summary
- The Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew between 1500-125 BCE and translated into Greek in the 2nd century BCE. The oldest complete copy, the Codex Sassoon, dates to the 9th century CE.
- The New Testament was written in Greek between 45-95 CE and canonized as a text in the 4th century CE. The oldest surviving complete copy, the Codex Sinaiticus, dates to the 4th century CE.
- Most of the oldest biblical fragments survive on papyrus in the dry Egyptian desert, dating from the 2nd century BCE for the Old Testament and the 2nd century CE for the New Testament.
- An early fragment of the Old Testament has been found on a piece of jewelry dating back to 600 BCE, and other fragments appear in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which date to between 250 and 100 BCE.
For millennia, the Bible has been considered a cornerstone of religious faith for many. While its contents are continuously debated, it remains one of humanity’s most important written works. The Bible, which is the name for the collection of scriptures considered holy by Christians, is divided into two parts: the Old Testament (comprising 39 books) and the New Testament (comprising 27 books). While there is additional material that some argue should be included in the biblical canon, there are 66 books of the Bible that most Christians accept as genuine.
No manuscripts of any books of the Bible written in the divinely inspired hand of the original author exist today. What we have comes down to us through copies, some of which were made within just a few generations of when they were reportedly originally written. What are the oldest versions of the Bible that we have relied on to produce the estimated five billion copies that have been produced over the centuries in more than 500 languages?
When Was the Bible Written?
The Old Testament is a collection of religious texts written by the Jewish community over a millennium. Biblical scholars estimate that the Hebrew scriptures, mostly written in Hebrew but also Aramaic, were written between 1500 and 165 BCE. Scholars also agree that Greek translations of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible were made in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE by Jews living in Ptolemaic Egypt.
The books of the New Testament were written mostly in Koine Greek, the form of Greek spoken in the Eastern Mediterranean under the Roman Empire, between 45 and 95 CE.
The list of books to be included in the Christian Bible was canonized in the late 4th century CE. Between 385 and 405 CE, the Greek Bible was translated into Vulgar Latin, but it was only at the Council of Trent (1545-63) that the Vulgate became the official Latin translation of the Catholic Bible.
Copies of the Bible were produced by hand for around a thousand years, typically by monks or scribes in monasteries. These were time-consuming and expensive to produce, often featuring stunning illuminations, so the average person had to rely on their local priests to transmit the Bible’s contents. Therefore, our oldest versions of the Bible are surviving copies of these ancient manuscripts.
It was only in the 15th century, with the arrival of the printing press, that the idea that every Christian could own a bible emerged, and printed editions emerged in multiple languages.
Codex Sinaiticus: The Oldest Complete New Testament (c. 350 CE)
The Codex Sinaiticus, also known as the Sinai Bible, compiled around 350 CE, contains the oldest known complete Greek New Testament in the world. It was discovered in Saint Catherine’s monastery in Egypt by Constantin von Tischendorf in 1846. Due to some political and international matters, the Codex is now split among four museums: the Leipzig University Library in Germany, the National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg, Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, and the British Library. However, it has also been compiled into digital form and remains under study.
Codex Sassoon: The Earliest Complete Old Testament (c. 9th Century CE)
The Oldest complete copy of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible is called the Codex Sassoon, which has been carbon dated to the late 9th or early 10th century CE. It’s existence can be traced back as far as the 2th century CE, and it has changed hands among various collectors over the centuries, disappeared, reappeared, and was recently purchased by business ambassador Alfred H. Moses for $38 million, which he then gifted to the ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv.
It is slightly older than the Aleppo Codex, written around 920 CE, which was complete when it was kept in the Central Synagogue of Aleppo, but the synagogue was torched in 1947, and 40% of the manuscript was missing when it re-emerged in Israel in 1958. The Leningrad Codex was reportedly produced in Cairo in 1008 CE, according to its colophon, and is another early version of the Old Testament books in the original language.
Codex Vaticanus: The Oldest Uncial Codex (c. 4th Century CE)
The Codex Vaticanus is the oldest bible that contains both the majority of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Held in the Vatican Library, it is thought to have been written in the 4th century CE. The most widely sold versions of the Greek New Testament are based on this manuscript.
The Codex Vaticanus is considered one of the four great Uncial Codices that contain the entire text of the Bible. The others are the Codex Sinaiticus (mentioned above), the Codex Alexandrinus, and the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, all dating to the 4th and 5th centuries CE.
Older Surviving Biblical Fragments
While these are the oldest complete versions of the Bible, older fragments have been discovered. Interestingly, the text found in surviving manuscript fragments is surprisingly consistent. While there are minor variations, as expected with hand-copied manuscripts, a majority of the texts have remained consistent in their transmission through the centuries. Many Christians argue that no major theological or historical claims made in the Bible have been changed since they were originally written. While the accuracy of the content may be debated, the transmission has remained consistent.
Another interesting note regarding Biblical manuscripts is the time period of copies relative to when they were originally written, particularly in the case of the New Testament. For instance, the oldest surviving copies of Plato, who lived around 400 BCE, date to 900 CE. In contrast, the earliest known copies of the New Testament may date from less than two hundred years after they were originally written.
The Oldest Fragments from the New Testament
As one of the most important books in the world, it should be unsurprising that many manuscripts and fragments of manuscripts of the New Testament survive. Today, over 5,800 Greek manuscripts and fragments of the New Testament have been identified, totaling approximately 2.6 million pages of New Testament texts.
The earliest fragmentary Greek manuscripts of the New Testament date to the 2nd century CE. Manuscript P90 is a fragment of John 18 and 19. Manuscript P104 is a portion of Matthew 21, and P98 is a fragment of Revelation 1. Each of these survived in Egypt’s dry climate. The most famous fragment may date from slightly earlier and is from John 18. This fragment, known as P52, is the earliest known mention of Jesus Christ.
The Earliest Fragments from the Old Testament
The earliest surviving portion of the Old Testament was actually found in a piece of jewelry. The Hinnom Scrolls are two tiny silver scrolls that were hidden within an amulet. They were discovered near Jerusalem in 1979, and date from about 600 BCE, placing them at around the time of Biblical figures King Josiah and the prophet Jeremiah. These extremely fragile passages of Hebrew text contain a blessing from Numbers 6:24-26.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in the caves of Qumran in 1947, contain fragments of the Old Testament that can be dated to between 250 BCE and 100 CE. Portions of its text are also found on existing papyrus from Egypt. These papyrus manuscripts date from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE.
