The Bible is the number one internationally best selling book year after year.
In fact, the British Times newspaper in 1996 said:
"Forget modern British novelists and TV tie-ins, the Bible is the best-selling book every year. It is wonderful, weird ... that in this godless age... this one book should go on selling, every month."
However, the Bible is also much maligned. A major theme in movies today is that the Bible has been changed in order to benefit corrupt church leaders and suppress some alleged liberating truth (i.e. “The DaVinci Code”). Other religious voices, such as the Muslims and the Mormons, need a corrupt Bible so they can venerate their own religious writings to the loft of truth. For those who are genuinely seeking after God, it is easy to be confused.
But the evidence shows us that Bible is a very trustworthy historical document and carries authenticity unlike any text of ancient history. In this article we will explore some of the reasons we can trust the Bible.
The Bible is not one book but a whole library of books written under many different circumstances by many different authors. The Bible was written by many different authors from kings to shepherds and uneducated fishermen. The Bible was written in many different circumstances from palaces to prison cells. The Bible was written using many different literary styles from poetry, prophecy, prayers, personal letters to history. The Bible was written over the course of 1600 years.
Yet even with such wide variety of circumstances, the Bible tells one story of redemption between God and man. And the Bible stands tall as an accurate historical document. Evidence for the Bible’s reliability can be broken down into two different camps: 1) External evidence and 2) Internal evidence.
1) External Evidence:
Manuscript Authority: When historians examine the reliability of an ancient text, one of the first things they examine is the manuscript evidence of that text. They ask questions such as: How many copies of the ancient text are there? What is the time period separating the earliest copies from the original document? Are those copies accurate?
Ancient authors, such as Caesar, Livy, Herodotus, Thucydides, average from 1000 to 1400 years separation between the earliest copies we now possess and the time of the original writing. And we just don’t have enough copies (8 to 10 copies) of these author’s writings to determine if those copies are accurate representations of the originals. However, of Homer’s work Iliad we have over 640 copies. This many copies allow historians to have some degree of confidence in what Homer’s original writing said.
For the New Testament, there is only two hundred years (at most) between the earliest complete copies and when the originals were written. We have copies of portions of the New Testament that date within 100 years of when the originals were written (the John Rylands the Chester Beaty and Bodmer manuscripts). And we have 5000 copies of the New Testament in the original Greek language, many that pre-date Mohammad, that confirm the accuracy of over 99% of today’s Bible. (source: Ron Rhodes, “Answering the Objections,” and Norman Geisler, “Answering Islam”)
If one adds into the mix early copies of the New Testament translated into other languages, including Ethiopian, Slavic and Armeniac languages, “the total approximates 25,000 manuscripts that cite portions of the New Testament. This far exceeds the number of manuscripts of other ancient documents, which, in most cases, numbers less than ten,”
so says New Testament scholar Ron Rhodes, in his book, “Answering the Objections,” p. 140.
Non-friendly sources: Historians from the first two centuries, who were not friends of Christians, mentioned Jesus Christ and the early Christians in their writing. This is a list of some, but not all, of these ancient authors: Josephus, The Talmud, Tacitus, Thallus, Pliny the Younger, Suetonius, and Lucian. From their writings alone we can gather these early facts about Jesus and His followers:
1. Jesus lived during the time of Tiberius Caesar and had a brother named James
2. He was the acclaimed Messiah
3. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate on the eve of the Jewish Passover
4. His disciples believed He rose from the dead
5. His disciples were willing to die for their belief
6. Christianity spread as far as Rome from Jerusalem
7. His disciples denied the Roman gods and worshipped Jesus as God.
(Sources: Gary Habermas, “The Historical Jesus,”; Lee Strobel, “The Case for Christ”)
Sounds a lot like the Jesus of the New Testament, doesn’t it?
