Can You Trust the Bible?

Can you trust the Bible? That's a legitimate question. Is the Bible true? Isn't it just a bunch of stories? These are common questions Even I have asked these questions.

I will tackle this topic over the next 2 weeks. This week I will look at the integrity of the New Testament. Next week I will look at the historical reliability of it.

So, how do we test the integrity of the New Testament. 3 main questions are used when looking at ancient texts: 1) How many manuscripts have been discovered? 2) What are the dates of the manuscripts? 3) How accurate are the copies?

How many manuscripts have been found?

Obviously, the more copies the better. This allows comparison to restore the original text. We have many English versions of ancient writings: Homer's Iliad, the writings of Sophoclies, Aristotle, Caesar, and Plato.

There are 643 ancient manuscripts of Homer's Iliad! That's pretty good, I thought. 193 of Sophoclies, 49 of Aristotle, 10 of Caesar's, and only 7 of Plato. I figured that the New Testament was probably between Aristotle's numbers and Homer's, but surely no more.  I was dead wrong.

There are more than 5,664 discovered original, Greek manuscript! There are over 18,000 New Testament manuscripts in Syriac, Armenian, Latin, and other languages. That is just under 24,000 combined manuscripts! Incredible! The scholar F.F. Bruce wrote "There is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament."

What are the dates of the manuscripts?

When the gap of time increases between the original manuscript and the copies, the chance for variance occurs. These variances can be additions, subtractions, misspelled words, etc.

Caesar's Gallic Wars was written approximately 50 B.C. The earliest copy discovered was from the 9th century. That's over 900 years! The smallest gap of is a work of Virgil, which was 300 years.

It is believed the 27 books of the New Testament were written over a 50 year period, starting in 47 A.D. So let's assume completion around A.D. 100. The earliest copy is called the John Rylands papyrus. It contains verses from the Gospel of John. It is dated at A.D. 125. This makes this ancient manuscript approximately 35 years after the original copy. There's also the Chester Beatty  papyrus. It contains all of Paul's letters, except his pastoral letters. Dr. Young Kyu, a manuscript scholar, believes it should be dated to first century A.D. This would be within 20 years after Paul would have died!

There are portions of Matthew, the Magdalen Papyrus, of Mark at Qumran, and of Luke that have been dated between 50 and 70 A.D. Only 20 years after the ascension of Christ!

What about external sources?  Polycarp, Clement of Rome, and Ignatius  have references to the New Testament. These gentleman were students of the eyewitnesses of the apostles. Clement made reference to the Gospels of Mark, Luke, and Matthew, as well as other letters of the New Testament. 

No other ancient writing can its copies back to the generation of the authors and eyewitnesses!

What about complete works? The Bodmer and Chester Beatty Papyri are dated about A.D. 150. These are complete copies of the Gospels. This of course includes Christ death, burial and resurrection. These are within 120 years of the events and 50 years of the originals!

How accurate are the copies?

Homer's Iliad  is 15,600 lines in it. The Hindu religious book Mahabharata contains 250,000 lines. And the New Testament has 20,000 lines. When Dr. Bruce Metzger studied variance  of these texts, he disregarded spelling differences and word order (things that affected the meaning were ignored). Variances that affected meaning and understanding were recorded.

It was discovered that 764 lines of the Iliad were corrupted.  This means 5% of the Iliad is up for grabs on meaning. Which is the right version? Does this mean academia believes the Iliad is reliable...but which one???

The Mhabharata had over 26,000 lines corrupted. This means 10% experienced variance in meaning and understanding. This religious work of the Hindu people is 10% off...that's scary!

How does the New Testament stack up. Would it surprise you to learn that it has only a .2% variance! Only 40 of 20,000 lines experience variance. Incredible!

As you can see there are more copies, earlier copies, and more accurate copies of the New Testament.

Now, can you deny the reliability of Scripture?