infinitemonkey said What has diverged is mainly interpretation of that core, not the actual text itself,
The oldest text of Old Testament was Aleppo Codex edited in 920 AD till 1947, but parts of them were lost since then. Now the oldest complete one is Leningrad Codex edited in 1008 AD. From 6th AD to 10th AD, Old Testament had been carefully copied by Masoretes, but even decisive findings in 20th century were the famous Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran in 1947, those texts were carefully stored in the first century BC by Essenes. All the texts found in these codices, Masoretic texts and Dead Sea Scrolls were strikingly similar except for a few differences in some words. In the case of New Testament, we can find just too many codices. The Bible that we read today is the result of all those countless textual examinations. What kept Bible as what we read today is the power of faith. People all concerned Bible believed Bible is God's word. Therefore they earnestly worked to keep his word as it's originally written. I am certainly not the one who intend to overexaggarate the power of faith, though, that was faith that kept one of the precious historical record of our times.
2 comments:
Hi i just surfed in searching for interesting facts on Essenes in the blogs.
you have a cool blog. Do keep up the good work. I'll be back for more. i live
far from where you live. its nice to be able to see what people from across
the world thinks.
On a related note perhaps you might find the following article interesting.
we are currently doing a series of posts on essenes and their culture and i'll
like to hear your take on the subject via comments. See ya there....
Historical
Facts on Essene Culture
Warm Regards from the Other Side of the Moon.
Bijoy Cletus - Kerala, India
What was so shocking to the scholars who examined the ancient documents was that there was a community of people practicing Christianity, or something very close to it, for at least 200 years before the time of Christ. Both the practice of baptism and of the sharing of the wine are recorded as part of their practices long before Jesus and John the Baptist popularized them. -Excerpt from your article
Nothing comes out of nothing. Christianity was not the exception.
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