THE BOOKS - OF THE INTERTESTMENT

Esdras is the Greek from of Ezra.  This book is a compilation of passages from Ezra, II chronicles, & Nehemiah, with added legends about Zerubbabel.  Its object was to picture the liberality of Cyrus and Darius toward the Jews as a pattern for the Ptolemy’s.

CODEX SINAITICUS

We owe much of our knowledge of the Scriptures to a brilliant nineteenth century German Scholar, who spent his life piecing together the original New Testament.  At the age of nineteen, young Count Konstantin von Tischendorf amazed his professors with his fluent knowledge of the classical languages and dialects of antiquity. Seven years later, he was appointed lecturer at the University of Leipzig. The following year, he published a new edition of the Greek New Testament.

In the Spring of 1844, Tischendorf took a trip to the near East.  In the course of his travels, he journeyed to the Sinaitic Peninsula in search of an old monastery that had been hewn from the rock on the side of Mount Sinai.  Since there were no hotels or motels in those days, travelers often spent the night in monasteries.  When Tischendorf arrived at the Greek Orthodox monastery of St. Catherine's, he was welcomed warmly by the Russian monks.

After a plant meal and a visit with the Prior, Tischedorf presented his letter of introduction.  He was then given a grand tour of the grounds and buildings and taken to the library.  Tischendorf was disappointed by what he saw, but he kept on digging through piles of dusty parchments.  Then in a small room near the library he saw a large wastebasket filled to the rim with what looked like ancient vellun.  The contents of the wastebasket had been consigned to the fireplace -some of which would contribute to the warmth of his room for that night.  Tischedorf was aghast at the thought!  Here, if his eyes did not deceive him, was something of real value!  Quickly he started going through the papers.  Was there more of this kind of material around?  If so, would they bring it to him that he might examine it?  This is how Tischendorf discovered the 129 pages of what is today known as the CODEX SINAITICUS, or the Codes Aleph.

Unhappily, Tischenforf did not "play poker" well.  His face lit up in such a way that the monks knew he had found something priceless in those wastebaskets.  So he had to tell them of his discovery of a manuscript that possibly dated back to the second century.  Would they let him have it? Immediately the attitude of the monks changed; the answer was NO! Tischenforf could not take the papers with him, but he would be permitted to stay on and take some notes. Tichendorf did more than that; he copied the manuscript.  In the end, after prolonged bargaining, he was allowed to take 43 of the 129 pages he had found.

Almost fourteen years would pass before all the negotiations for the transfer of this and other priceless ancient documents-among them THE EPISTLE OF BARNABAS- were concluded.  England's interest in the manuscripts was made known.  The monks were shocked. What, sell their precious papers to English heretics?  They would rather give them to Russia- on loan, of course!  Triumphantly, and with the full backing of Russia, Tichendorf carried off his prize for further study.  He published his findings in 1862.

CONDEX SINAITICUS is still one of the finest and most accurate texts available to us today, and it became the basis of many revisions and corrections of earlier editions of the Bible.

Years passed. Then in 1933, the Russian Communists decided they had no need for Bibles, old or new, so they sold CODEX Sinaticus to Great Britain for 100,000 pounds sterling.  The crumpled pages were restored and bound in two volumes and placed in the British Museum.  Later they were photostatically reproduced and the copies sent to libraries throughout the world.

CODEX VATICANUS

With Tischendorf's findings made available to the scholars of the world, a new interest in ancient manuscripts was kindled.  Someone remembered his history and wondered what had become of the old manuscripts, which Napoleon's scholars had discovered in the Vatican library when the Pope had been captured.

Actually, CODEX VATICANUS, also know as Codex B, was know to be some fifteen years older than Codex Sinaiticus (Codex Aleph).  Vatican’s dated back to 325 or 350 A.D. and had probably been brought from the East by Pope Nicolas in 1448.  Until the Napoleonic Wars, the manuscript had been hidden from the outside world.  In 1809, when Napoleon exiled the Pope to Avignon (later to Savona), it took about fifty wagons to transport the Pope's library. With the fall of Napoleon in 1815, the papers were returned to the Vatican before anyone had a chance to examine them carefully.  Once more in the Vatican library, they were jealously guarded the Roman Catholics.

