Equipped For Every Good Work (1946)
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Equipped for
Every Good Work’
“Equipped for Every Good Work”
“Every Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in right doing; so that the man of God may be complete, perfectly equipped for every good work.” —2 Timothy 3:16, 17, Weymouth.
PUBLISHERS WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY, INC. International Bible Students Association Brooklyn, New York, U. S. A.
COPYRIGHT, 1946 by
WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY Made iu the United States of America
CONTENTS
LESSON PAGE
“EQUIPPED FOR EVERY GOOD WORK”
PREPARING THE WAY FOR BIBLE STUDY ....
Origin of the Bible............ 1
Preservation of the Bible......... 2
Authenticity of the Bible......... 3
Bible Languages : Hebrew......... 4
Bible Languages : Aramaic ......... 5
Bible Languages : Greek .......... 6
Growth of the Bible Canon......... 7
Completion of the Bib.e Canon....... 8
Manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures..... 9
Versions of the Hebrew Scriptures......10
Papyrus Manuscripts of the Greek Scriptures . . 11
Vellum Manuscripts and Manuscript Families . . 12
The Bible’s Fight to Live.........13
The English Bible in Print........14
The Talmud and Its History . 15
Some Talmud Teachings......... 16
Period of Apocryphal Writings........17
Contents of the Apocrypha...... 18
Geography of the Promised Land.......19
Geography of Jerusalem..........20
THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES
Genesis.................21
Exodus.................22
Leviticus................23
Numbers................ 24
Deuteronomy ..............25
Joshua.............. 26
Judges.................27
Ruth..................28
First Samuel...............29
Second Samuel..............30
First Kings...............31
Second Kings...............32
First Chronicles.............33
Second Chronicles............ 34
Ezra..................35
Nehemiah......... 36
Esther.................37
Job..................38
Psalms.................39
Proverbs................40
Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.......41
Isaiah................. 42
CONTENTS
LESSON PAGE
Jeremiah................ 43
Lamentations of Jeremiah......... 44
Ezekiel ................. 45
Daniel................. 46
Hosea................. 47
Joel and Amos.............. 48
Obadiah and Jonah............ 49
Micah and Nahum...... 50
Habakkuk and Zephaniah..........51
Haggai and Zechariah............ 52
Malachi ................ 53
THE GREEK SCRIPTURES
Matthew................ 54
Mark.................. 55
Luke..... 56
John.................. 57
Acts of the Apostles........... 58
Romans.................59
First and Second Corinthians........ 60
Galatians and Ephesians..........61
Philippians and Colossians......... 62
First and Second Thessalonians....... 63
First and Second Timothy.......... 64
Titus ano Philemon............ 65
Hebrews................ 66
James................. 67
First and Second Peter........... 68
Epistles of John and Jude.......... 69
Revelation............... 70
SCRIPTURAL SUMMARY, WITHOUT COMMENT, OF PRIMARY DOCTRINES
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS AND TABLES
PAGE
Jesus Proved to Be the Promised Messiah ....
Nash Papyrus
Masoretic Text
Leading Papyrus Manuscripts
Leading Vellum Manuscripts
Talmud Chart
Full-color Maps of Palestine as Divided Among the Twelve Tribes, of Palestine in Relief, and of Jerusalem
Map of Ancient Habitable Earth
Chronology from Creation to Israel’s First King . . 143
Map of Dominions of David and Solomon
Table of Kings and Prophets
Table of the Books of the Bible
Map of Palestine in Time of Christ
Main Events of Jesus’ Earthly Sojourn
Map of Eastern Mediterranean in the First Century A.D
"EQUIPPED FOR EVERY GOOD WORK”
WHY THIS BOOK IS PUBLISHED
JEHOVAH God is a Worker perfectly equipped for any undertaking, whether it be building an atom or a universe. He now oversees a strange work in the earth, a work whereby Bible truth exposes religious lies. It is the glorious work of announcing God’s established Kingdom and its early march against Satan and his organization in the destructive cataclysm of Armageddon. When that war of vindication breaks, the “st range work” will have been cut short in righteousness; then God’s “strange act” will occur in witness to his supremacy. Now is the time for Jehovah’s witnesses to work at their assignment of Kingdom service, while possible. Now is the acceptable time for them to be fruitful and abound in good works. And though imperfect themselves, they are perfectly equipped workmen. They have no need to be ashamed before God. With confidence they can work out their own salvation and need not fear the time when all will be judged and rewarded according to their works. They have sown good works; they will reap a good reward.
Why can the weak and imperfect worker hold to such confidence ? It is because of his equipment. Listen to Paul’s description of it to young Timothy: “From infancy you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise to obtain salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in right doing; so that the man of God may be complete, perfectly equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:15-17, 'Weymouth') Workmen who diligently study these inspired scriptures of God’s Word will be unashamed in service, perfectly equipped, approved In,- Jehovah God. They will be armed with the same instructed mind as was in Christ Jesus. Remember how he retired to the wilderness solitudes and studied God’s Word, and how that study equipped him to beat down tempter Satan’s evil work and come forth to launch a campaign of good Kingdom work? Bible knowledge protects against evil work, equips for good work.
This book is published by the Watch Tower Society to turn the mind of the reader to the inexhaustible storehouse of perfect equipment. It lays a foundation for Bible study by considering the birth and growth and preservation and authenticity of the Bible. It shows how subtle Satan and his dupes failed to destroy its written pages, failed to supplant it with rabbinical tradition, and failed to contaminate it with a mixture of apocryphal fables. With this foundation as a springboard, the student is plunged into a detailed study of the Bible, book by book, and before the reader’s eyes God’s work of centuries passes in review. By the time the conclusion is reached the student’s heart and mind will be filled with Bible truth, and the devoted heart and mind will express themselves publicly in good works. This book, along with its companion book Theocratic Aid to Kingdom Publishers, will further equip the witness of Jehovah to advance God’s “strange work”. That is the reason why it has been published.
The Publishers
PREPARING THE WAY FOR BIBLE STUDY
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"Equipped for Every Good Work” is logically divided into three large sections. The opening twenty lessons lay a foundation for the fifty remaining lessons. A careful study of this first division will acquaint the student with the Bible’s origin, growth, preservation and authenticity. He will understand more concerning ' the original languages in which the Bible was recorded by its inspired writers, and his vision of how the contents of these original autographed writings were passed along down through twenty and thirty and more centuries to reach us in more than a thousand tongues will be much clarified. This division prepares the reader for the plunge into the study of each one of the sixty-six books of the Bible; it sharpens his gaze for the beholding of the gripping Bible dramas as they unreel like a magnificent motion-picture before his eyes.
