Is the Bible true?.


Is the Bible true?.

Is the Bible true? Many people say that the Bible we have today is not original and that it has been changed.

This is totally false. Indeed there is very good evidence that the Bible we have today is as it was originally written.

Many people say that the Bible has been changed or corrupted over the years as way to avoid having to deal with the claims of Christ on our lives. Similarly, since the Quran and Bible do not agree, Muslims often say that the Bible has been corrupted to avoid the implication that the Quran itself is wrong (for example, the Quran says that Jesus did not die (Surah 4:157), therefore since the Bible says he did, the Bible must have been corrupted). However, the evidence clearly does against any corruption of the Bible. We’ll consider the Old and New Testaments separately, since some of the issues involved are slightly different.

Old Testament
We have three main Old Testament manuscripts: the Masoretic text (a Hebrew text dating from about AD 1000), the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Hebrew dated 3rd century BC), and lastly the Dead Sea Scrolls (408-318 BC). All these are in significant agreement, although there are some minor differences. Therefore, we can be sure that the Old Testament we have today is the same as the one Jesus used (which Jesus freely quoted from) and is the same as Jews were using 400 years before Jesus came!

New Testament
The New Testament situation is slightly more complex. There are over 5,800 Greek manuscripts (the language the New Testament was originally written in). However, it was also translated into many other languages very early on like Latin, Coptic, Syriac and Armenian. The total number of manuscripts numbers in the tens of thousands. However, most of these manuscripts come from the 2nd century AD and most do not contain the whole New Testament. Some are collections of New Testament books, others, individual books, and others just a few verses.

The earliest manuscript contains John 18:31-33 on one side and John 18:37-38 on the other and has been dated between AD 100-150. More recently some new fragments have come to light, one of which is a fragment of Mark’s gospel which has been dated to 1st century AD. There are also more than 1 millions quotation of the New Testament by the early church fathers.

Since there are not any complete copies of the whole New Testament until Codex Sinaiticus (~AD 350), New Testament scholars have pieced the New Testament text back together using all of the available manuscripts (over 16,000 of them). Although, initially this might sound a bit like a game of “Chinese Whispers” (what did the person really say?), it is not like that at all because of the sheer number of manuscripts copied by different scribes over many centuries and in different languages. Indeed, New Testament scholars estimate that we can be 99.5% certain that the text we have today is original!

Yes, the Bible is true
Therefore, those who claim that the Bible has been corrupted really have no basis for that comment. Instead, read your Bible with confidence that what you are reading is what was originally written, and therefore that you can clearly hear what God has to say to us today in the Bible.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Did God die? If Jesus was God, and Jesus died on the cross, does that mean God died?"

Image
"Did God die? If Jesus was God, and Jesus died on the cross, does that mean God died?" Did God die when Jesus died on the cross? The answer depends on how we understand the meaning of the word die. To die does not mean to go out of existence. Death is separation. Physical death is when the soul-spirit separates from the physical body. So, in that sense, yes, God died, because Jesus was God in human form, and Jesus’ soul-spirit separated from His body (John 19:30). However, if by “death” we mean “a cessation of existence,” then, no, God did not die. For God to “die” in that sense would mean that He ceased to exist, and neither the Father nor the Son nor the Holy Spirit will ever cease to exist. The Son, the second Person of the Triune, left the body He temporarily inhabited on Earth, but His divine nature did not die, nor could it. Jesus is truly God and truly man. His physical body did die; His heart stopped beating, and “he gave up his spirit” (Matthew 27:5
Read more

Has Satan been given dominion over the earth until Jesus returns? If so, why was he given this authority?

Image
Has Satan been given dominion over the earth until Jesus returns? If so, why was he given this authority?. There's only one supreme Lord over all the world, and that's God. We are told in the Old Testament that this whole concept of dominion was shared with Adam and Eve. Man was given dominion over the earth to be vice-regents for God, that is, vice kings to represent God’s reign on this planet. Of course, we made a terrible mess out of it, and we were subjected more and more to the power of Satan. That power of Satan was dealt not just a significant blow but a fatal blow by Christ in his incarnation. We're told, first of all, that God the Father gives to Jesus all authority in heaven and on earth. In his ascension, Christ is seated at the right hand of God, where he is crowned as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. That was a tremendous blow to all worldly or satanic powers, principalities, and spiritual wickedness in high places. So if you ask me wh
Read more

What is the meaning of the eternal Sonship of Jesus?

Image
What is the meaning of the eternal Sonship of Jesus? Do you believe in the eternal sonship of Jesus? Was Jesus already the Son of God before His incarnation, or did He become the Son of God after He was born as a man? Where do we find it in the Bible? Yes, Jesus was the son of God before He came into this world through a woman. The expression “son of God” does not mean that Jesus was born. It was another expression referring to God. Here are a series of passages that teach Jesus existed before he became a man. That is, before He was incarnated. John the Baptist’s Statement Our first two passage summaries many details. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. (NASB) John 1:1-3 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the on
Read more