Tregelles, another great scholar and friend of Tischendorf's decided to investigate the Codex Vaticanus in the Vatican library.  He applied to the Pope for permission to examine the manuscript and was promptly refused.  When he explained that he was a professor of New Testament Literature oat Leipzig University, the Pope gave permission for Tragelles and Tischendorf to study the manuscript for six hours only.  That was in the year 1843.  Two years later, Tregelles was again permitted to examine the manuscript for some days, six hours at a time.  Of course, he had to submit to stringent security measures.  hew as searched on his way in and on his way out.  He could bring no writing materials and cold takes no notes. The manuscript was laid out on a large table and he could read it for no longer than the time specified.

Furthermore, there would be guards watching him all the time he was reading.

Tregelles agreed to the Pope's ground rules. He was searched as he went in and out; no scarp of paper or writing tool was ever found on him.  tregelles MEMORIZED a portion of the text each day, not only in the Greek but also in the Hebrew and Aramaic!  Since he was a genius in all three languages, this presents no problem.  When he returned home, he would sit down and write out that part of Scripture, which he had memorized.  The next day he would go back to the Vatican to master the next portion of the Word.

This went on for the summer holidays, and in three months Tregelles had memorized the entire text of Codex Vaticanus.  This was one of the greatest memory feasts of all time!

Upon his return to Leipzig, Tregelles published the results of his finding. So close was his text to the original, that Pope Pius IX ordered the manuscript photographed in 1859.  In that way it became public property for the world at large. Codex Vaticanus is still one of our most valuable manuscripts of the Word of God.

CODEX ALEXANDRINUS

A third very interesting manuscript, which very few people knew about, is the CODEX ALEXANDRINUS. This Greek language manuscript had been written about 450 A.D. in Alexandria, Egypt.  Apparently no one paid any attention to it in the years that followed.  In 1621, when Cyril Lucar became the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church, he transferred the manuscript to Constantinople.

He had succumbed to the influence of Calvinistic teaching, and was corresponding with leading churchmen in the Western world.  That's how he learned of England's keen interest in ancient biblical manuscripts. So, when the British ambassador, Thomas Roe, was scheduled to return home Lucar sent with him the manuscript as a gift to King Charles I.  The beautiful document, CODEX Alexandrinus, was presented at court in 1627; just fifteen years after the King James Version of the Bible had been completed.  What a pity that it had come so late, because this very ancient manuscript would have helped immensely in the correct rendition of the English Text.

EPHRAEMI RESCRIPTUS

It is fascinating to learn what happened to some of the great libraries of the past and to trace their disposition throughout history.  For example, we know that Cleopatra was very found of reading and that Marc Antony was extraordinarily found of Cleopatra.  When he heard of her love for books, marc Antony took his army to one of the great libraries of Asia Minor.  There he "liberated" 400,000 volumes of literature and took them down to Egypt as a gift for Cleopatra.  An act like this would be tantamount to the Library of Congress being stolen and moved to another country!  Many of the great libraries of the ancient world have disappeared, and we know of their existence only because history has recorded it for us.

It is equally interesting to discover that some ancient manuscripts, through to be lost, were eventually recovered. One of these is known to us as the EPHRAEMI RESCRIPTUS, OR CODEX C.

This recovery in the sixteenth century involved Catherine de Medici, who was as ambitious as she was clever.  Catherine was a member of the colorful Italian family that had risen from obscurity to immense wealth and fame.  Over a period of nearly three hundred years, the Medicis had made a name for themselves, which ran the gamut from popes to prisoners, to patrons of the arts.  They had affiliated themselves with the great houses of Europe through marriage, and Catherine had become the wife of King Henry II, of France.  She bore him four sons who eventually, through her constant manipulations, became kings.

