How We Got Our Bible L3

Opening

Let's look at Psalms chapter 12 this morning. Continuing on here, last week we left off with the prophets and how God used the prophets and how there was a succession of prophets, how He spoke through them, how it was a special office, how they conveyed His words, and the different ways that they did, and how the Lord said that the different ways that they did it were Scripture. And I want you to look at Psalms chapter 12. Psalms chapter 12 this morning. And we have read 2 Timothy 3.16 where it says, All Scripture is all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. So it's breathed by God. God's involved in the giving of Scripture.

And that's, I think, where we finished off last week. Psalms chapter 12, verse 6. He says, The words of the Lord. The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. And we'll talk about that verse later. But, he says in verse 7, Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. Now, there's a foundational truth. I want you to go to Hebrews. I want you to go to Hebrews. There's a foundational truth that we must understand, and it's mandatory, absolutely mandatory, when we approach any subject that has to do with God. And look at Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews chapter 11. And look what the Bible says in verse 1. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. He says in verse 6, But without, what's the next word? Faith. Without faith, it is unlikely. Does he say unlikely? Does he say difficult? No. He says impossible. It's impossible to please God without faith. It's impossible. Right? God is honored by our simple trust in Him. The same way that a parent is blessed is blessed is blessed when their child trusts them. You know? I can't explain this right now, but trust me. Right? God's the same way. Okay? So, without faith, it is impossible to please Him.

For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He's a rewarder of them that diligently seek them. So, and in no subject, and by the way, the subject of the Bible speaking about itself is one of the Bible speaking about itself is one of the largest in Scripture, you could preach a sermon every week for a year on what the Bible says about itself. And there's no other book like that in the world. There's no other book that claims inspiration in the way that the Bible does, that claims preservation in the way that the Bible does, and that claims to be the words of God in the way that the Bible does.

And over and over and over, the Scripture refers to itself. And it's impossible to believe in Him. And when it comes to the study of the Scripture, this is of paramount importance. We must believe what He said about His Word. We must. And if you don't believe what He says about His Word, this is all in vain for you. Right? In other words, if I sat here this morning, and I tried to, through the scientific method, prove to you the existence of God, we would struggle by what we consider the scientific method. Now, we can talk about creation, and we can talk about intelligent design, and we can go all over the place, right?

But none of those things actually show you God, right? We can show you the written record, but there's still a part of us that has to receive it by faith, that has to trust His Word. And the fact, the Bible says this in 1 Corinthians 1, it says, the world by wisdom knew not God. Right? And if you want to make a mess of things, try to explain and find and understand theological truths through philosophy and reason. Right? You'll end up, you'll end up, well, never mind. You'll end up like they all did. You'll end up like Freud did. Right? And so, the Bible says that faith pleases Him. Please God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

Okay. So, that's just fundamental to our study of the Scriptures. Now, when we get to this and we talk about the transmission of Scripture, and the transmission is, transmission, just, it gave up the ghost. Ha! Right? Transmission just means to transmit, right? Or, and that is to convey from one person to another, or convey from one place to another. Right? And, the transmission of Scripture is the passing down of Scripture. We know that the Lord gave the Word and He inspired it, but what we're going to study is how we got it. How we received it. Now, writing, records, and writing are nearly as old as the earth. Okay? People have been writing for a long time, and, you can, you can, even now, you can go to museums, and you can look at, Babylonian cuneiform, Sumerian cuneiform tablets that are 3,000 plus years old.

And, back then, it was, it was taking, soft clay and scratching on it with what they called a stylus. And they'll still call a fancy pen that. Right? But some, something sharp, and they'll scratch into that clay, and then they would bake it. And, but writing's nearly as old as the earth. In Judges 5, he speaks of, those that handle the pen of the ready writer. The psalmist says, my tongue is the pen of the ready writer. oh, did I skip this part? Yeah, there it is right there. We'll get back to that in a second. All right? He says, my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. And so, people have been writing for as long, almost as long as there have been people.

