Themelios Project

Throughout the centuries, men have sought to undermine the Bible and disprove it as what it claims to be: the inspired Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:20-21).  Countless objections have been raised toward its accuracy and authenticity.  How can we be sure that we hold the actual Scriptures in our hands today?  Haven’t they been distorted and chopped up throughout the years?  Doesn’t the Bible contradict itself? Wasn’t the Bible written down years after the events described in it took place?

For every question, there is an answer.  Hopefully, in this post, many of those questions will indeed be answered.  In exploring the reliability and authenticity of the Scriptures, four main points are going to be covered: 1) the textual validity the Bible, 2) the archaeological evidence that supports it, 3) the internal consistency of the Bible, and 4) the veracity and magnitude of the prophecies fulfilled in the Scriptures.  We will cover the first two topics in this post and the remaining two in a post just a few days out.  Let’s get started.

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Textual Validity

 Before any evidence is given for the Bible’s authenticity, one very important point needs to be thoroughly clarified.  The Bible is a product of Divine inspiration.  The authors of the various books of the Bible were inspired by God, Who guided the writers in their work. (2 Peter 1:21, 2 Timothy 3:16)  It is only after this fundamental truth is grasped that the Bible’s content is fully understood for what it is: the Word of God.

Understanding the textual validity of the Bible is of paramount importance.  Many Biblical critics deny that the Bible was written over several hundred years by numerous authors, claiming instead that it was written up as some sort of a highly imaginative book sometime after the events described in it would have taken place.  Furthermore, even if the Bible was written over a long span of time by numerous authors, surely translation mistakes riddle it and totally destroy its original authenticity.  Such misunderstandings may be attributed to a lack of study on the dating of Biblical manuscripts, as well as the precision of Biblical scribes in copying Scripture.

One of the most excellent examples of the Bible’s textual authenticity can be found in the discovery of the “Dead Sea Scrolls” in 1947.  These scrolls — discovered by a young shepherd boy in caves near the valley of the Dead Sea — included numerous pieces of Biblical literature.  Among the books represented were a complete copy of the book of Isaiah and fragments of almost every book in the Old Testament.1  The materials in this phenomenal find are dated around 100 B.C.2  However, what makes this discovery so fascinating is the history behind the writing of the scrolls.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were copied down in the Massoretic tradition, a method of copying that was exceedingly precise.  Massorete scribes would copy manuscripts in all capital letters, with no punctuation or paragraphs.  When they were finished copying a particular book, they would total up the letters and find the middle letter of the book.  If it wasn’t the same, they made a new copy.  This meticulous attention to accuracy was highly evident in the Dead Sea Scrolls.  When the copy of the book of Isaiah was compared with a more recent Massoretic Hebrew text dating from the tenth century A.D., the manuscripts were found to be in remarkable harmony with only a few minor differences.3

 The evidence for the validity of the New Testament is extremely compelling.  At this time, there are over 4,000 different ancient Greek manuscripts that contain all or portions of the New Testament.  In addition, there are more than 1,000 copies and fragments of the New Testament in Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Gothic, and Ethiopic.  There are also 8,000 copies of the Latin Vulgate.4,5  Numerous quotations from the New Testament Scriptures can be found in the writings of the early Church fathers.  These quotations are so numerous that it would be possible to gather them and reconstruct the entire New Testament, minus only fifteen to twenty verses!6  Considering just how many manuscripts Bible translators have at their fingertips, it is stunning just how much evidence there is for the validity of the New Testament.  To further support this claim, there is astounding evidence for the specific timing of the New Testament writings.  Check out this chart (near the end of the article) from Probe Ministries for further information.

Archaeological Evidence

 When it comes to providing solid historical evidence for the Bible, archaeology has proved the Bible’s reliability time and again.  In fact, the current number of archaeological finds that relate to the Bible reach into the hundreds of thousands!7  Archaeology has uncovered several civilizations, cities, ancient sites, etc. that are mentioned in the Scriptures.  One excellent such example is the Hittite civilization.

For many years, critics had attacked the Bible’s references to the Hittites, whom It stated were a powerful people in the Middle East from 1750 to 1200 B.C. (Genesis 15:20, 1 Kings 10:29).  During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, archaeologists discovered evidence that permanently silenced critics of the Hittites’ existence.  A Hittite city — which was soon understood to be the empire’s capital — was discovered in Turkey.  This city also housed a library of thousands of tablets, providing additional insight to the Hittite language and culture.8

Check back soon for part II!

1. – Williams, James F., “Are the Biblical Documents Reliable?,” Probe Ministries, (1995), http://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNsEoG/b.4227393/k.3AE2/Are_the_Biblical_Documents_Reliable.htm (accessed February 4, 2010).
2. – Ibid.
3. – Ibid.
4. – Ibid.
5. – The Latin Vulgate is a Latin Translation of the Bible completed in A.D. 405 by Saint Jerome.
6. – Williams, op. cit.
7. – Zukeran, Patrick, “Authority of the Bible,” Probe Ministries, (2005), http://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNsEoG/b.4227389/k.6202/Authority_of_the_Bible.htm (accessed February 4, 2010).
8. – Ibid.