Catherine de Medici was an avid, if somewhat superficial reader, who treasured her books and took them wherever she went.  Among her favorites were the sermons of a Syrian theologian, Father Ephraim.

When Catherine died, her books went to the French National Library in Paris.  They were stacked away and ignored for a long time - 245 years to be exact.

In 1834, student of theology decided to write a thesis on the sermons of Father Ephraem.  He went to the French National Library and asked permission to check out some of the Medici books.  He was told that they could not be removed from the premises, since the collection had great historic value; however, he was permitted to examine the books.

While he was reading, the light fell on the page in such a way that indentations in the vellum were visible.

What appeared to the student as so many indentations were, in fact, inscriptions made prior to those of Father Ephraem.  What actually had happened was that in 1553, when Father Ephraem wanted to record his sermons, paper was very scarce and hard to obtain.  He found some used vellum in an ancient Syrian monastery and simply erased the writing.  True, the indentations were still there, but his own sermons could be written over them.  Without realizing it, Father Ephraem had erased one of the finest of all Bible manuscripts in order to write his own sermons!

Immediately, the alert student became far more interested in what Father Ephraem had erased than in what he had written.  Through the use of chemicals, the original manuscript was restored.  We call this type of manuscript as "PALIMPSET," which means, "Erased and written over." This particular one became know as "EPHRAEMI RESCRIPTUS"; in other words, "Ephraem wrote over it."  Since its discovery, the manuscript has been removed from the Medici stack of literature and placed where it belongs in the Bible stack at the library in Paris.

THE PAPYRI

THE OXYRHYNCHOS PAPYRI.

Archaeological findings have provided us with additional priceless manuscripts of the past. About 1900, Oxford university professors, Drs. Grenfell and Hunt, went to Oxyrhynchos in Upper Egypt, west of the Nile.  They were searching for ancient treasures and trinkets of silver and gold that lay buried in the tombs.

During the course of their excavations of the one-time provincial capital, they came upon a tremendous hall filled with stuffed, mummified crocodiles.  They were baffled and disappointed; they had expected to find priceless art treasures and jewels in the great chamber, not two thousand stuffed crocodiles! Possibly on the other side of the chamber they would find what they were looking for- and indeed they did! They recovered many valuable artifacts, which are still in British museums today, estimated to be worth millions of dollars.

This find can scarcely be compared, however, to their discovery of far greater riches- a discovery which came about quite by accident.

To reach the other side of the great chamber, the crocodiles had to be moved out of the way. It was tedious job, but it paid off handsomely.  When one of the native workers stumbled and fell, the crocodile he was carrying hit a sharp rock and broke open. Dr. Grenfell's eyes widened in amazement at what he saw; inside the crocodile were papyri!  Upon investigation, they found inside the crocodile mummies an entire library of ancient world- not just one, but many different kinds of manuscripts.  These included some Biblical manuscripts from the second century- partially the same time of the autograph of the New Testament Scriptures.  Here also was grammar and etymology books, which let to further discoveries of principles involved in the syntax and grammar of the Koine Greek, which we still use today.  The OXYRHYNCHOS PAPRI can be seen in museums in both Egypt and Britain.  However, all the studies concerned with those papyri have never really been completed.

THE CHESTER BEATTY PAPYRI

There was increasing excitement over the discoveries, and everyone began searching for papyri!  Countless small hills and sand dunes were dug up, and many turned out to be only rubbish heaps of the past, which contained bits of slates, vases, broken pottery- reminders of a life long ago.  The Arabs, not to be outdone, began the own treasure hunt.  They carried off many valuable treasures and peddled these to any and all buyers.  So, here and there, fragments of Biblical writings turned up.  Among these was an ancient Jewish temple library of the seventh century B.C., discovered at Elephantine, Egypt, during the years of 1906 to 1908.