And I'm not talking about the, the textbook explanation of the, of the, of the, tens of thousands or millions of years that we lived in a cave. Right? And then just started writing 3,000 years ago. Okay. The Bible says that God made man upright. He made man upright. Right? He made him with opposable thumbs and the ability to reason. Right? And he gave him the knowledge of him. And it, it didn't take that man a million years to invent the wheel. Right? They learned that stuff from fallen angels and from God Almighty. And that's a totally different subject. But, but, writing is nearly as old as the earth. Now, scripture, and this is important, and I skipped this, but scripture is held up by two pillars.

It's held up by two pillars. And we just read in Psalms 12, that thou shalt keep them, thou shalt preserve them. The other pillar is second Timothy three 16, which we've already looked at, right? All scripture is given by what? All right. So it's breathed by God. It's scripture is, is what you have in this book is, is just like it came out of the mouth of God. The very words of God were spoken and recorded by these men. Okay. And the authority of the scripture and the integrity of the scripture is held up by both of these. And really one is not very good without the other. Right? What good is it for God to inspire a book that he can't keep?

The Lesson

Right? the originals like the original 10 commandments were broken immediately. Right? In Jeremiah, Jeremiah wrote the, wrote the words of the Lord down and the King took a pen knife, sliced it up and threw it in the fire. And the Lord said, well, just write another copy. Right? The originals didn't last very long. Your new Testament was written on papyrus. That's it's like newspaper. Right? It doesn't hold up and it was getting passed around. Right? So the originals couldn't have last. Most of what everything, every time someone grabs a piece of scripture in the Bible, every time they're, they're, they're, they're holding a copy. Right? Look at Acts chapter eight.

Look at Acts chapter eight. People talk about, well, I don't believe in double inspiration. I don't even know what that means. That's just, that's a made up word. Right? That's like calling someone that believes in morals, a radical right winger. It's just something you make up. Right? To make people. Yeah, that's right. Right? That's what do they call you? They call you a science denier if you don't believe their narrative on global warming. Right? They just make up words. So they make up this word. I don't believe in double inspiration. What are they saying? They're saying that God inspired the originals and nothing else. What would the point of that be?

The originals weren't around for 50 years. What would the point of God's hand only being on the originals? What would that amount to? Right? Look at, look at Acts chapter eight. Acts chapter eight. Look what the Bible says in Acts chapter eight. And this is the Ethiopian eunuch. Okay? And let's see here. Look what it says here in verse. He's reading Isaiah in his chariot. Okay? He's down in Gaza. Okay? He's south of Jerusalem. Okay? And he's down in that, where that rodeo is right now. That's where he's at. He's right on that highway on the coastal plain that goes down to Egypt. And look what it says in verse 32.

And the place of the what? The scripture which he read was this. Okay? That Ethiopian eunuch is reading scripture. You think they would have let him out of Jerusalem with the originals if they even had him? No. Okay? So, scripture, the authority of scripture is held up by two pillars. Inspiration and preservation. It does God no good to inspire his words if he can't keep them around for people. Right? And what good is it for him to preserve something that wasn't inspired in the first place? Right? So, it's both. And that's where faith comes in. Right? Now, if you don't believe that, you might as well just pack up your Bible and your notebook and your Pigma pens and your energy drink and your Werther's Originals or whatever you got in your pocket and just head to the house because we believe what God says.

Amen? All right. Good. Now, we can keep going. All right. Exodus chapter 24. Exodus chapter... Well, what? Let's go to Exodus 17. Exodus 17. So, beginning with Moses, beginning with Moses, we have the transmission starting. And look at Exodus chapter 17. Exodus chapter 17. And look what he says here in verse 14. And the Lord said unto Moses, write this for a memorial what? Exodus 17. Write it for a memorial in a what? In a book. Moses started writing. Look at Exodus chapter 24. Exodus chapter 24. And look what he says in verse... Let's see here. Exodus 24. Exodus chapter 24. And look at verse 4. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord and rose up early in the morning.

So, that Moses started this writing the words of the Lord. Now, I'm not saying there wasn't writing before that. There absolutely was. But Moses started the writing and the passing down. And there's too many verses to go over. Numbers 33. Moses wrote their goings out. He recorded all the journeys of the children of Israel. Now, I want you to go to Joshua chapter 24. Go to Joshua chapter 24. So, Moses started writing. But then his successor, Joshua, also wrote. Joshua chapter 24. And Joshua 24. And Joshua 24, verse 26. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God. And took a great stone and set it up there under an oath that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.

