Can I Trust The Bible?

EXTREME Westwood Bible Fellowship

Issue 2

Sola Scriptura: The assertion that the Bible as God's written word is sufficient in itself to be the final authority of Christian doctrine.

“In the beginning was the Word and Word was with God and Word was God.” John 1:1

Can I Trust the Bible? Some people struggle to believe that the early copies of each original

not contradict itself), and the external test (the accuracy of the text in rela-

(Syriac, Coptic, etc.). As the following chart illustrates, both the number of

book of the Bible are trustworthy. To

tion to other works of history from that

transmitted manuscripts we possess

help bolster your confidence in the early copies, I would like to simply

period). 1. The Bibliographical Test

of Scripture and their proximity in date to the autographa are astounding and

compare the New Testament books with various other books that are widely read and accepted in Western literature. We will examine three forms of evidence for the trustworthiness of the copies of the New Testament books. Three general tests exist for determining the historicity of any ancient text: the bibliographical test (number and quality of manuscripts), the internal test (the consistency of the text to

The bibliographical test seeks to determine the historicity of an ancient text by analyzing the quantity and quality of copied manuscripts, as well as how far removed they are from the time of the originals. The quantity of New Testament manuscripts is unparalleled in ancient literature. There are more than five thousand Greek manuscripts, about eight thousand Latin manuscripts, and another one thousand manuscripts in other languages

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unparalleled in the canon of Western literature.

AUTHOR

DATE WRITTEN

EARLIEST COPY

TIME SPAN

NUMBER OF COPIES

ACCURACY

Homer

Ca. 850 BC

-

-

643

95%

Herodotus

Ca. 450 BC

ca. AD 900

About 1,350 years

8

Euripedes

Ca. 440 BC

ca. AD 1100

About 1,500 years

9

Thucydides

Ca. 420 BC

ca. AD

900

About 1,300 years

8

Plato

Ca. 380 BC

ca. AD

900

About 1,300 years

7

Aristotle

Ca. 350 BC

ca. AD 1100

About 1,400 years

5

Caesar

Ca. 60 BC

ca. AD

About 950 years

10

Catullus

Ca. 50 BC

ca. AD 1500

About 1,900 years

3

Livy

Ca. 10 BC

-

-

20

Tacitus

Ca. AD 100

ca. AD 1100

About 1,000 years

20

New Test.

Ca. AD 60

ca. AD 130

About 100 years

About 14,000

900

Not enough copies to reconstruct the original.

99.5%

*Taken directly from Ken Boa’s I’m Glad You Asked page 78

GOD BREATHED

Possibly the oldest manuscript is a scrap of papyrus containing John 18:31–33 and 37–38, dating from AD 125–130, no more than forty years after John’s gospel was likely written. Scholar Carsten Peter Thiede even claims that he has dated a fragment of Matthew to about AD 60. By comparing the ancient manuscripts, we find that the vast majority of variations are minor elements of spelling, grammar, and style, or accidental omissions or duplications of words or phrases. Only about four hundred (less than one page of an English translation) have any significant bearing on the meaning of a passage, and most are footnoted in modern English translations. Overall, 97 to 99 percent of the New Testament can be reconstructed beyond any reasonable doubt, and no Christian doctrine is founded solely or even primarily on textually disputed passages.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

The transmission process of Scripture is, by God’s providential grace, without peer.

Moreover, the Scripture quoted

in the works of the early Christian writers (mostly AD 95–150) are so extensive that virtually the entire New Testament can be reconstructed, except for eleven verses, mostly from 2 and 3 John. Critics of the accuracy of the Bible routinely claim that it is in fact a series of fables and legends that have

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developed over hundreds of years because there are not enough copies of

consistency of the Bible, I will provide a few simple examples that illustrate

12. Crucified with thieves (Isa. 53:12 cf. Matt. 27:38)

ancient manuscripts to alleviate their

the amazing internal unity of the Bible.

13. Forsaken by God (Ps. 22:1 cf.

skepticism. However, a simple shepherd boy dealt a death blow to their

Neither Islam nor any other world religion or cult can present any spe-

Matt. 27:46) 14. Lots cast for His clothing (Ps.

criticisms in 1947. He wandered into a cave in the Middle East and discov-

cific prophecies concerning the coming of their prophets. In the Bible,

22:18 cf. John 19:23) 15. Buried in a rich man’s tomb (Isa.

ered large pottery jars filled with

however, we see hundreds of fulfilled

leather scrolls that had been wrapped in linen cloth. Amazingly, the ancient

prophecies extending hundreds and sometimes more than a thousand

16. Resurrected & exalted (Ps. 16:10, Isa. 52:13, 53:10–12 cf. Acts 2:25–

copies of the books of the Bible were in good condition despite their age

years into the future. At the time of its writing, upwards of one-quarter of

32) 17. Ascended into heaven (Ps. 68:18

and the harsh climate because they

Scripture was prophetic in nature.

had been well sealed for nearly nineteen hundred years. What are now

Consider the following prophecies and their fulfillment in Jesus Christ:

The Bible is clearly a book of history and not just philosophy because it

known as The Dead Sea Scrolls are made up of some forty thousand in-

1. Born of a woman (Gen. 3:15 cf. Matt. 1:20; Gal. 4:4)

continually promises concrete historical events that, in time, come to pass

scribed ancient fragments. From these

2. Descendant of Abraham (Gen.

exactly as promised. These fulfillments

fragments, more than five hundred books have been reconstructed, in-

22:18 cf. Matt. 1:1; Gal. 3:16) 3. Born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14 cf. Matt.

of prophetic promises show the divine inspiration of Scripture and prove that

cluding some Old Testament books such as a complete copy of Isaiah.