Another great discovery came on November 19, 1931, when the CHESTER BEATTY PAPYRI were found. Chester Beatty was a millionaire from Philadelphia, who made a tour of Palestine and Egypt.

He had heard that some Old Testament papyri in Greek were being offered for sale.  Even though the price was exorbitant, Beatty paid it immediately.  He then turned the entire collection of documents over to two scholars, F.G. Kenyon, and H.A. Sanders.  A detailed study of these second and third century papyri revealed some of the missing papers of the CODEX Sinaiticus, portions of Paul's Epistles and the four Gospels.  The "haul" was well worth the price he had paid for it after all!  This collection is now housed at the University of Pennsylvania.

THE VULGATE VERSION- ENGLAND'S FIRST BIBLE

In the second century of the Cristian era Latin superseded Greek, and remained for years the diplomatic language of Europe.  At this time a Latin translation was made in north Africa from the Septuagint version of the O.T. and the original Greek of the New, so that all Latin-speaking people might be able to read the Wod of God.  It is known as the "VULGATE," which itself is a Latin word meaning "to make common or public."  Hence the word "vulgar."

This Latin version appears to have been England's first Bible.  It was brought into this-then -pagan land by the early CX missionaries, and was destined to replace the ignorant superstition of the Druids, with their human sacrifices. 

In the fourth century this Vulgate version was revised by the saintly scholar Jerome, who had access to anceint hebrew manuscripts; and so important was this revision of Jerome's that, like the Septuagint, it has influenced all future translations.  It is from this version that the English translation of the Psalms as in our Prayer Book and in the Roman Catholic Douay Bible was made.

THE WORK OF DEISSMANN

The ever-increasing supply of newly recovered papyri furnished abundant material for research and evaluation by knowledgeable philologists.  We owe much to a group of very famous German scholars who under the leadership of Adolph Deissmann, shed new light on the language of the new Testament.  his studies clarified the vocabulary, grammar and syntax of the Koine Greek. "LIGHT FROM THE ANCIENT EAST," translated from the German, is a fascinating book on the this subject and contains some of Diessman's findings.

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

In 1947, a fifteen year old Bedouin boy followed a goat which had strayed.  When he casually threw a pebble into the cleft of a rock, he was startled at the sound of breaking pottery.  Later he returned with a friend to explore the cave.  Here they stumbled upon several earthen ware jars that contained dirty, musty-smelling parchment.  What seemed like an accidental find turned out to be biblical manuscripts antedating the oldest known Old testament manuscripts by one thousand years.  This included the complete

book of Isaish.  It would take many years and a small fortune to acquire the scrolls from the Arab "black market," and even more patience to piece them together and to decipher.  There could be no doubt, however, the scrolls were genuine.  In the following years, many additional caches were located, including the main library of the Essenes, a  Jewish sect. THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS were named after the area in which they had been found.

What do these discoveries prove to us?  That God provided for the preservation and the recovery of His written message, the Canon of Scripture.

CODEX SINAITICUS

THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE

THE CRITERIA FOR OLD TESTAMENT CANONICITY

1. THE QUESTION OF INSPIRATION.

Was the book of divine origin?  II Pet. 1:21.  Every extant book of an acknowledged messenger of God, commissioned by God to make known His will, was immediately accepted as the Word of God.

2. THE PRINCIPLE OF INTERNAL EVIDENCE.

Was its claim to inspiration adequately sustained by the awareness of the writers that this was indeed sacred Scripture?  There are certain passages of Scripture which explain this principle of canonicity.

For example: Deut. 31:24-26; Joshua 1:8; Judges 3:4; Jeremiah 36 Nehemiah 8:1-8 is a critical passage, which presents the facts that the people were taught the Word of God.  When Daniel went into captivity, he took with him a copy of the Old Testament as it existed.  by reading the prophecies of Jeremiah 25:11-12 and 29:10, he discovered that Israel had a future.  This is brought out by Daniel 9:2,5,6.  Another passage which is especially clear on the first tow criteria for canonicity is Zechariah 7:12:

YES, THEY MAKE THEIR HEARTS AS AN ADAMANT STONE, LEST THEY SHOULD HEAR THE LAW, AND THE WORDS WHICH THE LORD OF HOSTS HATH SENT IN HIS SPIRIT BY THE FORMER PROPHETS; THEREFORE COME A GREAT WRATH FROM THE LORD OF HOSTS.