Joshua also wrote. He also recorded things. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 10. 1 Samuel chapter 10. I'm just showing you that there was going down through the history of Israel, there were people that were recording things. Right? Just like we do now. 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel 10. 1 Samuel chapter 10. Look at verse 25. And Samuel. See? This is the prophet Samuel. We already saw last week that he's a prophet. Told the people the manner of the kingdom. And what's the next word? Wrote it in a book and laid it up before the Lord. See? He laid it up. Now, when you lay something up before the Lord in the Old Testament, that means you laid it up before the priest, before the temple.

Right? And that's where this stuff was kept. He laid it up before the Lord. Now, when you read through your Bible, you'll read stuff like 1 Chronicles 29-29. Now, the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer. These guys are prophets. And so, he'll refer you to, hey, this guy's stuff was written down. And what God did is he used Samuel, and he used Nathan, and he used Gad, some of these prophets that we mentioned last week, to record the manner of the kingdom.

And you had scribes, and we'll show you this, that actually wrote the chronicles of the king. Right? You would have a court recorder, and they would write everything. But if we had all that in the Bible, it'd be, this big. Right? So, the prophets took this stuff, and condensed it, and gave us by inspiration what we need to know. Right? And that's, so, once again, referring back to the lesson last week, the Lord used the prophets, but there was a long tradition of writing and recording things. Look at Isaiah chapter 30. Isaiah chapter 30. So, these guys spoke, but they didn't just speak, they wrote. And if they didn't write it, someone else wrote it down.

So, there was a lot of recording going on. And look at Isaiah chapter 30. And look what the Lord says to Isaiah. Because Isaiah is a preacher, right? He's a preacher. He's going to Israel, and he's standing on the corner. He's rebuking in the gate. Right? Just like Jeremiah did. But the Lord told them to write their stuff down. Look at Isaiah chapter 30, verse 8. Now go. What's the next word? Write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for a time to come, forever and ever. See what the Lord said there? He said, you know what? I'm giving you some pretty good stuff here.

Better write this down. All right? You ever hear someone say, you need to write this down. This is good. Now listen to what I'm saying. Make a note of this. And, aren't you glad Isaiah wrote it down? It might be the most beautiful book ever written, the book of Isaiah. Comfort ye, comfort you, my people. Cry unto her. Her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is part. It's beautiful. Beautiful. It's poetic. And so, look at Jeremiah 51. what? We're going to skip that one. It's just so Jeremiah wrote in a book, all the evil that should come upon Babylon. Right? Jeremiah 36.4 shows us how it worked a lot of the times.

Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Nariah, and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord. So in this case, it's what we call divine dictation. Right? The prophet spoke it, and immediately the scribe wrote it. That's Jeremiah 36.4. Now, all the way to the end, Daniel, Daniel was actually in the captivity. And look at Daniel chapter 7. Daniel chapter 7. So this is, Moses started writing there in 1450 B.C. Daniel is, when we find Daniel here, he's in 538 B.C. So you're a thousand years later. And they're still writing. Look at Daniel chapter 7. Daniel chapter 7. And look at verse 1. In the year of, first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed.

Then he what? Then he wrote the dream. So Daniel wrote the stuff that he saw. Right? He has a vision in chapter 7. He has a vision in chapter 8. He's got a prayer answered in chapter 9. He has a vision in chapter 10 and chapter 11. He wrote this stuff down. So people were writing. Now, in addition to that, and I think I might have a, where the king took a penknife there in Jeremiah 36? And we can't get to it today. But he took a penknife and he sliced out part of Jeremiah's letter that he wrote to him. Okay. Well, this is an old writer's inkhorn. Right? And what this was is this would often be like some sort of quirky type of wood, some soft wood.

And it was hollowed out in the middle. Right? And this is where a guy would hold his pens. Right there. And those pens are a reed. They're a hollow reed. And then he would screw the other end into a little bottle that he would have, like a little clay bottle or whatever they were making stuff out of. And he would have a little holder here. And he'd carry that. A scribe would always have that with him. He'd carry it right there. It's called the pen of a ready writer. Psalms 45. The Bible says about Ezra, he was a ready scribe. Right? So that, and that's where you get the term.

