The Bible is not just a book. It even tells us in great detail, what all will happen in the future.
No other book can do that.
How many copies of ancient manuscript do we have, that no one questions?
Caesar-written100-44 B.C. Earliest copy-900 A.D.Time span-1,000 yrs, number of manuscripts-10
Plato-written427-347 B.C .Earliest copy-900 A.D.Time span-1,200 yrs, number of manuscripts-7
Thucydides-written460-400 B.C.Earliest copy-900 A.D.Time span-1,300 yrs, number of manuscripts-8
Tacitus-written100 A.D. Earliest copy-1100 A.D. Time span-1,000 yrs, number of manuscripts-20
Suetonius-written75-160 A.D. Earliest copy-950 A.D.Time span-800 yrs, Number of manuscripts-8
Homer (Iliad)-written900 B.C .Earliest copy-400 B.C.Time span-500 yrs, number of manuscripts-643
One could say the Ten Commandments written on stone was the first written "Scripture".
The New Testament writings began around A.D. 40s-50s and continued perhaps to around A.D. 90s.
However, this first:
Some complain God's Word was edited so many times. Yet, we have Muslims today, claim the Quran wasn't ever edited; that it is the pure Word of God.
They claim that the Quran has been perfectly preserved in its original form, since it was first ordered and collected into a single volume by Mohammad. However, extant copies of ancient quotations and texts relying upon ancient copies of the Quran, have shown that dramatic variations in text existed.
As far as Muslim's claims, that the Quran is the pure Word of God and was never edited, we now see the Quran has been translated into more than 100 European, Asian, and African languages. In 1936, translations of the Quran into 102 languages were available. Currently, there are about 62 English translations of the Quran.
In contrast, the Bible has been translated into other languages, purely so that others in the world can read it, but as far as destroying the true meaning and value of its context and message of how to get to heaven, nothing has changed. We don't have to know or understand the whole Bible in order to have salvation. That would be impossible.
The message of Salvation has always stayed intact and if we miss that, we have missed everything. The doctrine of preservation in regard to scripture, means that the Lord has kept His Word intact as to its original meaning. Preservation simply means that we can trust the scriptures, because God has sovereignly overseen the process of transmission over the centuries.
The "differences" are things like minor spelling variations. The small editing is so minor, they change nothing. They did not rewrite the whole Bible or even part of it. The editing was words used in the Old English, like "thee and thou", but the message of the Gospel concerning salvation and how to get to heaven, was never changed. Scholars agree on this. We should keep in mind that this would not, and does not, affect the accuracy of scripture, nor does it mean that God has not preserved His Word. God has supernaturally kept and preserved His Word through the Ages.
The New Testament tells us that Scripture is inspired (2 Timothy 3:16). God did not entrust his holy, precious Word to just anyone. He entrusted HOLY MEN OF OLD to trsnscribe God's Word, as the Holy Spirit moved in this process of writing (2 Pet. 1:21), inspiring/giving these transcribers, what to write. That's why scripture is described as being "God-breathed". In2 Timothy 3:16, Paul states, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” This is the only use in the Bible of the Greek word"THEOPNEUSTOS", which means “God-breathed, inspired by God, due to the inspiration of God,” and other scriptural passages support Scripture as being inspired by God.
The power of the breath of God in divine inspiration pervades Scripture. God breathed “the breath of life” into Adam (Genesis 2:7), and Jesus “breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:22). In2 Peter 1:21we are told that “prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Here we see the truths of Scripture described as coming directly from God, NOT from the will of the writers He used to record them.
The early scribes, whose jobs were to make exact copies of scripture, were very meticulous. One example of their scrupulous precision is the practice of counting all the letters in a given book and noting the middle letter of the book. They would then do the same for the copy, to make sure it matched. They employed such time-consuming and painstaking methods, to ensure accuracy.
Further, we can take note of the following verses that demonstrate God's plan to preserve His Word in Matthew 5:18: Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, until Heaven and Earth disappear, not the smallest letter, nor the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law, until everything is accomplished." In this verse, Jesus declared that not even the smallest stroke of a letter in the Hebrew alphabet would pass away until all is accomplished. He couldn't make that promise, unless He was sure that His Father would preserve His Word. Jesus also said, "Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but my words shall never pass away." Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31 and Luke 21:33.
THE RELIABILITY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
Scribes meticulously copied the Old Testament Scriptures on parchment or animal skins. Skin doesn’t last forever, though, and when a copy wore out, the Jews would bury it.
As a result, at one point, the oldest copies of the Hebrew Scriptures that we had dated only to the tenth century AD. But the 1947 discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran provided manuscripts dated to the second century BC—one thousand years earlier—and proved the remarkable copying accuracy. The biblical manuscripts have been reliably transmitted from the authors to us today.
The scribes worked so carefully that:
Any copy with just one mistake in it was destroyed! This guarantees us that there has been no substantial change in the text of the Old Testament in the last 2,000 years and evidence that there was probably very little change before that.
