How Can We Be Sure The Bible Has Not Been Corrupted?
The Bible claims to be the Word of God. In 2 Timothy 3:16, it states that "all Scripture is inspired by God... In Psalm 119:160 it is stated that "Thy Word...endures forever." Jesus is quoted in Matthew 24:35 as saying, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass awaV'. The testimony of the Bible is that it is the very words of God, His revelation of truth to mankind and eternal in its existence. However, why can we trust it in this regard as it is speaking of itself? The Bible is telling us it is trustworthy. Is our faith in the Scriptures fool-hardy? Do we have more than tradition and faith to prove the Bible true? The short answer is, Yes! We have much more. Ultimately, we all accept it by faith or reject it as unreliable. The following is why I choose to accept the Bible as divinely inspired truth and the rule of my faith in God and the guide to my practice in life. This is based heavily on the book The Relational Word by Josh McDowell (pg. 197-242). He just says it better than most.
Historical literature has been evaluated for its veracity by three different tests: Internal evidence, bibliographical evidence, and external evidence. By objectively applying these to the Bible we can see if our faith has a valid foundation. Let's begin.
1. Internal Evidence— is the Bible consistent in its story and message?
-People have long declared the Bible to be full of discrepancies.
-Expl: Resurrection accounts in the Gospels / numbers reported / order of certain events
-Many so-called discrepancies are not difficult to answer if one will but look more closely at the text.
-Expls: 1. Mary Magdalene made two trips to the empty tomb —as simple as that!
a. Some authors focused on a certain individual and did not mention others that were present.
b. Written language is said not to have existed during the days of Moses who wrote the first 5 books of the Bible — that's been proven inaccurate.
c. Some historical people, events, and places are unknown to modern man. This doesn't make them untrue.
d. Just because I don't understand something doesn't mean it isn't true.
-"Seeming discrepancies" do exist and I can't explain them all, but many are easily addressed and prove there to be good internal evidence for the Bible to be considered trustworthy.
-The Bible uses many "primary sources".
-Matthew, Luke, John, Paul and Peter were all eyewitnesses of Christ and argued this boldly. (John 19:35 / Luke / 2 Peter 1:16)
-Many appeals are made to people as eyewitnesses themselves:
1. Peter to the Jews on the Day of Pentecost — Acts 2:22.
2. Paul before Festus — Acts 26:24-26.
3. Paul to the Corinthians— I Corinthians 15:3-9
*Had the Bible story and message been fabricated, appealing to eyewitnesses would have proven counterproductive and foolish. The use of primary sources provides solid internal evidence of the Bible being consistent and it's message being truthful.
2. Bibliographical Evidence — what reasons do we have to believe that the manuscripts (copies made of the original manuscripts) we have today are accurate copies of the original manuscripts (the original writing by the author)? -Bibliographical evidence focuses on two issues: How many manuscripts are known to exist? And, How much time passed between the original and the copies?
-As always, the fewer and further you are removed from the original, the more likelihood there is for errors. Having a large number of copies to compare and having a short time between the original is encouraging bibliographical evidence for the Bible.
-So, how many manuscript (hand-written / ancient) copies do we have of the Rihlg? Ngarly as,ooo or complete manuscripts of the New Testament!!! 5,686 Greek copies!!!
-No other ancient document compares to these numbers.
-Homer's Iliad(800BC) — 643 copies
-Galic Wars (100-44BC) - 10 copies
-Pliny's Natural History (AD 61-113) - 7 Copies
-New Testament (AD50-100) — 5,366
-And, how long was it between the originals and the copies?
-Most ancient books have hundreds of years between them and their copies. The New Testament gap is about 50 years.
-Another, and important consideration of the bibliographical evidence is the tradition of the Scribes who did the copying of Biblical texts.
-Scribes were highly honored and revered due to their sacred duty of handling the Word of God.
-There were entire communities set apart for the Scribes. Qumran is one such place.
-These men followed meticulous measures to ensure exactness in their work:
- Bathed before beginning and put on full attire.