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Lesson 1
ORIGIN OF THE BIBLE
Many religionists of the English-speaking realm are inclined to think that the Bible as a book originated in a manner purely miraculous. They have a hazy notion that it was written in heaven, in English, of course, divided there into chapters and verses, with cross references and marginal notes, and then sent by an angel to the earth. They skittishly shy away from the American Standard Version and other modern translations of the Bible, thinking that their religiously venerated King James Version Bible is the only true Bible. They fail to realize that the King James Version is a comparative youngster, being in 1946 only 335 years old, whereas the first writing -of Scripture occurred as far back as 3,458 years ago. An English language did not even exist then.
The Bible started to be put in writing back there in the wilderness by the man Moses, and in the Hebrew tongue. The bulk of what is today misnamed the “Old Testament” was written in the Hebrew tongue, and is properly referred to as the “Hebrew Scriptures”. But the Hebrew Scriptures are not written entirely in Hebrew. Ezra 4: 8-6:18 and 7:12-26, Jeremiah 10:11, and Daniel 2: 4-7: 28 were originally recorded in Aramaic. The original language of the misnamed “New Testament” is Greek; hence this section of the Bible is oftentimes spoken of as the “Greek Scriptures”.
All of the books of the Bible, 66 in number, have a common origin. The Bible is of single authorship, yet of composite writership. This makes it outstanding among all other books of the world. The Bible is Jehovah’s revelation of himself and his purposes. At the beginning of Bible writing He contributed personally to the Scripture canon by recording on two stone tablets the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments. (Ex. 24:12; 31:18) Human creatures took over the actual work of writing, but they all wrote under God’s guidance and dictation, being moved by his spirit. Some were judges and kings. Some were learned, others were lowly laborers, herdsmen, fishermen, etc. They were not professional writers, but men of action, servants and witnesses of Jehovah from all walks of life. They wrote over a long stretch of years. Moses started the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, about 1513 B.C. The apostle John closed the Bible canon sixteen centuries later.
Nevertheless, this diverse group of more than thirty men widely separated in the stream of time produced a perfectly harmonious literary masterpiece. Not by the abilities of the writers, but by the infinite wisdom and might of the Bible’s Originator was it accomplished. The writers themselves are quick to acknowledge this. David said: “The spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue.” Luke declared: “He spake by the mouth of his holy prophets.” Peter added to the testimony: “No prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the holy spirit.” (Am. Stan. Ver.) Paul left no room for further doubt or exceptions when he sweepingly said: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” Certainly Jehovah God alone is the Bible’s Originator.—2 Sam. 23: 2; Acts 1:16; Luke 1:70; 2 Pet. 1: 21; 1 Pet. 1:10,11; 2 Tim. 3 : 16,17.
The Bible was not originally one book, but, as its canon grew, it became a small library of books and booklets. The general idea of the Bible as one book is rather modern, even though it was assembled in codex form during the second century after Christ. In the fourth century of the Christian era the Bible was still designated in Latin as Bibliotheca Divina, that is, “The Divine Library.” “Bible” is from the Greek word biblia, meaning papyrus scrolls, volumes or books; literally, booklets. The early Greek Christians called the Scriptures Ta Biblia, that is, “The Books,” meaning thereby the pre-eminent or paramount books.
In the Authorized or King James Version there are 39 books in the Hebrew Scriptures and 27 in the Greek Scriptures. The Hebrew and Jewish Bibles list only 24 Hebrew books because 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, and the twelve books of the so-called “Minor Prophets” together, are each counted as one. The seven main and Scriptural groupings of the Bible books are: (1) the Law; (2) the prophets; (3) the Hagiographa (holy writings, including the Psalms); (4) the .Gospels; (5) The Acts; (6) the epistles; and (7) The Revelation.
But there is one division yet to be mentioned which serves, not a good purpose, but a very wicked one: the splitting asunder of God’s Word into so-called “Old Testament” and “New Testament”. Such a division was not authorized by the Bible’s Originator. That it is grossly wrong is evidenced by the Devil’s seizure of it to nullify and delete from God’s Word nearly three-fourths of its inspired contents. (Deut. 4:2; Rev. 22:19) Nowhere in the Bible are the Hebrew Scriptures called “Old Testament”. Neither were the Hebrew Scriptures referring to the Greek Scriptures when they foretold a new testament or covenant. The Hebrew Scriptures deal with more than one testament or covenant, and the same is true of the Christian Greek Scriptures. It is a devilish wresting of Scripture for anyone to claim that when Paul, at Hebrews 8:13, spoke of the typical old law covenant as having become old and ready to vanish away he referred to the Hebrew Scriptures, falsely termed “Old Testament”, and that they had been fulfilled and hence all that was thereafter necessary for Christians was the so-called “New Testament”, the Greek Scriptures. The very writings of Paul belie such a false claim.—Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:11; 2 Tim. 3:16,17.
Those citations from Paul’s inspired epistles show that when the all-wise God gave commands to Moses and others after him to write He had in mind our perplexing day when mankind so sorely needs true guidance and a sound hope. The Creator knew man’s frame and feebleness of memory, and knew too the Devil’s aim to destroy the divine record and pervert and blot it out of men’s minds. Hence God caused a faithful record to be written. Since this was expressly for those in need of vital information at the worst crisis of the nations in the end of the world, Almighty God would safeguard the Scriptures despite efforts to destroy them. What Isaiah said more than 2,600 years ago, and which inspired Peter seconded 1,900 years ago, is still true today: “The word of our God shall stand for ever.”—Isa. 40: 8 ; 1 Pet. 1: 25.
Review : 1. What hazy conception do many religionists have as to the origin of the Bible? 2. In shying away from modern versions, what do they fail to realize concerning the King James Version? 3. In what languages was the Bible originally written? 4. What facts relative to the writing of the Bible prove that God’s spirit must have been operating to produce a work so harmonious throughout? 5. What is the testimony of the Bible writers themselves on this point? 6. Actually, what is the Bible, as shown by the names given to it? 7. What various divisions of the Bible are next discussed that seem to be proper and of some value? 8. What division is wrong, and what is its harmful effect? 9. Why did the Originator of the Bible cause the record to be put in writing?
