But Aren’t the Oldest NT Manuscripts Greek?
By
James Scott Trimm
The books known as the “New Testament” were originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic and were later translated into Greek, Latin and other European languages.
One of the questions we get most often is “But Aren’t the Oldest NT Manuscripts Greek?”
Yes it is true that our oldest Hebrew copies of Matthew and Hebrews only date back to the middle ages. And it is true that our oldest Aramaic copies of New Testament books date back to the 4th century C.E..
However there are some important facts for which those making the above argument fail to account.
To begin with, prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 our oldest Hebrew copies of any Tanak (“Old Testament”) books dated back only to the Middle Ages. And our oldest copies of any Tanak books were Greek LXX copies from the fourth century. Yet no one would have argued that this pointed to a Greek origin for the Tanak.
Since no copies of Ester were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, our oldest copies of Ester are still Greek LXX copies from the 4th century. And our oldest copies of Ester in Hebrew only date back to the Middle Ages. Yet this does not in any way indicate that the original language of Ester was Greek.
The time-lapse from the time of the composition of the Book of Ester to our oldest Hebrew copies of Ester is about 1,500 years. This is about the same as the time lapse from the composition of Matthew to our oldest Hebrew copies of Matthew. So the fact that our oldest Hebrew copy of Matthew dates to about 1,500 years after the initial composition of Matthew does NOT negate the Hebrew from being the original (or at least a Hebrew language descendant from the original) .
Although there have been no Papyri fragments of Hebrew Matthew found among the Christian Papyri fragments there have also been no Papyri fragments of Hebrew Isaiah or of the Hebrew of any of the other “Old Testament” books found among them. (though Greek fragments of LXX copies of Tanak books have been found among them). The only Hebrew Papyri fragments of Tanak books have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls and not among any discoveries of Christian Papyri fragments. Why should we expect Hebrew Matthew (or any Hebrew or Aramaic NT books) to have been better preserved than the Hebrew Tanak? Whoever were the owners of the NT Papyri fragments we have found clearly had no copies of any Hebrew books of the Bible at all even from the “Old Testament” books which we know were composed in Hebrew. So the fact that we have found no Hebrew or Aramaic copies of NT books among them is no more significant than the fact that we find no Hebrew copies of “Old Testament” books among them.
The oldest Greek Papyri fragment of any NT book is P52 (pictured at the top) which is a fragment of a few verses of John. The word order of this fragment agrees with the Greek Western Type of text which has close agreement with the Aramaic Old Syriac text.
Our oldest complete Greek manuscripts of NT books date to the fourth century and that is also the age of our oldest complete Aramaic manuscripts of NT books.
The Hebrew and Aramaic origin of the New Testament cannot be dismissed or disproved by the existence of Greek papyri fragments that predate the oldest Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts.
If we are to truly return to these Jewish roots then we must seek to better understand what the “New Testament” actually says in the languages in which it was written. The books known as the “New Testament” were originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic and were later translated into Greek, Latin and other European languages. Many passages in the New Testament do not make sense at all in Greek, but only begin to make sense in Hebrew and Aramaic.
The Scripture Restoration Project grew out of a pair of blogs at NazareneSpace:
Restoration of the Word of YHWH and Restoring the House of Judah
In those blogs I wrote to you about the importance of the Restoration of the Word of YHWH. At that time I cited a prophecy from the Book of Enoch, which says of the last days:
But when they write down truthfully all my words in their languages, and do not change or diminish ought from my words but write them all down truthfully –all that I first testified concerning them. Then, I know another mystery, that books will be given to the righteous and the wise to become a cause of joy and uprightness and much wisdom. And to them shall the books be given, and they shall believe in them and rejoice over them, and then shall all the righteous who have learnt therefore all the paths of uprightness be recompensed.’
(1Enoch 104:10-13)
At that time I said: Enoch was speaking of this generation. There is much work to be done, and less time than ever in which to get it done.
The time is near at hand in which “the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.” (Isaiah 29:18)
As many of you know, my wife is chronically ill, disabled and suffering from chronic pain. We have been hit with about $500 in unforeseen medical expenses this month. In these uncertain times, we need your support more than ever. The time is short, and there is much work to be done. This is no time to pull back from the great work in front of us!
As I have said to you many times, I look on this work as a co-operative one with me, and all of you combining our resources together in order to get the job done of helping to teach this great truth to all in the world who will listen. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your continued support, you are the ones who make it all possible by your contributions and your prayers for our work. I truly appreciate your help in every way.
If you can make a one time donation of $500 or $1,000 dollars to support this work.
Now is time to step up to the plate!