3. DOCUMENTATION BY QUOTATIONS.

The New Testament contains quotations from the Old Testament made by Jesus Christ and others who declared it to be the Word of God.  We have many such passages, among them Matt. 22:29; John 5:39 and 10:35

4. THE LAW OF PUBLIC OFFICIAL ACTION.

This is an historical law which required that public action be taken immediately to solemnly declare a portion of Scripture to be the Word of God. We have an illustration of this in Nehemiah 8:5; AND EZRA OPENED THE BOOK IN THE SIGHT OF ALL THE PEOPLE; (FOR HE WAS AVOVE ALL THE PEOPLE;) AND WHEN HE OPENED IT, ALL THE PEOPLE STOOD UP.

5. THE LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT.

The CAUSE is the existence of the Canon, and the effect is the recognition of the Canon.  The Old Test. books are not concical because Israel recognized them as such but because they were of divine origin.  Inspiration was the mechanics by which they had come into existence, and that is what made certain books canonical!  So we might say that canonicity is a recognition of what God has done in the field of communication.  Passages like II Kings 22:23:1,2, and Nehemiah 8 are NOT historical existence of the Canon!  In other words, the Canon existed; therefore, it was recognized!

6. THE PRINCIPLE OF EXTERNAL EVIDENCE.

There are also some extra-biblical evidence which led to the completion of the Canon.  The year 586 B.C. Judah & Jerusalem were destroyed and the Jews had gone into Babylonian captivity II Chron 36:11-21.  During their captivity 586-516 B.C. the Jews realized why they had disintegrated as a nation.  This led to a resurgence of the study of Scripture.  The Jews became aware of the importance of the written Word as a part of their spiritual heritage- so much so, that we have extra-Biblical evidence with regard to their consciousness of the Canon as it then existed.  There wee men like Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zecharaiah and Malachi, who kept reminding the people of the importance of the Scriptures.  There were other outstanding leaders like Joshua the high Priest and Zerubbabel, who led the advance column out of captivity back to Jerusalem.  The all recognized that they had the Canon.  By the year 425 B.C. all the O.T. books had been written and the O.T. Canon was collected and closed.

The Jewish leaders invented a marvelous system for the preservation of the Canon.  They counted every letter in every book.  They knew the middle letter of the Canon.  Now whenever copies were made of the Script. and a scribe arrived at the midpoint of the text, they would check him out by counting the exact number of letters.  The same was done upon the completion of the text.  As a result, we are assured that the O.T. we have today is precisely the same as the one at the time of its original writing.

The Pentateuch the first 5 books of Moses ( Gen - Deut) were regarded by the Jews as the very utterances of Jehovah, from the time of Moses.

According to Dr. Jacob's Bible chronology. Ezra arranged all the books of the O.T. in order about 457 B.C. (excepting Nehemiah and Malachi, whose prophecies were written later.  Josephus and even heathen historians witness to this fact.

The O.T. was translated into Greek more than two centuries B.C. = LXX Septuagint,  The canon was settled before then.

The Samaritans rejected everything but the Pentateuch.

THE N.T. CANON.

70-170 A.D. was the period of the circulation of the separate N.T. writings among the churches and their gradual collection into one book.

All the N.T. books were written before 95 A.D.

We have a number of historical statements of that early period regarding the Canon.  For instance.

Clement of Rome 96 A.D. recognized the divine authority of the N.T. and often quoted from many of the epistles.

THE CRITERIA FOR N.T. CANONICITY

1. APOSTOLICITY.

Every book of the N.T. must either be written by an apostle or someone closely associated with an Apostle (i.e. Mark was under Peter, Luke was associated with Paul.