Lesson 2
PRESERVATION OF THE BIBLE
The Originator of the Bible is likewise its Preserver. He it is that caused to be recorded the statement: “The word of the Lord endureth for ever.” (1 Pet. 1:25; Isa. 40:8) How do we know that this proclamation stands true to our day, when there is not in existence a single original or autographed Bible manuscript, either of the Hebrew Scriptures or of the Greek Scriptures ? No existing complete manuscript or handwritten copy of the Hebrew Scriptures is earlier than A.D. 1008 (now preserved in Leningrad), and none of the complete or nearly complete Greek manuscripts of the Christian Scriptures is earlier than the fourth century after Christ.
Although every original manuscript is lost, has vanished or apparently perished, there are a great many ancient copies of the entire Bible, and even more ancient manuscripts of parts of the Bible extant. The number of extant ancient manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures is about 1,700. Then there are scattered through the earth about 4,000 ancient manuscripts of the Greek Scriptures in the original language, and about 9,000 copies of early versions or translations of the Greek Scriptures.
Until the destruction of the first temple by the Babylonians, the “book of the law” was kept preserved by the side of the ark of the covenant. “Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the eovenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.” (Deut. 31:26) Joshua again at the end of his life lays up his own record before Jehovah. “And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God.” (Josh. 24: 26) Samuel did the same: “Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before the Lord.” (1 Sam. 10:25) These passages testify to the preservation of the Bible canon.
An important incident bespeaking the preservation of the Scriptures is the discovery of the lost and forgotten “book of the law” in the temple in the eighteenth year of Josiah, in 641 B.C., when after a period of religious idolatry the true worship of Jehovah was restored. (2 Ki. 22:1-10; 2 Chron. 34:14-18) During the captivity in Babylon the Scriptures were preserved. Daniel writes (9:2) : “In the first year of his [Darius’] reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.” After the return from the exile in Babylon Ezra is found reading the law to the people resettled in the Holy Land.—Neh. 8:1-18.
Not all of the Jewish exiles who in 537 B.C. returned from the Babylonian captivity spoke or understood the Biblical Hebrew. The younger generation spoke Aramaic or Syriac, a Semitic language related to Hebrew. When the Levites read the law to them they had to 'read distinctly and give the sense’, as recorded at Nehemiah 8:8; that is, they paraphrased the Hebrew text or translated it freely into Aramaic. These paraphrases were called “Targums”, which means “interpretations” or “paraphrases”. For centuries these Targums were handed down orally from generation to generation. The Jews were averse to translating the Hebrew Scriptures into another language, because they held them so sacred. But several centuries later these paraphrases were gradually committed to writing. Extant today are various written Targums of all the Hebrew Scriptures, except Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah.
Further evidence of God’s preserving his Word during the five centuries from Ezra to Christ are versions or translations into other languages. The oldest of these is the Samaritan Pentateuch. It was produced by that mixed population of religious hybrids that was settled in Samaria by the Assyrians, after they had led away captive the ten tribes of Israel, in 740 B.C. That copy was made about 450 years before Christ (the extant manuscript, however, is of a far later date). Strictly speaking, it is not a translation of the original Hebrew. It is a transliterated Hebrew text of the Pentateuch written in Samaritan characters and interspersed with some Samaritan idioms. Hence the Samaritan Pentateuch reaches back farther for its origin than any other except the Hebrew itself. This copy substantially agrees with the texts of the Jews, with the exception of a number of minor variations.
About 280 B.C. the Hebrew Scriptures began to be translated in Egypt into the Greek language. This Greek version is called the Septuagint. A great number of copies of that translation were made and distributed throughout the ancient world. It played its part in the preservation of God’s Word by becoming the basis for translations into other languages.
As to the Christian Greek Scriptures, their genuine text has been preserved not only in the Sinaitic and Vatican 1209 MSS. but in about 4,000 more Greek-language MSS., in addition to nearly 9,000 other-language MSS. of ancient versions. From the years of their writing, the Greek Scriptures were the subject of much discussion, and so many Scripture texts are quoted in an immense literature of the post-apostolic period that almost the entire text of the Greek Scriptures could be compiled from these quotations.
No other book in the world has ever received such a reverent and fastidiously careful treatment throughout centuries as has the Bible. It has been copied by scribes who regarded mistakes with holy terror. In order to make the Word of God known its copyists and translators often added to their painstaking labor the sacrifice of their lives. The ancient Greek copyists, for the purpose of a checkup, recorded the number of words written. The professional Hebrew scribes carefully counted not only the words but the letters also. The written Hebrew consisted until centuries after Christ only of consonants, and the omission or addition of a single letter would often have changed a word into another. If they detected the slightest error, the miswriting of a single letter, that entire section of the roll was rejected as unfit for synagogue use. Thereupon that section was cut out and replaced by a new and faultless one. They read aloud each word before writing; to write even a single word from memory was regarded as gross sin. It is said that religious scribes prayerfully wiped their pen before writing the word Elohim (God) or Adonay (Lord), and that they religiously washed their whole body before writing the sacred name “Jehovah”. The accuracy of those professional Hebrew scribes was passed on to a good degree to the non-professional copyists of the Christian Greek Scriptures.
But notwithstanding all the painstaking accuracy of the copyists and all the scholarship of the proofreaders, quite a number of mere scribal errors got into the text bespeaking the imperfection of humans. These errors would be repeated by the man that afterward copied from this, who would also sometimes add other slight errors of his own. It is evident, therefore, as copies multiplied, that the errors would be likely to increase with them. For this reason the earlier the manuscript the more likely it is to be correct.
The preservation of the Holy Scriptures is a divine miracle; not only their preservation as a book (since no other book and its students, copyists, translators and publishers have been so relentlessly persecuted with prison, fire and sword), but also the preservation of the textual integrity in spite of human shortcomings. The numerous scribal errors are, on the whole, of little importance. Their bearing upon the integrity of the Bible is negligible. The remarkable thing is not that fallible scribes made errors, but that they made so few that are of any consequence. Those errors have been detected and corrected by careful and scholastic comparison and collection of the multitude of extant manuscripts and versions. The result of such careful, critical revisions is the reliable Bible texts.
