verses from the gospel of John and approximately related to the 125 year of Completion and, consequently, about 30 years younger than the original, made up about 95, P. X. Papyrus found not in Palestine, the homeland of the original, and in the Sands of the Egyptian desert, which gives the opportunity to imagine how quickly spread the new Testament Scriptures.

With the old Testament harder.

To Nakhodka dead sea scrolls (II century to R. X.), the most ancient Jewish manuscripts were the manuscript to the British Museum (895 A.D.), two manuscripts of the Leningrad Public library (916 and 1008, A.D.) and the manuscript from Aleppo (Code Aaron Ben-usher) - 10th century)... And the whole old Testament of the Bible contained only document 1008 ad, although manuscripts later time, mainly the middle of the thirteenth century CE, was kept in many national libraries. That is why the Qumran Nakhodka became a sensation. But an even greater sensation was that the research did not reveal any significant differences texts! Isaiah is known to us in the Bible absolutely correspond to the list that has for two thousand years.

Today, the most ancient text of the old Testament are two damaged silver leaves size h and h mm, was found in the tomb , the times of the First Temple, Kichigina, located in a valley with its famous name - Gahanna - or the hell of fire. . The text of the Holy blessing from the Book of Numbers on 500 years of ancient biblical scrolls found at Qumran .

There is another fact of great significance - Jewish written language originally had no vowels (except A)or substituting characters... the old Testament Books were written by nearly one consonants.

Imagine how accurately can be in our time a letter written some consonants, when, for example, EOC can mean blood curve, shelter, cow, etc. etc.

At first, the Hebrew alphabet, as well as other zapadnosibirsky languages, contained only consonants (for example, in the earliest found so far Hebrew inscriptions, the so-called Guterstam calendar that was hewn in about three centuries after Moses, the word "harvest" - "Katzir" - is only three root consonants). Avoid inevitably arise as a consequence of the difficulties reading some of these consonants (in particular "ain") was also used as vowels, similar in sound. At the second stage (starting from the Tenth century BC) is the sporadic use of consonants as vowels was extended, first in Aramaic, and then in the Hebrew for this purpose began to use not one or two, but entire four consonants: Waw, Aleph, Jude and hay. But this was insufficient, as these letters at the same time remained and consonants, each of them depicting more than one vowel, and, finally, their use was not uniqueness, and regularity. Therefore, in VI-VIII centuries A.D. was invented by a system of so-called diacritics (dots and dashes under and above the letters), which we today call "peace"or "system Nekudot".

So , if we now let's take the Hebrew Bible or the manuscript, then we will find in them the skeleton of consonants filled with dots and other signs indicating the missing vowels. But these signs did not constitute the membership of the Hebrew Bible... I read the Books on one consonant, filling their vowels... as its ability and in accordance with facile requirements sense and oral traditions.

It is assumed that "this is a serious shortcoming of the Hebrew Bible was removed not earlier VII or VIII centuries ad, when Maserati handled the Bible and "added ... characters that replace the vowels; but they had no guidelines, in addition to its own judgement and traditions".

First was of the opinion that the vowels were introduced in the Hebrew text of Ezra in the V century BC ... When in the XVI and XVII centuries of Leviticus and Capellus in France rejects this view and proved that the vowel signs were only introduced by masorete,... this discovery became a sensation in the whole Protestant Europe. Many thought that the new theory leads to the complete overthrow of religion. If vowel signs were not a matter of divine revelation, but only a human invention and, moreover, much later time, as it was possible to rely on the text of Scripture? ...

If a punctuation everyday words are not very essential, the situation radically changed when in the ancient text appears combination meaning the city name, country name. For Example, The Name Of God.

It is therefore of great importance acquired the first Greek translation Vethogo Testament, the Septuagint, made at a time when the Hebrew was still a living language, although the translation is often not always passed shades . For example the famous name of Jesus, from the original sound is only one sound [I]. Read more

The Septuagint and the translations of the Bible.


