Preparation
Read the bible verses that come with the key doctrines. Then study and meditate on the bible verses and the doctrines. Write down any questions that arise so that we can discuss them in our group.
To help you study, ask yourself these questions as you read:
Question 1
Has God preserved His Word perfectly, or has He preserved it sufficiently?
If the original manuscripts no longer exist, how can we be confident that the Bible we hold today is the same Bible that was written?
Question 2
Who decided which books belong in the Bible? Did the church create the canon, or did it merely recognize what God had already given?
Question 3
Why are there so many translations, and does a translation count as the Word of God? If a translation is not inspired, how should we use it?
Introduction
God has preserved His Word through the centuries, and the Bible we have today is the same as the Bible that was originally written.
Key Doctrines
The Old Testament in Hebrew (which was the native language of the people of God of old), and the New Testament in Greek (which at the time of the writing of it was most generally known to the nations), being immediately inspired by God, and by his singular care and providence kept pure in all ages, are therefore authentic; so as in all controversies of religion, the church is finally to appeal to them. (Romans 3:2; Matthew 5:18; Isaiah 8:20; Acts 15:15; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; John 10:34-36)
But because these original tongues are not known to all the people of God, who have a right unto, and interest in the Scriptures, and are commanded in the fear of God to read and search them, therefore they are to be translated into the vulgar language of every nation unto which they come, that the Word of God dwelling plentifully in all, they may worship him in an acceptable manner, and through patience and comfort of the Scriptures may have hope. (Deuteronomy 17:18-20; Proverbs 2:1-5; 8:34; John 5:39, 46; 1 Corinthians 14:6, 9, 11, 12, 24, 28; Romans 15:4; Colossians 3:16)
Background for Teachers
Lesson 4 established that Scripture is inspired by God. Lesson 5 answers the next question: if God inspired the original writings, what happened to them? The original manuscripts no longer exist. Does that mean the Word of God has been lost, corrupted, or diluted through centuries of copying and translation?
The doctrine of preservation answers this question. God has not only spoken; He has kept His Word pure. The 1689 Confession states that Scripture has been “by his singular care and providence kept pure in all ages.” This is the foundation of our confidence that the Bible we read today is the same Bible that was written.
The lesson is organized around four topics:
- The Promise and the Problem — What God promised about preserving His Word, and the apparent problem of the missing originals.
- The Manuscript Evidence — How textual criticism and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls confirm the reliability of the text.
- The Canon — How the church recognized, rather than created, the books of the Bible.
- Translation and Authority — Why translations are necessary, how they relate to the original, and why the original languages remain the final appeal.
Topic 1: The Promise and the Problem
The Promise of Preservation
God promised to preserve His Word. The 1689 Confession says Scripture has been “kept pure in all ages” by God’s “singular care and providence.” This is not a claim that God miraculously preserved a single flawless copy on earth. It is a claim that God has providentially preserved the text through the ordinary means of faithful copying, collecting, and transmission.
The Scripture itself makes this promise:
For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Matthew 5:18 (LSB)
The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.
Isaiah 40:8 (LSB)
The promise is not that every copy would be perfect. The promise is that the Word of God would not fail, that God’s purposes revealed in Scripture would be accomplished, and that the text would be preserved in a way that is sufficient for faith and obedience.
The Problem of the Missing Originals
The original manuscripts — the actual scrolls and letters written by Moses, David, Paul, and John — no longer exist. This is a fact that skeptics often raise as an objection. If God inspired the originals, why did He not preserve them?
There are several reasons. Parchment, papyrus, and vellum deteriorate over time. The manuscripts were used, carried, copied, and worn out. Some were destroyed in times of persecution, such as Diocletian’s edict in AD 303 calling for the burning of Christian Scriptures. And there may be a providential reason: God did not want the physical documents themselves to become objects of veneration. Hezekiah destroyed the bronze serpent because the people began to worship it instead of the God who used it (2 Kings 18:4).
The absence of the originals does not mean the text has been lost. It means God used a different means of preservation: the faithful copying and transmission of the text by His people, and the science of textual criticism to recover the original reading from the surviving copies.
Discussion
The promise of preservation does not mean every copy is perfect. It means God has preserved His Word sufficiently and faithfully. The next topic shows how the manuscript evidence confirms this.
Topic 2: The Manuscript Evidence
Textual Criticism
Textual criticism is the careful examination of the existing ancient copies of Scripture in order to determine the most accurate reading of the original text. It is a science, but it involves human judgment. The textual critic compares the surviving manuscripts, identifies the variant readings, and weighs the evidence to determine which reading most likely reflects what the biblical author originally wrote.