Now along comes the Roman Catholic Hierarchy with its presumptuous claim that she is the preserver of the Scriptures. Her brazen assertion is easily debunked. The Vatican MS. has been in her possession only since the fifteenth century, and not one of the old manuscripts was discovered in the territories under Hierarchy domination. For nearly five centuries the Vatican made their priceless MS. inaccessible to scholastic examination. But with the discovery and publication of another fourth-century manuscript, the Codex Sinaiticus, the selfish Vatican was compelled to publish facsimile copies of Vatican MS. 1209, to prevent it from being eclipsed. A survey of history proves that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy is the deadly foe of the Bible; that it endeavored to conceal Bible truth from the people by letting it lie hid under the shroud of dead languages ; that it hunted down and murdered the translators and distributors of the Bible; that it burned countless thousands of copies of the Holy Scriptures; that only when it failed to snuff out the Bible light for the common people did it allow for the translation of the Bible in the people’s vernacular, such Catholic translations being brought out to compete with previous popular translations. The Hierarchy is not the preserver of the Bible, but the Bible is preserved even unto our day in spite of the Hierarchy’s desperate efforts to destroy it.
Hail Jehovah as the Preserver of his inspired Word. Manifestly God directed not only the writers of the Bible but also the faithful copyists of the text and the assemblers of the canon, just as he is now guiding his earthly witnesses as they study its pages and proclaim its truths. The preservation of the Bible is by a miracle of the Almighty.
Review : 1. What is true regarding the original autograph copies of Bible manuscripts? and what ancient manuscripts do we have? 2. How were the Scriptures preserved down to the days of Ezra ? 3. What were the Targums? and what was their use? 4. How’ were the Holy Scriptures preserved from the time of Ezra to the time of Christ Jesus? a. How are the Christian Greek Scriptures verified? 6. What facts show the great care exercised by copyists of the Scriptures? 7. In what twofold way is the preservation of the Bible a miracle? 8. How can the Roman Catholic Hierarchy’s claim to be the preserver of the Bible be debunked? 9. Who, then, should be hailed as the preserver of the Bible?
Lesson 3
AUTHENTICITY OF THE BIBLE
Jehovah continues to bring forth to his covenant people corroborative proof that the Bible is His authentic Word of truth, and not the word of man. In order to become better equipped for good works in Jehovah’s service, his witnesses do well to be familiar with the evidence of the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures, because it will enable them to firmly establish the faith of others. Limited space will necessarily limit the proofs; even so, ample proofs can be supplied to convince the reasonable and meek, and fools will never believe until cut off in death.—Ps. 14:1; Isa. 53:1.
From the earliest times the canonical books have been received by the Jews as inspired and as wholly trustworthy documents. The truth of the Scriptural narrative has been attested to by the unanimous testimony of that nation, though a great portion of it is a record of their own repeated disobedience, unfaithfulness, and falling away to idolatry or religion and into the hands of their enemies. The writers speak with all candor and humility about their own shortcomings; they spare no creature. They were faithful witnesses of Jehovah; they suffered and even died for his truth. Seeming inconsistencies may perplex the superficial reader; but they vanish before a reverential and accurate investigation. The contemporary Israelites of the writers, both of the Hebrew and of the Greek Scriptures, always accepted each book as a true record of events.
Profane history confirms the Bible record where names and biographies of historical characters are given, and the same is true relative to the names and locations of historical places. For example, there is an abundance of profane testimony corroborating the story of the Gospels, and some of the testimony comes from anti-Christian historians. Among such historians and writers of the first and second centuries are Flavius Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny the younger, Lucian, Phlegon Trallianus, Celsus and Numenius. All these testify to the facts that in the reign of Emperor Tiberius Caesar there lived one called Jesus Christ; that he was an extraordinary man who did great miracles; that he was put to death at the command of Pontius Pilate; that there was a phenomenal darkness and earthquake at his execution; that his teachings spread rapidly; and that they attracted many followers, who suffered persecution.
These facts lend further support: Palestine was at that time under a peculiar system of double government, partly Jewish and partly Roman. The narrative of the Greek Scriptures remarkably shows that dual form of administration, a Roman and a Jewish, involving a twofold form of taxation, two modes of capital punishment, two methods of marking time, two military forces, and so on. Also, one finds occurring side by side in the Greek text Latin and Hebrew words, a natural circumstance during this period.
Repeatedly archeological discoveries have proved the Bible record true and have closed the blaspheming mouths of “higher critics” and atheists. Ancient secular records, by monumental inscriptions, coins, remains of cities, and numerous other antiquities unearthed, all unite to verify the Bible. It is noteworthy that plants, animals, birds, fishes and insects mentioned in the Bible have been found in precise keeping with the plant and animal life of the particular regions mentioned. Furthermore, even the order of creation as given in the first chapter of Genesis is corroborated by geology. Certain forms of plant and animal life are found in certain strata or layers of rock, to which layers geologists assign a certain period of time. The order in time to which scientists assign the appearance of certain forms of life is in the same order of appearance as the Genesis account of creation sets it forth. Of course, scientists, vying one with the other for attention, set fantastic figures of time upon their findings; but the important thing is that the record of creation found in the rocks of the earth agrees with the record in ink in Genesis. And why not ? The Creator of the one is the Author of the other. Both records are true, even if misinterpreted by scientists and clergymen.
All the foregoing facts are strong and convincing proof of the authenticity of the Bible. But there is evidence many times stronger: the thousandfold and accurate minor and major fulfillments of Biblical prophecies irrefutably proving the Scriptures as inspired history written in advance. Men cannot foretell events, not even one day ahead: “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” (Prov. 27:1) But, “known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.” Through this foreknowledge of his Jehovah has blessed man by “declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done”. He has inspired men to record these prophecies in his Word, such men themselves not knowing whereof they wrote. (Acts 15:18; Isa. 46:10; 2 Pet. 1: 20, 21; 2 Tim. 3:16,17 ; Dan. 12: 4, 8,10; 1 Pet. 1:10-12) All meh are fallible; despite their possible sincerity their words are not always authentic. The foregoing texts show, however, that men were not the authors of the Bible, but merely employed as secretaries to the Author, Jehovah God. And He is infallible!
If physical facts have come to pass in fulfillment of Bible prophecy, then they constitute the strongest kind of circumstantial evidence of the Bible’s authenticity, and the reasonable mind is satisfied and faith is firmly established. (John 14:29) Unnumbered Bible prophecies are now fulfilled. Many prophetic dramas are in course of striking fulfillment today. But space rules that we cannot here consider them in detail. Hence the matter will be narrowed down in scope to meet the limiting conditions of space. Prophecies recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures, which were written centuries prior to Jesus’ life, will be cited and shown to have been fulfilled in Jesus, hence proving him as Messiah Christ. His words of prophecy will then be cited, and modern events, nineteen centuries later, referred to as fulfillments. This will establish Jesus as the Messiah and his word as true and reliable. Then all should be willing to acknowledge him as a credible witness and should accept his testimony concerning the Bible’s authenticity.