- I have heard that before writing the name of God, they would stop and bathe again.
Would only write on the skin of "clean" animal.
-Followed specific guidelines of format: specific number of columns throughout the document and be equal in breadth (30 letters).
-Spacing was very specific. (Expl. — space of a thread between every consonant) -Counted the number of times each letter was used and compared it to the original.
-Counted to the middle letter and ensured it was the same. -If one mistake was found, it was destroyed.
-One of the most significant discoveries in modern times is the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
-Clay jars found in 1947 near Qumran and had been there since AD 68.
-Contained many manuscripts including Old Testament books providing a rare opportunity to compare ancient manuscripts with copies we have today.
-Most notable was a complete copy of the book of Isaiah. Isaiah had been the subject of much critique and many doubts had been leveled against it. Now a manuscript 1,000 years older than the previous oldest copy was available. The texts proved to be nearly identical (95%) with variances mostly in spelling.
3. External Evidence — Is there evidence outside of the text itself that confirm the Bible's verity?
-These arguments would include extra-biblical writings about the Bible, testimonies of persons in close proximity to the writing of the Bible, scientific discoveries that confirm Bible teachings and archeological findings that confirm historical events and places mentioned in the Bible.
-By the end of the 3 rd century AD, we can find over 32,000 Bible quotations by early church fathers such as Irenaeus, Origen and Tertullian. It has been asserted that even if we did not have manuscripts of the Bible, we could recover it in full from the early writers who quoted it extensively.
-Non-Christian writers often confirm Bible teaching even though they did not necessarily believer it.
-Tacitus (Roman Historian) — writes of a Christ's crucifixion and a "most mischievous superstition" (Christ's resurrection).
-Josephus (Jewish Historian) — writes of Jesus and Jesus' brother, James.
-Thallus (??? / AD 52) — is quoted as saying that darkness, rocks being rent and an earthquake accompanied the crucifixion of Christ as the Bible also states.
-Archeology continues to add external evidence to the Bible's verity.
-1961 — archeologist recover Latin inscriptions referring to Pontius Pilate.
-The Roman census spoken of at the time of Christ's birth was long debated. Archeologist have found several confirmations of the Bible's teachings. The Romans did have such a census every 14 years. Quirinius was governor of Syria. And, they were required to return to their home lands... Just as Luke 2 records.
-Acts 21:28 records an event where Paul is accused of taking a gentile into the Temple against Jewish law. Inscriptions have been found stating, "No foreigner may enter within the barrier with surrounds the temple and enclosure. Anyone who is caught doing so will be personally responsible for his ensuing death".
-Places the Bible mentions which were previously doubted include Sodom and Gomorrah and Jericho. I guess I don't need to tell you that archeologist have found them.
-People like King David and Belshazzar (from the book of Daniel) were also in question until archeologists confirmed their existence.
Conclusion:
When compared to all ancient literature, there is nothing that even remotely compares with the Bible in the realms of Internal Evidence, Bibliographical Evidence, and External Evidence. No one questions the accurate translations and preservations of the Iliad or Plato's writings yet they have no comparable evidence. Using the same standards we are confronted with a "Book" that claims to be inspired by God and is proven to be reliably copied and handed down accurately.
Allow me yet one more argument: Why would 10 of 11 men, the apostles, die for a lie? They were there. They saw the miracles. They heard Christ's teachings. After His death, according to church history, 10 of the 11 were martyred. Either they were insane, dying for a mass delusion of Jesus and His teachings or they were absolutely convinced of the truthfulness of the Gospel (message of the Bible). Ponder that.
There are a couple other resources that I can suggest if you wish to go deeper on this issue. The first is a book that presents proof of Jesus' deity. It is called More Than A Carpenter. This a very small book well worth reading. The second book is entitled Evidence that Demands a Verdict. This is a very large book written in layer-esse style but most compelling. Both are authored by Josh McDowell who set out to prove the Bible a fake but ran face to face with Jesus Christ. Jesus changed him; He has changed me; He will change you too!