Who owned the scrolls in Jesus day?

[mindlight]

So far as I know, there are no 'original' manuscripts left of any part of the Bible, either Old Testament or New Testament.

It is possible that something will turn up but it does look like that - true

But almost certainly some manuscripts were intended to be hand copied by the scribes and circulated among the synagogues and later, the Christian congregations. And I suppose those institutions owned the manuscripts. I doubt many, if any, individuals had access to them in any other way because of the time it took to painstakingly hand copy the text onto papyrus or parchment that was also not produced in bulk.

The Septuagint itself was commissioned by Ptolemy II a king. The Ethiopian eunuch was a treasurer who seemed to have acquired a copy of the Isaiah scroll. Paul seemed to have his own personal library which he carried around with him. So think it was a mix of private and institutional control.

I have always wondered how literate the people of Jesus' time were. There is no information of his early upbringing so we do not know how he came to be able to read the ancient scriptures, but Luke reports that read them he did in the synagogue. We can conclude from this that he had had some schooling whether he was home schooled or tutored or taught in some other way.

He seems aged 12 he was able to impress the Pharisees in the temple with his understanding indicating that he was probably in the best student programme with his own local synagogue and could already read and write. To compete with Pharisees that would have been necessary.

Luke 2:46-47
After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.

I have no evidence, but I like to think that God allowed the original manuscripts to be lost because probably He knew that if we had them, we would make idols/gods of them and worship them. IMO, we sometimes come close enough to that error even with our modern day Bibles however important they are to instruct and teach us and help us to understand. I do think God protected the Bible though despite all the many efforts to stamp it out, and it is rather remarkable that it has been the #1 best seller in the world since the printing press was invented.

Sounds reasonable

 

[JackRT]

So far as I know, there are no 'original' manuscripts left of any part of the Bible, either Old Testament or New Testament.

I believe the earliest known New Testament text is a fragment of several verses of the Gospel of John that has been dated at about AD 125. Since John is dated in the range AD 90 to 100 it is possible (but not likely) that it could have been copied from the original.