Right? A gentleman always has a pen. Right? And so what this was right here was this was a hollow reed. But a guy had to, you had to learn how to do this just like any other trade. It was a skilled thing. He would have a little knife with him that he would shave that reed just so he could get it just to where the ink would drop out just like a ballpoint pen. Right? That's the original pen. It was just a hollow reed. So that, when you read in your Bible that the king took a pen knife, you're like, they had pen knives in 600 BC? Yeah, they did.

That's the right word. They had a pen knife. And that it was to sharpen that reed right there. And now, this is a lot of your, in the old days, your Bible was written on leather. They wrote it on leather. Right? After clay and stone, this was obviously easy to carry, easier to carry around. Right? Now, vellum probably didn't come around until maybe the 5th or 6th century BC, but it could have been older. But vellum is essentially finer leather. It would be calf or antelope skin. But a lot of your original, like, New Testament scrolls that were, and ones that were copied and passed down, they were written with ink that was made out of some sort of dye that they would find from nature.

And then it was written on leather. And the reasons that stuff would stick around for so long is because of how dry the Middle East is. Now, getting back to what we're talking about here, let's go back here to, I want to show you this. Look at Deuteronomy 31. Okay, so the prophets, the prophets preached. Sometimes they had scribes with them that wrote. Sometimes they wrote themselves. But there was a group of people that was specifically responsible for writing down things and then keeping what was accepted as scripture. And we'll talk about what was accepted as scripture in a moment. Right? But there was actually a guild or a group of people that had a responsibility to take care of the scriptures.

Okay? We know that the Ten Commandments they put in a box and carried it around with them. Right? Let's talk about the originals. The Ten Commandments did stick around a long time. They stuck around for 900 years until the Lord took that ark there in Ezekiel that we read about in Sunday school. That's a long time for those tablets to stick around. Right? But most of the stuff didn't stick around that long. Now look at Deuteronomy 31. I mean, right? I mean, the Bible calls him God only wise. Right? You don't think the Lord knew that his words were going to be written on papyrus and animal skins and on the backs of rocks.

Right? And that, over time things would wear down, things would get broke, things would get heavy. Right? Okay? Look at Deuteronomy chapter 31. And look what it says in verse 9. And Moses wrote this law and delivered it unto the priests, the sons of Levi. Okay? So when Moses wrote this law, and that law there's not just talking about the Ten Commandments, it's talking about the first five books. When Moses finished up, it says that he delivered it unto the Levites. Now do you have this one up there? Do you have this one right here? Deuteronomy 17? Yeah, here it is. And it shall be, this is provisions that he wrote in the law for when Israel had a king.

It shall be, as soon as the king got anointed and he sat on the throne, and it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests, the Levites. See that? So it was expected that the Levites were going to take care of the law and take care of the scriptures. And that continued. Look at 2 Chronicles. Well, I'll just read you this one. Look at 2 Chronicles 17.8. It says this, and with them he sent Levites. Now, this is way later. And with them he sent Levites, and they taught in Judah, and had the book of the law of the Lord with them.

This is 600 years later, under Jehoshaphat, I think it is. Right? And he's evangelizing the northern tribes. And he sends the Levites, and he says, go up there with the book of the law. 600 years later. So the Levites' job was to keep the law. Look at Jeremiah. I want you to see this one. Look at Jeremiah chapter 8. Jeremiah chapter 8. When the Lord is talking to Israel, and he's telling them that I gave you the law, but you're not following it. It's not doing you any good. He says in Jeremiah chapter 8. Jeremiah chapter 8. And he says this in verse 8. He says, how do you say we are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us?

Right? So he's speaking to Israel. And what is he saying in Jeremiah? This is, this is, this is around 600 BC, 620 BC. Right? And they say, we have the law of the Lord with us. what that means? It means that they still had the law. 620 BC. Okay? So they had the law 900 years after Moses. They still had it. Right? And it says, the law of the Lord is with us. Lo, certainly in vain made he it. Look what it says. The pen of the what? Right? The pen of the scribes is in vain. So you had a group of men, scribes, Levitical scribes, whose job it was to copy the scriptures.

