11/27/2023 0 Comments Old testament manuscripts online![]() This decline continued, till Hebrew ceased to be a commonly spoken language. ![]() After the destruction of the Jewish state in AD 70, the use of Hebrew declined even further. But with the spread of the Aramaic language and then Greek during the latter centuries BC (see ARAM GREECE), Hebrew had become less widely known in Palestine in New Testament times. The absence of vowels caused no problem to the readers, as they could mentally put in the vowels as they read. The language of the Old Testament, Hebrew, reads from right to left and was written originally with consonants only. There are so many good manuscripts in existence that people with the necessary skills are able to determine the original wording fairly accurately. Yet, in spite of human failings, God has preserved his Word. ![]() There were also cases where copyists deliberately changed the wording to make a sentence mean what they thought it should mean. Some of the common errors were to misread the master copy, misspell words, or misplace, omit, or repeat words or lines. Writing skills varied and copyists at times made errors. Because methods of mechanical printing were unknown in ancient times, people who made copies of the Scriptures had to write them out by hand. The copies that have survived, however, have suffered some damage from people who have copied or used them. They expressed the truth as God wanted it expressed (see INSPIRATION). Although the original writings were written by ordinary people in ordinary human language, they were at the same time written under the special direction of the Spirit of God. These copies are known as manuscripts (abbreviated MS in the singular, MSS in the plural). But from the beginning people had made copies of the original writings, and others continued to make copies down through the centuries. ![]() Papyrus did not last well, and the original writings all perished long ago. It appears that the books of the Bible were written originally on scrolls of papyrus, a material made from dried and flattened strips of papyrus reed (see WRITING). ![]()
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