Evidence for the Bible

The Holy Bible 1500BC – 90AD The Quran 650AD The Book of Mormon 1830’sAD Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures 1870’sAD

Masoretic Text, Biblia Hebraica (900AD) Hebrew, Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls (200BC) Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek Septuagint (300BC) Hebrew, Aramaic into Greek Vulgate (400AD) Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek into Latin Greek Text (300AD)

Sunday, May 23, Sivan, 5770 September 2008 (5769)

Deuteronomy 19: 15 Matthew 18: II Corinthians 13: 1 “Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.”

Luke 1: 1-4 John 1: 14 We saw, we testified “We have seen His glory.”

John 19: 35 John 21: We saw, we testified He testifies and he wrote them down He saw it and his testimony is true

John 5: 39 John 15: Jesus Himself gives proof Holy Spirit will testify, you will, too Scriptures testify

Luke 24: Acts 1: 8 Jesus Himself gives proof You will be My witnesses Scriptures prophesied, you are witnesses

Acts 4: Can’t stop talkin’ ‘bout my Jesus! “For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Acts 2: 32 Peter, the witness “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witness of this fact.” Acts 3: 15 “You killed the Author of life, but God raised Him from the dead. We are witness of this.” Acts 5: 32 “We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit.”

Acts 10: Peter, the witness “We are witnesses of everything He did...” “witnesses whom God had already chosen – us” We testify and so do all the prophets

I Peter 5 : 1 Peter, the witness “a witness of Christ’s sufferings.” II Peter 1: After I am gone, I want you to remember… “We were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” “We ourselves (Peter, James, John) heard this voice that came from heaven.”

I John 1: 1-4 John, the witness He appeared – we have heard, seen, looked at, touched – we testify and proclaim I John 4: 14 “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.”

I Corinthians 15: 1-8 the transfer begins “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance… II Timothy 2: 1-2 “And the things you have heard me say… entrust to reliable men…to teach others.” II Thessalonians 2: 15 “stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you...”

I Corinthians 15: 5-8 go ahead, check it out He appeared to Peter, the disciples, over 500 others, James, the apostles, and then to me, one who would never have believed it for myself. You need two or three witness to establish evidence? Here’s a list, go ahead, check it out for yourself!

~45 - < 70 AD New Testament written: “…most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.” or ~ AD Paul – I Corinthians 15: 6 ~ 55 AD

But what about the 300 year gap between the apostles and the existing manuscript evidence? The Witnesses Continue to Testify

Paul “expounded the word of truth accurately and authoritatively” “to build yourselves up in the faith which was given to you” Polycarp ~135AD Bishop of Smyrna Letter to the Philippians

The Witnesses Continue to Testify “The Apostles received the Gospel for us from the Lord Jesus Christ…” “they appointed their earliest converts, testing them by the Spirit…” Clement of Rome ~80AD

The Witnesses Continue to Testify “The Apostles, in the Memoirs which they produced, which are called the Gospels, have thus passed on that which was enjoined upon them…” Justin Martyr ~150AD

The Witnesses Continue to Testify “For the Church, although dispersed throughout the whole world even to the ends of the earth, has received from the Apostles and from their disciples the faith in one God…” Irenaeus ~150AD

The Witnesses Continue to Testify “Indeed, they first preached the gospel, and afterwards, by the will of God, they handed it down to us in the Scriptures…” “And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the Apostles, and their successors to our own times…”

The Witnesses Continue to Testify From Peter & Paul – to Linus, Anencletus, Clement, and so on – 12 bishops later, it comes to us! Polycarp “always taught those things which he had learned from the Apostles, and which the Church had handed down, and which are true.” Irenaeus ~150AD

The Witnesses Continue to Testify “And indeed, every doctrine must be prejudged as false, if it smells of anything contrary to the truth of the Churches and of the Apostles of Christ and God.” Tertullian ~200AD

The Witnesses Continue to Testify “The teaching of the Church has indeed been handed down through an order of succession from the Apostles, and remains in the Churches even to the present time.” Origen ~230AD

The Witnesses Continue to Testify If it was all a lie, why did the Apostles accept martyrdom? Why didn’t they ever spill the truth? Eusebius ~320AD John Chrysostom ~ 380AD

The Witnesses Continue to Testify “This we believe, this we hold, because this we have received from the Prophets, this do the Gospels tell us, this the Apostles handed down, this the martyrs confessed by their suffering.” St. Phoebadius ~358AD

The Witnesses Testify “Christ died for our sins He was buried He was raised. According to the Scriptures” I Corinthians 15: 3-5

The Witnesses Continue to Testify “was truly born, persecuted, truly crucified and died, truly raised from the dead.” Ignatius ~110AD

The Witnesses Continue to Testify “one God, Creator The Word is called His Son Born of a virgin Crucified, rose again on the third day, Ascended into heaven Sent the Holy Spirit He’s coming again.” Tertullian ~200AD

The Witnesses Continue to Testify “one God Jesus Christ, the Son of God suffered, rose up on the third day, Ascended into heaven Will come to judge the living and the dead.” Nicea ~325AD

The Witnesses of the Canon Gospels Acts of the Apostles Epistles of Paul Jude John’s Epistles Apocalypse of John Muratorian Fragment ~200AD

The Witnesses of the Canon Gospels Acts of the Apostles Epistles of Paul James Jude John’s Epistles Peter’s Epistles Apocalypse of John Eusebius ~325AD

The Witnesses of the Canon The Holy Bible as we have it today Council of Laodicea ~350AD Athanasius – 367AD

The Witnesses Testify “Suppose that the New Testament had been destroyed, and every copy of it lost by the end of the third century…?”

The Witnesses Testify “That question aroused my curiosity, and as I possessed all the existing works of the Fathers of the second and third centuries, I commenced to search, and up to this time I have found the entire New Testament, except eleven verses.” Sir David Dalrymple ca 1770

New Testament Message & Canon Historical Overlap