How Can I Know That My Bible is Right? Apologetics Part I hsmparadox.wikispaces.com

The Reason But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 1 Peter 3:15-16

The Environment And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will. 2 Tim 2:24-26

The Opposition There are no original manuscripts of the Scriptures. We can’t know that what we do have is what was in the original. The copies we do have are so far removed from the events recorded that they are not accurate. They probably record legend. Copies of copies (etc.) are unreliable. The guys who selected the books of the Bible selected what they wanted, so the canon is arbitrary

The Bible as Literature How do other works of literature from the ancient world compare to the Bible? Can we be sure of their accuracy? How many copies of them do we have? Are the copies accurate? Would your opinion of the Bible change if it were shown to be at least as reliable as other ancient texts?

Autograph Definition: original manuscript in the author’s own hand In the whole of ancient literature, there are none. –Only copies, and copies of copies

AuthorDate writtenEarliest copyGap# Ancient Text Comparison

AuthorDate writtenEarliest copyGap# Julius Caesar B.C.c. 900 A.D.1000 yrs 10 Ancient Text Comparison

AuthorDate writtenEarliest copyGap# Julius Caesar B.C.c. 900 A.D.1000 yrs 10 Plato400 B.C.c. 900 A.D.1300 yrs 7

Ancient Text Comparison AuthorDate writtenEarliest copyGap# Julius Caesar B.C.c. 900 A.D.1000 yrs 10 Plato400 B.C.c. 900 A.D.1300 yrs 7 Herodotus B.Cc. 900 A.D.1350 yrs 8

Ancient Text Comparison AuthorDate writtenEarliest copyGap# Julius Caesar B.C.c. 900 A.D.1000 yrs 10 Plato400 B.C.c. 900 A.D.1300 yrs 7 Herodotus B.Cc. 900 A.D.1350 yrs 8 Pliny A.D.c. 850 A.D.750 yrs7

Ancient Text Comparison AuthorDate writtenEarliest copyGap# Julius Caesar B.C.c. 900 A.D.1000 yrs 10 Plato400 B.C.c. 900 A.D.1300 yrs 7 Herodotus B.Cc. 900 A.D.1350 yrs 8 Pliny A.D.c. 850 A.D.750 yrs7 Thucydides B.C.c. 900 A.D.1300 yrs 8

Ancient Text Comparison AuthorDate writtenEarliest copyGap# Julius Caesar B.C.c. 900 A.D.1000 yrs 10 Plato400 B.C.c. 900 A.D.1300 yrs 7 Herodotus B.Cc. 900 A.D.1350 yrs 8 Pliny A.D.c. 850 A.D.750 yrs7 Thucydides B.C.c. 900 A.D.1300 yrs 8 Homer800 B.C.c. 400 B.C.400 yrs643

Ancient Text Comparison AuthorDate writtenEarliest copyGap# Homer800 B.C.c. 400 B.C.400 yrs 643

Ancient Text Comparison AuthorDate writtenEarliest copyGap# Homer800 B.C.c. 400 B.C.400 yrs 643 New Testament A.D.c. 114 A.D. (fragment) +50 yrs

Ancient Text Comparison AuthorDate writtenEarliest copyGap# Homer800 B.C.c. 400 B.C.400 yrs 643 New Testament A.D.c. 114 A.D. (fragment) +50 yrs c. 200 (books) 100 yrs

Ancient Text Comparison AuthorDate writtenEarliest copyGap# Homer800 B.C.c. 400 B.C.400 yrs 643 New Testament A.D.c. 114 A.D. (fragment) +50 yrs c. 200 (books) 100 yrs c. 250 (most NT) 150 yrs

Ancient Text Comparison AuthorDate writtenEarliest copyGap# Homer800 B.C.c. 400 B.C.400 yrs 643 New Testament A.D.c. 114 A.D. (fragment) +50 yrs c. 200 (books) 100 yrs c. 250 (most NT) 150 yrs c. 325 (whole NT) 225 yrs

Ancient Text Comparison AuthorDate writtenEarliest copyGap# Homer800 B.C.c. 400 B.C.400 yrs 643 New Testament A.D.c. 114 A.D. (fragment) +50 yrs c. 200 (books) 100 yrs c. 250 (most NT) 150 yrs c. 325 (whole NT) 225 yrs 5366

Ancient Text Comparison New Testament A.D.c. 114 A.D. (fragment) +50 yrs c. 200 (books) 100 yrs c. 250 (most NT) 150 yrs c. 325 (whole NT) 225 yrs 5366 Various other translations 25,000 more

Reconstruction Quotations from the NT are found in almost every one of the writings of the early church fathers—Christians who lived in the 400 years after Christ. Even is we didn’t have the 30,000-ish other manuscripts described earlier, we would still be able to reconstruct the NT from the early church’s writings

The John Rhylands Ms. Small portion of the Gospel of John Dates to A.D. (some say even earlier) Supposedly John wrote his Gospel in 90 A.D. That means that this ms. is less than years from the date of the original writing

What about the OT? The dates for the Old Testament are much less impressive than those for the NT That is, the gap is much greater However, the Dead Sea Scrolls (discovered in 1948) have a complete version of the book of Isaiah (for example) which reads verbatim with only the slightest variation (& nothing which changes any meaning)

Do the documents agree? Early documents are in Greek, Latin, Ethiopic, Slavic, and Armenian All these documents agree and there are no differences in any doctrine among translations Granted, there are an estimated 200,000 variances among manuscripts (word order, spelling, etc.) However, if the same word is misspelled in 2000 documents, that’s 2000 variants

What about the legends that grow up around heroes? Mark wrote his Gospel between A.D Luke wrote after Mark in the late A.D. 60’s Paul wrote 1 Corinthians between A.D

I Cor. 15:3-6 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

2 Peter 1:16 We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

Why THOSE books? The 27 books of the NT and 66 books of the OT are called the “canon.” How do we know that the books of the canon are the whole picture; that the early church fathers didn’t cut out parts they just didn’t like?

What determines “canon?” 1.Apostolic authorship (eyewitnesses) 2.Consistency of message 3.Continuous acceptance and use among churches at large Other documents Written much later Message varies –Gospel of Thomas: “Split wood; I am there. Lift up a stone, you will find Me.” –“Let Mary go away from us, because women are not worthy of life.”

The Bible as Literature How do other works of literature from the ancient world compare to the Bible? Can we be sure of their accuracy? How many copies of them do we have? Are the copies accurate? Would your opinion of the Bible change if it were shown to be at least as reliable as other ancient texts?

How Can I Know That My Bible is Right? Apologetics Part I hsmparadox.wikispaces.com