How do ancient manuscripts help us understand the Bible?

Ancient manuscripts serve as the foundation for understanding the biblical text because they bridge the gap between the original documents and modern translations. Since the original texts of the Old and New Testament are unavailable, early manuscripts and ancient fragments allow scholars to understand the history of translation and interpretation.[1]

Manuscripts provide two essential functions. First, they enable textual reconstruction. The available Hebrew and Greek manuscripts come from later in the transmission process, and although scribes copied carefully, they introduced errors such as misreading letters, smudging ink, or accidentally omitting words; through textual criticism, these manuscripts are compared to ancient versions to determine which readings most accurately reflect the original documents.[2] Archaeological discoveries from Egypt to Qumran, along with thousands of inscriptions in biblical languages and related languages, provide the basis for restoring the original form, grammar, and syntax of biblical words and clarifying their precise meaning and usage.[3]

Second, manuscripts illuminate ancient interpretation. Translation is essentially a form of interpretation; ancient translators came to an understanding of the source text and converted it into different languages, providing insights into how faith communities understood the Bible and their opinions on biblical interpretation.[2] When translation of particular Hebrew or Greek words or idioms is difficult, the versions demonstrate how ancient exegetes understood them—many of whom were near-native speakers living closer in culture and time to the original authors.[2]

The Dead Sea Scrolls exemplify this value. These ancient biblical scrolls represent the oldest biblical manuscripts and fill a major gap in the history of the biblical text, providing a window into the condition of the text during the Second Temple period.[4] The biblical text is the best attested of any ancient writings, with tens of thousands of ancient copies compared to single or few manuscripts of other ancient works; this great volume confirms the accuracy of the text.[5]

[1] Michael Glazier and Monika K. Hellwig, in The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2004), 518.
[2] Eric Tully, “Bible, Texts and Versions of,” in The Lexham Bible Dictionary, ed. John D. Barry et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016). [See here, here, here, here.]
[3] Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017), 27–28.
[4] Jeremy D. Lyon, “Special Section. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Reliability of the Bible,” Bible Study Magazine (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press; Faithlife, 2021–2022), 14:2:30.
[5] Charles W. Draper with Fuller Russell, “Bible Texts and Versions,” in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, ed. Chad Brand et al. (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 211.