di Giuseppe Guarino

To the Jews “were committed the oracles of God” (Romans 3:2)

 

Paul says that unto the Jews “were committed the oracles of God.”

If the Old Testament has been handed down to our generation through the faithful work of Jewish scribes it is because of their sense of responsibility for the faithful preservation of the text and because they are perfectly aware of the importance of Holy Scriptures.

The Jewish historian Josephus writes: “… and how firmly we have given credit to those books of our own nation, is evident by what we do; for during so many ages as have already passed, no one has been so bold as either to add anything to them, to take anything from them, or to make any change in them; but it becomes natural to all Jews, immediately and from their very birth, to esteem those books to contain divine doctrines, and to persist in them, and, if occasion be, willingly die for them.” Flavius Josephus, Against Apion, 8.42.

Even today in the state of Israel a facility has been devoted to the preservation of the precious manuscripts of the Old Testament even in case of a nuclear attack, The Shrine of the Book – in the picture below.

I suggest you visit the website and take a virtual tour of this wonderful collection of Old Testament treasures.

https://www.imj.org.il/en/wings/shrine-book

I believe it was a major mistake not to understand immediately that the same purpose was devoted to the eleven caves at Qumran, which kept in custody for over 2,000 year the famous Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Jews must have been – with right – scared of what the fury of the Romans might have done to their precious heritage, to their treasured Scripture manuscripts. So they were left there about 68 AD, two years before the Romans destroyed the City and the Temple of Jerusalem. And there they remained untouched for centuries, until 1947.

Various theories on the Scrolls and the Qumran sites were proposed, until the simple, plain evidence was finally more and more evident: the Caves were a library. Many of those theories were imagining conspiracies or the Scrolls revealing truths unknown before, or even purposely hidden to Christianity.

A more rational approach has finally silenced those who craved for sensational theories.

In the picture above caves at Qumran

 

The caves contained fragments of about 850 books.

Only the so called Great Isaiah scroll is complete. Concerning this amazing finding we must add an important fact. “Once scholars had had the opportunity to study the great Isaiah scroll from Cave 1 (1QIsaa, copied in approximately 100 B.C.) and to compare it with the Masoretic Text, they were impressed with the results. Despite the fact that the Isaiah scroll was about a thousand years older than the Masoretic version of Isaiah, the two were nearly identical except for small details that rarely affected the meaning of the text. […] The results obtained from comparative studies of this kind have been repeated for many other scriptural books represented at Qumran. The large majority of the new scrolls do belong to the same textual tradition as the Masoretic Text. They are, however, centuries older and thus demonstrate in a forceful way how carefully Jewish scribes transmitted that text across the years.” James C. VanderKam, The Dead Sea Scrolls Today, p.126. The discovery of such facts were the end of speculations on the way the Old Testament was preserved over the centuries.

 

In the picture The Great Isaiah Scroll

Let us go back to consider the other manuscripts found in the caves.

Only 10 manuscripts preserve more than fifty percent of the text found in the original manuscript. But for scholars that can be more than enough to evaluate the text of a manuscript.

223 manuscripts are biblical.

The highest number of manuscripts of a biblical book is that of the Psalms (39 mss). After that, the best attested is of course the Torah, the Law of Moses. Worthy of mention is the finding of 8 manuscripts of the canonical book of the prophet Daniel which contain all of the Hebrew/Aramaic text that we know.

96 manuscripts have not been yet identified.

The rest of the fragments witness to other texts, like Tobias, Enoch, an apocriphon of the book of Genesis, the so called “scroll of the temple”, “The Rule of the Community”, “The Scroll of War” and several commentaries to the canonical books of the Old Testament.

As we said earlier, the language found in the manuscripts is quite important. Over 80 percent of the texts are written in the Hebrew language. Almost all the rest of the evidence is written in Aramaic. 18 (+1) fragments of Greek papyri found in cave 7. I will try to understand what those manuscripts were doing in a Jewish, Hebrew library.

