ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLE

The oldest Hebrew manuscripts known is a copy of the Book of Isaiah, written in Hebrew in the 2nd Century. It was found in 1947 in a cave near Jericho. The oldest Greek fragment known to exist is in the John Ryland Library in Manchester, England. This fragment is from the 2nd Century A.D. Several thousand other ancient Greek manuscripts have been found, the three most complete and important being the Codex Sinaiticus,Codex Vaticanus, and the Codex Alexandrinus, all probably of the 4th and 5th Century afler Christ. The Codex Vaticanus is in the Vatican library.