TWO FAMOUS VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES
[Illustration: (drop cap B) Samaritan Book of the Law]
By the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea, on the coast of Egypt,
lies Alexandria, a busy and prosperous city of to-day.
You remember the great conqueror, Alexander, and how nation after
nation had been forced to submit to him, until all the then-known world
owned him for its emperor? He built this city, and called it after his
own name.
About a hundred years before the days of Antiochus (of whom we read in
our last chapter) a company of Jews were living in Alexandria, then a
rich and beautiful city, with its stately palaces and temples of white
marble, its beautiful gardens, and groves of graceful palm-trees.
After the death of Alexander, the Greek kings of Egypt delighted to
live in the new city, and in the old Greek books we can yet read of the
splendid processions and festivals held in its streets year by year.
At this time Alexandria drew all the merchants of the world to her
markets; and her harbour was constantly filled with ships laden with
silver, amber, and copper; while caravans were arriving daily, bringing
jewels and rich silks from China, India, and the cities of the far East.
The Jews of Alexandria were not treated as foreigners, but as good
subjects and citizens, by the Greek rulers of Egypt, and therefore as
the years passed they grew rich and honoured in their beautiful home.
Their children, however, seldom if ever heard Hebrew spoken; for all
the Jews of Alexandria, for convenience' sake, spoke Greek like their
neighbours.
But, although these Jews lived in a heathen city where they read
nothing but Greek books, and heard Greek spoken all day long, they did
not forget their God. They longed as earnestly as ever to hear about
Him, and to read in His Book; but what was to be done? Only a few of
the elder Jews could read Hebrew, and their children could not
understand one word of the language. Must the little ones, therefore,
grow up in ignorance of the Word of God?
This was impossible. Here in the heathen city of Alexandria the
Scriptures would be the only safeguard of Jewish boys and girls. 'If
the language of our children is Greek, then the Bible must be
translated into Greek, so that they all can understand it.' So said
these Jewish parents.
This was a wonderful proof of the Bible's living power. The Jews had
changed their language and their country. Thousands of the cleverest
books ever written were within their reach--for Alexandria had at this
time the largest library in the world--yet all this made no difference;
without the written Word of God, they could not exist.
Some writers say that Ptolemy Philadelphus, the king of Egypt of that
time, having heard the Jews speak of their Book, and wishing to have a
copy of it to place in his great library, sent all the way to Jerusalem
for seventy learned scribes who should translate the Book into Greek.
Now, however, it is believed that the Jews of Alexandria did the work
entirely themselves, although their Greek Bible is still called the
'Septuagint'--that is, 'The Scriptures of the Seventy'--in memory of
the old tradition.
[Illustration: FRAGMENT OF THE 'SEPTUAGINT'--THE OLD TESTAMENT IN
ANCIENT GREEK, THE FIRST WRITTEN TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE EVER MADE]
Gradually, as the years passed, the Greek language spread to other
nations, until at last it became, as we have seen, the leading language
of the world. Even to-day, as you know, this old Greek tongue is
taught in many of our schools and colleges, and those who can read it
tell us that there is no language so beautiful; none with words so
sweet to the ear, nor in which such deep thoughts can be expressed.
Thus we see how God used the learning of the heathen Greeks to make His
Book known to the world!
For hundreds of years the Bible had been a Book for the people of
Israel alone; but now, as the time drew near when the Son of God
Himself should come to the world--that the world by Him might be
saved--the Scriptures, which had since the days of Moses spoken of His
coming, were sent out to the nations by God Himself in order to prepare
the way.
The Jews of old divided all dwellers on the earth into two classes: the
Jews--that is, themselves; the Gentiles--that is, all the other nations.
But now the wall of separation was to be broken down, and the words of
the Prophet Isaiah were to be fulfilled, '_The Gentiles shall come to
Thy light._' (Isaiah Ix. 3.)
Now that God's Holy Word had been translated into Greek, the one
language which every man of those days wished to learn, the message
could ring through all the Gentile cities: 'A King, a Saviour, is
coming; be ready to meet Him!'
So the Scriptures went forth, north, south, east, and west, and we
think they reached to that far eastern city in which those three wise
men lived who afterwards travelled to Bethlehem, seeking the Messiah,
and saying, '_Where is He that is born King of the Jews?_' (Matthew ii.
2.)
The Bible had indeed taken a strong leap forward now!
For long centuries it had been like a tiny stream flowing through a dry
land, and reaching only a few people. Now it had become as a river of
truth, ever growing deeper and wider, guided by God in all its
wanderings across the earth.
The Bible was now no longer locked up in a language which was already
half-forgotten. With this Greek translation its world-wide work had
begun!
But while the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures was becoming
an open door through which the people of many lands could draw nearer
to God, a second witness to the truth of God's Book was hidden away in
Samaria.
For the Samaritans had their own copies of the Books of the Law, and
kept them closely shut up among their own people for hundreds of years.