The following table shows some of the main events foretold relative to the Messiah. Remember as you study the evidence that the prophecy was written centuries before the fulfillment, and that the events in fulfillment are often corroborated by profane history and other writings.
Jesus of Nazareth Proved to Be the Promised Messiah
The incident or event
Born of the tribe of Judah Born in Bethlehem Born of a virgin Babes killed after birth Way prepared before
Called out of Egypt Commissioned Start of ministry To speak in parables Bore infirmities Not believed in Hated without cause Entry into Jerusalem Rejected
One apostle unfaithful Betrayed by follower For 30 pieces of silver Disciples scatter Tried and condemned Use of false witnesses Silent before accusers Smitten Impaled on tree Numbered with sinners Reviled on the tree Pierced
Lots cast for garments Given vinegar and gall Seemingly forsaken by God No bones broken Dies sacrificial death Buried with rich Raised before corruption
Hebrew Scripture
Greek Scripture
prophecy
fulfillment
Gen. 49: 10
Matt. 1: 1-3
Mic. 5: 2
Matt. 2: 1, 5, 6
Isa. 7: 14
Matt. 1: 22, 23
Jer. 31: 15
Matt. 2: 17, 18
Mal. 3: 1; 4: 5:
Matt. 3: 3; 11: 10-14;
Isa. 40: 3
17: 12; Mark 1: 2-4
Hos. 11: 1
Matt. 2: 15
Isa. 61: L 2
Luke 4: 18-21
Isa. 9: 1, 2
Matt. 4: 13-16
Ps. 78: 2
Matt. 13: 31-35
Isa. 53: 4
Matt. 8: 17
Isa. 53: 1
John 12: 38
Ps. 69: 4
John 15: 25
Zech. 9: 9
Matt. 21: 4, 5
Isa. 53: 3; Ps.
Mark 9: 12; 12: 10, 11;
69: 8; 118: 22, 23
John 1: 11; Acts 4: 11
Ps. 109: 8
John 17: 12; Acts 1: 20
Ps. 41: 9
Matt. 26: 14-16, 47-50
Zech. 11: 12
Matt. 26: 15
Zech. 13: 7
Matt. 26: 31, 56
Isa. 53: 8
Mark 15: 1-15
Ps. 35: 11
Matt. 26: 59
Isa. 53: 7
Matt. 27: 12-14
Isa. 50: 6; Mic. 5: 1
Mark 14: 65; 15: 19
Ps. 22: 16
Mark 15: 25
Isa. 53: 12
Matt. 27: 38
Ps. 22: 7, 8
Matt. 27: 39, 43
Zech. 12: 10
John 19: 34, 37
Ps. 22: 18
Matt. 27: 35
Ps. 69: 21
Matt. 27: 34, 48
Ps. 22: 1
Matt. 27: 46
Ps. 34: 20
John 19: 33, 36
Isa. 53: 5, 8
John 1: 29; 1 Cor. 15: 3
Isa. 53: 9
Matt. 27: 57-60
Ps. 16: 10
Mark 16: 6; Acts 2: 31
All these things were fulfilled in the case of Christ Jesus. Undoubtedly, he was the Messiah. (Luke 24:27,44) Furthermore, he was the great Prophet Moses foretold. (Deut. 18:15; Acts 3:22,23) He prophesied of the “last days”; the fulfillments are visible to all. He foretold World War I, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, difficulties within the ranks of his followers, the appearance of an “evil servant” and a “faithful and wise servant”, the intense persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses, the world-wide gospel-preaching work now going on, and the unsettled conditions among men and their fears and perplexities for the future. (See Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21.) He also foretold man’s failure in world government following World War I and styled such Kingdom makeshift an “abomination of desolation”, and pointed out the final end.
These irrefutable facts stamp Christ Jesus as a true prophet. His word is reliable. And what is his reliable word concerning the authenticity of the Bible? His direct testimony is, “Thy word is truth!” (John 17:17) And when one considers that Christ Jesus’ words were not his own, but his heavenly Father’s, then Jehovah stands supreme as the Voucher for the genuineness of His Word, the Bible. (John 3 : 34; 7 :16) Thus by one authoritative reference the question is settled with finality. The promised and foretold spirit of God came upon the writers of the Greek Scriptures and caused them to finish off the Bible canon authentically. The entire Bible is God’s Word of truth.—Joel 2:28,29; John 14:17; Acts 2:16-18; Rev. 1:1-3; 21:5.
Review : 1. Why become familiar with the evidence of the Bible’s authenticity? 2. What facts concerning the Jews and the Bible writers argue for .authenticity? 3. How does profane history confirm the Bible accounts? 4. How do archeology and geology corroborate the Scriptures? 5. Why is the next evidence presented far stronger than what has preceded it? 6. What prophecies, with their fulfillments, prove the authenticity of the Hebrew Scriptures and establish Jesus as the promised Messiah? 7. What fulfilled prophecies of Christ Jesus prove him to be a true prophet and reliable witness? 8. What reliable testimony did Christ Jesus give concerning God’s Word? 9. W’hat took place after this testimony?
Lesson 4
BIBLE LANGUAGES: HEBREW
The finger of Jehovah God moved over the surface of two stone tablets located on top of Mount Sinai. On the front side of both tables of stone it wrote. When the finger was lifted from the surface of these durable “pages”, thereupon remained the first written copy of the Ten Commandments. They were inscribed in perfectly formed characters of written Hebrew. (Ex. 31:18; 32:16,19; 34:1-4,28) It was at about the same time that Moses started writing on the first five books of the Bible. He wrote in Hebrew. With only a few exceptions, all of the inspired Holy Scripture writers that followed during the next eleven hundred years wrote in the Hebrew language.