Regardless of the original location, date, or translation of the manuscripts we have today, they exhibit remarkable agreement with one another and give us confidence that they faithfully represent the original Hebrew Scriptures.
THE RELIABILITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
When we consider secular history, amazingly, we have a limited number of Greek manuscripts:
The oldest copies of manuscripts written by Tacitus, Thucydides, and Herodotus date from between the ninth and eleventh centuries AD. We only have, respectively, three, twenty, and seventy-five manuscripts of each. And we base world history on these few manuscripts!
The New Testament, on the other hand, has far better attestation than any other work of the ancient past, especially the period before the middle ages. We can have confidence in our New Testaments and trust the Bible.
The New Testament has approximately 5,700 surviving Greek copies (plus more than ten thousand copies in Latin) dating from between the second and tenth centuries. In fact, even if we had no existing manuscripts, we could reassemble the New Testament almost completely from the quotations found in the writings of the church fathers.
HOW CAN WE TRUST THE BIBLE WITH ALL THOSE ERRORS?
It helps to address this question by asking: “Errors? Name one.” This isn’t meant as a challenge but as a clarifier. It’s helpful to note the difference between an “error” and a “variant,” because they mean different things. To say that scribes and copyists have introduced thousands of “errors” in the Bible is confusing—and inaccurate.
Most things people call “errors” are actually variants, and most of those are easily resolved. For example:
A variant occurs when one manuscript differs from another in some way. Of the approximately 400,000 variants that exist in the New Testament, most are simple variations of sight and sound—such as a word misspelled or a line accidentally skipped. These are easily corrected by comparison with other manuscripts—and in many cases, by common sense.
Even in those few places where the correct reading remains uncertain, the New Testament represents a copying accuracy of 99.5 percent. Moreover, not one place in the New Testament—or in the Old Testament—does a doctrine of our faith stand or fall on a variant.
Even though we’re unsure about how to read that 1% of the Bible, we can have full confidence that we can understand 100% of what God wants us to know. That's what counts. God made His Word so we wouldn't have to GUESS how to have salvation. That message throughout the Bible, has never changed, and never will.
Without the transformative Word of God, sinners remain dead in their sin. But with it, they are brought to new life in Christ and are made increasingly into his image.
Modern archaeology has helped us realize that the Bible is historically accurate, even in the smallest of details. There have been thousands of archaeological discoveries in the past century that support every book of the Bible.
How many copies of ancient manuscript do we have, that no one questions?
Caesar-written100-44 B.C. Earliest copy-900 A.D.Time span-1,000 yrs, number of manuscripts-10
Plato-written427-347 B.C .Earliest copy-900 A.D.Time span-1,200 yrs, number of manuscripts-7
Thucydides-written460-400 B.C.Earliest copy-900 A.D.Time span-1,300 yrs, number of manuscripts-8
Tacitus-written100 A.D. Earliest copy-1100 A.D. Time span-1,000 yrs, number of manuscripts-20
Suetonius-written75-160 A.D. Earliest copy-950 A.D.Time span-800 yrs, Number of manuscripts-8
Homer (Iliad)-written900 B.C .Earliest copy-400 B.C.Time span-500 yrs, number of manuscripts-643
One could say the Ten Commandments written on stone was the first written "Scripture".
The New Testament writings began around A.D. 40s-50s and continued perhaps to around A.D. 90s.
Here’s why we can trust God's Word.
However, this first:
Some complain God's Word was edited so many times. Yet, we have Muslims today, claim the Quran wasn't ever edited; that it is the pure Word of God.
They claim that the Quran has been perfectly preserved in its original form, since it was first ordered and collected into a single volume by Mohammad. However, extant copies of ancient quotations and texts relying upon ancient copies of the Quran, have shown that dramatic variations in text existed.
As far as Muslim's claims, that the Quran is the pure Word of God and was never edited, we now see the Quran has been translated into more than 100 European, Asian, and African languages. In 1936, translations of the Quran into 102 languages were available. Currently, there are about 62 English translations of the Quran.
In contrast, the Bible has been translated into other languages, purely so that others in the world can read it, but as far as destroying the true meaning and value of its context and message of how to get to heaven, nothing has changed. We don't have to know or understand the whole Bible in order to have salvation. That would be impossible.
The message of Salvation has always stayed intact and if we miss that, we have missed everything. The doctrine of preservation in regard to scripture, means that the Lord has kept His Word intact as to its original meaning. Preservation simply means that we can trust the scriptures, because God has sovereignly overseen the process of transmission over the centuries.
The "differences" are things like minor spelling variations. The small editing is so minor, they change nothing. They did not rewrite the whole Bible or even part of it. The editing was words used in the Old English, like "thee and thou", but the message of the Gospel concerning salvation and how to get to heaven, was never changed. Scholars agree on this. We should keep in mind that this would not, and does not, affect the accuracy of scripture, nor does it mean that God has not preserved His Word. God has supernaturally kept and preserved His Word through the Ages.
