DO ORIGINAL BIBLE MANUSCRIPTS EXIST?

The question often is asked: Are there any original manuscripts of the Bible in existence? The brief answer is “no”. As far as we know there are no original Biblical manuscripts in existence. What we have are copies of copies of copies of copies of Biblical manuscripts all originally handwritten, of course.

The oldest complete Hebrew Bible is the Leningrad Codex which dates back to about 1006 A.D. One of the oldest complete New Testament manuscripts is the Codex Sinaiticus (i.e. The Book of Sinai) which dates back to the fourth century A.D. A tiny Greek fragment of the Gospel of John dates back to the early second century A.D.

But many of the ancient peoples were good at collecting and preserving manuscripts. For example, the famous library of Alexandria, Egypt, around 100 B.C. contained over 400,000 volumes. In the same era the library of Pergamum (in Turkey today) contained over 200,000 volumes. Most of the manuscripts of these libraries were lost in wars, fires and confiscations.

The Jewish and Christian communities preserved their sacred texts across the centuries. But eventually the original scrolls wore out or were lost and the copies survived. However, we never can be sure none exist because we have had some very surprising archeological discoveries affecting Biblical studies.

One of the most important and dramatic archeological discoveries was that of the now famous Dead Sea Scrolls. A Bedouin shepherd boy, looking for a lost goat near the Dead Sea, tossed a rock into a cave and heard the sound of breaking pottery. Subsequent investigation of that cave and ten others, led to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, named that because of their proximity to the Dead Sea.

Scrolls or fragments of scrolls (thousands of fragments) have been found of all the books of the Old Testament except Esther. And they all date back to the period of about 200 B.C. to 66 A.D. In other words, they are some of the most ancient Biblical manuscripts in existence. There are two nearly complete scrolls of the Prophet Isaiah now on exhibit in Jerusalem. Thus, the Dead Sea Scrolls provide a treasure trove of ancient Biblical manuscripts invaluable for enhancing Biblical studies.

While the Dead Sea Scrolls are not original Biblical manuscripts, they take us back hundreds of years toward the originals. Many other archeological discoveries have greatly aided Biblical scholarship, for example, the Nag Hammadi (Egypt) manuscripts discovered in 1945.

So who knows, in some remote and unsuspected place, an original Biblical manuscript or manuscripts might be found. But in the meantime, the copies we have and the discoveries that have been made give us great and historic resources for the faith traditions.