2. RECEPTION BY THE CHURCHES.

The books must be universally received by the local churches as authentic at the time of their writing.

I & II Cor. are missing. What we have as I & II Cor. are actually 3 & 4 Cor. but the first two letters were not inspired.

3. CONSISTENCY. 

They must be consistent with the doctrine that the church already possessed- namely, the O.T. and Apostolic teaching.

4. INSPIRATION.

Each book must give evidence, internally and externally, of being divinely inspired. The Spiritual gift of discernment was used to determine canonicity  I Cor. 12:10

5. RECOGNITION

Each must be recognized as canonical in the catalogues of the Church Fathers and must be used by those who had the gift of pastor-teacher.

6. INTERNAL.

To be canonical, each book must contain exhortation to public exegesis of the Word ie. Col. 4:16; I Thess. 5:27; I tim 4:13 Rev. 1:3 Peter's famous statement at the end of his second epistle.  Although Paul had thoroughly braced Peter in Gal. 2:6-14 Peter places Paul's writing on a par with the O.T. Scriptures in II Pet. 3:15-16 303  -379 A.D.

Largely instrumental in determining the extent of the Canon were tow events in history  The Diocletian Persecution, during which every attempt was made to destroy the Scriptures, and the Emperor Constantine's order for 50 copies of the Bible for use in the church of Constantinople.

:It was during the is final period, and in the years shortly thereafter, that the great church Councils were held.  they resulted in the formal ratification of the Canon, which by then had been in existence for several hundred years.

EUSEBIUS 270-340

This great historian, as a trusted friend of the Emperor Constantine, enjoyed access to all the church archives.  he promptly set about to record the history of the church. With scholarly precision, he set up a system of classifying the N.T. books. This would eventually solve the entire problem of Canonicity. He used the same categories that were set up for the classification of the O.T.

THE CHURCH COUNCILS

Abut this time it was decided that a Church Council should be called to settle the matter of the Canon once and for all.

THERE WERE 4 SESSIONS

The Council of Laodecia        336 A.D.

The Council of Damascus       382

The council of Carthage          397

The Council of Hippo             419

The Council of Ladecia recognized and accepted all books of the N.T. Canon except Revelation; but at the following three Councils, Rev. was accepted.

The issue of Cannonicity never came up again until the rise of liberalism in the 19th century, which led to our twentieth century modernism.

CANNON

OTHER MANUSCRIPTS

AUTHOR       WHEN WRITTEN                 EARLIEST COPY                 TIME SPAN               NO COPIES

Caesare                        100-44 B.C.                900 A.D.                                1,000 yrs                     10

Livy                             59 B.C.-                      A.D.17                                                                                    20

Plato (tetralogies)        427-347 B.C.              900 A.D.                                 1,200 yrs                     7

Tacitus(Annais)           100 A.D.                     1,100 A.D.                              1,000                           20

Pliny the Younger(History)61-113 A.D.        850 A.D.                                   750 yrs                     7

Thucydides (History) 460-400 B.C.               900 A.D.                                1,300 yrs                     8

Suetonius

De Vita Caesarun)      75-160 A.D.                950 A.D.                                   800 yrs                      8

Herodotus (History)    480-425 B.C.              900 A.D.                                 1,300 yrs                     8

Horace                                                                                                               900 yrs                     

Sophocles                    496-406 B.C.              1,000 A.D.                              1,4000                         100

Lucretus                      Died 55 B.C.                                                               1,100 yrs                     2

Catullus                       54 B.C.                        1,550 A.D.                              1,600 yrs                     3

Euripedes                    480-406 B.C.              1,100 A.D.                              1,300 yrs                     9

Demonsthenes             383-322 B.C.              1,100 A.D.                              1,300 yrs                     200

Aristotle                      384-322 B.C.              1,100 A.D.                              1,400 yrs                     5

Aristophanes               450-385 B.C.                900 A.D.                               1,200 yrs                     10

OTHER MANUSCRITS                             6 2 0

BOOKS REFERED TO IN SCRIPT BUT LOST.