One of the things they would do is when the scriptures would wear out, they would actually build, because it's, I've had people ask me this. What do you do with an old Bible? Right? You throw it in the dumpster? what I'm saying? Like, it's weird, right? What do you do with an old Bible? It's kind of weird to think about. Right? I've never thrown a Bible away. That'd be really weird. Right? And so they would build a crypt type thing for it. And they've actually uncovered these in the Middle East. And they would just bury them. Bury them with ceremony. Muslims bury the Quran. Right? And that's just, it's a Middle Eastern thing because what do you do with it?

But they would reach the point where they were worn out. They were tattered. Right? There's not much you could do with them anymore. You got to do something with them. Right? So that's what they would do. Now, interestingly enough, I want to read you because this tradition continued way past the time of Christ. Right? And it continued within Talmudic Judaism with Levites that had been scattered after the burning and destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Right? And then it got taken up by a group known as Masoretic Scribes, which essentially had a tradition that went all the way back to the time of Christ and before. It was the same tradition.

And what it was is it was rules for copying the scriptures. And I'll just read you a few. They had rules for when they would copy the scriptures. It must be written on the skin of clean animals. It must be prepared for synagogue use by a Jew only. It must be fastened together with strings taken from clean animals. So you couldn't use like lion leather. You know? You'd use cow leather or goat leather. Right? There were specific lengths for each column and a certain number of lines on each page. Right? And a certain breadth. Right? The whole copy had to first be lined. Only black ink could be used. And there was a special recipe for it.

Right? The original used to make the copy must be authentic. It must not be deviated from the copyist. And the scribe must say each word aloud as he wrote it. He had to say every word aloud. Right? So he's repeating it back to himself. No word or letter could ever be written from memory. The scribe must always first look at the original before writing his copy. A space of hair or thread must intervene between each consonant. A space of the breadth of nine consonants must come between each section. No word must ever touch another. Right? The fifth book of Moses must end exactly on a line. I'll explain some of this maybe later.

Before copying, the scribe must wash his whole body. While copying, the scribe must only write the name of God with a pen newly dipped into the ink. Every time he wrote the name of God. Each time the scribe came across the Hebrew word for God, which we say Jehovah. Right? Or Yehovah. People say Yahweh. Right? But that's just using the consonants in the Hebrew alphabet. He had to wipe his pen clean. And when he came across the name for God, he had to wash his whole body before he could write it. Should a king address the scribe while writing the name, you must take no notice of him. If a sheet of parchment had one mistake on it, the sheet was condemned.

If there were three mistakes found on any page, the entire manuscript was condemned. Each scroll had to be checked within 30 days of its writing or it was considered unholy. Every word and every letter was counted. If a letter or word was omitted, the manuscript was condemned. They had really strict rules for this stuff. They considered it very important. All right? That's an old, old, old tradition. And the Bible tells us about these guys. I want you to go and look at, oh, let's see here. Let's look at, yeah, let's look at 2 Chronicles 34. Let's look at 2 Chronicles 34. All right? Now we've already read from Jeremiah. So whatever tradition of copying existed, starting with Moses committing the word of God to the Levites, it continued all the way down to Jeremiah.

I want you to look at 2 Chronicles 34. And you guys following me? Everybody here? Good, good, good. 2 Chronicles 34. And look at what he says. And these verses are all over the place in Kings and Chronicles. 2 Kings 34. It says, and they were over the bearers of burdens and were overseers of all that wrought the work in any manner of service. And of the Levites there were what? Oh, 13. 34, 13. And of the Levites there were scribes and officers and porters. So when Jeremiah reinstituted the law and he reinstituted temple worship that had fallen down under Athaliah, the queen before him, he put the Levites back in the positions that they were supposed to be in.

And porters, right? Those were people that kept the doors of the temple, right? That's what a porter is. And officers, people that were over the treasury, people that were over the sacrifices. But then there's another group and they're called scribes. So there were some guys that their job was to copy the scriptures. All right? That's all the way down to the time of the captivity. All right. Now I think we'll skip this, but I just want to, well, I'll just show you a couple things. All right. These books were considered a single book at a very early date. Look at this. In 2 Chronicles, he's referencing Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the law, as it is written in the law, the what?

