The Oldest Manuscripts
Before the printed Bibles, before Tyndale, before Geneva — there were
the handwritten copies. These are the oldest witnesses anybody has to the
words of Scripture. This is what our Revelation chapters are built from.
3rd century BC – 1st century AD — Hebrew & Aramaic
The Dead Sea Scrolls
Hidden in caves by the Dead Sea and found again in our own time. Hebrew and
Aramaic scrolls a thousand years older than anything scholars had before —
every book of the Old Testament except Esther, plus ancient writings like Enoch
and Jubilees. The Great Isaiah Scroll is the oldest complete Bible book in
existence.
~200s AD — Greek
The Early Papyri
Pieces of the New Testament written on papyrus within a lifetime or two of
the apostles — including P47, one of the oldest copies of the book of
Revelation ever found. Fragile, fragmentary, and closer to the apostles than
anything else on earth.
~325–350 AD — Greek
The Great Uncials
Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus — the oldest nearly-complete
Bibles in existence, written in large Greek letters on animal skin. Sinaiticus
was found at St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mount Sinai. These two
manuscripts stand behind nearly every modern reading of the New Testament.
Why They Matter Here
Tyndale and Geneva did their best with the copies available in the 1500s
— handwritten Greek copies from the 1100s to 1400s. The manuscripts above
are centuries older than anything they ever saw. When we open a word in our
Revelation chapters, we go back past every printed Bible, past every
translation, to these — the oldest hands that carried the words.