In the Hebrew Scriptures only the people are called Hebrews; the language after the death of King Solomon, in 997 B.C., is generally called “the Jews’ language”. (2 Ki. 18: 26, 28; 2 Chron. 32:18; Isa. 36:11,13) Hebrew' belongs to the family of languages that -were spoken by most of the descendants of Shem (and a few others). For that reason that family of languages is called the Shemitic or Semitic family. Because God did not confound the language of Noah and Shem at the time of the presumptuous building of the tower of Babel, it is reasonable to conclude that they spoke the original Semitic language from which thereafter stemmed forth the many branches of that language family. Hebrew is the main stem of the Semitic family, it very likely being the language spoken in Eden. By the days of Jacob the Aramaic branch was in evidence, Laban using words different from Jacob’s to express the same idea. (Gen. 31:47) When Hebrew began to be used to put in -writing the story of creation and a sketch of the 2,500 years of man’s history from Eden to the Exodus, which had heretofore been handed down apparently by oral tradition from generation to generation, that language was capable of vividly painting the inspired historical narrative.
Hebrew, like most of the Semitic languages, was written without vowels, just consonants. There were twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet, all of them consonants, but about nine of them could each represent two sounds. The range of the language was expanded to about twentyeight consonant sounds. The twenty-two Hebrew consonants together with their names appear in their alphabetical order as stanza headings of Psalm 119, in the American Standard Version. But even if the language did not have written vowels, it nonetheless had a plenty of vowel sounds in its oral form. It outstrips English by far in the use of vowel sounds. The crux of the matter is that the written language did not provide vowel letters, and the readers were required to remember and supply the vowel sounds of the spoken tongue, just as English readers must supply the vowels in certain abbreviations, such as bldg, (building), bldr. (builder), blvd. (boulevard), and hgt. (height).
As long as the Hebrew language was spoken those versed therein had no difficulty in supplying the proper vowel sounds when reading the all-consonant text, but when Hebrew ceased to be a living language it became more and more difficult to remember the right vowel sounds to go with the Hebrew Bible manuscripts. But the traditional pronunciation was kept alive and handed down by those specializing in reading the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms for the instruction of the people. Finally, however, during the sixth or seventh century after Christ, a system of dots and dashes was devised and these were placed below, in or above the consonant letters to indicate the exact vowel sounds. These are not called vowel letters, but vowel points. They were added by Jewish scholars called “Masoretes”. Also supplied was a system of accent marks to indicate stress, pause, connection between words and clauses, and musical notation. No man on earth today can read this musical notation, the key to it having been lost.
Most words in Hebrew can be traced back to a root with three consonants. Most of these roots are verbs, the most important part of speech in the Hebrew language. These roots are vivid and expressive, playing upon the senses of seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and smelling. The Hebrew Scriptures use a little more than 2,000 root words, but most of them are so seldom used that if one knows the 500 most frequently used roots he can read most of the Hebrew Bible. The total number of words in the Hebrew vocabulary of the Bible is estimated at from 5,000 to 7,000 words. The Hebrew has two tenses, not so much “tenses” as senses, to their verbs, namely, the perfect or historical tense, and the imperfect or indefinite tense. Hebrew uses no more tenses than those two. For illustration: “If you tell me to do this, I have done it.” That is perfectly good Hebrew. “If you tell me” is in the indefinite form: that is, any time you tell me in eternity, past, present or future. “I have done it” is historical or past form, but here refers to a time future after the telling. Though referring to the future, the one who puts the expression in the perfect form thereby means that it is as good as done.
The name “Jehovah” is in a verb form in the indefinite sense. That is the reason why that name can be translated as Rotherham renders it: “He shall, may, or will be whatsoever he shall, may or will be.” That is all combined in the one name Jehovah. Because the name has all this significance in it the Christian Scriptural Greek tries to convey its meaning by the expression addressing Jehovah as One “who art, and wast, and art to come”. By those three tenses the Greek seeks to express the scope of the name Jehovah. Incidentally, this name of the Creator appears 6,823 times in the Hebrew Scriptures, being represented by its four consonants, JHVH (mb’) • After the Hebrew Scriptures were written religious and superstitious Jews considered the name too holy to even pronounce, and substituted Adondy (my Lord) or Elohim (God) for it as they read aloud. To remind the reader to do this the vowels of one or the other of these substitutes were put under the consonants JHVH. Thus we have today the English form of what religious Jews considered the incommunicable name, that is, Jehovah. Through religious superstition of the Jewish leaders the ancient Hebrew pronunciation has been lost and can only be surmised today, but we do have in English the euphonious anglicized form that appears thousands of times in the American Standard Version Bible and several times in the King James Version Bible.
Malachi, the last book of the Hebrew Scriptures to be written, was recorded in the Jews’ language. Its time of composition is not definite, but there is some evidence to believe that it was toward the end of Governor Nehemiah’s time, nearly a hundred years after the release of the Israelites from captivity. It is very evident that by that time not all of the Jews understood Hebrew. (Neh. 13:24,25) Only a few years earlier when the law of God was publicly read in the traditional Hebrew tongue, in the Hebrew of the Bible manuscripts, it was necessary for the reading to be put into an Aramaic paraphrase in order for the people to understand. (Neh. 8: 8) Prior to the Jews’ captivity in Babylon some Aramaic words had crept into the Hebrew speech; during the seventy years in Babylon the inflow of Aramaisms increased; after the release the Hebrew tongue was overrun and crowded out by the large-scale invasion of Aramaic, and it ceased to exist shortly after Nehemiah’s days as the living language of the Jewish people. Only the Jewish priests and scribes thereafter knew the Hebrew of the Scriptures. Aramaic became the common language of what was once Jehovah God’s chosen nation.
The study of the Hebrew language was almost entirely forgotten by non-Jews until the sixteenth century. In the seventeenth century other Semitic languages were studied. In the eighteenth century the grammar of other Semitic languages was compared with that of Hebrew. In the nineteenth century Wilhelm Gesenius began a strong revival of the study of the Hebrew of the Scriptures, which move was taken up and continued by others. Since that time knowledge of this language that comprises more than three-fourths of the inspired Bible canon as it was originally written has increased rapidly. The publisher’s note, dated 1935, in The Complete Bible, An American Translation, says: “Hebrew scholarship is moving fast, and even the few years that have elapsed since the first edition [of this modern speech Bible version] was issued in 1931 have seen contributions to the subject that neither translator nor publisher can ignore.”
