Can we trust the bible? Is it just a giant game of whisper down the alley?
Historians have a bibliographical test which they can use to test an old document to see how reliable it is. So if a historian is given an old paper on an account of what happened during a certain kings rule he can have a way to judge it's reliability.
The test can be simplified to this:
- How many copies (manuscripts) do we have of the original document? How long after the original document was made were the copies made?
- Are the internal statements in the document true?
- Are there external documents that corroborate the original document?
The New Testament has about 5,500 Greek full and partial copies of the original books. The Old Testament has about 40,000 fragments and full copies, thanks in part to the 1947 Dead Sea Scrolls discovery. How does this stack up to other works?
J. Casear Galic Wars
10 copies
Written: 100 - 44 BC
Earliest copy: 900 AD
Time span: 1,000 years
Homer’s The Iliad
600 copies
Written: 900 BCEarliest copy: 400BC
Time span: 500 years
New Testament
Over 24,000 copies/fragments
Written: 40-100 ADEarliest copy: 125 AD
Time span: 25 years
Lets look at number 2:
The mass majority of New Testament writing were circulated very early after Jesus died.
Why does it matter about the time span? This is important because the small the time span the less time there was for falsehood to be added to the story. If falsehood was added to an ancient work and it was copied soon after the original, people who witnessed the events could pick out those lies and discard them. With a time span of 500 years a lot can be changed and know one would ever know.
With the New Testament only about four hundred (less than one page of an English translation) have any significant bearing on the meaning of a passage, and most are footnoted in modern English translations. Overall, 97 to 99 percent of the New Testament can be reconstructed beyond any reasonable doubt, and no Christian doctrine is founded solely or even primarily on textually disputed passages. Mark DriscollTo sum it up, the New Testament in unique in that, unlike other older books, when people read the bible back in 125 AD they could go and verify with first hand witnesses that what was written was correct. In other words a person could read how Jesus raised a little girl from the dead, he could then travel to that town and speak with the girl and her parents!
Luke wrote this about his account of Jesus: (Luke 1:1-3)
1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilu.Luke wrote his gospel for a rich man who paid him to go an investigate the first hand eye witnesses to Jesus' miracles.
Lets look at number 3:
Jewish historian Josephus (37 A.D.–100 A.D.) recorded the history of the Jewish people in Palestine from 70 A.D. to 100 A.D. In his work Antiquities, he states:This is one of many acient historians that wrote about matters in sync with the Bible. Archeology also provides some detail into biblical accounts, there are many findings which lead truth to the accounts in the New Testament.
Now there was about this time, Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the gentiles. He was the Christ and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him. For he appeared alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct to this day.
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