╨╧рб▒с>■  WY■   V                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                ье┴s ┐В1jbjb└ └ "zкkкkВ-      ]╪╪╪╪╪╪╪XXXXX dLXЛ*╠╠╠╠╠╠╠╠HJJJJJJ,╡Їйlv╪╠╠╠╠╠v╠╪╪╠╠╠╠╠╠╠╪╠╪╠Hь6"6╪╪╪╪╠H╠|╠H╪╪H░rSr╢XX╠HC.I.M Outline #11 IS THE TEXT OF BIBLE RELIABLE? I. Introduction A. How do we know God exists? 1. The only way we can know a personal God exists is through His revelation of Himself in the Bible. 2. The design of nature makes the existence of a Designer highly probable but this cannot result in absolute proof. 3. Man can reason that a God must exist, but the man doing the reasoning is finite and has been affected by the fall. All philosophical arguments fall short of proving God's existence. (though some of the arguments are quite good!). B. But how do we know the Bible is true? How do we know it is a true revelation of God? 1. Again we cannot prove the Bible is true. The scientific method is not infallible and the man trying to prove the Bible is not infallible. Bear in mind we are talking about absolute proof. 2. Instead, what we do is assume the Bible is true, and that God exists as a beginning assumption. In other words, we begin with faith. All world views begin this way, i.e. with assumptions that cannot be proved. 3. However, once that assumption has been made, the hypothesis can be tested. If the Bible is God's Word we should expect it to mirror reality, i.e. state things as they really are. We would expect the Bible to tell us things that we can know experientially. We would expect that accuracy has been maintained as it has been copied down through the centuries. The Bible is a supernatural book. It was written by 40 human authors over a period of 1600 years and copied by hand thousands of times. Yet there is one unified theme in the Bible as a whole, and the text that we have today is essentially the same as the original manuscript. Let's look a the Old and New Testaments: II. The Old Testament A. Scribes were professional transcribers of the Bible from antiquity, trained to copy documents. B. There are three main families of manuscripts of the Old Testament: The Massoretic Text, The Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Septuagint. 1. The Massoretic Text. It dates to about A.D. 1000. A group of Jews known as Massoretes were professional copyists who developed meticulous techniques to assure accuracy. a. The texts they had were all in capital letters. b. There was no punctuation nor paragraphs. c. They numbered all of the verses, words and letters of each book. They counted the number of times each letter was used in each book. They calculated the middle verse, middle word, and middle letter of each book. d. Comparisons of Massoretic texts of the 10th century with Greek and Latin versions of first century show remarkable agreement. 2. The Dead Sea Scrolls a. They were discovered in 1947. They include a complete copy of Isaiah and fragments of almost every book in the O.T. They are dated around 100-200 B.C. b. This antedates by more than 1000 years the oldest Hebrew texts in the Massoretic tradition. c. The error in copying in this great period is very minimal. (1) For example, of the 166 words in Isaiah 53, only one word is in question, and it does not change any sense of the passage. (2) This is typical of the whole manuscript. 3. The Septuagint It is a greek translation of the O.T. from around 200 B.C. by 70 Jewish scholars in Alexandria. It also confirms the accuracy of the Massoretic text. III. The New Testament A. Manuscript evidence: There are more than 4000 ancient Greek manuscripts containing all or portions of the N.T. that have survived to our time. The writing materials most often used were papyrus and parchment. There are 2 excellent parchment copies of the entire N.T. which date from 325-450 called codex Vaticanus and codex Siniaticus. The earliest piece we have is a portion of John dated from 130 A.D., the Rylands fragment, containing John 19;31-33, 37. From five of these fragments alone, we can construct all of Luke, John, Romans, I & II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I & II Thessalonians, Hebrews, and portions of Matthew, Mark, Acts and Revelation. B. Versions: In addition to the actual Greek manuscripts, there are 1000 copies and fragments of the N.T. in various languages, and 8000 copies of the Latin Vulgate, translated by Jerome about 400 A.D. C. Church Fathers: A further witness to the text is found