Does anybody have the original manuscripts of the books in the bible?

[Pauliesonne]

I'm currently waiting for the people who know about these things at SKEPTIC to answer this question but I would still appreciate your answers.

|PS|

[Dr Adequate]

No. None of them.

The earliest surviving OT in Hebrew is from the ninth century AD, or thereabouts: for the NT in Greek I think it's the second century.

[Kopji]

I have some.
They are kept in an old stone ossuary.
Decorated with salamanders
Signed by Jesus himself
And his wife Mary Magdalene

[alfaniner]

No.

[brodski]

and then I found the original copy of the bible, which was nice [/fast_show]

I don't know why, but I am surprised that there are older records of the NT than of the OT . I suppose I just expected to be the other way round.

[tkingdoll]

The problem is that it was not written all at the same time, but cobbled together over many years from various existing documents and (of course) word of mouth.

Hey, that's a groovy idea for a conspiracy theory/bestselling book/movie with Tom Hanks!

The Bible Collater.

Plot:

Our hero discovers that the bible in its current incarnation was compiled from ancient documents carefully collected and collated by, say, a group of dedicated monks (who are also ninjas). He sets out to follow the clues on the back of a packet of Cheerios to find the original copy of the bible! On the way, he meets a hot but learned chick who helps his quest and enables him to get laid in the process.

The End.

[Dr Adequate]

I don't know why, but I am surprised that there are older records of the NT than of the OT . I suppose I just expected to be the other way round. You would, yes.

I think what happened is that when the Masoretes came up with the Masoretic Text, it made earlier texts of the Hebrew OT obsolete.

Note that this applies only to the OT in Hebrew. There are older copies of translations such as the Vulgate and the Septuagint.

Of course, there are the Dead Sea Scrolls, but they're only little fragments of the whole.

[Jekyll]

The problem is that it was not written all at the same time, but cobbled together over many years from various existing documents and (of course) word of mouth.

Hey, that's a groovy idea for a conspiracy theory/bestselling book/movie with Tom Hanks!

The Bible Collater.

Plot:

Our hero discovers that the bible in its current incarnation was compiled from ancient documents carefully collected and collated by, say, a group of dedicated monks (who are also ninjas). He sets out to follow the clues on the back of a packet of Cheerios to find the original copy of the bible! On the way, he meets a hot but learned chick who helps his quest and enables him to get laid in the process.

The End.
I think Dan Brown has already written it.

[teacher]

Point of note.
No original could be verified anyway. How could you know if you have an original or early copy? You can't know. No-one will ever know (even if they find one) if they have it.

[David Swidler]

Of course, there are the Dead Sea Scrolls, but they're only little fragments of the whole.

Most are indeed fragments, but the (mostly) intact bits are heavy stuff - an entire scroll of Isaiah, for example.