Why Believe the Bible?
(MAPS - The Case for the Bible)
By Angelo Austria
M anuscript (a written composition or a document)
Compared to other famous writers and authors in the past, nothing comes close to the Bible. Of the number of manuscripts that exist, the Bible has a total of 24,633. That includes 5,366 Greek manuscripts, Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian and Latin.
To get an idea of the significance of the NT manuscript evidence, let's look at the manuscript evidence for other ancient, non-biblical texts. Josephus's first century document The Jewish War survives in only 9 complete manuscripts dating from the 5th century AD - four centuries after they were written. Tacitus's Annals of Imperial Rome is one of the chief sources for the history of the Roman world during the NT times, yet it survives in partial form in only 2 manuscripts dating from the middle ages. Thucydides's History survives in 8 copies. There are 10 copies of Caesar's Gallic Wars and the earliest of those was made 1,000 years after it was written and 7 copies of Plato's works. Homer's Iliad has the most impressive manuscript evidence with 643 existing copies.
Most of the existing manuscripts of famous writers and authors were few, written and copied hundreds of years, if not thousands, after the event happened. While the Bible, specifically, the gospel accounts were written approximately 35-40 years after. Thus lowering the risk of alteration, addition or subtraction.
Some of the fragments of manuscripts like the Chester Beatty Papyri, named after Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1757-1968), an American collector who acquired the Greek manuscripts in 1930-1931. He founded the library of Chester Beatty and Gallery of Oriental Art. (Papyri are manuscripts written on paper like material; made from papyrus reeds) contain most of the NT and are dated mid-3rd century. The Bodmer Papyri collection - named after Martin Bodmer (1899-1971), a Swiss humanist and collector of rare books, who founded his "library of world literature" or the Bibliotheca Bodmeriana in Cologny near Geneva. His collection includes the first 14 chapters of the Gospel of John and much of the last 7 chapters. It dates from AD 200 or earlier. The most amazing one is a small portion of John 18:31-33, discovered in Egypt, known as the John Rylands Papyri - is a papyrus fragment conserved at the John Rylands Library, Manchester, UK; it represents the earliest known copy of the NT. The papyri are dated on paleographical grounds at AD 117 AD138 (though it may be even earlier.
Codex Sinaiticus is dated AD 340. The nearly completed Codex Vaticanus is the oldest, dated AD 325-AD 350. Codex Alexandrinus contains the whole OT and a nearly complete NT and dates from the late 4th century to the early 5th century.
Since there are thousands of copies made from the original, and the oldest copies are close in time to the original, the scholar can be more confident that the exact wording of the original can be pinpointed. Thus it's easy to reconcile seemingly contradicting verses by simply comparing them with the majority of text.
If we reject the authenticity of the NT on textual grounds, we'd also have to reject every work of antiquity prior to AD 1000, since less manuscript evidence for their authenticity than for the NT.
A rcheology (a study of ancient history)
Over 25,000 sites showing some connections with the Old Testament period.
When Nineveh was excavated, thousands of clay tablets were discovered that comprised the library of King Ashurbanipal of Assyria who reigned 668-626 BC. Among these writings was a set of 7 tablets called the Creation Epic that listed the six days of creation and one day of rest.
DSS (Dead Sea Scrolls) - discovered in March of 1947 by a Bedouin shepherd looking for a lost goat near the Dead Sea, threw a stone to ward off other animals and then heard the sound of something breaking.
In 140 BC. A group called the Essenes who left Jerusalem to the Judean hills to preserve the purity of the priesthood and cling to the Law of Moses and the prophets. By AD 60 Rome decided to crush the rebellion of the Jews including the Essenes, so they hid the scrolls in nearby caves and then fled.
The DSS are 1,000 years older than most manuscripts in existence, for example, like the Masoretic text which covers between 300 BC. to 70 AD. This confirms the accuracy of 1,000 years of both recording and the history of the Hebrews (200 BC - 916 AD.).
A Common Flood Story
Not just the Hebrews (Gen. 6 8), but Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and Greeks all report a flood in primordial times. A Sumerian king lists from c. 2100 BC divides it into two categories: those kings who ruled before a great flood and those who ruled after it. One oaths earliest examples of Sumero-Akkadian-Babylonian literature, the Gilgamesh Epic, describes a great flood sent as punishment by the gods, with humanity saved only when the pious Utnapishtim (ANA. “the Mesopotamian Noah" builds a ship and saves the animal world thereon. A later Greek counterpart, the story of Deucalion and Phyrra, tells of a couple who survived a great flood sent by an angry Zeus. Taking refuge atop Mount Parnassus (ANA, “the Greek Ararat", they supposedly repopulated the earth by heaving stones behind them that sprang into human beings.
The Code of Hammurabi
This seven-foot black diorite stele, discovered at Susa and presently located in the Louvre museum, contains 282 engraved laws of Babylonian King Hammurabi (fl. 1750 BC). The common basis for this law code is the lex talionis ("the law of the tooth"), showing that there was a common Semitic law of retribution in the ancient Near East, which is clearly reflected in the Pentateuch. Exodus 21:23-25, for example, reads: "But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot..." (NIV).
