Is the Bible just a book?

Lesson 7:  IS THE BIBLE JUST A BOOK?

• The Old Testament was originally written in a Hebrew language that is no longer spoken.  Can we know that the Bible we have today is essentially the same as the original?

 • I've heard the Bible contradicts itself.  Is this true?  If so, how can we say it is reliable?

Let's first look at what Jesus had to say about the Bible.  Keep in mind that when Jesus refers to the scriptures, he was referring to the Old Testament, not the Bible that we have, as the New Testament had not yet been written.  According to the Bible, Jesus believed and taught from the scriptures.  Luke 4:16 says, “He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.  And he stood up to read.” (NIV).  Throughout his ministry, Jesus taught the people about the Kingdom of God.  He frequently referred to the scriptures in making his points.  See Matthew 4:1-11; 5:17; 10:15, 12:40, 41; 24:37, 38; Luke 4:21. (Many more!) He asked his audience, “Have you not read?” 11 times in the gospels and “It is written” 30 times.  Jesus obviously believed the Bible to be true and relevant. See John 17:17; Matthew 19:4-6. 
The apostles also believed the Bible to be truth.  According to the Bible, an apostle is someone who was an eyewitness to the resurrection of Jesus and was able, through the Holy Spirit, to perform miracles.  See Acts 1:22; 1 Corinthians 9:1; and 2 Corinthians 12:12. If the Bible is true, then the apostles would be the perfect people to confirm it.  “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness...” (2 Timothy 3: 16, NIV).   What "scripture" was Timothy referring to?  See 2 Peter 1: 16-21 & 3:16.  

  

Since it isn't enough to use the Bible to justify itself, what else can we know about the Bible and its translations that can help us test its reliability?

1.  Archeology has corroborated the names, places, and customs written in the Bible.  If the genealogies in the gospels and elsewhere in the Bible were not real people, what would be the purpose of listing them out in such detail?

2.  The manuscripts we have are older and more numerous, and were written closer to the people and events they describe than any other ancient work of literature.  Looking specifically at the New Testament, which was written around 2000 years ago, we can see that our sources are reliable.  We have more than 24,000 early New Testament manuscripts.  That compares to 643 copies of Homer's Iliad, which is the next most numerous ancient text.  This is also a great text to use for comparison, as the Iliad was also considered a “sacred” text, was used to teach children in school, was illustrated in murals, and was referred to in many commentaries, so it would have had historical significance and a desire for preservation.  No one questions the origin or authenticity of the Iliad.  Using the same criteria, we cannot question the origin of the New Testament.

3.  The copies we have of the New Testament manuscripts are from different geographical areas and were translated into different languages.  The New Testament was copied soon after the time of the apostles into Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopian, etc., in effort to spread the gospels.  This gives us distinct sources for comparison as to the reliability of the text we have now.   We can know that no doctrines were affected during translation and copying, because when we compare the multiple translations that we have, we can see what the original would have said.

4. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 attested to the authenticity of the Old Testament.  These scrolls were very old manuscripts and were very well preserved.  Some of them were dated to around 980 AD.  This gave us the opportunity to compare the oldest manuscripts we previously had to these new discoveries, and the results were that our copies of the Old Testament were essentially unchanged over the centuries.  The errors that were found were mostly spelling errors.

5.  The Bible survived many attempts to abolish it.  If it were just a storybook, no one would have fought to keep it and protect it as they did.  The harder its enemies worked to destroy it, the faster it was copied and shared.  Many people have risked their lives and died copying and distributing the pages in order to make them available to everyone.  This is still happening today.  People

that risked their lives to preserve the script would have taken the necessary care to be accurate in their work.  And no one would have risked their lives to protect a book that was nothing more than made up stories.

6.  It was carefully transcribed to begin with.  Throughout history, there have been people whose only job was to accurately and carefully transcribe every word, every line, every stroke.  They were dedicated and reverent in their job.  There were specific guidelines for how the columns and lines were laid out.  They had to count words, lines, middle words, etc., to be sure they didn't miss a thing. Only after a manuscript was validated would it be counted as accurate.

7.  If we had no early manuscripts, we could still rely on the many sermons, commentaries, and letters that exist from the early church fathers.  So many, in fact, that we could reproduce all but 11 verses of the New Testament.1   For example, the apostle John's disciple, Polycarp (AD 69 – 155) and his disciple, Irenaes (AD 130 – 202), together quote 23 of the 27 New Testament books.

8.  We have early manuscripts.  Most scholars agree that the eyewitness accounts in the New Testament were written within 1 generation of the actual accounts.  If they had been written after AD 70, they would logically have included accounts of the destruction of Jerusalem that year.  In addition to that being a national tragedy, the genealogical records of the Jewish nation were destroyed in Jerusalem, except for the records of the Levites.  If the writers came after 70 AD, they could not have proven the lines of Judah, Jesse, or David, which were cited in the ancestry of Jesus. The actual copies that we have (the originals were written on papyrus or animal skins that didn't age well and led to the need for copies) are dated within 300 years of the originals, and some are within 100 years.  In comparison, the manuscripts in existence for other ancient works are much later.  For example, the oldest text of Caesar's Gallic Wars is from 900 years after its origin.  Other Greek manuscripts are 1000 years or more from their origins (Plato's works 1200 years, Aristotle's 1400 years post originals) yet no one questions their validity.

9.  The first printing press was invented with the purpose of producing the Bible and making it available to the common people.  This helped to provide multiple, consistent copies.

10.  The story line of the Bible is not consistent with that of fiction.  The “heroes” of the Bible are liars, murderers, adulterers, drunkards, prostitutes.  The examples of their failures are preserved along with their successes.  The Hebrew nation is shown as weak, backsliding, unfaithful and disobedient, yet God rescues and preserves them.  The New Testament shows God offering his sinless Son to save sinners that don't deserve to be saved.  This is not a typical fairy tale.  The Bible also honors women, elevates the poor and disabled, slaves, and outcasts.  This is not typical of any literature past or present, unless it is biographical.

11.  The New Testament claims to be largely eyewitness testimony.  See 2 Peter 1:6 for example.  (we will explore this more in a future lesson).  Many people believe that the Bible is full of contradictions, such as the difference in the Gospel accounts regarding the angel(s) at the tomb of Jesus after his resurrection.  One says there was one angel, another says there were two.  Eyewitness courtroom testimony is often like this.  In fact, if witness testimony is too close, they are considered to be in collusion. In this example, the statement that there was one angel doesn't say ONLY one angel.  There could have been two.  And the resurrection story is the same, whether there were one or two angels.

 Discussion:  Does this information support our trust in the Bible's accuracy?  Why or why not?

1Leach, Charles.  “Our Bible.  How we got it.” Chicago, Moody Press, 1878, pp. 35, 36.