Is the Bible Reliable?
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Introduction- What is the Bible?
Introduction- What is the Bible?
Bible Project Video
What is reliable?
What is reliable?
Definition reliable: consistently good in quality or performance; able to be trusted. "a reliable source of information"
adjective
1. consistently good in quality or performance; able to be trusted.
"a reliable source of information"
synonyms: dependable, good, well founded, well grounded, authentic, definitive, attested, valid, genuine, from the horse's mouth, sound, true; copper-bottomed
"reliable evidence"
noun
1. a person or thing with trustworthy qualities."the supporting cast includes old reliables like Mitchell" https://www.google.com/search?q=define+reliable&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS779US779&oq=define+reliable&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.3022j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Questions about reliability
Questions about reliability
Wasn’t the Bible written thousands of years ago? How do we know the Bible we have is the same as the documents written by Moses, David, Matthew, Paul, etc.?
Doesn’t translation change the meaning of the Bible? Hasn’t it been translated and retranslated many times?
Doesn’t the Bible contradict itself?
How do we know the right books are in the Bible?
What’s the right way to interpret it?
Why do you think it’s God’s Word? Inspired?
Since we are asking this question about the Bible, we need to ask this question in the context of other similar books in age, content, etc. Let’s use the same criteria for examining the reliability of the Bible as we would any other ancient book.
Transition: The Bible is reliable because
1. The Bible is authentic.
1. The Bible is authentic.
Bible is the most veritably genuine history book in existence.
There are more sources for the Bible than any other book.
More than 5,000 manuscripts of NT.
It's also interesting that within the early centuries of the Christian church a number of scholars quoted the New Testament. Amazingly, they quoted the New Testament so much that every single verse of all 27 books of the New Testament is quoted by these scholars with the exception of only 11 verses, all within a few hundred years of the beginning of the Church. https://www.focusonthefamily.com/faith/the-study-of-god/how-do-we-know-the-bible-is-true/is-the-bible-reliable Comparative sources for other history books. Less than 700 manuscripts of Homer’s Illiad.
The Dead Sea Scrolls showed how accurately the Old Testament books were copied.
The Old Testament was meticulously copied throughout time and proven to be accurate by the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Since there were no copy machines, the texts that the human authors wrote had to be recopied by hand as they wore out or as more copies were needed. Here’s how the text was preserved so accurately.
Old Testament – The Jewish people had scribes who were in charge of the manuscripts. They were so meticulous about doing it perfect that they counted all the paragraphs, words and even letters so they would know if they had copied correctly. They even knew the middle letter of each book so they could count back and see if they had missed anything.
The oldest complete copy of a Hebrew Old Testament in museums today are dated about A.D.1000. That’s a long time after the originals were written (1450-400 B.C.), so one could question if after many centuries of copying we really have the original words. That’s where the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 is so helpful. These well-preserved texts date back to 100 B.C. Amazingly, there is virtual agreement between the Dead Sea Scrolls and those dated 1,100 years later! This proves we can trust the Hebrew copies of the Old Testament that are existing today.
Example of Isaiah: Virtually identical through all the years of copying. Written 700 B.C. by Isaiah Copies found among Dead Sea Scrolls 100 B.C.
Complete Hebrew Manuscripts A.D. 1000 https://bible.org/article/bible-reliable%E2%80%94seven-questions
2. The Bible is attested.
2. The Bible is attested.
The Bible is reliable in it’s internal consistency.
The Bible is one story.
It is about God reaching out to humanity. It was written by over 40 authors of different ages, cultures, educational backgrounds over 1500 years yet it has one consistent message with no contradictions to that message. There are hard things to understand and textual variants that we can’t explain but they are minor and don’t contradict the message of the book.
The Bible’s content has been proven reliable.
It is reliable in its historical accuracy, archaeology and prophecy.
History
It isn’t possible to confirm every single detail of the history contained in the Bible. We can’t do that with any history book. Here’s how the Bible has been proved true when it can be checked.
Historians confirm what the Bible says about Jesus.
Cornelius Tacitus (A.D. 55-120), an historian of first-century Rome
Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian (A.D. 38-100), wrote about Jesus in his Jewish Antiquities
Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, and Thallus also wrote about Christian worship and persecution that is consistent with New Testament accounts.
Even the Jewish Talmud, certainly not biased toward Jesus, concurs about the major events of his life.
Not only do we have well-preserved copies of the original manuscripts, we also have testimony from both Jewish and Roman historians.
