The Bible is a Christian's Guide to all that is True about life and love. It should be the most important Book that a Christian reads and depends on every day. It is our hope that you will agree and find great Rewards in your studies.
The answer is quite simple: God has spoken! He has revealed Himself to His creation. He tells us who we are and where we're going. His words answer our deepest probing and take us to the highest hope.
To believe, thus act upon, the Bible as God's revelation, one must first believe that a Creator God exists. For a time in my late teens and early 20s, I did not believe in a Creator God. What changed my mind? Facts, logic and the Power of God!
Keep in mind that there being no original writings is something all ancient documents have in common. Some examples:
The New Testament portion of the Bible was written by several authors between 40 AD to 95 AD (approx.). There are some 13,000 manuscript copies of portions of the New Testament. In addition, early Christian writings quote heavily from the New Testament.
The oldest (earliest) copy of a portion of the New Testament is dated 130 AD. That's less than 50 years after the original writing. It is a copy of John's Gospel, written about 85 AD.
Other copies date back to 150 AD, 200 AD, 350 AD, and 400 AD. All within 100 to 300 years from the original.
For further study into manuscript authority, read about the following:
Here are some conclusions from other students of ancient writings:
(Can I Trust My Bible, Moody Press)
(The Bible and Archaeology, Harper and Row)
(The Books and the Parchments, Fleming H. Revell)
Ancient literature was rarely translated into other languages, but the Bible is
different. It is God's Word to the world. It had to be translated from original
writings in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek to hundreds of other languages so the entire
population of Earth could read and know the will of God.
Some of the early translations of the Greek New Testament were Syriac, Latin,
Coptic, Armenian, and Georgian. Since then, the Bible has been translated into
hundreds of languages and dialects. It has been read by more people than any other
book ever published.
I study an English translation of the Bible: The New International Version. I also
call on other English translations, including the King James and New American
Standard Versions.
When studying directly from the original languages, I generally call upon the
Masoretic Text for Hebrew and Nestle's Text for Greek. I will also compare work
from the Dead Sea Scrolls for Hebrew and Westcott and Hort and Weiss for Greek. I
believe it wise to compare any translation with the original languages of writings.
I find many important insights into love and grace from the originals.
The Old Testament does not have the abundance of close manuscripts that the New
Testament has. However, the Dead Sea Scrolls have greatly supported the reliability
of the Old Testament. If you are interested in learning more about this, study the
work of the Talmudists and Massoretes. They were ancient scribes who copied Old
Testament writings.
Also study other important copies of the Hebrew text:
These copies of the Old Testament are all from a time period after the death of
Christ and the fall of Jerusalem. How do they compare to even older copies? The
answer comes to us in the Dead Sea Scrolls. They are some 40,000 inscribed
fragments that helped reconstruct more than 500 books. A Bedouin shepherd boy
stumbled upon the scrolls in a hole in a cliff about 8 miles south of Jericho. This
was in the spring of 1947. The scrolls of Biblical writings were dated at 125 BC and
even 200 BC. These ancient copies were compared with the Massoretic texts of 900
AD. The comparison showed the amazing accuracy of the copyists over a period of
1,000 years.
Other proof of the Old Testament comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew
Bible. It's called the Septuagint and dates to approximately 260 BC. It
demonstrates the reliability of the Massoretic Text.
Other texts of interest to the serious student are:
Other proofs of the Old Testament reliability include the many quotations of the OT
by people in the New Testament and archaeological confirmation. Some examples are
the ancestry of Israel coming from Mesopotamia, the common origin of all languages,
the history of the Horites, the wall of Jericho falling outward, the dating of the
brass mirrors of the laver, the discoveries of Bethel, Shiloh, Bethshan, Gezer,
Nineveh, Babylon, and Ur, ziggurats and the Tower of Babel, the presence and power
of the Philistines, ancient gods of heathen nations, the development of music and
musical instruments, and hundreds of other evidences.
New Testament examples from archaeology include the reliability of Luke's history
of Christ and the early church, the regular census of Jewish taxpayers by Rome,
Quirinius as Governor of Syria, the location of Iconium, Lysanias the Tetrarch,
Erastus of Corinth, the theater of Ephesus, Philippi as a district of Macedonia, the
title of magistrates in Roman colonies, the discovery of the remains of the court
where Jesus was tried by Pilate, excavations of the Pool of Bethesda, proconsul
Sergius Paulus, politarchs as rulers of Thessalonica, and hundreds of other
evidences.
The facts are clear. The Bible is unique. It is one of a kind. The Bible is reliable. We can believe it!
(Our thanks to Josh McDowell for writing "Evidence that demands a Verdict" in 1972. It guided thousands of young Christians, like us, in understanding the importance of Bible study. It continues to be one of the best works on Christian apologetics available today.)
Continue with How To Study The Bible or return to The GraceLife(tm) Menu Page for other studies about the Gospel of the Grace of God.
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"Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright (C) 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers."
Last Updated: 12/20/1999
The Answer
Bibliographical test -- Since we do not possess the original writings of the authors, how reliable are the copies we have and what about the amount of time between the original writing and the oldest copy?
With that as normal background to the bibliographical test, let's see what the Bible has to offer.
Conclusions
Howard Vos - "From the standpoint of literary evidence the only logical conclusion is that the case for the reliability of the New Testament is infinitely stronger than that for any other record of antiquity."
Sir Frederick Kenyon - "... the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may now be regarded as finally established."
F.F. Bruce - "There is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament."
Studying God's Word
The Facts