The bible, a book of myths and fairytales written by a bunch of ignorant bronze age goat herders.
Is it?
The Bible 66 books penned by 40 authors over thousands of years, is an integrated message system from outside our time domain. Chuck Missler
Any unbiased document scholar will agree that the Bible has been remarkably well-preserved over the centuries. Copies of the Bible dating to the 14th century A.D. are nearly identical in content to copies from the 3rd century A.D. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, scholars were shocked to see how similar they were to other ancient copies of the Old Testament, even though the Dead Sea Scrolls were hundreds of years older than anything previously discovered. Even many hardened skeptics and critics of the Bible admit that the Bible has been transmitted over the centuries far more accurately than any other ancient document.
There is absolutely no evidence that the Bible has been revised, edited, or tampered with in any systematic manner. The sheer volume of biblical manuscripts makes it simple to recognize any attempts to distort God’s Word. There is no major doctrine of the Bible that is put in doubt as a result of the minor differences that exist between manuscripts.
How does the bible compare to other ancient literature?
The New Testament was written over a time period of 60 years. We have over 24,000 copies and some of the copies we have are only 25 years removed from the originals!
Caesar’s work, The Gallic Wars, was written over a 56 year period. We have 10 copies, the closest to the original is 1,000 years removed.
Homer’s Iliad, the most renowned book of ancient Greece, is the second best-preserved literary work of all antiquity, with 643 copies of manuscript support discovered to date and there is a 500 year span between the original and oldest existing copy.
In those copies, there are 764 disputed lines of text, as compared to 40 lines in all the New Testament manuscripts.
In fact, many people are unaware that there are no surviving manuscripts of any of William Shakespeare’s 37 plays (written in the 1600′s), and scholars have been forced to fill some gaps in his works.
As you can see, there are thousands more New Testament Greek manuscripts than any other ancient writing. The internal consistency of the New Testament documents is about 99.5% textually pure. That is an amazing accuracy. In addition there are over 19,000 copies in the Syriac, Latin, Coptic, and Aramaic languages. The total supporting New Testament manuscript base is over 24,000.
Almost all biblical scholars agree that the New Testament documents were all written before the close of the First Century. If Jesus was crucified in 30 A.D., then that means that the entire New Testament was completed within 70 years. This is important because it means there were plenty of people around when the New Testament documents were penned who could have contested the writings.
In other words, those who wrote the documents knew that if they were inaccurate, plenty of people would have pointed it out. But, we have absolutely no ancient documents contemporary with the First Century that contest the New Testament texts.
The prophetic nature of the bible proves its divine inspiration.
The bible has over 100 prophesies concerning the life of Jesus Christ. What are the odds.
Considers 48 prophecies: we find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10 to the 157th power, or 1 in
100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Mathematicians consider 1 in 10 to the 50th power to be impossible.
The estimated number of electrons in the universe is around 1079. It should be quite evident that Jesus did not fulfill the prophecies by accident.”
Non Christians verify the historicity of the bible.
Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure.
He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles.
He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him.
And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day. Jewish Antiquities 18.3.3
Thallus Circa AD 52, eclipse of the sun. “On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun.
Luke 23:44-45, “And it was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 the sun being obscured; and the veil of the temple was torn in two.”
Pliny the Younger mentioned Christ. Pliny was governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor. Pliny wrote ten books. The tenth around AD 112. “They (the Christians) were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds,
Lucian (circa 120-after 180) mentions Jesus. Greek writer and rhetorician. “The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day—the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account. . .
Author Date
Written Earliest Copy Approximate Time Span between original & copy Number of Copies Accuracy of Copies
| Author | Date Written |
Earliest Copy | Approximate Time Span between original & copy | Number of Copies | Accuracy of Copies |
| Pliny | 61-113 A.D. | 850 A.D. | 750 yrs | 7 | —- |
| Plato | 427-347 B.C. | 900 A.D. | 1200 yrs | 7 | —- |
| Herodotus | 480-425 B.C. | 900 A.D. | 1300 yrs | 8 | —- |
| Euripides | 480-406 B.C. | 1100 A.D. | 1300 yrs | 9 | —- |
| Caesar | 100-44 B.C. | 900 A.D. | 1000 | 10 | —- |
| Tacitus | circa 100 A.D. | 1100 A.D. | 1000 yrs | 20 | —- |
| Aristotle | 384-322 B.C. | 1100 A.D. | 1400 | 49 | —- |
| Sophocles | 496-406 B.C. | 1000 A.D. | 1400 yrs | 193 | —- |
| Homer (Iliad) | 900 B.C. | 400 B.C. | 500 yrs | 643 | 95% |
| New Testament |
1st Cent. A.D. (50-100 A.D. | 2nd Cent. A.D. (c. 130 A.D. f.) |
less than 100 years | 5600 | 99.5% |
http://ehrmanproject.com/index
Well presented. As always.