Review : 1. In what language did Jehovah God himself write the Ten Commandments in durable stone? and who thereafter followed his example? 2. Why is the language family to which Hebrew belongs called “Semitic”? and what were the capabilities of the Jews’ language at the time of the Exodus? 3. What was lacking in the written Hebrew? and what sounds, therefore, were readers required to supply? 4. When Hebrew ceased to exist as a living language, how was the traditional pronunciation preserved? 5. What information is given as to the root words of Hebrew? 6. What about tense in Hebrew verbs? 7. How is the indefinite tense or sense of verbs illustrated by the name “Jehovah”? and what additional comment follows as to this hallowed name? 8. In what events do we trace the decline and death of Hebrew as a living language of the common people? 9. What has been the progress in the study of Hebrew during recent centuries?
Lesson 5
BIBLE LANGUAGES: ARAMAIC
Toward the close of the eleven-hundred-year stretch of time over which the Hebrew Scriptures were written a language other than Hebrew cropped up now and then in Bible manuscripts. That intruding tongue was Aramaic. Though Aramaic words that had been incorporated into Hebrew had appeared before Jeremiah’s day, it was in his writings that a complete statement in Aramaic first appeared. (Jer. 10:11, Am. Stan. Ver., margin) Later on down in Babylon Daniel wrote more extensively in Aramaic, all the way from 2:4 to 7:28. (See marginal note on Daniel 2:4 in the American Standard Version.) Still later, long after the end of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon and near the close of the period of Hebrew-Scripture writings, scribe Ezra wrote in Aramaic in the book that bears his name, from 4:8 to 6:18, and again at chapter 7, verses 12 to 26. (Once more confirm by checking the marginal readings in the American Standard Version, this time in connection with Ezra 4: 8 and 7:12.) But with these brief portions the Bible scholar’s interest in Aramaic does not end.
Aram was a plain extending west to east from the Lebanon mountains to beyond the Euphrates river, and north to south from the Taurus mountains to beyond Damascus. The country Aram seems to have corresponded generally to the Syria and Mesopotamia of the Greeks and Romans. This extensive plain was occupied by the descendants of Shem’s son Aram, who were called Arameans, and whose language was called Aramaic. Hence their tongue was of the Semitic family of languages and closely related to Hebrew. Throughout the time that the Israelites spoke Hebrew they were constantly in touch with Aramaicspeaking people. Abraham, descended from Shem through Arphaxad, lived for a time in Haran, which was in Ara-mean Mesopotamia. Isaac’s wife came from the same place. However, it is not until the close of Jacob’s twenty-year sojourn in Aramean Mesopotamia that the Scriptures first reveal any difference in the Hebrew and Aramaic tongues. Then it was that Jacob and his Aramaic-speaking father-inlaw Laban used different words to designate a heap of witness. (See Genesis 31:47, and the two marginal references thereon in the American Standard Version.) When together in the household of Shem, Aram and Arphaxad, of course, spoke the original Semitic language. Now, some 600 years later, their descendants’ speech was no longer the same. Aramaic had by this time begun branching off from the original Semitic language of Hebrew. Just how different the tongues were at that early date is not known.
After the nation of Israel entered the Promised Land Aramean tribes dwelt among them, and close connections existed between the Israelites and the Arameans during the period of Judges. (Josh. 13:13; 1 Chron. 2:23; Judg. 3:8,10; and Judg. 10:6, Am. Stan. Ver., margin) King David subjugated a great part of Aram; he married an Aramean princess from Geshur. Solomon carried on trade with kings of Aram. When the close association between the Israelites and the Arameans is considered and it is remembered that a large part of Solomon’s domain was peopled by Arameans, it is not difficult to understand why Aramaic traits are found in Solomon’s writings, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. From the days of David and Solomon to about 400 B.C. the Arameans were the international traders on land, carrying their goods and their language far beyond the borders of their land.
During the reigns of the kings of the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel repeated clashes occurred between the Israelites and Syrians, or Arameans. The northern part of the Israelite kingdom was conquered; towns changed hands several times. The Syrian king of Damascus even set up tradingquarters in Israel’s capital, Samaria. Even Judah was invaded during the reign of King Ahaz and some Judeans were taken captive northward to Damascus. Then when Syria was subdued by Assyria and the ten-tribe kingdom later fell to the Assyrian Shalmaneser IV, in 740 B.C., he moved Israelites into Aramaic-speaking sections of his empire and transported into Samaria people from places of his empire where Aramaic was spoken wholly or in part. This put Aramaic-speaking people at the very doors of Judah. A few years later it is revealed that the officials of Judah could understand Aramaic, but the common people could not. (2 Ki. 18:26, Am. Stan. Ver., margin) All of this shows the nearness of the Hebrews and the Arameans and explains the more and more frequent appearances of Aramaisms in the Scripture writings as time marched on.
When Jerusalem fell in 607 B.C. most of the Jews were taken captive to Babylon. Long before, the Arameans had overrun the Tigris-Euphrates valley, and by the time the Jews arrived there the basic population of Babylonia was Aramaic. The Chaldeans from the south had filtered northward into Babylonia, but it seems that their native dialect was crowded out by Babylonian and Aramaic. It was at one time inaccurately believed that Chaldee and Aramaic were the same. At any rate, when the Jews arrived in Babylon they rapidly added Aramaic expressions to their speech. It is very likely that at this time and shortly after the release from captivity the Jews could understand both Hebrew and Aramaic, but Hebrew was fading and Aramaic was coming in stronger and stronger. After Nehemiah’s time the Jews, surrounded by and intermingled with Aramaic-speaking peoples, forgot Hebrew and spoke only Aramaic. Ever since the reign of Darius (521-485 B.C.) Aramaic had been recognized as the international language.
The trained Jewish priests and scribes alone kept the Bible Hebrew alive. When they read from the Scriptures they were obliged to accompany the reading with a paraphrase in Aramaic in order that the common Jewish people could understand. In time these Aramaic paraphrases were put into writing and called Targums. When Christ Jesus was on earth the language of the Jewish people was Aramaic, and for that reason the Greek Scriptures call it Hebrew. Matthew’s Gospel, which seems to have been written with the Jews particularly in mind, was first recorded in Aramaic. It was later translated by Matthew himself into the koine Greek that was so widely understood at that time. No Aramaic copies of Matthew’s Gospel have been preserved. This seems to indicate that there was not the widespread demand for it that there was for the Greek version in the international koine Greek of that time.
