It may surprise some to discover that we have no original copies of biblical books. However, we have many copies and fragments of copies that are carefully compared to produce the Bibles that we possess today. The Dead Sea Scrolls were unearthed between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the Wadi Qumran. These scrolls – when scrutinized over the next twenty years – would refine and corroborate the preceding scriptural examinations! Their value is inestimable!
We know that all of our New Testament
was written before 100 A.D. The Old Testament scriptures had obviously been
carefully maintained for well over a thousand years earlier. The original
languages would have been Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek!
There was chaos in the first four
hundred years A.D. trying to determine which books had authority. The process
was not highly structured, but rested in the hands of the early church fathers
who eventually confirmed – by the end of the fourth century – the sixty-six
books that protestants consider the Holy Bible.
But the history of western Asia and
Europe was then enveloped in a period that we know as the Dark Ages. It’s
difficult for us to imagine this period of history. I’m reminded of a joke I
enjoyed as a teenager.
Why was the period
from 500 – 1500 A.D known as the ‘Dark Ages’?
Because there were so
many knights!
It was during this period that monasteries were established
throughout Europe and the feudal system came into being. Most of us know that
this was an incubation period for this new Christianity! Monks busied
themselves meticulously copying the early manuscripts of scripture by
hand-writing copies of the Bible!
By the fourth century when books were copied by hand, there
was a standard rate of pay for scribes. Books were divided into what were
called stichoi. A stichos is not a line. It was originally
the length of sixteen syllables [based on the average length of a line that
Homer wrote].
There is a sixth-century New Testament manuscript called the
“Codex Claromontanus” which gives the number of stichoi in each New Testament book.
It reported that in Matthew there are 2,600 stichoi, in Mark 1,600, in Luke 2,900 and in John 2,000.
Consequently there were 9,100 stichoi
in the four Gospels.
There is also an edict of Diocletian published early in the
fourth century that fixes the prices for all sorts of things; and amongst them it
fixes the rate for the pay of scribes; and the pay is 25 denarii per hundred stichoi. A denarius was a little over five
cents, so the rate was approximately $1.25 per hundred stichoi.
This means that – at that time - one could purchase the four
Gospels for about $124. All the letters of Paul would have cost about $68.
When Wycliffe published the Bible in English for the first
time at the end of the fourteenth century, it was, of course, before printing
was available. The Bible still had to be copied by hand. Later, George Foxe
wrote: “Some gave five marks (equal to about $55), some more, some less for a
book. Some gave a load of hay for a few chapters of St. James or St. Paul in
English.”
“When the Great Bible was published in 1540, Bishop Bonner
placed the six copies in convenient places in St. Paul’s Cathedral; and such
was the eagerness to read them, and to hear them read aloud, that services were
rendered impossible and the traffic disrupted and the crowds so great that
Bonner had to threaten to take the Bibles away if the eager disorder did not
cease.”
When George Foxe had spoken of the eagerness of the people
to read the Wycliffe Bible and of their sacrifices to pay for one, he went on, “To
see their travails, their earnest seekings, their burning zeal, their readings,
their watchings, their sweet assemblies…may make us now in these days of free
profession to blush for shame.” It was 1563 when Foxe wrote that.
There is a lesson in this review for all of us. Something
that was originally hailed as life-transforming has become mundane! At various
points of history, people craved to hear or read the word of God! They would
expend inordinate amounts of money or invest hours of time in order to hear
these precious, life-giving words!
Many over the years have prayed for a revival. Perhaps
instead, we should pray for a rebible!
Gracious God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
You have clearly given us Your Word!
You initiated people through many ages to write these sacred
words.
You protected manuscripts through centuries of chaos and
rebellion.
You’ve guided the process through translators and
translations.
And today, we hold in our hands THE WORD OF GOD!
There is no limit to its power especially when energized by
Your Holy Spirit!
Grow in us a DESIRE FOR YOUR WORD!
Create hunger in us for it.
Speak to us through it!
Guide us and use us to incite passion in others for Your
precious messages!
FOR YOUR KINGDOM’S SAKE.
AMEN!
Woodrow Kroll, the late president of Back to the Bible once said: "If Christians blew the dust off their Bibles at the same time, there would be a massive dust storm." [adapted]
Maybe it's time for a dust storm!
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