The typical weighting factors include the oldest reading, the shortest reading, the most widely attested reading geographically, and the reading that best explains the variants. When these factors are taken together, the textual critic can make an educated decision about the original reading.
The Dead Sea Scrolls
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947–1956 was a monumental event for textual criticism. These manuscripts, dated around 200–100 BC, are roughly a thousand years older than the Masoretic text, which was the standard Hebrew text before the discovery. When scholars compared the Dead Sea Scrolls with the Masoretic text, they found only a few slight variants, none of which changed the meaning of any passage.
This discovery confirmed the accuracy of the Hebrew text’s transmission over a thousand years. It demonstrated that the scribes who copied the text did so with extraordinary care. The Dead Sea Scrolls are one of the strongest pieces of evidence that the Old Testament text has been faithfully preserved.
The New Testament Manuscripts
The New Testament has an even stronger manuscript witness. There are over five thousand extant Greek New Testament manuscripts, ranging from complete copies of the New Testament to fragments containing as little as part of a single verse. Some fragments date to within twenty-five to fifty years of the original writing.
New Testament textual scholars have concluded that over 99 percent of the original writings have been recovered, and that of the remaining variant readings, none substantially affect any Christian doctrine. The variants that do exist are mostly spelling errors, incidental omissions, transpositions of words, or explanatory insertions by copyists. None of them alter the message of the text.
Discussion
The manuscript evidence is overwhelming. God has preserved His Word through the faithful copying of His people, and the science of textual criticism has recovered the original text with extraordinary accuracy. The next topic addresses a different question: which books belong in the Bible?
Topic 3: The Canon
What the Canon Is
The canon is the collection of books that are recognized as divinely inspired and authoritative. The word “canon” comes from the Greek word for “rule” or “standard.” The canon of Scripture is the standard by which all doctrine and practice are measured.
The 1689 Confession states that the books of the Old and New Testaments are “given by the inspiration of God, to be the rule of faith and life.” The canon is not a human invention. It is the recognition of what God has already given.
How the Canon Was Recognized
The canon was not created by the church. The church recognized the books that were already inspired by God. The writings themselves are vested with the authority of God on the basis of divine inspiration. They are the Word of God because they were written under the Spirit’s inspiration. The people of God merely recognize the authority present within those writings.
Three criteria were used to recognize the canonical books:
- Apostolic or prophetic authorship. The writing had to be authored by a recognized prophet or apostle, or by someone associated with one (as in the case of Mark, Luke, Hebrews, James, and Jude).
- Doctrinal agreement with existing Scripture. The writing could not disagree with or contradict any previous Scripture.
- Universal acceptance by the people of God. The church had to display a general consensus that a writing was an inspired book.
When various councils met in church history to consider the canon, they held no official vote for the canonicity of a book. They recognized universally, after the fact, that it was written by God and belonged in the Bible.
The Old Testament Canon
By the time of Christ, the entire Old Testament had been written and acknowledged by the Jewish community. The last book, Malachi, had been completed about 430 BC. The Old Testament canon of Christ’s day conformed to the Old Testament in Protestant Bibles today, and it did not contain the Apocrypha.
Jesus and the apostles accepted the Hebrew canon as Scripture. Jesus quotes from each of the major sections of the Old Testament — Moses and the Pentateuch, David in the Psalms, and Isaiah and Jonah from the Prophets — and affirms each as part of God’s authoritative Scripture. The apostles quote from the Old Testament in their preaching and build their case for the gospel from Old Testament citations.
The New Testament Canon
The New Testament was written over a period of about fifty years, from James in AD 45 to Revelation in about AD 95. The New Testament books were recognized as equally divinely inspired and authoritative as the Old Testament at the time they were written.
Peter attested to Paul’s letters as being Scripture (2 Peter 3:14-16). Paul quoted from Deuteronomy and Luke, affirming both as Scripture (1 Timothy 5:18). John testified that he wrote Revelation at the direct insistence of Christ Himself.
The process of canonization for the New Testament included three historical stages: circulation, collection, and recognition. The early church copied, circulated, and collected the New Testament books. By the second century, these collections began to secure an increasingly universal acceptance. The second-century heretic Marcion published his own list of authoritative writings, which compelled the orthodox church to formally answer the question of which books belong in the New Testament canon.