1:18) 4. Born in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2 cf.

a sovereign God rules over human history and brings events to pass as He

Simply, if someone seeks to elimi-

Luke 2:1–7)

53:9 cf. Matt. 27:57)

cf. Acts 1:8, Eph. 4:8).

ordains them. Consequently, we can

nate the trustworthiness of the New Testament, then to be consistent they

5. Prophesied by the forerunner John the Baptist (Isa. 40; Mal. 3:1 cf.

trust the internal consistency of the Bible to be a chorus of faithful wit-

would also have to dismiss virtually the entire canon of Western literature

John 1:19–52) 6. Rejected by his own people (Isa.

nesses who sing together in harmony. 3. The Historical Test

and pull everything from Homer to

53 cf. John 1)

Plato to Aristotle off of bookstore shelves and out of classroom discus-

7. Presented as a king riding a donkey (Zech. 9:9 cf. Luke 19:35–37)

sions. The transmission process of Scripture is, by God’s providential

8. Betrayed by a friend (Ps. 41:9 cf. Matt. 26:50)

grace, without peer.

9. Betrayed for 30 pieces of silver

2. The Internal Test

(Zech. 11:12 cf. 26:15) 10. Blood money thrown on temple

This test of the Bible’s accuracy is indeed important because each book is a witness to a body of truth and, much like a legal case in our day, if a witness were to contradict himself, then his testimony would not be deemed trustworthy. While there is not sufficient space in such a brief handbook to thoroughly defend the internal

floor & used to buy a potters field (Zech. 11:13 cf. Matt. 27:5–7) Note: the temple was destroyed in 70 AD so the Messiah must have come prior to then.

The historicity of Jesus and events surrounding the time of His life has been well established by early Roman, Greek, and Jewish sources. Such ancient historians include Flavius Josephus, Mara BarSerapion, Cornelius Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, Lucian, and the Jewish Talmud. Simply, when the New Testament mentions such historical facts as rulers, nations, people groups, political events, and the existence of Jesus,

non-Christian historical sources con11. Crucified (Ps. 22:16 cf. Luke firm the accuracy of the New Testa23:33) Note: crucifixion didn’t exist ment accounts. until hundreds of years after Psalms was written

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Why Are There Different Bible Translations? In translating the Bible into English, four general categories of transla-

of the ESV), the NASB was widely regarded as the most

tion are most common: word-for-word

scholarly word-for-word

translations, thought-for-thought translations, paraphrases, and corrup-

translation. It did not become widely popular, how-

tions. The same four options are also used in the translation of other ancient

ever, because of its tight copyright and sometimes

books into English.

stiff translation of poetry

In June of 2007, the elders at that lost some of the Westwood Bible Fellowship decided to beauty of the original establish the English Standard Version writings. Thankfully, the (ESV) as our primary house translation. ESV has preserved the Word-for-Word Word-for-word translations (also

degree of accuracy pre-

The ESV is the preferred translation at WBF

sent in the NASB while also doing a better job of translating the

known as literal translations) make a special effort to carefully interpret each poetic parts of Scripture in a more fluid manner. word from their original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic into English. Wordfor-word translations emphasize God, the divine author of Scripture, over the human reader of Scripture. The result is a striving for the precision of what the Bible says, much like one would

The philosophy of word-for-word translation guided virtually every English Bible translation until the middle of the twentieth century. At that time, thought-for-thought translation became popular.

expect in other important communica-

Thought-for-Thought

tions, such as legal documents, marriage vows, or contracts. Word-for-

Thought-for-thought translations (also known as dynamic equivalence

word translations are generally written at an upper high school reading level.

or functional equivalence) attempt to convey the full nuance of each pas-

(NLT), Contemporary English Version (CEV), and the Good News Bible (GNB). The benefit of thoughtfor-thought translations in general is that they are easy to understand and make the Bible accessible to a wide number of people. Going one step further than thought-for-thought translations are paraphrases, which combine both Scripture and interpretive commentary into the translation method. Paraphrase Paraphrased translations pay even

sage by interpreting the Scripture’s

less attention to specific word meanings than thought-for-thought transla-

be the best for studying because of their accuracy, though they sometimes

entire meaning and not just the individual words. Thought-for-thought

tions in an attempt to capture the poetic or narrative essence of a passage.

lose the poetic nuances of the original languages. Probably the best word-

translations may include words that were not included in the original text in

For this reason, many paraphrased

for-word translations are the English

an effort to give the same meaning

translations do not even have verse divisions in them. Examples of para-

Standard Version (ESV), the New American Standard Bible (NASB), and

that the reader of the original languages would have had.

phrased translations include The Message (TM), The Living Bible (TLB), and

the New King James Version (NKJV). The King James Version (KJV) is also a

The best and most widely read thought-for-thought English translation

The Amplified Bible (TAB).

word-for-word translation, but be-

is the New International Version (NIV).

cause it was translated 400 years ago, it is very difficult for some people to

Other thought-for-thought translations include Today’s New International Ver-

read. For many years (until the arrival

sion (TNIV), New Living Translation

Word-for-word translations tend to

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