The gospels report that Jesus of Nazareth performed many miracles, was executed by the Romans, and rose from the dead. Numerous ancient historians back the Bible's account of the life of Jesus and his followers:
Cornelius Tacitus (A.D. 55-120), an historian of first-century Rome, is considered one of the most accurate historians of the ancient world.8 An excerpt from Tacitus tells us that the Roman emperor Nero "inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class...called Christians. ...Christus [Christ], from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus...."9
Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian (A.D. 38-100), wrote about Jesus in his Jewish Antiquities. From Josephus, "we learn that Jesus was a wise man who did surprising feats, taught many, won over followers from among Jews and Greeks, was believed to be the Messiah, was accused by the Jewish leaders, was condemned to be crucified by Pilate, and was considered to be resurrected."10
Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, and Thallus also wrote about Christian worship and persecution that is consistent with New Testament accounts.
Even the Jewish Talmud, certainly not biased toward Jesus, concurs about the major events of his life. From the Talmud, "we learn that Jesus was conceived out of wedlock, gathered disciples, made blasphemous claims about himself, and worked miracles, but these miracles are attributed to sorcery and not to God."11
This is remarkable information considering that most ancient historians focused on political and military leaders, not on obscure rabbis from distant provinces of the Roman Empire. Yet ancient historians (Jews, Greeks and Romans) confirm the major events that are presented in the New Testament, even though they were not believers themselves. https://www.everystudent.com/features/bible.html
ii. Archaeology
It has been proven accurate repeatedly.
1. Numerous archaeological finds have supported the Bible’s accuracy. Otherwise unknown places, events and dates have proven to be historically accurate. Nelson Glueck, a leading Jewish archaeologist said, “It can be categorically stated that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference” (Rivers In The Desert, Farrar, Strauss and Cudahy. 1959. P.31). This does not prove inspiration, but it confirms the credibility of writers who also claim that they wrote with God’s authority. https://bible.org/article/bible-reliable%E2%80%94seven-questions
“Archaeology Confirms 50 Real People in the Bible” in the March/April 2014 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Purdue University scholar Lawrence Mykytiuk lists 50 figures from the Hebrew Bible who have been confirmed archaeologically.
In “Archaeology Confirms 50 Real People in the Bible” in the March/April 2014 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Purdue University scholar Lawrence Mykytiuk lists 50 figures from the Hebrew Bible who have been confirmed archaeologically. His follow-up article, “Archaeology Confirms 3 More Bible People,” published in the May/June 2017 issue of BAR, adds another three people to the list. The identified persons include Israelite kings and Mesopotamian monarchs as well as lesser-known figures.
Mykytiuk writes that these figures “mentioned in the Bible have been identified in the archaeological record. Their names appear in inscriptions written during the period described by the Bible and in most instances during or quite close to the lifetime of the person identified.” The extensive Biblical and archaeological documentation supporting the BAR study is published here in a web-exclusive collection of endnotes detailing the Biblical references and inscriptions referring to each of the figures.
Archaeology has never contradicted the Bible.
iii. Prophecy
Prophecy alone is compelling evidence for the Bible’s reliability.
Jeremiah’s 70-year prophecy. Jeremiah 25:11-12
This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. “But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,” declares the Lord, “and will make it desolate forever.
Dates are difficult to confirm but many historians agree to the range of 587-585 BC for the destruction of Jerusalem and in 516 BC the Jews were once again able to sacrifice and worship at the temple in Jerusalem. This prophecy is so accurate that scholars who don’t believe the Bible is inspired say Jeremiah was written after the temple was rebuilt.
Prophecy about Bethlehem. Micah 5:2
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”
Prophecy of Cyrus before he was even born. Isaiah 45:1
“This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:
Isaiah wrote in the 8th century B.C. but Cyrus wasn’t born until the 6th century B.C.
3. The Bible is acclaimed.
3. The Bible is acclaimed.
Jesus claims the Bible to be the Word of God and reliable.
a. Jesus affirmed the reliability and authority of the Old Testament.
“Jesus affirmed seven key points in relation to the Old Testament, as explained by Norman Geisler: "Jesus affirmed its divine authority … its imperishability … its unbreakability … its ultimate supremacy … its factual inerrancy … its historical reliability … [and] its scientific accuracy." https://www.focusonthefamily.com/faith/the-study-of-god/how-do-we-know-the-bible-is-true/is-the-bible-reliable
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
b. The Bible repeatedly claims to be God’s word.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.
Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.
For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’ ”
This is what the Lord my God says: “Shepherd the flock marked for slaughter.
He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
c. The Bible is alive and powerful and changes us. Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Conclusion: We trust the Bible because it is trustworthy. We rely on the Bible because it is reliable!