Was the Bible Accurately Passed Down To Us?

   Down through the ages the Bible has been copied over and over. Until the printing press was invented, the Bible was copied by hand. Those who copied it were so careful that we know we have good copies of the original manuscripts.
   The Jews destroyed old, worn scrolls of the Old Testament so we haven't found many old copies. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, the copies of the book of Isaiah were only 5 percent different than the copies found earlier that were copied 1,000 years later. Morgan said, "The 5 percent of variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling." These variations make no change in the meaning of the text. Scholars have also compared these copies with Greek and Samaritan copies of the Old Testament. Morgan wrote, "All of these sources provide enormous evidence that the Hebrew text of the Old Testament has been preserved in trustworthy fashion; and though there are variations here and there, no major doctrine is impacted. The variations, for the most part, involve matters of spelling, style, and grammar."
   The New Testament has many more copies in existence. A fragment containing 5 verses from John's Gospel is thought to be from about A.D. 125. John was probably written around A.D. 100 so that the copy that the fragment came from was circulating about 25 years after John wrote his Gospel! The Chester Beatty Papyri dates from about S.D. 200 and contains large parts of the New Testament. The Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus are complete New Testaments and date in the A.D. 300's. There are 5,000 Greek manuscripts and many ancient translations or versions of the New Testament. Jerome's Vulgate (Latin - late 300's), old Syriac and Latin translations from about A.D. 200 add to the number of copies. Plus there are countless quotes from the New Testament in the writings of the Church fathers from the first, second, and third centuries. Morgan stated, "In short, the number of manuscripts in support of the reliability of the New Testament text(and their chronological proximity to the original writings) is far beyond anything else known in human literature." Morgan wrote that Caesar's Gallic War has only 9 or 10 good copies and the oldest is 1,000 years away from the original. Plato has only 7 copies. The oldest is 1,200 years from the original.Thucydides wrote his history near the end of the Old Testament, The oldest copy is 1,300 years from his writing. None of these are questioned like the Bible has been.
   We have 1,000's of manuscripts of the New Testament, one dating back to within 25 years of the original! Morgan quoted Professor Berkeley Mickelson," the only logical conclusion is that the case for the reliability of the New Testament is infinitely stronger than that for any other record of antiquity." There are also minor variations in the New Testament copies, but no key doctrine of Christianity is affected adversely. Vance Havner said, "Many people say the Bible is a myth, but they're myth-taken, myth-guided, and myth-erable."
   Morgan concludes with a summary, "When you hold the Gospels in your hand, you are holding documents that give us reliable accounts, well researched by biographers and writers including the most imminent historian of the ancient world, of a man from Nazareth who lived 30 years as a village carpenter. He preached for the next three years, making claims for Himself that no other had ever made, and driving home His claims with so much evidence that He overturned the Jewish theology of His audience and convinced them that He was, in fact, the Messiah of Israel and the Master of the world. He healed the blind, raised the dead, and filled the hopeless with joy. He allowed Himself to be executed in a most excruciating manner; and then His grave was found vacated. He showed Himself alive by many convincing proofs and so changed the world that today, after 2,000 years of human history, His message is more widely believed than ever before. These things were investigated thoroughly from the beginning and written in an orderly account that we might have a solid basis for faith, that we may know the certainty of the things we have been taught."

Sincerely,
Rick

The Bible Is Historically Accurate

   The Bible is the foundation for the life of Christ Who is the foundation for the Christian life. This foundation has been questioned by skeptics, doubters, critics and even some believers. Is it accurate? Do we know it is true? I believe these questions can be answered very satisfactorily. The Bible is true and very accurate.
   For many years critics questioned some biblical history, but EVERY time archeology proved the Bible to be correct and the skeptics to be wrong. Even though skeptics accuse that the Bible is a compillation of fables and legends, archeology has proven that we have copies from the late first century. That is NOT long enough for the real story to be turned into fables or legends.
   Morgan uses the Gospel of Luke as an example of the Bible's accuracy. Critics wanted to late date it, but the first 2 verses reveal that "many" had written an acount of Christ's life from the facts given them by "those who from the first were eye witnesses and servants of the Word." They got the facts from those who lived it!
   Luke was a physician, scientist, and writer. He  was a medical missionary serving with Paul the apostle and recording their travels in the book of The Acts of the Apostles.
   Luke claimed accuracy and has been proven to be so accurate that when skeptics thought he was wrong, he was proven to be correct. He knew he was right and tied his facts to historical dates and people. The census and Quirinius of Luke 2:1-3 were thought to be wrong for a long time, but archeology proved Luke to be right.
   Remember Sir William Ramsay, the Scottish archaeologist, who went to the Middle East to prove that Luke couldn't possibly be right in all his facts, but proved Luke to be correct, instead, and went back home a believer?
   Luke uses "6 different pins" (historical points) in chapter 3 to pin point when the word of God came to John, the Baptist, Christ's forerunner. Morgan wrote, "Sound like misty legend and fabricated fable? Anything but!" The skeptics found fault with 2 of these "pins", but Luke was right. They, also, criticized the mention of Pontius Pilot, who hadn't been found by historians for many years, but a stone, dug up in Caesarea has that name engraved on it. Luke was right!
   Morgan summarized with, "We have documents reaching to within a generation of the original writers, and the details that emerge from the New Testament's pages show them to be historically reliable and well-researched documents. They were accurate in their composition.
   Next time we will look at the passage of the Bible down through time to us. Was that done accurately?

Sincerely,
Rick