in the thousands of quotations of Church fathers (the early Christian writers). If all of the N.T. manuscripts were to disappear overnight we could produce the entire N.T. with the quotes of the church fathers with the exception of 15-20 verses. D. By Comparison: The wealth of materials for the N.T. becomes even more evident when we compare it with other ancient documents which have been accepted without question. Consider the following chart: AUTHOR WORK WRITTEN EARLIEST COPY #OF COPIES Caesar Gallic War 58-50 B.C. 900 A.D. 9-10 Tacitus Histories 100 A.D. 900-1000 A.D. 2 Tacitus Annals 100 A.D. 900-100- A.D. 2 Herodotus History 480-425 B.C. 900 A.D. 8 Thucydides History 460-400 B.C. 900 A.D 8 Christians NEW TESTAMENT 50-70 A.D. fragments, 90-125 A.D. 100 before 500 A.D. 3500+ The same could be said of Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Sophocles, Euripedes, Plato, and Demosthenes. The time between their writing and the earliest manuscript we have of their writing ranges between 1200 and 1600 years! But no classical scholar would ever listen to an argument that the authenticity of Herodotus or Thucydides is in doubt because the earliest manuscripts of their works which are any use to us are more than 1300 years later than the originals. Compare that with the New Testament writings. E. Conclusion: Sir Frederic Kenyon, former director and principal librarian of the British Museum, in "The Bible and Archaeology" wrote, "The interval between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be, in fact, negligible, and 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 N.T. may be regarded as finally established. To be skeptical of the 27 documents in the N.T. and to say they are unreliable is to allow all of classical antiquity to slip into obscurity, for no documents of the ancient period are as well attested bibliographically as these in the N.T." IV. What Other Scholars have Said: A. William F. Albright: "The excessive skepticism shown toward the Bible by important historical schools of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, certain phases of which still appear periodically, has been progressively discredited. Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details, and has brought increased recognition to the value of the Bible as a source of history." From THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF PALESTINE, p.127-128. B. Nelson Glueck: "It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference." From RIVERS IN THE DESERT, p.31. C. Millar Burrows: "On the whole, however, archaeological work has unquestionably strengthened confidence in the reliability of the Scriptural record. More than one archaeologist has found his respect for the Bible increased by the experience of excavation in Palestine." From WHAT MEAN THESE STONES?, p. 1 D. Two Examples: 1. From the Old Testament: a certain Belshazzar is mentioned in Dan. 5. The Bible refers to him as the king over Babylon and because Daniel interpreted the writing on the wall for him, he was elevated to the 3rd highest position in the kingdom. The critics believed Belshazzar was a myth since his name was never mentioned in the historical records. Archaeologists now know from ancient discoveries that Belshazzar was a co- regent with his father, Nabonidus, who had taken up residence in Arabia. Perhaps this explains why Daniel could only be elevated to the 3rd highest in the kingdom! 2. From the New Testament: Luke tells us (Chapter 2) that a decree was issued whereby all citizens were to return to the land of their inheritance in order to be taxed. The passage also says that Quirinius was Governor of Syria at the time. The critics said Luke was inaccurate on both counts. The people were not taxed in this way and Saturninus was Governor, not Quirinius. Separate archaeological discoveries have vindicated the Bible at both points. For further study we recommend two books: Bruce, F.F. THE NEW TESTAMENT DOCUMENTS: ARE THEY RELIABLE? Inter Varsity Press, 1963. McDowell, Josh. EVIDENCE THAT DEMANDS A VERDICT. Campus Crusade, 1972. Christian Information Ministries is a non-profit ministry and is dependent on gifts from God's people in order to operate. If you receive a benefit from our materials would you consider giving a tax-deductible gift to CIM. We suggest $25. a year minimum. Send to: Christian Information Ministries 2050 N. 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