The book of Moses. In 2 Chronicles 35, he's referencing Leviticus and he calls it the book of Moses. Okay? Ezra 6, he's referencing Numbers, right? That's the fourth book of the law. This is the third book of the law. He calls it the book of Moses. Mark chapter 12, Christ says this, Have you not read in the book of Moses? And he's talking about the book of Exodus. Isaiah, in reference to the prophets, Seek ye out the book of the Lord and read, No one of these shall fail, none shall want her made. Talking about all the prophecies in scripture. And it's called the book of the Lord. So it was already early on, those writings which were considered inspired, which were writings that were from the prophets, that had attestation, that prophet had evidence from God, that he had spoken from God, right?

Those things were collected and they were already beginning to be called a single book. A single book. Now, moving along, I want to show you this. And here's an example. Look at Jeremiah chapter 25. Jeremiah chapter 25. Because this is a question, how did people know what was the word of God and what wasn't? Well, look, I don't know that they always knew it immediately. The book of Genesis took place over a period of 2,000 years, right? But we don't have inspired Genesis, as far as we know, wasn't written until the time of Moses. And look at, where did I say go? Yeah, Jeremiah 25. Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 25. And look what it says in verse 13.

And Jeremiah is prophesying about the captivity. And Jeremiah prophesies right before the captivity, which is 606 BC, and into the captivity. So he's right before the captivity. He prophesied from about, I don't know, 620, I think it was, to 586, something like that. Or even, I think it was even more than that. And look what it says, Jeremiah 25, 13. I will bring upon that land all my words that I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book. Whose book? Jeremiah's book. So the Lord had already approved of what Jeremiah was writing, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations. So Jeremiah was a prophet. Now how would they know he was a prophet?

Remember we looked at that last week? There were things that God said, this is how a guy's a prophet. If he says something and it comes to pass, he's a prophet. So they would have certain tests. Okay? But this is what I want you to see. Look at Daniel chapter 9. Daniel chapter 9. So Jeremiah writes this, let's say in about 600, 600, if he writes it in about 600 BC, thereabouts, Daniel at the end of the captivity is trying to figure out how long until they're going to get out of there. And he's studying around 538 BC. Okay? So this is just, if Jeremiah, Jeremiah just died somewhere around the 570s.

Okay? So he hasn't been, in fact, Daniel was alive when Jeremiah died. Okay? And look at, I want you to look at Daniel chapter, what did I say go? Daniel chapter 9. And Daniel's studying and he's trying to figure out, hey, when are we going to get out of Babylon? And look what it says in Daniel 9. 1. In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans. Now look what he says here. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by books. So Daniel's doing some studying. The number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolation of Jerusalem.

Closing

This gives you an idea that when a guy like Jeremiah or a guy like Moses or a guy like Samuel wrote or preached something, right? There was, there was a universal attestation that, oh, that guy's from God. Oh, we got to keep what that guy says. And the same thing happened with the apostles in the New Testament and the words of Jesus Christ. Now that guy, no, he's an apostle. We're going to pay attention to what he's, what he's, what he's preaching, what he's saying. And so Daniel, just a generation, not even a generation following Jeremiah, they were already looking at the books of Jeremiah and his writings as being authoritative and from God.

So I don't think it took very long at all. All right? I think I wrote here, if Jeremiah was judged according to the stipulations laid out in Deuteronomy 18, then Daniel would have recognized his words and hence his writings as being inspired by God. We know that they recognized Jeremiah's words as being inspired by God because he was a prophet. Right? So hence they would have, they would have respected his writings as well. Now, and so, we do know that the scripture took its final form during the time of Ezra. All right? And Ezra the scribe, we call this the second temple period. So what happened? 536 BC, Cyrus makes a decree, the Jews go back to the land.

Okay? And so, they go back, they start to build the temple, of course it seizes, and then you have the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, you have the books of Malachi, Zechariah, and, and, who's the other one? Haggai? These guys were all guys from the second temple period. Do I have written up there the second temple period when it was? It was about 522, 522 to 70 AD. 522 BC to 70 AD. Now, when Israel went back into the land and when they rebuilt the temple, when they reinstituted a temple worship and they had a revival, Ezra and Nehemiah started up that, that scribal tradition again. Right? Look at, Ezra chapter 7.

