Q & A Apologetics
Biblical Reliability
Reliability – Bibliographical Evidence
Author Date Written Earliest Copy Time Copies
Plato 427-347 B.C. A.D. 900 1,200 yrs 7
Tacitus A.D. 100 A.D. 1100 1,000 yrs 20
Pliny (history) A.D. 61-113 A.D. 850 750 yrs 7
Thucydidies 460-400 B.C. A.D. 900 1,300 yrs 8
Heroditus 480-425 B.C. A.D. 900 1,300 yrs 8
Sophocles 496-406 B.C. A.D. 1000 1,400 yrs 193
Aristotle 384-322 B.C. A.D. 1100 1,400 yrs 49
Homer (Iliad) 900 B.C. 400 B.C. 500 yrs 643
New Testament A.D. 40-100 A.D. 125 25 yrs 24,000
For the NT that is 192 manuscripts per year.
That works out to .52 manuscripts per day.
When one takes into account that this is done by hand, letter to letter, on papyrus with stylus and ink this is amazing.
This tradition of copying the scriptures to preserve them was not done just because. It was done because what was recorded was fact and had to be preserved so that the mission could be accomplished.
Patrick in Ireland had his people copy the text to preserve the text from the Viking invaders and that is why we have the text today.
Variants are minimal and noted very carefully and even printed in your modern bibles as variants so the reader knows what sections have some questions not of validity but when they appear in certain manuscripts and they are not doctrinal in nature but encounters of Jesus with people or what the church began to do when Jesus ascended to the Father (John 7 and Mark 16).
The discovery of the Dead See Scrolls places our earliest manuscripts of the Old Testament 1,000 years closer to the originals and there are no doctrinally significant variations in the text from copying as well. Variations add up to the omission of certain letters in a misspelled word based upon language changes and grammar rules.
The point is clear. The texts are historically reliable!
Reliability – Internal Evidence
On the Dating of the Kings:
Thiele, Edwin (1983). The mysterious numbers of the Hebrew kings. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications (1994 ed.).
Luke 1:1-4
2 Peter 1:16
1 John 1:3
John 19:35
Reliability – External Evidence
Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis (A.D. 130) as Recorded by Eusebius
“The Elder (Apostle John) used to say this also: ‘Mark, having been the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately all that he (Peter) mentioned, whether sayings or doing of Christ, not, however, in order. For he was neither a hearer nor a companion of the Lord; but afterwards, as I said, he accompanied Peter, who adapted his teachings as necessity required, not as though he were making compilations of the sayings of the Lord. So then Mark made no mistake, writing down in this way some things as he mentioned them; for he paid attention this one thing, not to omit anything that he had heard, nor to include any false statement among them.
Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons in A.D. 180, who was a student of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna (who had been a Christian for 86 years and was a disciple of John the Apostle), wrote:
“Matthew published his gospel among the Hebrews in their own tongue, when Peter and Paul were preaching the gospel in Rome and founding the church there. After their departure (death around 64 at the hands of the Neronian persecution), Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, himself handed down to us in writing the substance of Peter’s preaching. Luke, the follower of Paul, set down in a book the gospel preached by his teacher. Then, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also leaned on this breast (reference to John 13:25 and 21:20), himself produced his gospel, while he was living at Ephesus in Asia.”
Dr. Clark H. Pinnock
“There exists no document from the ancient world witnessed by so excellent a set of textual and historical testimonies and offering so superb an array of historical data on which an intelligent decision may be made. An honest person cannot dismiss a source of this kind. Skepticism regarding the historical credentials of Christianity is based upon an irrational (i.e., antisupernatural) bias.
Conclusions
1. The Scriptures are accurate and without error (do not affirm anything contrary to fact)
2. Read them incessantly as if your life depended on it because your vitality in Christ does
3. Read them to lose sight of and affection for our fallen world and to gain sight of and affection for the coming Kingdom
22 Resolved, To endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.
25 Resolved, To examine carefully and constantly, what that one thing in me is, which causes me in the least to doubt of the love of God; and so direct all my forces against it.
4. Read them to become the best possible gospel preacher you can be
a. Evangelism informed by the Scriptures disciples while they convince
5. Read them to and teach them to our children
6. The Scriptures are trustworthy and you have not been led astray by believing what they say.
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