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Man of LawlessnessAid to Bible Understanding
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Much later, the apostle John was told to write, at the command of Christ, to warn against sects, mentioning especially the sect of Nicolaus and speaking of false prophets like Balaam, and of the woman Jezebel who called herself a prophetess.—Rev. 2:6, 14, 15, 20.
At work in apostles’ days
The apostle Paul said that the mystery “is already at work.” (2 Thess. 2:7) There were those trying to teach false doctrine, some of these even disturbing the Thessalonian congregation, prompting, in part, the writing of his second letter to them. There were antichrists when John wrote his letters, and doubtless before that. John spoke of the “last hour” of the apostolic period, and said: “Just as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now there have come to be many antichrists . . . They went out from us, but they were not of our sort; for if they had been of our sort, they would have remained with us. But they went out that it might be shown up that not all are of our sort.”—1 John 2:18, 19.
Revealed
Following the apostles’ death the “man of lawlessness” came out into the open with his religious hypocrisy and false teachings. According to Paul’s words, this “man” would gain great power, operating under Satan’s control, performing “every powerful work and lying signs and portents.” Those engaging in the operations of the “man of lawlessness,” those making up this composite “man,” are to perish [literally, be “destroying themselves”] “as a retribution because they did not accept the love of the truth that they might be saved.” The apostle shows that they “get to believing the lie” and they will all “be judged because they did not believe the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thess. 2:9-12; see Kingdom Interlinear Translation.) The judgment is therefore a condemnatory one.
Destroyed
This composite, hypocritical “man of lawlessness” is to be done away with by the Lord Jesus “by the spirit of his mouth” and brought to nothing “by the manifestation of his presence.” The annihilation of this wicked opposer of God will be visible, concrete proof that the Lord Jesus Christ is sitting and acting as Judge. He will not judge according to his own standards, hence the destruction “by the spirit of his mouth” evidently means in expression of Jehovah’s judgment against this wicked class of persons.—2 Thess. 2:8; compare Revelation 19:21, as to “the long sword . . . which sword proceeded out of his mouth.”
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ManslayerAid to Bible Understanding
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MANSLAYER
See CITIES OF REFUGE; MURDER.
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MantleAid to Bible Understanding
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MANTLE
See DRESS.
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Manuscripts of the BibleAid to Bible Understanding
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MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLE
The Holy Scriptures have a superhuman origin as to content, but a human history as to their writing and preservation. Moses began compiling them under divine inspiration in 1513 B.C.E. and the apostle John wrote the final portion thereof more than 1,600 years later. Since the Bible was not originally one book, its canon grew as time passed and a demand arose for copies of its various books. This was so, for instance, after the Babylonian exile, for not all released Jews returned to Palestine. Instead, many settled elsewhere and synagogues sprang up throughout the vast territory of the resultant Jewish Dispersion. Scribes prepared copies of the Scriptures needed for these synagogues where the Jews gathered to hear the reading of God’s Word. (Acts 15:21) In later times, among Christ’s followers, conscientious copyists labored to reproduce the inspired writings for the benefit of the multiplying Christian congregations so that there might be an interchange and general circulation of these.—Col. 4:16.
Before printing from movable type became common (from the fifteenth century C.E. onward), the original Biblical writings and also copies of them were handwritten. Hence, they are called “manuscripts” (Latin, manu scriptus, written by hand). A Bible manuscript is a handwritten copy of the Scriptures, in whole or in part, as distinguished from one that is printed. Biblical manuscripts were produced principally in the form of rolls and codices.
MATERIALS
There are leather, papyrus and vellum manuscripts of the Scriptures, as well as palimpsests. The noted Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah, for instance, is a leather roll. Papyrus, a type of paper made from the fibers of a water plant, was used for Biblical manuscripts in the original languages and for translations thereof until about the fourth century C.E. At that time its use for Bible manuscripts began to be superseded by the use of vellum, a fine grade of parchment generally made from calf, lamb, or goat skins, a further development of the earlier use of animal skins as writing material. Such manuscripts as the renowned Codex Sinaiticus (Sinaitic Manuscript) and the Codex Vaticanus (Vatican Manuscript No. 1209) of the fourth century C.E. are parchment, or vellum, codices. A palimpsest (Latin, palimpsestus; Gr., pa·limʹpse·stos, meaning “scraped again”) is a manuscript from which earlier writing was removed or scraped off to make room for later writing. A noted Biblical palimpsest is the Codex Ephraemi Syri rescriptus of the fifth century C.E. If the earlier writing (the writing scraped off) is the important one on the palimpsest, scholars can often read this erased writing by employing technical means that include the use of chemical reagents, and photography. Some manuscripts of the Christian Greek Scriptures are lectionaries, selected Biblical readings for use at religious services.
STYLES OF WRITING
Biblical manuscripts written in Greek (whether translations of the Hebrew Scriptures, or copies of the Christian Greek Scriptures, or both) can be divided or classified as to writing style, which is also an aid in dating them. The older style (employed especially down to the ninth century C.E.) is the uncial manuscript, written in large, separated capital letters. In it there is generally no word separation, and punctuation and accent marks are lacking. The Codex Sinaiticus is such an uncial manuscript. Changes in writing style began to develop in the sixth century, eventually leading (in the ninth century C.E.) to the cursive or minuscule manuscript, written in smaller letters, many of which were joined in a running or flowing writing style. The majority of extant manuscripts of the Christian Greek Scriptures have a cursive script. Cursive manuscripts remained in vogue until the inception of printing.
COPYISTS
As far as is known today, no handwritten original or autograph manuscripts of the Bible are in existence. Yet the Bible has been preserved in accurate, reliable form because Biblical copyists in general, accepting the Scriptures as being divinely inspired, sought perfection in their arduous labor of producing manuscript copies of God’s Word. The men who copied the Hebrew Scriptures in the days of Jesus Christ’s ministry on earth and for centuries before that time were called “scribes” (Heb., sohph·rimʹ). Among the early scribes was Ezra, spoken of in the Scriptures as a “skilled copyist.” (Ezra 7:6) Later scribes made some deliberate alterations of the Hebrew text. But
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