Ezra chapter 7. So, this is, this is, this is at the end of the captivity when they're back in the land and what, what follows is this period, the second temple period, the close of the canon or the, and the finishing of the Bible all the way up to the time of Christ. I want you to look at Ezra chapter 7 and there's some historians that believe and teach that Ezra was actually the guy that, that gave, the old, that started to give the Old Testament its final form that we have today. I want you to look at Ezra chapter 7. I'm way over here so I'm in the wrong spot.

Ezra chapter 7 and I want you to look at verse 6. This Ezra went up from Babylon and here's the verse Ezra 7, 6 and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses. So these guys were still around. They made it through the captivity. Right? They must have considered it very important to keep the scriptures because they were around. They were around. And they continued their duty of teaching the law. Look at Nehemiah chapter 8. the next book. It's just the next book over. The next book over that the Jews that came up from captivity they hadn't been taught and also their language, their children's language had been corrupted in Babylon and by the people of the land.

And so some of the younger kids had a little bit of a problem understanding the scripture because they spoke half the language of Ashdod and half the language of the Hebrews. So Ezra immediately translated the Hebrew Old Testament into a comic book that everyone could understand. I'll read it to you. No, I'm serious. Nehemiah chapter 8. Look at verse 8. So they read in the book of the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. I lied. what he did? He got up and preached it and said, now this is what it says. That's what it says, right? He preached and taught. That was the Levite's job, right?

The Bible says the priest's lips should keep knowledge. He says that in Malachi. Right? That was their job. So the Levite's job was to not only copy the scripture but also to teach those scriptures. And I don't know that we're going to get to those references today but they continued their duty of teaching the law. Look at Nehemiah chapter 13. And Nehemiah who was the governor here he instituted it. He made sure that it happened. In Nehemiah chapter 13 and look what it says in oh verse 13 Nehemiah says this he says and I made treasurers over the treasury Shalamiah the priest and Zadok the what? The scribe and of the Levites Padaiah and next to him Hanan the son of Zechur and the son of Mattaniah for they were counted faithful now look at what he says and their what?

