Footnotes

to Chapter 11

Do You Believe
The Bible?

1.   John Maxwell conducts lay ministry training seminars across the country, and is a frequent speaker at Promise Keeper rallies.

2.    Dr. Lee W. Woodard, DBA, Kodex W: Old and Holy, Printed by Lee W. Woodard, P. O. Box 1605, Sallisaw, Oklahoma 74955, www.lasalle monument.com. Dr. Lee W. Woodard has a forty plus years background of in Biblical, Paleographical, Historical, and linguistic studies, and presently pastors a Christian church in Sallisaw.

Since the Latin-English expression “Codex” is dealing with documents written in ancient Greek, which has no “C,” as such the author chose to change “Codex” into a combined Anglican-Greek-Germanic “Kodex.” Thus becoming part of the book title, “Kodex W.”

2a.  In 1981 while attending Phillips University Graduate Seminary, Enid, Oklahoma, Dr. Woodard was studying the “Infancy Narratives.” He became convinced that there was a recognizable poetic rhyme within Joseph’s dream about the miraculous conception of Jesus. His professor, Dr. Boring, suggested that he look at some photographic facsimiles of the actual pages of some of the oldest known manuscripts to further his study. He was looking for manuscripts with line arrangements or some sort of small scribal notations or markings of rhyming words. Most manuscript facsimiles had very little by way of scribal notes or markings, which would apply to what he was studying, until he came to Codex Washingtonensis, or Codex W for short. Then he realized that he had discovered something potentially far more important. Strangely, no one prior to him had noticed the marvelously informative Aramaic notes.

2b.  Washingtonensis is Latin for Washington, the city where that old Codes came to be housed. It is on display at the Charles Lang Freer National Gallery of Art, which is a significant portion of the Smithsonian Institution and Museum complex in Washington, D.C.

2c.  On December 19, 1906, Cheikh Aly Arabi of Gizeh, Egypt sold codex W and other old Bible manuscripts to Charles L. Freer. Freer was a wealthy man who made his fortune manufacturing railroad passenger cars. Cheikh Aly probably got these manuscripts from an illegal artifacts digger, so the exact location of the find is unknown. But the digger said he found this Codex in a wooden housing buried in the sand in the ruins of an ancient Christian Church-Monastic community in Medinet Dismay, Egypt.

2d.  Codex is a formal Latin expression for an old and important collection of historically valuable manuscript(s), or, in this case, a bound, velum (sheep and goatskin) paged “book:” composed of four old codices, or originally separate manuscripts, bound together within that larger book. These four codices were composed of the four Gospels of Matthew, John, Luke, and Mark (bound in that order),

2e.  We know from history that a scribe did not sign an author’s signature, but the scribe would write, “signed by Levi Mark.” Sometimes patriarchs (such as Mark) would dictate to a scribe. Then the author would proof the work and sign it. One time Paul said, “signed with my own hand.” John signed his gospel this way, “I Jesus’ John sign this.” There may well have been a class of professional scribes, such as Fortunatus, Sylvanus, Tertius, etc, who did part of the tedious scribal and manuscript reproduction duties.

All four of the gospels and Acts were progressive works that took years to complete. The first edition of Matthew’s gospel did not contain the genealogy, nor the birth and escape into Egypt. Copies of it were made and passed around. Then years later Matthew pinned the beginning we know.

It would take pages to explain all the history behind the gospels. The historians of the time, and other letters and records tell us these things.

Since the authors signed their names in both Greek and Aramaic, and since their personal seal is by their name, and since the date it was signed is usually in Aramaic and a special coding method, this proves that Codex W is an original. No other gospel manuscript has a signature in both languages, just a scribal notation of who signed it.

Most commentaries date Codex W to about A.D. 400, but the dates on the manuscripts and in the pictures — written in Aramaic — are all first century. The scholars who estimated the date at A.D. 400. could not read Aramaic, and hesitantly made their estimate on other factors.

Some of the Old Testament scholars will probably think of the Dead Sea discoveries as being just as important (at least to them). But this discovery needs some of those Dead Sea scholars to issue agreements to some of the Aramaic on Codex W.

2f.  It may seem outlandish to claim that a First Century codex containing the four Gospels has been found that is in the actual handwriting — in whole or in part — of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But in all areas of science and academia the validity of EVERY discovery and theory is disputed, and ALL GREAT DISCOVERIES are rejected for a few years before they are accepted.

As a result of Dr. Woodard’s research, this discovery is being recognized by an ever-growing number of scholars, but is virtually unknown outside of this small circle of academics. There may be folks who will want to argue with some aspects of Dr. Woodard’s claim (at least for a while); but he predicts that eventually all of the academic community will recognize Codex W as being an original.

Once this discovery becomes fully recognized there will be a lot of interest in those samples of first century A.D. Aramaic, even though most of them are of small script and some of them smudged and difficult to read. Additionally, there are those who might be searching for the latest in New Testament studies.

2g.  On the last page of Mark’s Gospel three endings are visible, along with his seal after each of them, and his signature and date at the bottom. Shorter endings were copied and passed on before the longer endings were added. The Codex W ending was Mark’s last extension while living in Egypt. Although Jerome quoted part of it, this ending did not get passed on. Perhaps that ending was added not very long before this collection of the four Gospels was bound and then buried. Dr. Woodard believes that the ending within the KJV is from the first century A.D., and from Mark himself in A.D. 72.

Dr. Woodard is of the opinion that Mark himself authorized and approved the various endings for his Gospel; and he may very well have penned them himself. It should be kept in mind, however, that there were trained Scribes and penmanship experts who often did the final versions of those Manuscripts; but in such cases Mark (and other Gospel namesakes) would still have affixed their own seals and signatures, approving what they had authorized for the text.

It is unreasonable to believe that scribes invented the Text. They just rewrote it in fine script to fit what the gospel namesakes were intending and approving; and it is reasonable to believe that the endings of quite a few Gospels and Epistles were altered by the namesakes — witness Mark, John, Paul.

The wooden book cover on the front and back of the manuscripts helped preserve the codex. The front cover has a portrait of Matthew and John painted on it, and the back cover has a portrait of Mark and Luke. Their names are painted into the pictures in Aramaic and Greek, so there is no missing who the pictures represent. Dates and location are also encoded into the pictures. Except for John, the paintings are in fair condition, giving us some idea of what these great men looked like. The manuscripts of the four gospels were assembled in this order: Matthew, John, Mark, and Luke.  S

See the website that features this book on the Washington Codex at:

http://www.washington-codex.org/index.htm

Tell the author what you think of this chapter

to return to the first page of this chapter

to read the footnotes referred to above

to go to the website that features this book