It is impossible now to give the actual date when the Samaritans began
to use a different copy of the Scriptures from the Jews. The
Israelitish city of Samaria was captured by Sargon, king of Assyria, in
722 B.C.; but although he carried away the most important inhabitants
captive, a great number of the poorer people remained on the land, and
when Sargon filled the country with new and heathen settlers, so many
marriages took place between the two races that the Children of Israel
lost their old name and were known to the Jews of Judah as 'Samaritans.'
Yet the Samaritans still clung to the Jews' religion, and the
separation did not probably become complete until Nehemiah expelled all
those Jews from Jerusalem who had married heathen wives. (Nehemiah
xiii. 23-30.)
Now Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us that among these exiles
was a man named Manasseh, a grandson of the high priest, and that,
indignant at being cast out, he fled to Samaria. Here he determined to
set up a separate worship of Jehovah, and, having obtained permission
from the king of Persia to erect a Temple, he built a Holy Place on
Mount Gerizim, which became the centre of a new form of religion.
It is thought that Manasseh had carried away a copy of the Books of the
Law from Jerusalem, and by means of certain alterations in the words he
made it appear that God had chosen Mount Gerizim in Samaria for the
site of His House, instead of Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.
Now at this time all the Jews still wrote in the ancient style, forming
their letters as we see them on the Moabite Stone; but not long
afterwards they adopted the square letters of Hebrew writing such as
are still in use to-day.
The Samaritans, however, in their hatred of everything Jewish, refused
to follow their example. The Jews had cut them off, and they would
take nothing from the Jews; they would keep to the old style of
letters; they would not allow a single word of the Books of the
Prophets or the Psalms or History Books to have a place among their
sacred writings. The Jews accepted these Books as inspired; therefore
the Samaritans rejected them.
Thus Jewish pride and Samaritan littleness raised a terrible barrier
between the two nations, which grew more hopeless every year.
[Illustration: THE SAMARITAN BOOK OF THE LAW AT NABLOUS]
Yet these hidden Samaritan documents, falsified as they had been, have
had a work to do for God's Word within comparatively recent times.
For in the year 1616 A.D., just as some people were beginning to attack
the Bible, and to declare that they could find no evidence that the Old
Testament was so ancient after all, the world was suddenly startled to
hear of a great discovery--an ancient copy of the Law had been found in
Syria.
Other copies soon afterwards came to light: the world had rediscovered
the Samaritan Bible!
At Nablous, in Samaria, known in Old Testament times as Shechem, a
traveller was allowed to look at the oldest Samaritan copy of the
altered books of the Law. Its queer letter signs are traced on
parchment rolls, which are said to have been formed from the skins of
rams offered in sacrifice. They are kept in a silver cylinder, covered
with crimson satin, heavily embroidered with gold.
But out of this discovery a new difficulty arose. Some of the critics
decided that this was the original copy written by Moses, and therefore
more correct than the Jewish Scriptures. They would have done better
to wait, and to have trusted the Bible a little more.
True, the discovery was of great importance, for these documents proved
beyond all doubt that the Book of the Law dated back to a time when the
ancient form of letters were still in use, and so they bore a strong
witness to the great age of the first five Books of our Bible.
But learned scholars were soon able to prove that the oldest Samaritan
copy was probably not older than the tenth or eleventh century of our
era, and that the form of the letters was so ancient merely because the
Samaritans refused to imitate the improved Jewish writing. A hundred
years ago, for instance, books with long 's's' were printed in England;
but the old form of letter was tiresome to read, and is now entirely
out of date.
Now the Samaritans had not only refused to accept the new and improved
form of letters--they had rejected as well all the fresh light and
inspiration which God was continually giving to His people through the
Holy prophets. According to the Samaritans, Moses was the only true
prophet. Thus they cut themselves adrift from further light, and
little by little the nations had dwindled away.
Yet because so many of the Samaritans in the time of Christ were
faithful to the measure of light they had, and kept alive in their
hearts the hope of a coming Messiah, God made for them a wonderful way
of escape.
Every Bible reader knows and loves that beautiful scene by the well of
Sychar, in Samaria, where the Saviour began by asking a woman for water
to drink, and ended by explaining to her some of the deepest truths of
God's Kingdom.
We understand now why the woman was so surprised that a Jew should
condescend to speak to her, and why the Jews would have '_no dealings
with the Samaritans_.' As we have seen, a great barrier divided her
from all ordinary Jewish teachers--she had been taught to believe in an
altered Bible.
Not merely a different translation, remember, for the Bible should be
the same in every language, but a Book of the Law in which some of the
words had been changed and the original meaning destroyed.
So the woman said to our Lord, '_Our fathers worshipped in this
mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to
worship._' (John iv. 20.)
The Saviour had not said so, but she felt sure that He, as a Jew, would
certainly contradict the old traditions of his countrymen.
But the Lord Jesus Christ had come to show the world that it was no
longer a question of this mountain or that. Such matters had been but
a shadow of the good things to come. '_God is a Spirit: and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth._' (John iv. 24.)
With these words Jesus, the Messiah, for whom both Jews and Samaritans
were waiting, threw down the barrier of ages, and united the two
nations in a spiritual worship.