What is the oldest book of the Bible ?

What is the oldest book of the Bible ?

I am currently reading a book called , Misquoting Jesus , written by Bart D. Ehrman , worth reading .
In the book the author attempts to show how much of the new testament is based on incorrectly translated manuscripts that evolved into what we now call the new testament . He also goes on to state that the earliest texts that have been found are copies of copies , at best , with no original texts in existence for direct examination .
Un fortunately he only covers the new testament and doesn\'t cover the books of the old testament . This has me wondering , what is the oldest book of the bible that can be found , where there is direct access to the text in its original print ?

Oldest copy of Bible is the Codex 3 or 4th century

Oldest book is Job (although some say the Pentateuch)

Oldest fragment is Book of John 2nd century

Originally posted by Max_TO
What is the oldest book of the Bible ?

I am currently reading a book called , Misquoting Jesus , written by Bart D. Ehrman , worth reading .
In the book the author attempts to show how much of the new testament is based on incorrectly translated manuscripts that evolved into what we now call the new testament . He also goes on to state that the earliest texts that have been found are copies of copies , at best , with no original texts in existence for direct examination .
Un fortunately he only covers the new testament and doesn\'t cover the books of the old testament . This has me wondering , what is the oldest book of the bible that can be found , where there is direct access to the text in its original print ?

The Leningrad Codex, or Leningradensis, is the oldest complete Hebrew Bible still preserved. Dating to the year 1010 C.E., the manuscript contains the whole Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament in Hebrew). In 1990 a team from the West Semitic Research Project and the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center traveled to the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg to photograph all 1,000 pages of the Bible.

source

Did some searching and it seems that there was a complete text of the book of Isaiah, found in the Dead Sea scrolls which is calculated to be around 2100 yrs old now.
If correct , would this make the book of Isaiah the oldest ? I have herd that Job is a very old book , and just maybe the oldest book of the Bible , if so what is the age of the earliest text that can be found containing the book of Job .
Are there any biblical text at all that can be found in there original print in there original form ? Or are all texts in existence copies of copies ?

Ahhh! So you are asking for oldest complete original manuscripts?

Tough order. But still it will be the Tanakh.

The Aleppo Codex (c. 920) and Leningrad Codex (c. 1008) are the oldest complete Hebrew manuscripts of the Tanakh. The 1947 find at Qumran of the Dead Sea scrolls pushed the manuscript history of the Tanakh back a millennium from the two earliest complete codices (see Tanakh at Qumran). Out of the roughly 800 manuscripts found at Qumran, 220 are from the Tanakh. Every book of the Tanakh is represented except for the Book of Esther; however, most are fragmentary. Notably, there are two scrolls of the Book of Isaiah, one complete (1QIsa), and one around 75% complete (1QIsb). These manuscripts generally date between 150 BCE to 70 CE.[1]

Source

When St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin from the Holy Land (HL), Hebrew Heb was already a dead language since 200 B.C. (long before Jesus Christ was born). Ptolemy of Egypt trans the Bible around 200 B.C. into Greek & etc. The Heb translators often guessed the meanings of a language they did not really know.

And Koine Greek had already been dead since 100 to 200 A.D. The entire Bible was constructed from guesswork as the meanings of words. Jerome had to ask Holy L HL locals (who spoke Aramaic, & slur of languages) in the HL as to the meaning of the words & they guess estimated to help him. Many 'modern' Bible scholars like to study, decipher and translate the New Testament NT from GREEK. But large portions of the NT were NOT written in Classical GREEK. They were written in an obscure very small language of a small community that spoke a strange corrupted form of a local 'greek' (like Jews in Germany spoke a Yiddish). It requires a totally different dictionary than the Classical Greek hodgepodge dictionaries fabricated for the use of many Christian Fundamentalists who mistakenly believe that the Old Testament OT portion of the Bible was written in Hebrew HEB. Arhaeology has uncovered the shocking revelation that the oldest parts of the OT were NOT written in Hebrew HEB. When the Jews were taken captive into Babylon they learned to structure their alphabet into a form of a boxy script. Hebrew now follows 'Aramaic' "Square Script" also called Square Script varieties: "Hasmonaean" & "Herodian".
Manuscripts dating before the Babylonian captivity were actually written in many Ancient Heb Alphabets & languages. It is now coming into light that there is NO one Heb language. The King James Bible was a language update of the earlier Bishop's Bibles, because English had changed so dramatically in 200 years that neither the Bishops nor the Parishoners could understand the Old English. Many words had reversed their meanings. The same happened in Heb.

Contrary to the Absolutist positions of the Evangelicals & Fundamentalists, we now know that instead of one Heb language, there are actually 7 Hebrew languages & alphabet eras with many meanings & reversals. Also shocking is that the alphabet letters also reversed, flipped, morphed into other letters & changed into substantially different glyphs & meanings which will change the trans.

