how old is the oldest known bible?

Answer 1

Im guessing 1850 years old.

Answer 2

Geesh, what answers!

The oldest piece of the Bible and it is just a fragment, is located in the British Museum and it dates from the 2nd or 3rd century. There are no original Bibles anywhere. Besides, the Bible was a compilation of books and it was even compiled until the later-4th century, so there could not possibly be anything before then. Hard to imagine, the church existed for almost four hundred years without a Bible. The oldest complete Bible in a form that is fairly similar to what we know today is about 1100 years old.

Answer 3

If you consider the ancient scrolls that made up the OT, then you could claim a history of thousands of years.

If you want a complete bible, then it can only back to the Council of Nice (about 330 AD).

Note that not all the bibles are the same; some have books that are not in others. So it would again appear you would have to define which bible you want to use.

Rob

Answer 4

It really depends on how one defines Bible. The Dead Sea Scrolls, which date from the first century, do contain texts which occur in the Bible. However they are fragmentary.

The oldest document one would recognize as similar to a contemporary Bible is the Codex Vaticanus, which was assembled in the early part of the fourth century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Vaticanus

If you would like to see what it looks like in the original Greek, vsiit this PDF site:
http://www.biblefacts.org/church/pdf/Codex%20Vaticanus.pdf

Answer 5

Well, before the actual Bible, the Old Testament followed the Mosaic Law (the law of Moses) which was before Jesus's birth. So this was well over 2,000 years. But the New Testament said that we were not bound by the Mosaic Law anymore and can get salvation through Christ which of course was prophesied in the Old Testament.

Answer 6

A quick "search for questions" shows that similar questions have been asked, answered and resolved many times.

Oh well, la vie continue!

If you mean the Christian Bible aka Holy Bible, Scriptures, or Word of God, then you have to :

1. check for the youngest texts in the New Testament

2. check when the respective christian religious instances have approved ("canonized") *their* version of the Bible.

3. check when the first approved version was published

4. compare with the date of the oldest *surviving* copy of the Bible.

Let's have a look :

1. "The Alexandrian text-type (also called Neutral or Egyptian) is the form of the Greek New Testament that predominates in the earliest surviving witnesses." "surviving Greek New Testament manuscripts from before the 9th century are relatively rare; [only] nine." ... "These include the oldest near-complete manuscripts of the New Testament (Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, both believed to date from the early 4th century CE)" ("Alexandrian text-type", Wikipedia).

"The Codex Vaticanus (The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209; Gregory-Aland no. B or 03) is one of the oldest extant manuscripts of the Bible. It is slightly older than Codex Sinaiticus, both of which were probably transcribed in the 4th century." ("Codex Vaticanus", Wikipedia).

Most experts think the Codex Vaticanus was based on Koine Greek manuscripts, some of them based on earlier Aramaic oral sources. Maybe related to the Bryennios List canon, written maybe in about 100 CE.

2. Not easy, as early Christianity had no well-defined set of scriptures outside of the Septuagint. They were still fighting among themselves which texts to recognize ("canon") and which texts not to recognize ("apocryphal").

"Perhaps the earliest Christian canon is the so-called Bryennios List proposed by J.-P. Audet and dated around 100; written in Koine Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew, it is this 27-book Old Testament." ("Biblical canon", ib.)

"The Synod of Laodicea, c. 363, was one of the first synods that set out to judge which books were to be read aloud in churches." ("Biblical canon", ib.) But this list is disputed by many experts as a later addition.

The Luther Bible is first printed with both testaments in 1534.

"Council of Trent: on April 8, 1546, by vote (24 yea, 15 nay, 16 abstain) approved the present Roman Catholic Bible Canon." ("Biblical canon", ib.)

And some Christian groups are still at it : "Pope Pius XI: on June 2, 1927, decreed the Comma Johanneum was open to dispute." "The Jesus Seminar in 1993 ranked sayings of Jesus for authenticity by consensus vote and published The Five Gospels : What Did Jesus Really Say? The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus. In addition to the canonical four gospels, the fifth gospel is the Gospel of Thomas."!

Answer : depending on your type of Christian faith, your official, canonized Bible is between about 1907 years and 461 years old.

3. The publishing date of the earliest New Testament manuscript depends on wether you prefer the Western text-type, the Alexandrian text-type, and Byzantine text-type manuscripts. And there "are also several ancient versions in other languages, most important of which are the Syriac (including the Peshitta and the Diatessaron gospel harmony), Ge'ez and the Latin (both the Vetus Latina and the Vulgate)" ("The New Testament", Wikipedia). Answer : we don't know for sure. Take your pick. Whatever.

4. "The earliest surviving complete manuscript of the entire Bible is the Codex Amiatinus, a Latin Vulgate edition produced in eighth century England at the double monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow." ("The New Testament", Wikipedia"). But is it official? Or just a local improvisation?

Conclusion : We know the date of the canonization of the early Christian, Luther, Catholic, Calvinist and Anglican bibles. between about 1907 years and 461 years ago.

All the rest is a nice shouting match between Bible experts.

Answer 7

The first 5 books of the bible was believed to be written between 700 - 800 BC

Answer 8

the bible is a combination of stories. The oldest Gensis, was wriiten about 1475 BC.....the newest was written about 90 AD the stories were combined into a volume around 100AD i think. The oldest Bible is a latin one from about 150AD

Answer 9

Well since this is 2007 AD, the New Testament cant be any older than that. The rest is a bit older, but certainly not millions - it was not written by cave men. Pax - C.

Answer 10

Matthew Henry wrote commentaries with reference to the Bible to help others comprehend it. i'm uncertain who Scott is. i think of the Bible in itself is Holy and function under no circumstances destroyed one (that's why I even have one in all those lot of!). that's properly worth attempting to repair the wear and protecting directly to it. it would desire to be properly worth some thing sometime.