Exiling Ancient Biblical Versions: Argu Ment for the African Roots of Ancient Biblical Versions

Abstract

Throughout the history of the Church, the text of the New Testament has been preserved in many translations and in different languages. Most of the early biblical versions that support the text of the New Testament are predominantly connected to Alexandria and North Africa but such understanding has not been fully appreciated in Textual studies of the New Testament. This makes the text of the New Testament to sound foreign to the African people. This paper, using descriptive and historical methods, discusses the ancient biblical versions of the text of the New Testament and argues that most of these early biblical versions were copied by African scribes and some of these versions were linked with Alexandrian scribes or other parts of North Africa. It also argues that understanding the contributions of the scribes in these African cities will shape the face of Biblical studies in Africa and enhance the translation of the Bible in many African languages as being indigenously preserved documents, which can be used by our Bible translation agencies and will be appreciated by many African Christians in our educational institutions.