Thanks Carl. In an earlier comment you mentioned running for office. What office were you running for? I don’t remember seeing you in the presidential debates.
I was elected to the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Date County in 1977 and and again in 1980. I switched party and was elected to the Executive Committee of the Democrat Party of Dade County and served from 1884 – 1985. I ran for city council of North Miami in 1983 and 1985.
To bad you drifted over to the Darkside with that unfortunate slippage into the Demoncrat party. : ) Now I really have to double my prayer time on your behalf.
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It was a slip. Rep party of Dade just another Cuban click and the agenda is screaming about Castro, The Dem party group is full of what can you do for me gays, what can you do for me blacks and Israel is everything Jews. My association with both was a waste of time. See my post “How I got barry goldwater’s autograph” One of my best writes I think.
Excellent story:
My political interests and small time political career (which dead -ended in my late 30′s) began in the early spring of 1964. I was in the 10th grade. There was a small strip mall in North Miami on NE 6th Ave. and 123rd St. A small suite had been rented with a big elephant poster in the window and Barry Goldwater posters were hung too. I drove by on my bike for a whole week before I mustered the courage.
I walked in and confronted half a dozen startled people and said “I want to be in politics.” This attractive late 40ish blond lady stood right up and said “My name is Alyse O’Neill and my husband is running for the congress of the United States.” “I want to work for Goldwater.” I replied. “So do we and you have come to the right place!” she smiled.
I learned the mundane to the sophisticated. The basics included hand addressing over 20,000 envelopes, verifying at least several thousand phone numbers, studying maps to walk precincts, and passing out literature door to door and in front of the big grocery store. I soon had a key and was office manager. I was given this great responsibility because the adults had “jobs” (which I later found out meant mistresses for the men and vodka martinis and little pills for the women).
One of the very sophisticated things I got to do was to go to parties with lots of rich people. They were called fund raisers. Leaving off the letter “d” on fund would be a more accurate characterization. The people always seemed to drink a whole lot too much of beverages that left them so incapacitated that they could not even crawl to a voting booth, let alone pull a lever. I was very indignant about all this until I went to college. I learned all about politics very young. From sex to booze to money to the handshaking and precinct walking, I learned it all that year.
Now if you go to the library you can ask that nice lady in the gray dress, that has worked there since Coolidge was president, to help you find out about the election of 1964. We lost. I mean BIG TIME lost.
In June, 1965 the Republicans held a big strategy building convention on Miami Beach. They rented out the 3 most lavish hotels for a week. I went to all the activities and sat with Nixon, saw Jacob Javits, Winthrop Rockefeller, and a big time congressman from Kentucky, I think, named Thurston Morton. Some people called him “Mr. Jack Daniels,” however. I assumed that was his “with close friends” nickname.
The main event was on June 16th. The defeated Senator Barry Goldwater was to speak at the Miami Beach Convention Center(soon became the Jackie Gleason thing). There were over 6,000 people in the great room. They announced he would be at the platform in a few minutes . And then it started. The cheering of 6,000 of the standing faithful. For 15 minutes before he even arrived! I was so overwhelmed inhaling the energy of the event.
He made his entrance. Ramrod straight, squared jawed, sure of stride, dignity took to the podium. Another 20 minutes of cheering followed before he could speak. People had tears rolling down their cheeks and it was all so loud. It seemed they broke the cadence of his address at every word not at the end of a sentence or phrase. “sixty-eight, sixty-eight, sixty-eight,” they chanted. It was glorious.
I was not able to get backstage to get an autograph. That was one of my most disappointing times in my life. All I had was my ticket stub. I saved it.
In 1997, I heard he was very ill. I wrote John McCain(who now held Goldwater’s senate seat) for an address. The reply came quite promptly and I sent Barry Goldwater my ticket to sign. He did! I got it back in March of 1997. He passed away 13 months later. And that my friends is how I got Barry Goldwater’s autograph 32 years after I saw him that day on Miami Beach.
Politics seem to be such a dirty business. Like different Christian denominations, nobody seems to have a claim on purity and truth. Just a bunch of people, some heroic and some cowards, but still just people. At this point I identify with the Republicans because of some of their positions on moral issues ie. Pro Life, Pro Traditional Marrriage, and Pro Religious Freedom. I know all of these are just political positions by some and certainly not universally held by all Repubs. I can never support a party that advocates for gay marriage and abortion on demand. Economics issues are not that important, they both are filled with thieves, the Dems are just a little more honest with their larceny. Redistrubution of income, fair share etc. We all know what that means. As for the Repubs., I’m still waiting for the trickle down to get to me, and they talk the talk but don’t walk the walk.