"All
Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." - 2 Timothy 3:16-17
"Is the Bible reliable and trustworthy?" This is a question that I, and many others, have had to wrestle with. Ultimately if the Bible is not reliable, then why should we believe anything that it says? Here are a few things that I have discovered. (Although I don't have the time or space to flesh out every single
evidence for the authority of Scripture here, I will provide a few.)
HISTORICAL RELIABILITY
Since the Bible is a religious text, it seems that people often treat it differently than other texts regarding historical reliability. The skepticism continues today even though we continue to discover artifacts proving otherwise. There have been cases where historians have concluded that certain people and events were biblical legends and later were disproved with archeological finds.
For example, "The Hittites were once thought to be a Biblical legend, until their capital and records were discovered at Bogazkoy, Turkey" (http://christiananswers.net/q-abr/abr-a008.html). As another example, "It was once claimed there was no Assyrian king named Sargon as recorded in Isaiah 20:1, because this name was not known in any other record. Then, Sargon's palace was discovered in Khorsabad, Iraq. The very event mentioned in Isaiah 20, his capture of Ashdod, was recorded on the palace walls. What is more, fragments of a stela memorializing the victory were found at Ashdod itself" (http://christiananswers.net/q-abr/abr-a008.html). Also, the Bible's use of the name "Canaan" was once criticized as being incorrect and the individual stated that the name was not in use then. "The discovery of the Ebla archive in northern Syria in the 1970s has shown the Biblical writings concerning the Patriarchs to be viable. Documents written on clay tablets from around 2300 B.C. demonstrate that personal and place names in the Patriarchal accounts are genuine. The name 'Canaan' was in use in Ebla" (http://christiananswers.net/q-abr/abr-a008.html). There are a variety of other false charges like these.
Archeologists have uncovered many different types of artifacts and evidence that date back hundreds to thousands of years proving the Bible to be reliable (Biblelandpictures.com; see: Archeology). Scholars have also identified many of the sites where biblical events unfolded (Biblelandpictures.com; see: Christian sites). Furthermore, art clearly depicts Jesus to be a massively influential figure throughout history - even though many artists paint Jesus to look like a movie star with a sweet beard, salon-trimmed hair, and a half frown (Biblelandpictures.com; see: Art and Reproductions). Nevertheless, the Bible remains historically reliable from generation to generation.
MANUSCRIPT RELIABILITY
There are approximately five thousand manuscripts of all or part of the Greek New Testament, and there are about eight thousand manuscripts or parts of manuscripts of versions (C&M, p.26). These manuscripts range from the first half of the second century all the way to A.D. 1500 (C&M, p.26). "It is useful to observe that of all the works that have come down to us from the ancient world, the New Testament is the most amply attested in textual evidence" (C&M, p. 26). In other words, out of all of the writings that we have from the ancient world, the New Testament has the most textual evidence for verification. A few examples of other ancient writings that we possess are: Annals by Tacitus (one manuscript), the works of Euripides (54 papyri and 276 parchment manuscripts), the history of Rome by Valleius (one incomplete manuscript) (C&M, p.26). Another author puts it this way, "the typical number of existing manuscript copies for any of the works of
the Greek and Latin authors, such as Plato, Aristotle, Caesar, or
Tacitus, ranges from one to 20" (http://bible.org/article/how-accurate-bible). In comparison, the material that supports the New Testament is astonishing.
For the Old Testament, "there are a small number of Hebrew manuscripts, because the Jewish
scribes ceremonially buried imperfect and worn manuscripts. Many ancient
manuscripts were also lost or destroyed during Israel's turbulent
history. Also, the Old Testament text was standardized by the Masoretic
Jews by the sixth century A.D., and all manuscripts that deviated from
the Masoretic Text were evidently eliminated. But the existing Hebrew
manuscripts are supplemented by the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint (a
third-century B.C. Greek translation of the Old Testament), the
Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Targums (ancient paraphrases of the Old
Testament), as well as the Talmud (teachings and commentaries related to
the Hebrew Scriptures)" (http://bible.org/article/how-accurate-bible). Therefore, our support for the accuracy of the Old Testament text is strong also.
CRITICISM
Some critics say that the Bible is unreliable. They often say that it
is historically inaccurate or internally inconsistent. According to
Wayne Grudem in "Systematic Theology," the Bible is
historically accurate, internally consistent, contains prophecies that
have been fulfilled hundreds of years later, it has influenced the course of
human history more than any other book, it has continued changing
millions of individual lives throughout its history, through it people
come to find salvation, it has a majestic beauty and profound depth, and
it claims hundreds of times over to be God's very words (p. 78; emphasis mine). Some object to these points (especially, some claim that it contradicts itself),
but we must remember the fact that Scripture is literature that was
written in a context and we must interpret it as such. God chose to
disclose himself through particular people, at a particular time, and
through particular languages. Think for a second how many times people
quote someone else within our own culture, and generation, and take the
quote out of context. This happens all of the time. Also, think about
some of the expressions that we use. I just made one a second ago.
"This happens all of the time." You didn't take that to mean that its
always happening at every moment. Then, I made another one. "I just
made one a second ago." You understood that I was expressing "recently"
rather than expressing that I literally made the comment one second
before. They did the same thing in ancient languages. If someone
accuses Scripture of contradicting itself or being historically
inaccurate, a good question to ask is, "Where?" Often someone has
simply heard this and believed it without examining it for themselves.
CONCLUSION
There are many more facts that could be analyzed, however, as Grudem goes on to explain, "If we ultimately appeal to human reason, or to logic, or to historical accuracy, or to scientific truth, as the authority by which Scripture is shown to be God's words, then we have assumed the thing to which we appealed to be a higher authority than God's words and one that is more true or more reliable" (Grudem, p. 78). In other words, we don't deny outside evidence because it is helpful, but we must keep it in perspective. Ultimately, if God's word is the highest authority then we must see what it claims to be within itself. We read in 2 Timothy 3:16, "All
Scripture is breathed out by God," meaning that Scripture calls itself Scripture. This may appear at first to be circular reasoning, and we should admit that it "is a kind of circular argument. However, that does not make its use invalid, for all arguments for an absolute authority must ultimately appeal to that authority for proof: otherwise the authority would not be an absolute or highest authority" (Grudem, p. 78). This problem is not unique to Christianity. "Everyone either implicitly or explicitly uses some kind of circular argument when defending his or her ultimate authority for belief" (Grudem, p. 79). We must also remember that the Bible is composed of many different books by many different authors who experienced events first hand; therefore, in this sense it is not circular reasoning (http://bible.org/article/how-accurate-bible).
So, to summarize, the Bible claims to be God's word, lives have been changed throughout history by God's word, and external evidence supports that the Bible is God's word. Ultimately, the Holy Spirit awakens us to see and believe that the Bible is God's word.
SOURCES
Wayne Grudem (B.A. Harvard, MDiv Westminster Seminary, PhD Cambridge), "Systematic Theology"
D.A. Carson (B.S. McGill University, MDiv Central Baptist University, PhD Cambridge) & Douglas Moo (PhD University of St. Andrews), "An Introduction to the New Testament"
bible.org
biblelandpictures.com
christiananswers.net
