How old is the original bible

National Science Foundation, is slated to be released to the public as open source software by the end of next year. Researchers hope to use the technology to peek inside other ancient documents too fragile to unwrap, like some of the Dead Sea Scrolls and papyrus scrolls carbonized in the Mt.

Vesuvius volcano eruption in 79 CE. Researchers believe the technology could also be applied to the fields of forensics, intelligence, and antiquities conservation. The biblical scroll examined in the study was first discovered by archaeologists in at Ein Gedi, the site of an ancient Jewish community near the Dead Sea.

Inside the ancient synagogue's ark, archaeologists found lumps of scroll fragments. The synagogue was destroyed in an ancient fire, charring the scrolls. The dry climate of the area kept them preserved, but when archaeologists touched them, the scrolls would begin to disintegrate. So the charred logs were shelved for nearly half a century, with no one knowing what was written inside. Suffice it to say, this kind of writing success is without parallel in its popularity, influencing generations of humans for millennia.

While there can be plenty of arguments about the origins of various Biblical texts, what does science have to say about how old they are? The first thing to point out is that, of course, there is no one Bible.

There have been different versions in history and different religions interpret the texts in their own way, adding or taking away. The commonly-used English-language version is the King James Bible, which was printed in But the oldest text would have to be the Hebrew Bible or the Tanakh.

With its dark descriptions of a seven-headed beast and allusions to an imminent apocalypse, Revelations is now widely believed to be a foretelling of the grisly fate that the author believed awaited the Roman oppressors of Christianity.

Despite that oppression, by the fourth century Christianity had become the dominant religion in the Mediterranean world, with the New Testament widely revered as a sacred text inspired by God.

Different editions of the Bible have appeared over the centuries, aiming to further popularise the stories and teachings within. Here are three of the most notable versions…. His reign would usher in a new royal dynasty the Stuarts and a new era of colonialism most especially in North America. But arguably every bit as significant was his decision, in , to introduce a new Bible. What his scholars produced was a book designed to be read out aloud in church — fast-paced, easy to understand, a masterclass in storytelling.

No other version would challenge its dominance in the English-speaking world until the midth century. Whereas earlier Bibles were produced by printing presses that employed woodblock technology, the press that churned out the Gutenberg Bible used moveable metal type, allowing more flexible, efficient and cheap printing.

Faster, cheaper printing meant more books and more readers — and that brought with it greater criticism, interpretation, debate and, ultimately, revolution. In short, the Gutenberg Bible was a significant step on the road to the Protestant Reformation and ultimately the Enlightenment. Once released from Latin into the vernacular, the word of God became a weapon. When he heard something crack he headed inside to investigate.

What the shepherd had chanced upon were the Dead Sea Scrolls, more than documents of animal skin and papyrus, stored in clay jars for safe keeping.

Among the texts are fragments of every book of the Old Testament, except the Book of Esher, along with a collection of previously unknown hymns and a copy of the Ten Commandments. But what really makes the scrolls special is their age. They were written between around BC and the middle decades of the first century AD, which means they predate by at least eight centuries the oldest previously known Hebrew text of the Old Testament.

Were the scrolls left in the caves by a Jewish community living near the Dead Sea or, perhaps, by Jews fleeing Roman troops in the first century AD? We may never know for sure. Sign in. The Septuagint was the version of the Bible used by early Christians in Rome. The Book of Daniel was written during this period and included in the Septuagint at the last moment, though the text itself claims to have been written sometime around B. It collects 27 books, all originally written in Greek.

The sections of the New Testament concerning Jesus are called the Gospels and were written about 40 years after the earliest written Christian materials, the letters of Paul, known as the Epistles. Scribes copied the letters and kept them in circulation. As circulation continued, the letters were collected into books. Some in the church, inspired by Paul, began to write and circulate their own letters, and so historians believe that some books of the New Testament attributed to Paul were in fact written by disciples and imitators.

The oral traditions within the church formed the substance of the Gospels, the earliest book of which is Mark, written around 70 A. It is theorized there may have been an original document of sayings by Jesus known as the Q source, which was adapted into the narratives of the Gospels. Matthew and Luke were next in the chronology. Both used Mark as a reference, but Matthew is considered to have another separate source, known as the M source, as it contains some different material from Mark.

The Book of John, written around A. All four books cover the life of Jesus with many similarities, but sometimes contradictions in their portrayals. Each is considered to have its own political and religious agenda linked to authorship. What Other Proof Exists? The Book of Revelation is the final book of the Bible, an example of apocalyptic literature that predicts a final celestial war through prophecy.

Authorship is ascribed to John, but little else is known about the writer. According to the text, it was written around 95 A. Some scholars believe it is less a prophecy and more a response to the Roman destruction of the Great Temple and Jerusalem. This text is still used by Evangelical Christians to interpret current events in expectation of the End Times, and elements of it find frequent use in popular entertainment.

Surviving documents from the 4th century show that different councils within the church released lists to guide how various Christian texts should be treated. The earliest known attempt to create a canon in the same respect as the New Testament was in 2nd century Rome by Marcion, a Turkish businessman and church leader. Disapproving of the effort, the Roman church expelled Marcion.