Many of the oldest books of the Bible were written in ancient petroglyphs, Heiroglyphs, then ancient glyphs called "Pro-Sinaitic" incscription glyphs of about 1,500 B.C.
The Pentateuch was NOT written in any modern Heb. The Pent does not appear to have even been written in pure Heb of any era. There is NO such thing as pure Hebrew! The evidence now shows that in addition to Job, the oldest five books of the OT called the Pentateuch was written in an ancient language assemblage derived from Phonecian, Pro-Sinaitic, & lapidary form of an ancient "Canaanite". This would explain the power of Canaanite Culture on the Heb immigrants to change from Yahweh & accept the Canaanite religion & God Sabaoth-Sabbath.

Bible scholars to please Fundamentalists will still try to paint & label the old languages as really being 'Old Hebrew' when in fact they are acutally "Old Phonecian" & "Old Canaanite". To translate the O.T. one actually should use 7 or more different dictionaries for the different eras of ancient languages. It is fruad to use a modern Heb dictionary to trans ancient Pheonecian or Canaanite glyphs.
An example of the dramatic 7 eras of changes of glyphs & alphabet letters is the trans of
Leviticus 20:13 man shall not lie w/man is really "ish with zakar youth male",not a prohibition against gay sex but a ban against sex with minors. 400 yrs, earlier it meant to deface memorials, 1200 yrs. earlier, it reads "Man shall NOT LIE to Zakar (ancient name of God)! Lie does not refer to slang to get laid, BUT Thou Shalt Not Lie To God! KJ Trans Lies!
Kill is muwth: absolute blessings when written.

Yes, so far as the OT is concerned we have many fragments that are much older then the John fragment.


I have had interest in this as well.

I would need to brush up on Old Testement text. crit. . I do remeber my professor being overjoyed upon the discovery that the Book of Isaiah(part of the Dead sea scrolls) is almost exact, to the letter of some of our other copies.

This may develop into a interesting thread!

WHY CAN I NOT READ Anonymous ATS on this THREAD????

It appears in the reply area but not in the normal thread?????

Originally posted by Max_TO
I am currently reading a book called , Misquoting Jesus , written by Bart D. Ehrman , worth reading .

A good read indeed, I enjoyed it a lot.

If you can, also track down his lectures for The Teaching Company, along similar lines regarding the New Testament.

reply to post by whiteraven


I need clarification here...
When you say the "earliest copy of the bible" do you mean the earliest copy of the texts of one of the books that eventually went into the Bible?

reply to post by Anonymous ATS

The long and short of it , yes .

The oldest existing book of the bible is the little known and in my humble opinion the most suppressed of that genre. Little known outside a few Talmudic scholars its importance to the history of religious thought is profound.



This is the book or more correctly the pamphlet of סֶלַע.

Sometimes referred to as the rock of pain or passage (song) of Adam. It was the rock Adam threw at Satan in the garden of Eden. What was said by Satan is written on the rock.

Hebrew translation of what is written מִחוּץ לְנִשׂוּאִין
on the rock of pain

reply to post by Anonymous ATS

What I am talking about is what book of the bible was written first?What year was it written?

The tiny "Silver scrolls" are the oldest partial texts I know about.

www.swbts.edu...


“Inside [the amulet] we found a tiny, silver scroll, which took us three years to unroll,” Barkay said. “The scroll yielded 19 lines of minuscule writing … in ancient Hebrew script.”

The writing included three repetitions of ancient Hebrew letters which are transliterated YHWH. “This is the private, unpronouncable name of God, which is often pronounced in the West as ‘Jehovah,’” Barkay said.

After extensive, careful analysis by experts in ancient Semetic languages, the tiny scrolls were shown to contain the earliest written example of the Aaronian benediction recorded in Numbers 6:24-26: “The LORD bless you, and keep you; the LORD make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace.”

“This text predates the earliest Dead Sea Scrolls by four centuries,” Barkay said in reference to the importance of the silver scrolls. “They are the oldest biblical verses identified in the world.”

Stratigraphy enabled Barkay to date the silver scrolls to the seventh century B.C., to the time of King Josiah. He said the scrolls refute scholars who claim the books of the Pentateuch were written later. After the hour-long lecture, Barkay answered questions and chatted with various people who had attended.

I rescently read the Dead Sea Scrolls by Michael Wise(new translation). Which basically explains the where/how they were found and also dates them.

If you want to read some of the oldest transcriptions of the bible stories, i would recommend this book. There are also stories that are not in the bible included with this book. Some of the scrolls also contain more detailed accounts then the bible has.

hanslune, i can't find even the smallest reference to the rock you listed anywhere on google, hall of maat, or anywhere for that matter. could you post a link or is that just a rock with a coin next to it?

reply to post by Mozzy


It's a joke, Mossy! I was in a cruel mood on that day.

pass the sugar please!

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