Have you ever heard anybody question the reliability of the Bible? By
that I mean have you ever heard anyone confidently assert that we can't be sure
that we have the original words of the Scriptures, that we just can't be sure
that the text is reliable? It has always amazed me that such comments are
usually made by fairly well educated people who use such reasoning to defend
their rejection of the authority of the Word of God. I say it amazes me because
these are often the same people who have studied the works of Aristotle and
Plato in philosophy classes. or labored over the works of Pliny the Younger or
Caesar's Gallic War in History of Western Civilization
courses.
The Bible is a work of antiquity. Even its most noted and vehement
critics assign it a place of prominence among other ancient writings. It seems
to me that when we are talking about something as fundamental as textual
reliability, all words of antiquity must be judged by the same criteria.
Let's see how the textual reliability of the Bible
stacks up against other famous works of antiquity when the same standard is
used.
There is a test used by scholars when dealing with ancient writings that
is meant to determine the reliability and the validity of the text of such
writings. It is called the Bibliographical Test. This test is an
examination of the way the original documents we now have has reached us. In
other words, since the original documents no longer exist, or at least haven't
been found, how reliable are the copies that we do have in regards to the number
of manuscripts we now possess and the time between the original writing and the
earliest copy in our possession?
There are over 13,000 ancient manuscripts of the New Testament. Now
that is not to say that they are all complete, but at least 13,000 manuscript
copies of at least portions of the New Testament do exist. There are
approximately 8,000 manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate translation and close to
1,000 manuscripts for the other early versions. Add to that 5,000 Greek
manuscripts and that is how we arrived at the figure of over 13,000. Besides all
of these partial and full manuscripts, almost all of the New Testament can be
found in quotations of early Christian writers from the second and third
centuries.
Here is how the Bibliographical Test works. Let us consider the
famous Gallic War of Caesar. It was written between 58 and 50 B.C. The
earliest copy still existing was written in approximately A.D. 900, making a
time span of 1,000 years from the original to our earliest copy. There are
ten copies that are any good at all in existence today.
Consider Plato's famous Tetralogies. Plato lived from 427 to 347 B.C. The
earliest copy we have of his work is dated from around A.D. 900, making a time
span of 1,200 years from the date of writing to the earliest copy. There are
seven ancient manuscripts of this work. Philosophy students have been
studying Plato for years, and the professors don't seem to worry about or
question the "textual reliability" of this work.
How about Pliny the Younger's
History? It was written between A.D. 61 and 113. The earliest known copy is from
A.D. 850, making a time span of 750 years. There are seven manusctipts total of
this work.
Now, what about the New Testament? It was written between A.D. 50 and 95.
The earliest manuscript that we have is the John Ryland MSS, dating A.D. 130. It
is a portion of the Gospel of John. That is a time span of 40 to 50
years.
There is the Chester Beatty Papyri, dating A.D. 200. It contains major
portions of the New Testament. Here is a time span of 110
years.
On and on we could go, from A.D. 150 to 500, including the Codex
Sinaiticus of A.D. 350, containing almost all of the New Testament and over half
of the Old Testament. There is the Codex Vaticanus, dated A.D. 325 to 350. It is
currently in the Vatican Library and contains nearly the entire Bible. Also
existing is the Codex Alexandrinus from A.D. 400. It is in the
---Greg Litmer
in That You May Grow Thereby
Has the Bible Been
Changed?
We are frequently asked about the reliability of our Bibles.
Specifically, how can we be sure that the Bibles we are reading today are true
to the original messages delivered so long ago. In particular, can we be sure
that the New Testament has not been altered and changed in the almost 2000 years
since it was written?
The answer to these questions is a resounding YES, we can be absolutely
certain that we have good, reliable copies of the messages as they were
originally written. To illustrate how we can have this confidence, consider this
illustration:
✦ At a
potluck dinner, Sally has a delicious dish and several other ladies ask for her
recipe.
✦ Sally
makes three handwritten copies of her recipe and gives them to Anna, Betty, and
Clara.
✦ A
good while later, Anna pulls out that recipe and is preparing to fix the dish.
She calls Sally to confirm the ingredients, but Sally has lost her original copy
of the recipe.
✦ Is
there any way for Anna to confirm the accuracy of her copy?
✦ YES,
although the original has been lost, Anna can compare her copy to those of Betty
and Clara.
If all three agree, she can have good confidence that her copy is exactly
like the original.
Now, take this illustration and apply the same principle to the New
Testament. Admittedly, the original “autograph'' copies of these documents are
all lost and unavailable. But, there are literally thousands of copies of those
originals, many dating back to the immediate time frame in which the originals
were written.
By comparing these thousands of copies, and by observing their nearly
perfect similarities, we can conclude that our Bibles today are true to the
originals. In fact, there is no book of antiquity that comes even close to the
Bible in being able to provide this sort of documentary evidence for
authenticity and accuracy.
YES, you can trust your Bible!!!
---Greg
Gwin