So it was an office so those Levites had an office and one of the offices was to was to copy the scriptures and to teach the scriptures so Nehemiah and that's about 454 BC now the Bible closed the canon closed what we call the canon which we talked about last week the last book was written the last books were Nehemiah and Malachi and around 424 BC that's when the last ones were written right and they were collected very soon thereafter into what we call the Hebrew canon and I think I'll show you that alright now this is how it's divided up okay this is called the Hebrew Old Testament or the Tanakh right that T obviously Hebrew these are understood vowels T and K which stands for the Torah Neviim and the Ketuvim right and the Hebrew Old Testament is in three sections right it's 24 books sometimes 22 depending on which ones they put together in three sections you have a piece of Ezra one verse in Jeremiah and a section in Daniel which are written in Old Syriac or what we call Aramaic which was a language related to Hebrew that was spoken in Syria and Assyria and it was used at the time of Christ okay but it's still it's a Semitic language and it's related to Hebrew they're in the same family but it's divided into three sections the first section is called the law or the Torah it's five books Genesis Exodus Numbers look at me Deuteronomy the prophets which are eight books the former prophets Joshua Judges Samuel see how Samuel is one book Kings is one book this is how you have 24 books it's the same 39 books we have it's just divided differently then you have the latter prophets Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel and then the 12 which is Hosea through Malachi are considered one book okay all right now and then you have the writings or called the Psalms those are 11 books they're also called the Agiographa which means the holy writings Agios Grapha right you have the Psalms Proverbs and Job Song of Solomon Ruth Lamentations Ecclesiastes and Esther then you have Daniel Ezra Nehemiah are considered one book and 1st and 2nd Chronicles are considered one book sometimes it's 22 books not 24 because Ruth is stuck on another book and I think one other one is stuck on another book it's I can't remember off the top of my head I gotta look it up here Lamentations sometimes Lamentations right here because Jeremiah wrote it is attached to Jeremiah so it's either 24 or 22 books but it's the same exact 39 books that you have in your Bible it's just a different order right so the Hebrew Old Testament starts with Genesis and ends with 2nd Chronicles right the last command is 2nd Chronicles who is there among you of all his people let him go up that's the last thing a Jew reads in his Bible is get back to the land right so it's just the Lord right you your Bible is 39 books it follows a different order it follows a Greek translation from Hebrew into Greek and so it's laid out in that order but it's the same books now I want to show you something about that oh interestingly enough I'll show you this really quick where we at five minutes two minutes all right really quick these books these books that we're talking about oh that's the that's Dore etched to that the martyrdom of Eleazar the scribe that's a witness to the scribal tradition continuing all the way to the time of Christ this guy was killed in about 164 AD during the Maccabean revolt under Antiochus Epiphanes they killed him but he was a scribe they were all right but this Old Testament is the Old Testament is called scripture by Jesus Christ 13 times in the New Testament the books of Moses those five books are called scripture 32 times the prophets are called scripture 43 times the writings are called scripture 37 times and I want you to see this look at Luke chapter 24 Luke chapter 24 when Christ started his ministry what he did he went into the synagogue and he stood up for to read right and he opened the book and the Bible says the place of the scripture which he read was this okay so they had the scriptures in the synagogue at the time of Christ look at Luke chapter 24 Luke chapter 24 and look what he says here Luke chapter 24 and he's talking about the Old Testament and verse 43 and he took it that he before him look at verse 44 and he said to them these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you now look at this that all things must be fulfilled which were written what's the first section the law of Moses and in the what alright there's the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the what so that's the three Jesus Christ put a stamp of approval on the threefold Hebrew division of the Old Testament there it is right there that's not the only place you can find examples of that okay now why do we say that why is that important well let's see if I can we're not going to be able to go through all this because we got to be done but I just want to show you this alright and I want to make this note Jesus Christ right he when he talks about the blood of the prophets coming upon that generation he starts he says from the blood of Abel that's the book of Genesis to the blood of Zacharias whom you shed killed between the temple and the altar that's 2 Chronicles right so he just showed them the beginning of the law and the end of the Old Testament right he did that and it's other places but Jesus Christ and very important to know Jesus Christ never stood up and said read a verse and then said well now a better translation would be he never did neither Jesus Christ nor the apostles ever one time you cannot find it ever corrected one word of the Hebrew Old Testament never one time all right now look at this real quick here's the facts of Old Testament transmission it was given over 1400 years it covered a period 4000 years it was transmitted orally before being officially recorded some of the original autographs were second copies in Exodus Proverbs and Jeremiah some passages were pure revelation they were written as second hand accounts like the book of Genesis and Numbers 22 some originals were edited collations by later prophets like 2 Chronicles and 2 Kings it was copied over a period of 1500 years beginning in 1451 some of the original passages were themselves translations meaning what anytime someone spoke in a foreign tongue it was translated into Hebrew for the originals that means some of the originals were translations people don't think about this stuff it was kept and copied by Levitical scribes for 1500 years it did not assume its complete form until 100 years after Moses that's not all it suffered the occupation of the Moabites Canaanites Philistines Midianites and Ammonites the Levites were starved persecuted and dispersed under Jeroboam Athaliah Ahaz and Manasseh Egyptians Syrian and Assyrian raids and conquests from 946 to 625 BC Jerusalem and the temple completely burnt 606 the inhabitants of the land taken into captivity 606 the partial corruption of spoken Hebrew in captivity Nehemiah 12 they were occupied by Babylon Persia Greece and Rome that's Jerusalem the Lingua Franca of Palestine we'll skip that 168 to 164 Antiochus Epiphany sacked Jerusalem displaced the Levites suppressed the Jewish religion and destroyed the scrolls the Levites themselves had several eras of apostasy what is that's what your Old Testament went through and when Jesus Christ showed up he never corrected it one time he called it the scriptures 13 times he approved how it was laid out and here his apostles never said there was one mistake in it and he said the word the word why he said the scripture cannot be broken the words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times us shall keep them from this generation forever okay let's take a break God bless you all right sorry I went long had to finish gosh Thank you.