1. THE BOOK OF THE WARS OF THE LORD"  NUM 21:14

2. THE BOOK OF JASHER"  JOSH 10:13

3. THE BOOK OF ACTS OF SOLOMON  I KINGS 11:41

4. THE BOOK OF NATHAN THE PROPHET  I CHRON. 29:29

5. THE BOOK OF GAD THE SEER I CHRON 29:29

6. THE PROPHECY OF AHIJAH THE SHOLONITE  II CHRON 9:29

7. THE VISIONS OF IDDO THE SEER   II CHRON. 9:29

SCEINTIFIC TRUTH REVEALED IN SCRIPTURE

SCIENTIFIC DATA IN SCRIPTURE

One way to show the inspiration of scripture is to show from scripture the scientific statements that were completely correct but many thousands years before the discovery of those truths.

God places in His book SCIENTIFIC secrets that no man knew at that time and were later discovered by man. Some were discovered because men read the scripture and saw the reference and then tested the statement and found it to be true.

I. THE MOVEMENT OF PLANETS JOB 38:31,32

It was not until the last century that M. Medler, an astronomer, discovered that Aleyone-the brightest star in the Pleiades-is the center of gravity in our vast solar system.  Our English word "Pleiades" is the Hebrew word KIMAH. This word means a "hinge," "Pivot" oir "axele,"  and refers to a body that moves around and turns ather bodies with it.

Job was written at least three thousand years ago, but the Hebrew is absolutely accurate when it refers to the whole system of gravity and the center of gravity. As God spoke to Job He was not trying to give him a scientific treaties, but information.  What Medler actually did was to rediscover and confirm what was already known to Job and to those who study the Bible.

II. STATIC ELECTRICITY  JEREMIAH. 10:13

In this verse we have a vary interesting illustration of static electricity.  Tose of you who have been in academic classrooms know that static electricity may be formed by the condensation of vapor.  Is this knowledge comparatively new?  Indeed not! Jeremiah had it long before modern man discovered it!

III. THE EARTH IS SPHERICAL  ISA. 40:22

Two thousand, five hundred years ago, Isaiah stated that the earth is spherical.  The same thing is taught in Proverbs 8:27.  In both passages the Hebrew word CHUG is found.  It should have been translated "spherical," but was rendered "circle" in Isaiah and "compass" in Proverbs.

Just think of all the people who stubbornly maintained that the earth was flat! They insisted that if you sailed through the Gates of Pericles (Gibraltar), you would drop off into nothingness. "Don't yet out of the Mediterranean" was the law until the Phoenicians became bold enough to sail around Africa.

IV. THE EARTH ROTATES ON ITS AXIS LUKE 17:31-36

The statement that the Second Advent of Jesus Christ is to occur simultaneously "in that day" v 31 and "in that night" v 34 describes one and the same event and can only be explained on the basis that the earth rotates on its axis.

V. AIR HAS WEIGHT JOB 28:25

No scientist before Galileo 1630 was ever aware of or accepted the principle that air had weight.  yet we are told explicitly in Job 28:25 that this is so.  The Hebrew word for "wind" is RUACH, which is also translated "air."

VI. WINDS HAVE CIRCUITS; THE LAWS OF EVAPORATION AND PRECIPITATION  ECCL 1:6-7

The heading for verse 6 could well be "Winds Aloft."  In 1630, Galileo discovered that winds have regular circuits.  Was he the first to make this discovery?

Solomon said, "...there is no new thing under the sun" Eccl. 1:9a  Ecclesiastes 1:7, in which Solomon makes a clear declaration of winds aloft, also gives the principle of evaporation and precipitation.