The legend tells that king Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246, P. X.) learning from Demetrius of Phaleron, was in charge of the Royal library, the existence in Judea Scriptures of Moses, decided to organize the translation of the Law on the Greek language and delivery of books in the library of Alexandria.

To this end Ptolemy sent from Jerusalem to the high priest Eleazar the letter: "Wanting to please everyone living on the earth the Jews, I decided to start translating your Law and shifting them from Hebrew into Greek, to place the book in the number of compositions my library. So you'll do well, if you choose six elderly men from each tribe, which due to the length of their lessons laws experienced in them and would exactly translate it. I believe to be yourself in this business greatest glory. So I send to you for negotiations on this [...] Andrew and Aristea that both are in my eyes the greatest honor.”

In response, the high priest sent to the king of seventy-two scholars of the scribe, six from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. These seventy two men settled on the island of Pharos, where everyone within 72 days translated alone the entire text of the Pentateuch. They not only finished the translation in the same time - all the received texts sound the same! Then the translation and got its name - the Septuagint, or the Translation of the seventy".(Philo. Life Moiseja; Josephus. Jewish Drevnosti; Justin(?)Obeshanie to allenham; Irenaeus. Against ERISA; Clement of Alexandria. Stromata - II).

This whole story is based on the product, known in the literature under the name of the Letter of Aristea the Philokrates podlinnosti which currently is not in doubt. (It was compiled no earlier than the middle of the II century BC.)

In reality, however, everything happened differently. In the last century, before the beginning of a new era in Egypt, especially in Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. R. H., lived many Jews. They spoke the Greek language, and so appeared the necessity in translation. So in the III century to R. X. commenced the translation of the old Testament Scriptures, finished only in the next century.

However, no one today can submit the manuscript of the old Testament in Greek dated earlier 300 g . A.D. the earliest manuscript, which can be called a translation of the old Testament into Greek, is Ryland Papyrus (№ 458), which has several chapters of Deuteronomy 23-28. But even this piece of papyrus dated to 150 BC There is only one mention of the Pentateuch, translated in the Greek language when Ptolemy Philadelphia. (Eusebius (260-340 gg) quotes Aristotelia (Praep. Ev. XIII 12,664b).

And one more remark. In those days the book was often called the first meaningful word . The first book of Moses, written in the original Hebrew, begins with the word "Genesis" ("In the beginning"). In the Greek version of the Bible a Jewish tradition to use primary keywords as the titles was broken, and in the course went descriptive titles. So the First book of Moses called "Genesis" (in Church Slavonic tradition-Being), in Greek - "origin", although in the Hebrew original begins with the word "Genesis" ("In the beginning").

In the first Christian century and new translations of the Bible into the languages of other peoples of the Roman Empire). In the middle of the second century of our era, the new Testament was translated into Syriac language is the so-called Peshitta, or Peshitta (Peshitto), that is simple. The oldest known nowadays, the manuscript Peshitta refers to the beginning of the V century. In our time, Peshitta has two traditions of East and West.

First Latin translation was spread before 210 ad and (as the Byzantine Receptus in Greek) it was a labour of direct efforts of African Christians. The most famous Latin translation, "Vulgate - folk", was launched in 386, P. X. scholar Jerome and finished them in 405, In 1546 the Council of Trent declared Vulgate authentic text of the Bible. In 1589, when Pope Sixtus V, then in 1592, when Pope Clement VIII, was released the final version of the Vulgate, which was adopted by the Catholic Church as the official text of the Bible.

IV century dated the first Bible in German, translated by Ulfilas, "the Apostle of the willing", which I had to create a Gothic font. So the Bible of Ulfila simultaneously became the first monument of Gothic literature. Especially valuable instance of the Gothic Bible - painted purple parchment with silver and gold font is stored today in the Swedish city of Uppsala, Sweden.

Have been made translations of the old Testament and the Aramaic language, the so - called Targumim (translations). The most influential among them are: the Targum of Onkelos (translation of the Torah) and the Targum of Jonathan (translation H'beim attributed to Yonatan Ben-Uziely).