Friendly Sources: The early church fathers quoted the Bible extensively in their writings. If the Bible we have today is different from the Bible of the first couple of centuries, then these early Christians as they quote the Bible in their writings, would certainly testifying to these changes. However, we can reconstruct the Bible we have today, all but eleven verses, from quotations from the earliest church fathers. (source: Ron Rhodes, “Answering the Objections”)
This has led Dr. J.P. Moreland, who has his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Southern California, to say that, “Most historians accept the textual accuracy of other ancient works on far less adequate manuscripts grounds than is available for the New Testament.” (from his work, “Scaling the Secular City”)
The Bible was not compiled by one man; it was not subject to merely one man’s biases or preferences. The Bible was compiled by many voices within the early church. Each writing that was considered as part of the New Testament canon had to pass a series of tests. These tests included the following: Was this writing written by an apostle? Was it already in use by the church? Was it consistent with the other writings of the Bible?
Many people look to the Council of Nicea in AD 325 as the point where many doctrines we consider controversial today first entered the Christian church: Doctrines such as the deity of Christ, His resurrection and the sinfulness of man. Yet historians report that the Council of Nicea merely allowed the Christian church to affirm and speak with one collective voice these things that the church already believed and taught. There were many competing ideologies even then, such as Arianism, Lucanism, and Samosotianism to name a few. Many people wanted to know where the church stood in light of these ideologies. (“Our Legacy,” Dr. John Hannah, p. 82.)
Josh McDowell wrote in his article, “the Da Vinci Code, the Companion Guide to the Movie,” of the 20 rulings made at Nicea, none of them dealt with the contents of the New Testament.” The claims by many whether in Hollywood or in other religions that the Bible was changed or corrupted during the Council of Nicea just does not jive with the facts! Sorry, Dan Brown!
Archeology continues to confirm the historicity of the Bible. Over 25,000 finds and sites in the Holy Land have been discovered that affirm the Bible’s historical claims. (Ron Rhodes, “Answering the Objections”) World renown archeologist Nelson Glueck has made this statement, ““It can be stated categorically that no archeological discovery has ever contradicted a biblical reference.”
2) Internal evidence
One can not only look for evidence outside of the Bible for its historical authenticity, but inside the Bible as well. The Bible contains eyewitness material as well as embarrassing material, fulfilled prophecy and reliable reasons to date the gospels within a generation of the time of Christ.
Eyewitness material: The four biographies of Jesus (commonly known as the Gospels), as well as the Book of Acts, contain an unprecedented amount of eyewitness material on historical events. Most historians would salivate over this kind of source material!
Matthew’s and John’s Gospels are written directly by eyewitnesses to Jesus while Mark’s and Luke’s gospel are interviews with the eyewitnesses. Luke’s sequel to his gospel is the Book of Acts which chronicles the birth and growth of the early Christian church.
While consistent in core truths, four different eye-witness accounts each provide a different vantage point from which to view many of the same events from the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. If each biography was exactly the same, with the same emphasis on every event of Jesus’ life, there would be no need for four different biographies. While some difficulties exist,, they are however reconcilable. In fact, the differences add credibility that the gospel writers were recording only what they experienced and heard and not collaborating to get their stories straight. These difficulties should increase our faith that the gospel accounts are true eye-witnesses accounts; the presence of difficulties does not justify rejecting what the Bible says.
For example, in the American Civil War in the battle of Gettysburg, there was an event known as “Pickett’s Charge” where the Confederate Army charged uphill into the entrenched Union forces. General Lee of the Confederate forces gave his command to charge to one of his officers named Pickens. Yet some historians believe that General Longstreet relayed the message from Lee to Pickens. Some reject this claim. A discrepancy exists; Historians cannot agree if 3 commanders or just 2 were involved. But all agree that Pickett’s Charge happened even though historians cannot agree on the number of commanders involved.
Some of this eyewitness material spills over into irrelevant, even embarrassing, material included in the New Testament canon. Consider these examples:
“And a certain young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they seized him. But he left the linen sheet behind, and escaped naked.” Mark 14:51-52
The example of Peter: “Upon this rock I will build my church,” Jesus said of Peter in Matthew’s gospel (16:18). Yet Peter is called Satan just a few verses later (v.23) and Peter denies Jesus three times (26:69-75). Not the way to paint a hero of the faith unless it really happened that way!
