“All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 HCSB).
Before the advent of the printing press, word processors, and copy machines, all written communication took place by hand. This included the Biblical Scriptures as well. While it is true that we don’t have any perfect copies of the Scriptures, there are some compelling reasons to believe that the Old Testament books we have today are trustworthy, reliable, and authentic.
Over time, a detailed procedure was developed for copying the books of the Old Testament by hand to minimize the potential for errors. For example, here are some of the steps that were followed whenever a scribe undertook the process of copying God’s Word…
- Each page must contain a certain number of columns, equal throughout the volume.
- Each column length must not extend over less than 48 or more than 60 lines.
- The breath of each column must consist of 30 letters.
- The ink should be black, prepared according to a definite recipe.
- An copy must be taken only from an authentic example, from which the transcriber ought not deviate in the least.
- No word or letter must be written from memory, the scribe not having looked at the volume before him.
- Between every consonant the space of a hair, or thread must intervene.
- Between every new section, the breadth of nine consonants. Between every book, three lines.
- The fifth book of Moses must terminate with an exact line, but the rest need not do so.
- The copyist must sit in full Jewish dress, wash his whole body, not begin to write the name of God with a pen newly dipped in ink.
- Should a king address him while writing that name, he must take no notice of him (1)
These scribes were so dedicated to accuracy when copying the Old Testament Scriptures that they devised an elaborate error detection process to help prevent mistakes. In the words of another source…
“Statistics were also placed at the end of each book. As an example, the total number of verses in Deuteronomy is 955, the total in the entire Torah is 5,845; the total number of words is 97,856, and the total number of letters is 400,945. By assembling statistics such as these, each book could be measured mathematically to see if there was any copyist error!” (2)
(1) See Charles Swindoll, A Look At The Book: Traveling the Original Route 66 [pg.14]
(2) J. Warner Wallace., Establishing The Reliability Of The Old Testament: A Trustworthy Process Of Transmission https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/establishing-the-reliability-of-the-old-testament-a-trustworthy-process-of-transmission/ Retrieved 04 September 2021