Interesting "HEXAPLA" - a book that was written by Origen, Adamantyl (184-254 gg BC), containing six translations of the old Testament. These six translations were placed in vertical columns with three additional translations, sometimes appearing after the sixth column. The first column was the old Testament in Hebrew.

There are large discrepancies among "theologians" about what the Hebrew text was used by Origen. The SECOND column "Hexapla" is the Greek transliteration of the old Testament, where he used the Greek letter to play previewmessage text. Then followed the translation of Akilli(95-137 gg BC)., transfer Symmachia(160-211 gg), translation of the Origen(184-254 gg BC, sometimes this column is called a revision of some copies of the Septuagint). and, finally, the translation of Theodosius(140-190 ad)...

Basically, all agree that the fifth column Hexapla ( which he wrote himself Origen!) is more ancient and perfect Hebrew text than the one presented in the FIRST column. But since the only available copy of this manuscript was written over 125 years after the death of Origen, theologians find it difficult to show the connection. This "public opinion" is similar to the opinion of people on any authority, from whom they would like to get rid of.

In Church history often have a tendency to recognize this or that translation is God-breathed and is the only valid. This trend was particularly evident in respect of the Septuagint and Vulgate. But gradually the leadership of the churches came to the thought of having known pluralism, though survived category Church-approved, accepted, as if canonical translation.

To Russia the Bible came together with Christianity. Its translation into old Church Slavonic language was made with the Greek language on the recension of the Septuagint (Lukyanovskaya review, about 280 ad) Cyril and Methodius (IX century); it has not survived. Already in 1056 - 1057, was deducted from the East-Bulgarian original so-called Ostromir gospel ("gospel-Aprakos”). Then came the Arkhangelsk (1092,), Mstislav (1117,), Tartu (1120), Galicia (1144), Dobrinovo (1164 g) of the gospel.

In the second half of the XV century Jew vykrast Theodore translated from Hebrew Psalms and the Book of Esther; he probably belongs to the editorial of the Slavonic translation of the Pentateuch and the Prophets.

At the end of the XV century the Novgorod Archbishop Gennady took "picking up” the full text of the Bible, and some books were translated from the Latin Vulgate (the First and Second books of the Chronicles, the First and the Third book of Ezra, the book of Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther, the wisdom of Solomon, books of Maccabees and partly the book of Jesus son sirakova). This tradition was followed Ostrog edition of the Bible (1581), but the preparation of a number of books have been re-translated from the Greek. In 1663 Ostrog edition with some editorial amendments have been reprinted in Moscow - the Moscow Bible. Subsequently, with some corrections was published Elizabeth Bible (1751, 1759.... 1872.... 1913).

In 1680 in Moscow was published "Psalm ryflowana” Simeon of Polotsk (1629 - 1680); in 1683, the translator of the Ambassadorial order Abraham Firsov also translated the Psalms into Russian, but this translation was immediately banned by Patriarch Joachim.

To 1698 pastor Yehliu prepared the complete translation of the Bible into Russian, but during the Northern war in the capture of the Russian troops in 1703 of Marienburg, where he lived Glitch, this work died.

In 1812 in Russia was organized by the Russian Bible society, published in the 20-ies of the XIX century the English translations of some books of the Bible (Psalm partially Pentateuch). In November 1825 Alexander I banned the publication of data transfers, and in 1826 the activities of the Russian Bible society ceased.

The Synod rejected all translations of the Bible into Russian, and only in 1856 in it, the question was raised about the need for translation. This work began in 1860, and in 1867 the conference Kiev, Moscow and Kazan theological Academy made a review and verification of all material. The result of this work was published in 1868 - 1872 years of the Synodal translation of the Bible, which became canonical for the Russian Orthodox Church.

In English-speaking countries, mainly used the Bible king James I, who in 1611 year instructed 52 scientists to create the English translation of the Bible for the needs of English languageProtestants.