Concerning these fragments in Greek they are relevant for what I am about to say in this chapter and will be further discussed later. Since I believe there are enough elements to suppose some of these fragments belonged to New Testament books.

In the picture above the Greek fragments of cave 7

I know that the academic world is against the possibility of the New Testament being present among the Dead Sea Scrolls. But I dare say I have my personal doubts about this being the case. I wrote it in detail in my book on 7Q5 and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and I will say something later in this book.

In any respect, whether there were or there were not New Testament books at Qumran I am inclined to believe that Paul’s statement concerning the oracles of God being committed to the Jews can be extended to the New Testament as well.

Peter was a Jew. He wrote: “Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;  Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.  Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.” (2 Peter 1:13-15)

Peter evidently reminded the recipients of his letter by writing to them. So, he reassured his readers that after his death things would be still remembered to them – how else if not through the spread of apostolic writings.

It is no coincidence that in this same epistle that he mentions Paul and his epistles: “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” (2 Peter 3:15-16)

Peter as well as the other apostles came from the Jewish culture, so connected to writing. He knew of the command God gave to Moses about writing the Law. This is how the true teachings of Moses survived. Otherwise they would have probably been lost.

This is how true Christian teachings have survived.

Like the Pharisees, and the Sadducees, and all the Jewish sects added human traditions to the pure teachings of the Word of God, the same happened in Christianity during the centuries. But if we go back to the New Testament we find the pure water of unadulterated apostolic doctrine.

The Peter of the Roman Catholic Church was one who gave authority to an institution and transmitted it to his successors. The Peter of the Bible made sure that we had an authentic source that we could successfully use to learn of the true apostolic doctrine.

He knew that “the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book” (Exodus 17:14).

It was because of the written testimony that the Word of God was not lost forever.

“And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.” (2 Kings 22:8).

If it wasn’t for the written testimony, those who have added their tradition to the Word of God would have gotten away with and we would have had no way to know the pure teachings of the Word of God. Both during the times of Jesus and today.

“Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” (Mark 7:5-9)

Jesus plainly told the Scribes and the Pharisees that they were “Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.” (Mark 7:13)

Today we can tell the truth from tradition added by some churches thanks to the testimony of the New Testament. It really served its purpose.

 

There is one important statement made by Paul, which we do not hesitate to extend to the whole Bible, though we are perfectly aware that he was speaking of the Old Testament: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:  That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

We do the same with the words of Peter: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.  21.  For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” (2 Peter 1:20-21 )

I believe that this other expression too can be true for the New Testament as well, and not the Tanakh only: to the Jews “were committed the oracles of God.” (Romans 3:2)

Matthew was a Jew, no doubt about it. And so was Mark.

Concerning Luke it is a common belief that he wasn’t a Jew: but his work was a diligent research made by a Gentile among the Jews to collect the authentic Jewish testimony on the person and ministry of Jesus Christ. This was his Gospel.

In the book of Acts Luke goes on and tells of the birth of the Church, ending his narrative as an associate with the ministry of Paul – a Jew – under whose umbrella his contribution became effective.

The other authors of the New Testament were all Jews. John, Peter, Jude, James.

It is then legitimate to conclude that for the New Testament also, to the Jews “were committed the oracles of God” and they took care of them as they did with the Old Testament.

The Gentile confusion came later, in the second century, with all kinds of inventions and fables, with an incredible number of falsely attributed books like the gospel of Judas, of Thomas, and other writings attributed to Peter, James, etc., that nothing had to do with them and that misrepresent and pervert the truth of the Gospel and the authentic apostolic witness. This was the result of a Gentile contamination of the Gospel.

In the pages that follow, I will investigate how the Jewish imprint in the formation of the New Testament is evident. How this is evidence of the true apostolic origin of the New Testament. How this clearly requires an early date for the composition of the New Testament. How the historical reliability of the New Testament is further confirmed in many wonderful precious details.