Our Bread for Breakfast

#6. The Preservation of the Inspired Documents.


In Psalm xii. there are two statements that we must notice about the words of the Lord. The first assures us of their “purity”, the second of their “preservation” (Psa. xii. 6, 7). And so it is that next to the miracle of their production, must stand the marvel of their preservation. When we come to consider that the Bible we read today is substantially the self-same Book that was read nearly two thousand years ago, and when we further call to mind the persecuting opposition and antagonism of both Church and State to the Book and its readers, the Providence that has preserved it intact to this day is beyond question one of history’s greatest miracles. The history and preservation of the O.T. falls into four periods:

(1) From Moses to Ezra . . . . . .Approximate 1000 to 500B.C.
(2) From Ezra to fall of Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . .  to A.D.70.
(3) The Talmud Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . to A.D.500.
(4) The Period of the Massorets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . to A.D.1000.

To follow in these pages the story of the preservation of the text throughout this length of time would involve too many explanations and illustrations to permit of its being undertaken, especially so far as the Talmudic and Massoretic periods are concerned. There is, however, enough in the Book itself from the days of Moses to the days of Ezra to show the care that was taken to preserve the Scriptures that were entrusted to the people of Israel. To see how this operated during the great period from Moses to Ezra, justifies the expectation that He Who watched over His Word, and provided for its preservation at the beginning, did so because He purposed that it should remain intact until the end.

When Moses had reached the age of one hundred and twenty years, and knew that he would not pass over Jordan with Israel, he appointed Joshua as his successor, and then made arrangements for the safeguarding of the five books of the law, written by himself at the command of the Lord.

“And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and unto all the elders of Israel” (Deut. xxxi. 9).

The priests were instructed that at the end of every seven years, when all Israel gathered before God, “this law” should be read “before all Israel in their hearing” (Deut. xxxi. 11). Here were the two initial enactments that went far to preserve the sacred writings. First, they were entrusted to the priests, and secondly they were publicly read every seven years. We learn moreover that the book was deposited in Israel’s most sacred depository, the Ark.

“And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God” (Deut. xxxi. 24-26).

Earlier in Deuteronomy a further safeguard is recorded, in that it was incumbent upon any king that should reign over Israel, to carry out the following injunction:

“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; and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his live” (Deut. xvii. 18, 19).

Turning now to the book of Joshua, we follow Israel across the Jordan and to the overthrow of Jericho. After the victory at Ai we read the Joshua built an altar, and there he wrote a copy of the law of Moses in the presence of the children of Israel, and afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, “there was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel” (Joshua viii. 30-35).

Here, then, is the record that the command given by Moses was carried out by his successor.

At the close of the book of Joshua, we come to the first recorded addition to the five books of Moses.

“And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God and took a great stone and set it up . . . . . by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said . . . . . this stone shall be a witness” (Joshua xxiv. 26, 27).

Here Joshua probably added the account of Moses’ death, which closes the book of Deuteronomy.

The next reference is found in the first book of Samuel, after Saul had been chosen king.

“Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it (literally ‘continued the writing’) in the book, and laid it up before the Lord” (I Sam. x. 25).

Coming to the days of David, we have abundant testimony in the Psalms that the law of the Lord was believed and honoured by this man who was after God’s own heart, and, accordingly, in I Kings ii. 1-4, we find him impressing their value upon his son and successor, Solomon.

In the reign of Jehoshaphat, the king sent the Levites “and they taught in Judah, and had the book of the law of the Lord with them” (II Chron. xvii. 8, 9).

After the dark days of Athaliah, Joash was made king, and we read “Then they brought out the king’s son, and put upon him the crown, and gave him the testimony, and made him king” (II Chron. xxiii. 11). Not the crown only, but both “crown” and “testimony” were necessary to “make him king”. So the story proceeds to tell how Amaziah spared the children of his father’s murderers according to what was “written in the law in the book of Moses’ (II Chron. xxv. 4).

Hezekiah kept the Passover in the second month, as it was written, which reveals that Numb. ix. 6-14 was in his possession.

Josiah is the next link in the royal chain, and in his reign we learn that Hilkiah the high priest “found the book of the law in the house of the Lord” (II Kings xxii. 8).

After the carrying away into captivity, we find Daniel referring to that which had been “written in the law of Moses the servant of God” (Dan. ix. 11), and Nehemiah in his prayer concerning the desolation of Jerusalem refers to the statutes and judgments He gave by Moses (Neh. i. 7-9). When the people returned under Nehemiah and Ezra, and the walls of the city had been repaired, a most solemn assembly met in the street that was before the watergate, while Ezra “read in the book in the law of God distinctly” (Neh. viii. 1-8).

There is a suggestion in II Chron. xxix. 30, that the Psalms had by this time taken their place in the sacred canon, for the singers praised the Lord “with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer”. In Neh. x. we have the names of those who formed “the great Synagogue”, which lasted from Nehemiah to Simon the Just, a period of 110 years. Among other things, its main purpose was “to collect and preserve the canonical scriptures”. Its work being accomplished it became known as the Sanhedrin and continued into N.T. times. According to the Talmud, Neh. viii. 8 means, “They read in the book of the law” (i.e. the Hebrew text of the Pentateuch), “distinctly”, which would involve translating and interpreting it in the Chaldee paraphrase. “Gave the sense” is more correctly translated “divided the sentences”, the first attempt to break the books up into chapters and verses. “Caused them to understand the reading”, i.e., gave the traditional pronunciation of the words, which were then without the vowel points.

This brings us to the close of the O.T. After the solemn gathering recorded in Neh. viii. there were but three more books to be written before the prophetic gift ceased in Israel: These were the prophecies of Haggai, Zephaniah and Malachi. The date of the last-named is about 370B.C., and so about 30 years after the restoration under Ezra. Malachi is called by the Rabbis, “The Seal of the Prophets”, and from his day the Jew has given his life rather than add to or take away one book or portion of the sacred scriptures entrusted to him.

Owing to the nature of the meetings addressed, we cannot enter into highly technical arguments, as, for example, the witness of the Samaritan Pentateuch, or the extreme value of the Septuagint translation. Such studies belong to the class-room rather than the pulpit, and are incorporated in the Correspondence Courses of Study now in preparation. We trust, however, that enough has been advanced to show the provision made by the Lord for the sacred custody of His Holy Word, and it is a fact to be remembered, that while Israel have been charged with breaking practically every commandment of their law, never has the charge been made against them of tampering with the sacred Scriptures entrusted to them. “Moses”, in whom they “trusted”, might indeed condemn them (John v. 46) and the Messiah, of Whom Moses wrote, might be rejected by them; they may have overlaid the law with their traditions and so have smothered its teaching, but with a zeal that bordered upon fanaticism, this same people preserved intact the O.T. scriptures and passed them on to the N.T. church.

It will doubtless be realized that during the first six months in which the main theme of our London witness has been the inspiration of the Scriptures, we have looked at many aspects of this doctrine which it has not been possible to touch upon in these six short papers. Nevertheless we believe our readers and supporters will have been pleased or encouraged to share with us a little of the matter of the oral ministry thus given.

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(From The Berean Expositor, vol. 33, page 120).

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