Page 26 - Yahwehs Book

the message of Yahweh was communicated faithfully. This is true of all of the writings contained
in the Bible and designated as holy Scriptures. The most recent of these anointed writings are nearly
2,000 years old, and the oldest of them are about 3,500 years removed from this present day.
Understandably, none of the original autographs of these “holy prophets” (Luke 1:70) remain to this
day. The animal skins, papyrus, or other material upon which the Scriptures were written were
subject to decay, destruction, and loss.

The Hebrew people who were entrusted with the words of God placed great emphasis upon
maintaining the holy writings. A group of men were assigned the task of safeguarding the divine
words, of making new copies of the Scriptures when the existing ones began to show wear. These
men were known as scribes.

The Bible itself does not set forth any instructions for scribes to follow, but the Jewish people
developed elaborate instructions to guard against the encroachment of any aberration into the word
of Yahweh. In the Talmud (writings of Jewish civil and religious law) we find some of the earliest
recorded instructions to scribes.

A synagogue scroll must be written on the skins of clean animals, prepared for the particular use
of the synagogue of the Jew. These must be fastened together with strings taken from clean animals.
Every skin must contain a certain number of columns, equal throughout the entire codex. The length
of each column must not extend over less than forty-eight, or more than sixty lines; and the breadth
must consist of thirty letters. The whole copy must first be lined; and if three words be written in it
without a line, it is worthless. The ink should be black, neither red, green, nor any other colour and
be prepared according to a definite recipe. An authentic copy must be the exemplar, from which the
transcriber ought not in the least to deviate. No word or letter, not even a yod, must be written from
memory, the scribe not having looked at the codex before him...

Between every consonant the space of a hair or thread must intervene; between every word the
breadth of a narrow consonant; between every new parashah, or section, the breadth of nine
consonants; between every book, three lines. The fifth book of Moses must terminate exactly with
a line; but the rest need not do so. Besides this, 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, and should a king
address him while writing that name he must take no notice of him...
[Source: Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts, Frederic Kenyon]

These words were recorded in the early centuries following the time of Christ. It can be assumed that
similar instructions had been passed along orally for many centuries prior. Around 500 A.D. a group
of scribes called the Masoretes (meaning “tradition”) arose. They are renowned for their attention
to accuracy as well as for innovations to preserve the pronunciation of Hebrew words. Before you
read the following quotation from the writing of Neil R. Lightfoot, let me define the words “codex”
and “codices” for those to whom they may be unfamiliar. The earliest Biblical writings were
recorded on scrolls. This began to change around the first century A.D. at the same time that the
Christian church came into being. The Romans began to place their writings in book form. Such a
book was called a “codex.” The plural of this word is “codices.” At first, the pages of these books
were made from wood, and later from papyrus, vellum, or paper. The Latin word “codex” literally