It is quite probable that by A.D. 100 Jehovah’s witnesses at Antioch had translated at least the gospels into the Aramaic dialect spoken there, called Syriac (which was somewhat different from the Aramaic spoken in Palestine). Because some Palestinian Aramaic words appear in this translation it is believed that it was made by refugee Christians from Palestine. This version is known as the Old Syriac Version. From time to time this version was revised and eventually came to be known as the Peshitta. This revision seems to have been complete by the beginning of the fifth century after Christ. By about the fifth or sixth century the Greek Scriptures were translated into the Palestinian Aramaic of that time. However, with the rise and spread of Islam, which began in the seventh century, Arabic took the place of Aramaic and Aramaic ceased to be a living language, except in a few out-of-the-way places in the mountain regions of northwestern Iran (formerly called Persia). Thus Aramaic joined Hebrew in the grave of dead languages.
Review : 1. To what extent is Aramaic a Bible language of the pre-Christian Scriptures? 2. Where was Aram located, and by whom inhabited? and what therefore follows relative to the Aramaic tongue? 3. How were Abraham and Isaac and Jacob associated with the Arameans? 4. How are we first made aware of a difference between Hebrew and Aramaic? 5. What succession of events threw the Hebrews and Arameans together from the time of entry into the Promised Land to the close of Solomon’s reign? 6. What events kept Israel and Judah exposed to Aramaicspeaking peoples from Solomon’s death to Jerusalem’s fall in 607 B.O. ? 7. What does all this explain as regards the writings of the Hebrew Scriptures? 8. Did the Jews escape the influence of the Aramaic tongue when taken to Babylon, and why? 9. When did the Jewish people forget Hebrew? 10. How is the Jews’ unfamiliarity with Hebrew shown during and after Nehemiah’s time? 11. Was Aramaic used at all in the Greek Scriptures? 12. What closing history of Aramaic is finally given?
Lesson 6
BIBLE LANGUAGES: GREEK
Hebrew was very likely the language that was spoken originally by man in the garden of Eden. It was spoken by Noah and his sons after the Flood. Through the line of Shem it was preserved unconfused through the time of confounding of tongues at the tower of Babel, and survived to be the language Moses used in starting the writing of the Hebrew canon. Hebrew was the tongue in which the last book of the Hebrew canon was recorded, some eleven centuries later. Why, then, was not Hebrew used to finish the Bible canon? Why was it not used in recording the Gospels and epistles and other books of the so-called “New Testament”? Why switch to Greek after nearly three-fourths of the Bible canon had been set forth in Hebrew?
The answer is that God’s purpose could be better served by changing over to the Greek tongue. Roughly speaking, some five hundred years separates the last book of the Hebrew Scriptures, Malachi, from the start of writing of the Greek Christian Scriptures. In that intervening period Hebrew ceased to exist as a living language of the people. Aramaic took its place. But before long, world political development dethroned Aramaic as the international language and seated in its place the Greek tongue. This change slowly evolved with the passing of the fourth world power, Medo-Persia, and the coming in of the fifth, Greece.
The Greek tongue does not belong to the Semitic family of languages, but to the Indo-European, which is spoken by the descendants of Noah’s son Japheth. The name of one of Japheth’s sons is “Javan”, meaning “younger one”, and seems to be the word from which is derived the Greek word Ionian. The Hebrews called the Greeks “lonians”, or, literally, “Javanim.” The early Greeks first settled along the valley of the Danube river near the Black sea, but in process of time migrated southward, overrunning the Balkan peninsula and spreading out from there. As the Greeks spread out groups and colonies were more or less separated by physical features of the country, and naturally many dialects sprang up among the Greek peoples. The Greek language began to take shape about the time of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, and continued in this formative period down till about 900 B.C.
From 900 B.C. to 330 B.C. is the so-called “classical period” of the Greek language, when the Attic dialect came to the fore. Within this period, during the fourth and fifth centuries B.C., arose various Greek dramatists, poets, orators, historians, philosophers and scientists, all using the Attic dialect.
From 330 B.C. to A.D. 330 is the period of what is known as the koine, or common, dialect of Greek. Its development was due largely to the military operations of Alexander the Great. His Greek army was made up of soldiers from all parts of Greece, who spoke different Greek dialects. Through the common mingling of their various Greek dialects, a common dialect, having something of all the various ones, was .built up and came into use. Alexander’s conquest of Egypt and Asia as far as India spread the Greek language and culture over that vast region. Alexandria, a city in Egypt founded by Alexander, was Greek-speaking, even the Jews there speaking Greek. In time the Greek-speaking Jews in Alexandria and Egypt could not read the Scriptures in Hebrew. Happily, translating the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek began about the year 280 B.C. This version, completed sometime during the first century B.C., was called the Septuagint. It filled a vital need, in view of the growing prominence of the koine Greek. Even the Jews in Palestine came under the influence of Greek culture.
In the days of Jesus and the apostles Greek was the international language of the Roman realm. Testifying to this fact stands the Bible itself. When Jesus was nailed to the stake it was necessary for the inscription over his head to be posted not only in Hebrew or Aramaic, the language then of the common people of the Jews, but also in Latin, the then official language of the land, and also in Greek, which was a language spoken just as frequently on the streets of Jerusalem as in Rome, Alexandria, or Athens itself. ( John 19:20) Acts 9: 29 shows that Paul preached the gospel in Jerusalem to Jews who spoke the Greek language, or Hellenists. (See The Emphatic Diaglott footnote on Acts 6:1; also Goodspeed’s An American Translation.) By this time the Romans had come into dominance as the sixth world power, having many years previously brought the Greeks into subjection; nevertheless, the Romans were
themselves conquered by the Greek culture, and koine Greek continued as the international language. Why, the Greek language was so common in Rome that when the apostle Paul wrote his epistle to the Christian company there he used the Greek language and not Latin, whether Latin-mumbling Catholic priests like it or not. Greek, not Latin, was the language of the Christian church assemblies in Rome and many, many other congregations.
From the foregoing it plainly appears why Jehovah God caused a shift to be made in the language for Bible writing. He did not purpose that his Word should lie concealed under the shrouds of the dead Biblical Hebrew that had served as the Bible language centuries previous, when it was understood and used. His purpose is that the truths of his Word be shed abroad as light for the world. Christ Jesus, just before his ascension, commissioned his disciples to do a preaching work among all nations. Hence it would be reasonable that the Gospels and epistles, Acts and Revelation, be provided in a language that would have widest understanding by all nations. Koine Greek was a language instrument ready at hand for just such a purpose, and Jehovah God inspired his servants on earth to use it in completing the Bible canon. Only Matthew’s Gospel, especially for the Jews, was first recorded in Aramaic, shortly followed by a Greek translation.
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