Women, who had no legal credibility in Biblical days, were the first ones to find Jesus’ tomb empty after his resurrection (Matthew 28:1). Jesus’ resurrection would have been more credible if men were the first ones at the tomb.
Yet if the writers of the Gospels and the New Testament wanted to just capture what actually happened and not fabricate a story to promote a cause, then one would expect these sort of embarrassing episodes.
Prophecy Fulfilled: More internal evidence giving historical reliability to the New Testament is the existence of fulfilled prophecy.
The Old Testament contains nearly 300 references to the coming Messiah. All of which were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. (Josh McDowell “New Evidence that Demands a Verdict,” p. 164) The prophecies foretelling the Messiah are direct and specific; they are not clouded in vagueness or multiple possible interpretations.
Micah 5:2 states that the promised Messiah will come from the small village of Bethlehem, which was precisely were Jesus was born.
Isaiah 53 describes Jesus in much detail, particularly his death by crucifixion, which was unknown in Jewish law at the time of Isaiah’s writing. It was a practice learned from the Romans hundreds of years after this passage was written! Jews had always used stoning as their method of capital punishment.
This is a list of just some of the many prophecies regarding the Messiah fulfilled in Jesus Christ:
Born of a virgin; Isaiah 7:14
Called “Lord”; Psalm 110:1
Called “Immanuel”; Isaiah 7:14
Cleansed the temple; Malachi 3:1
Sold for 30 Shekels; Zechariah 11:12
Hands and feet pierced; Psalm 22:16
No bones broken; Psalm 22:17
Christ’s “forsaken” cry; Psalm 22:1
What are the odds one person fulfills just 8 of the hundreds of prophecies?
Cover the USA state of Texas 2 feet deep (66 cm) in coins. You will need 10 to the 17th coins. Mark just one coin. Send someone into Texas blindfolded and have them pick up one coin. What are the chances they will pick up the marked coin? The same as one person fulfilling 8 of the prophecies.
(Josh McDowell, “Evidence that Demands a Verdict”)
Early dates for the writings of the gospels: Some critics believe that the New Testament books were written 100s of years after Christ. Yet here are some reasons to believe they were written within the first generation after Christ.
Lets start with the book of Acts, which chronicles the growth of the church right after Jesus.
We know from extra-biblical sources that Paul was killed AD 64, Peter AD 65 and James in AD 61 (One source is the Annuario Pontificio as well as the early church father Clement.) Yet Acts ends with Paul very much alive and in prison. Acts does however record the deaths of Stephen and James, the brother of Jesus.
Therefore we can assume that Acts was written before 64 AD. Since the Gospel of Luke was the prequel to Acts, we can predate Luke back to about 60 AD. Since Mark was the earliest of the Gospels, then we know that Mark was written in the 50s, less than 20 years after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Too soon in an orally transmitted culture for legends and errors to creep in!
Another line of evidence supporting an early date for the Gospels regards the fall of Jerusalem. This was a monumental event that shook the whole Jewish world since the temple and all of its genealogy records were destroyed. This event is predicted in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21.
Titus and his Roman army ransacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish temple in AD 70. Yet none of the Gospels or the book of Acts record this event. However, these gospel writers mention plenty of other fulfilled prophecy. Therefore it is reasonable to date the Gospels from before the fall of Jerusalem!
Sir Isaac Newton said this: “There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any history.” Princeton Scholar Benjamin Warfield also said, “The New Testament (is) unrivaled among ancient writings in the purity of its text as actually transmitted and kept in use.”
Go and find your Bible, dust if off and read it. Start with one of the Gospel of John in the New Testament. Not only is the Bible unrivaled in its historical reliability, it tells the true story of God’s love for mankind. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