The Muratorian Fragment (ca. AD 170) lists the New Testament books that are to be accepted as authoritative. Eusebius divided the early church writings into acknowledged books, disputed books, and heretical books. Athanasius, in his Festal Letter of AD 365, defined the extent of the New Testament canon as the twenty-seven books of our New Testament today. These decisions were later ratified by the Council of Hippo in AD 393.
Is the Canon Closed?
The canon is closed. There will be no sixty-seventh book of the Bible. Several significant observations support this conclusion:
- The book of Revelation is the perfect bookend to Genesis. Genesis begins Scripture by bridging the gap from eternity past to space-time existence with the creation account. Revelation transitions out of space and time into eternity future. They are the matched bookends of Scripture.
- There has been prophetic silence since John delivered Revelation. Just as there was prophetic silence after Malachi completed the Old Testament canon, so there has been silence since the New Testament canon was completed.
- There are no authorized prophets or apostles today. Since there are no potential authors of more inspired, canonical writings, the canon cannot be added to.
- Revelation 22:18-19 contains a severe warning against adding to or taking away from God’s Word. This is the only book of the New Testament to end with this kind of admonition, and it was the last New Testament book to be written.
- The early church believed that Revelation concluded God’s inspired writings. Those closest in time to the apostles believed the canon was complete.
Discussion
The canon is not a human invention. It is the recognition of what God has already given. The church did not create the canon; it recognized the books that were already inspired by God. The canon is closed, and the Bible is complete.
Topic 4: Translation and Authority
Why Translations Are Necessary
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and the New Testament in Greek. These original languages are not known to all the people of God. But all of God’s people have a right to the Scriptures and are commanded to read and search them (Deuteronomy 17:18-20; Proverbs 2:1-5; John 5:39, 46).
Therefore, the Scriptures are to be translated into the common language of every nation. The purpose of translation is that the Word of God may dwell plentifully in all, that God’s people may worship Him in an acceptable manner, and that through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures they may have hope (Romans 15:4; Colossians 3:16).
The Relationship Between Translation and Inspiration
A translation is not inspired in the same way the original manuscripts were. The 1689 Confession says the original Hebrew and Greek texts were “immediately inspired by God.” A translation is a derived witness to God’s Word. It is the Word of God insofar as it accurately reflects the meaning of the original.
This is why great care should be exercised in choosing a Bible translation. Readability is important. God intends His people to understand what He says. But if a translation poorly translates or errantly represents what God’s Word says in the original language, it misleads God’s people. The more literal a translation is and the more precisely it conveys what the original languages say, the more reliable it is as a witness to God’s people.
The Original Languages as the Final Appeal
The 1689 Confession states that the original Hebrew and Greek texts are “authentic; so as in all controversies of religion, the church is finally to appeal to them.” This means that when there is a dispute about doctrine or practice, the final authority is not a translation, a tradition, or a confession. It is the original text of Scripture.
This is why the study of Greek and Hebrew is valuable. It is not that a translation cannot be trusted. It is that the original languages are the final court of appeal. When a translation weakens a text — as we saw in Lesson 4 with the translation of lambanō as “accept” instead of “receive” — the original language reveals what the text actually says.
Discussion
Translations are necessary and valuable. They make the Word of God accessible to all people. But they are not inspired in the same way the originals were. The original languages remain the final appeal in all controversies of religion. This is why we test all things by Scripture, and why we return to the original languages when a translation is in question.
A Pastoral Note
When you are faced with a translation that sounds plausible but weakens the text, find out what the original word means and what the translators are doing with it. The Word of God is not a collection of suggestions. It is the voice of the Shepherd.
Read the text. Compare the translations. Find out what the original Greek and Hebrew words said. Then submit to what God has actually said, not to what a comfortable culture would prefer Him to have said.
The doctrine of preservation is a comfort to the believer. It means that when you open your Bible, you are not reading a human invention or a corrupted tradition. You are reading the Word of the living God, preserved by His providence through the faithful work of His people across the centuries. You can trust it with your life, your soul, and your eternity.
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
Romans 10:17 (LSB)
Further Study For deeper study of this doctrine, the following commentaries are freely available online and are worth consulting:
- For devotional reading and practical application: Matthew Henry (Concise) — warm, pastoral, and suitable for all readers.
- For balanced scholarship and lay-friendly depth: Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown (JFB) — scholarly but not overly technical.
- For advanced exegetical study: John Calvin — precise and foundational, but demanding.