VII. RADIATION AND POLARIZATION OF LIGHTS PSA. 65:8

"...thou makest the outgoings of the morning and the evening to rejoice."  The Hebrew word for "outgoings" is "radiations."  The significance of the word "rejoice" is that electric lights will play music; this is what this passage says in the Hebrew.  As you may already know, there have been demonstrations of polarization of light playing music in the physics laboratory.

VIII. MESSAGES ARE SENT BY LIGHTING JOB 38:35

Who invented telegraphy?  God did, for here we have the first mention of messages being sent by electricity.

IX. THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD  ECCL. 12:6

These two verse describe the circulation of the blood long before Dr. Harvey discovered it.

X. QUARANTINE FOR COMMUNICABLE DISEASES LEV. 13:45-46

Centuries before it was developed in medical research, the principle for quarantine for communicable diseases existed as laws laid down by God for His people Israel.

SCIENTIFIC DATA

1250 Cardinal Hugo was the first to divide up the Bible into chapters; this he did for the purpose of a Latin concordance. The divisions although very convenient for reference, are sometimes far acrute.

1550 the division into verses was made.

THE APOCRYPHA

The books between the New and Old Testament

1.  MEANING OF THE NAME.

Many people mix up the words Apocrypha and Apocalypse.

The Apocalypse is another word for the book of Revelation.   It is at the end of the N.T.

The Apocrypha refers to the books which are at the end of the Old Test.

The Apocrypha are the extra books that are in the Roman Catholic Bible.

A few Protestant Bibles like the New English bible have them but they are rare.

The word " APOCRYPHA " is used in a variety of ways that can be confusing.  . Etymologically the word means "things that are hidden".

) Some say the books were 'hidden" or withdrawn from common use because they were deemed to contain mysterious or esoteric lore, too profound to be communicated to any except the initiated Compare II Esd. 14:45-46 ) Others say they are hidden because they should not be read, they are spurious or heretical.

 According to traditional usage " APOCRYPHA " has been the designation applied to the 15 books, or portions of books listed in the Roman Catholic Bible.

1. THE FIRST BOOK OF ESDRAS

2. THE SECOND BOOK OF ESDRAS

3. Tobit

4. Judith

5. The additions to the Book of Esther

6. The wisdom of Solomon

7. Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach

8. Baruch

9. The Letter of Jeremiah

10. The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the three young men

11. Susanna

12. Bel and the Dragon

13. The prayer of Manasseh

14. The First book of the Maccabees

15. The Second Book of the Maccabees

The Eastern Orthodox Church had 3 more

16. The third Book of the Maccabees

17. The Fourth Book of the Maccabees

18. Psalm 151

APOCRYPHA BOOKS

PSEUDIGRAPHA

 - Pseudo = False,  grapha = Write - False Writings

a. Siblline Oracles

b. Testaments of the 12 Patriarchs

c. The Book of Jubilees

d. The Assumption of Moses

e. The Ascension of Isaiah

f. The Slavonic Enoch.

g. The Life of Adam and Eve            

h. The War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness.

OTHER BOOKS

a. The Dead Sea Scrolls

b. The Manual of Discipline

c. The commentaries on Nahman, Miciah, Isaiah and Psalms, Habbakak

4. Then there are the

N.T. APROCRYPHA

Books and Pseudigrapha.

Books that people tried to pass off as additions to the Bible.

Or supposed lost books. Like the "lost book of Jesus" We may look at those when we finish the N.T.

You need to be familiar with these books to understand what they say so that when someone comes along and says they have found a lost book that should be in the Bible you will have an answer for them.

Many of these books are worth reading.

Some for Historic Background on the Bible.

Others for enjoyment to see how people of the time wrote to help understand the Old Testament Some should be read like Reading C.S. Lewis, application of how to deal with evil.

Others should be read like reading Josephus.

You should not be afraid of them or that you will find your children reading them.

A few of the books were used by some like we would use Swindoll or Warren Wiersby's commentary on a book as a study aid.  You read it and it has some very good things, but they are not scripture.

What Swindoll or Wiersby writes is not Scripture.

These books were written in addition to Scripture.