The Old Testament was written between 1400 and 400 BC, so how do we know what we have today is the same as the original?
Accuracy of Jewish Scribes
In Judaism a succession of scholars were in charge of the procedures for and the process of copying the texts. There were rigid rules for copying the manuscripts including:
- A scribe must have a complete and authentic master from which to copy.
- Scribes could not copy even a word from memory.
- Scribes used a strict grid of lines and spaces so that individual characters could be checked against the master document.
- Only the use of special black ink was permitted in the copying process.
- While copying, a scribe could not acknowledge anyone in the room, including the King of Israel.
The Consistency of Existing Texts
Over 2000 ancient copies of the Old Testament currently exist, though many only contain fragments of the text.
- Up until the 1940's the earliest complete Old Testament document dated to 980 AD.
- In 1947 the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in a cave in Israel. These documents dated to 100 BC.
- When compared to the newer text the Dead Sea Scrolls were found to be 95% identical. The 5% variation consisted mainly of slips of the pen and variations in spelling. In no case did the variations change the meaning of even one verse.
- These conclusions led scholar William Green to state, "It may safely be said that no other work of antiquity has been so accurately transmitted."
Archaeological / Historical Confirmation
Many of the people and places of the Bible have been confirmed recently through archaeology. A brief description of some of the recent finds is outlined below.
- Sodom and Gomorrah: The burned cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were found near the Dead Sea.
- Archaeological evidence found between 1965-1973 at both sites shows that the cities were destroyed by fire around 2,100 BC, which would cohere with the biblical time of Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction.
- The excavated cities lay in the area described in the Bible.
- Jericho : Excavations from 1930-1936 discovered the city of Jericho. Digging showed that the walls of the city appear to have fallen outward as the Bible describes. This is unusual as the walls of a city under siege always fall inward.
- Saul, David, and Solomon: The names of the three greatest kings of Israel have been found during digs in recent years.
- The Flood of Noah: Similar accounts of the flood are found in cultures around the world.
- Tower of Babel: There now is evidence that at one point the world did have a single language. Sumerian literature alludes to the fact several times.
- Evidence of both the Assyrian invasion and the Babylonian captivity have been found.
- Historian Henry Morries states, "Now, however it is no longer possible to reject the substantial historicity of the Bible, at least as far back as the time of Abraham, because of the remarkable discoveries of archaeology."