The New Testament tells us that Scripture is inspired (2 Timothy 3:16). God did not entrust his holy, precious Word to just anyone. He entrusted HOLY MEN OF OLD to trsnscribe God's Word, as the Holy Spirit moved in this process of writing (2 Pet. 1:21), inspiring/giving these transcribers, what to write. That's why scripture is described as being "God-breathed". In2 Timothy 3:16, Paul states, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” This is the only use in the Bible of the Greek word"THEOPNEUSTOS", which means “God-breathed, inspired by God, due to the inspiration of God,” and other scriptural passages support Scripture as being inspired by God.
The power of the breath of God in divine inspiration pervades Scripture. God breathed “the breath of life” into Adam (Genesis 2:7), and Jesus “breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:22). In2 Peter 1:21we are told that “prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Here we see the truths of Scripture described as coming directly from God, NOT from the will of the writers He used to record them.
The early scribes, whose jobs were to make exact copies of scripture, were very meticulous. One example of their scrupulous precision is the practice of counting all the letters in a given book and noting the middle letter of the book. They would then do the same for the copy, to make sure it matched. They employed such time-consuming and painstaking methods, to ensure accuracy.
Further, we can take note of the following verses that demonstrate God's plan to preserve His Word in Matthew 5:18: Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, until Heaven and Earth disappear, not the smallest letter, nor the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law, until everything is accomplished." In this verse, Jesus declared that not even the smallest stroke of a letter in the Hebrew alphabet would pass away until all is accomplished. He couldn't make that promise, unless He was sure that His Father would preserve His Word. Jesus also said, "Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but my words shall never pass away." Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31 and Luke 21:33.
THE RELIABILITY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
Scribes meticulously copied the Old Testament Scriptures on parchment or animal skins. Skin doesn’t last forever, though, and when a copy wore out, the Jews would bury it.
As a result, at one point, the oldest copies of the Hebrew Scriptures that we had dated only to the tenth century AD. But the 1947 discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran provided manuscripts dated to the second century BC—one thousand years earlier—and proved the remarkable copying accuracy. The biblical manuscripts have been reliably transmitted from the authors to us today.
The scribes worked so carefully that:
Any copy with just one mistake in it was destroyed! This guarantees us that there has been no substantial change in the text of the Old Testament in the last 2,000 years and evidence that there was probably very little change before that.
Regardless of the original location, date, or translation of the manuscripts we have today, they exhibit remarkable agreement with one another and give us confidence that they faithfully represent the original Hebrew Scriptures.
THE RELIABILITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
When we consider secular history, amazingly, we have a limited number of Greek manuscripts:
The oldest copies of manuscripts written by Tacitus, Thucydides, and Herodotus date from between the ninth and eleventh centuries AD. We only have, respectively, three, twenty, and seventy-five manuscripts of each. And we base world history on these few manuscripts!
The New Testament, on the other hand, has far better attestation than any other work of the ancient past, especially the period before the middle ages. We can have confidence in our New Testaments and trust the Bible.
The New Testament has approximately 5,700 surviving Greek copies (plus more than ten thousand copies in Latin) dating from between the second and tenth centuries. In fact, even if we had no existing manuscripts, we could reassemble the New Testament almost completely from the quotations found in the writings of the church fathers.
HOW CAN WE TRUST THE BIBLE WITH ALL THOSE ERRORS?
It helps to address this question by asking: “Errors? Name one.” This isn’t meant as a challenge but as a clarifier. It’s helpful to note the difference between an “error” and a “variant,” because they mean different things. To say that scribes and copyists have introduced thousands of “errors” in the Bible is confusing—and inaccurate.
Most things people call “errors” are actually variants, and most of those are easily resolved. For example:
A variant occurs when one manuscript differs from another in some way. Of the approximately 400,000 variants that exist in the New Testament, most are simple variations of sight and sound—such as a word misspelled or a line accidentally skipped. These are easily corrected by comparison with other manuscripts—and in many cases, by common sense.
Even in those few places where the correct reading remains uncertain, the New Testament represents a copying accuracy of 99.5 percent. Moreover, not one place in the New Testament—or in the Old Testament—does a doctrine of our faith stand or fall on a variant.
Even though we’re unsure about how to read that 1% of the Bible, we can have full confidence that we can understand 100% of what God wants us to know. That's what counts. God made His Word so we wouldn't have to GUESS how to have salvation. That message throughout the Bible, has never changed, and never will.
Without the transformative Word of God, sinners remain dead in their sin. But with it, they are brought to new life in Christ and are made increasingly into his image.
Modern archaeology has helped us realize that the Bible is historically accurate, even in the smallest of details. There have been thousands of archaeological discoveries in the past century that support every book of the Bible.