The Nuzi Tablets
The some 20,000 cuneiform clay tablets discovered at the ruins of Nuzi, east of the Tigris/River and datable to c. 1500 BC, reveal institutions, practices, and customs remarkably congruent to those found in Genesis. These tablets include treaties, marriage arrangements, rules regarding inheritance, adoption, and the like.
The Existence of Hittites
Genesis 23 reports that Abraham buried Sarah in the Cave of Machpelah, which he purchased from Ephron the Hittite. 2 Samuel 11 tells of David's adultery with Bathsheba the wife of Uriah the Hittite. A century ago the Hittites were unknown outside of the Old Testament, and critics claimed that they were a figment of biblical imagination. In 1906, however, archaeologists digging east of Ankara, Turkey, discovered the ruins of Hattusas, the ancient Hittite capital at what is today called Boghazkoy, as well as its vast collection of Hittite historical records, which showed an empire flourishing in the mid-second millennium BC. This critical challenge, among many others, was immediately proved worthless - a pattern that would often be repeated in the decades to come.
The Merneptah Stele
A seven-foot slab engraved with hieroglyphics, also called the Israel Stele, boasts of the Egyptian pharaoh's conquest of Libyans and peoples in Palestine, including the Israelites: "Israel—his seed is not." This is the earliest reference to Israel in nonbiblical sources and demonstrates that, as of c. 1230 BC, the Hebrews were already living in the Promised Land.
Biblical Cities Attested Archaeologically
In addition to Jericho, places such as Haran, Hazor, Dan, Megiddo, Shechem, Samaria. Shiloh, Gezer, Gibeah, Beth Shemesh, Beth Shean, Beersheba, Lachish, and many other urban sites have been excavated, quite apart from such larger and obvious locations as Jerusalem or Babylon. Such geographical markers are extremely significant in demonstrating that fact, not fantasy, is intended in the Old Testament historical narratives; otherwise, the specificity regarding these urban sites would have been replaced by "Once upon a time" narratives with only hazy geographical parameters, if any. Israel's enemies in the Hebrew Bible likewise are not contrived but solidly historical. Among the most dangerous of these were the Philistines, the people after whom Palestine itself would be named. Their earliest depiction is on the Temple of Rameses III at Thebes, c. 1150 BC, as "peoples of the sea” who invaded the Delta area and later the coastal plain of Canaan. The
Pentapolis (five cities) they established—namely Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gaza, Gath, and Ekron—have all been excavated, at least in part, and some remain cities to this day. Such precise urban evidence measures favorably when compared with the geographical sites claimed in the holy books of other religious systems, which often have no basis whatever in reality.
Shishak's Invasion of Judah
1 Kings 14 and 2 Chronicles 12 tell of Pharaoh Shishak's conquest of Judah in the fifth year of the reign of King Rehoboam, the brainless son of Solomon, and how Solomon's temple in Jerusalem was robbed of its treasures on that occasion. This victory is also commemorated in hieroglyphic wall carvings on the Temple of Amon at Thebes.
The Moabite Stone
2 Kings 3 reports that Mesha, the king of Moab, rebelled against the king of Israel following the death of Ahab. A three-foot stone slab, also called the Mesha Stele, confirms the revolt by claiming triumph over Ahab's family, c. 850 BC, and that Israel had "perished forever."
Obelisk of Shalmaneser III
In 2 Kings 9-10, Jehu is mentioned as King of Israel (841-814 BC). That the growing power of Assyria was already encroaching on the northern kings prior to their ultimate conquest in 722 BC is demonstrated by a six-and-a-half-foot black obelisk discovered in the ruins of the palace at Nimrud in 1846. On it, Jehu is shown kneeling before Shalmaneser III and offering tribute to the Assyrian king, the only relief we have to date of a Hebrew monarch.
Burial Plaque of King Uzziah
Down in Judah, King Uzziah ruled from 792 to 740 BC, a contemporary of Amos, Hosea and Isaiah. Like Solomon, he began well and ended badly. In 2 Chronicles 26 his sin is recorded, which resulted in his being struck with leprosy later in life. When Uzziah died, he was interred in a "field of burial that belonged to the kings." His stone burial plaque has been discovered on the Mount of Olives, and it reads: "Here, the bones of Uzziah, King of Judah, were brought. Do not open."
Hezekiah's Siloam Tunnel Inscription
• King Hezekiah of Judah ruled from 721 to 686 BC. Fearing a siege by the Assyrian king, Sennacherib, Hezekiah preserved Jerusalem's water supply by cutting a tunnel through 1,750 feet of solid rock from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam inside the city walls (2 Kings 20; 2 Chron. 32). At the Siloam end of the tunnel, an inscription, presently in the archaeological museum at Istanbul, Turkey, celebrates this remarkable accomplishment. The tunnel is probably the only biblical site that has not changed its appearance in 2,700 years. </p>
The Sennacherib Prism
After having conquered the 10 northern tribes of Israel, the Assyrians moved southward to do the same to Judah (2 Kings 18-19). The Prophet Isaiah, however, told Hezekiah that God would protect Judah and Jerusalem against Sennacherib (2 Chron. 32; Isa. 36-37). Assyrian records virtually confirm this. The cuneiform on a hexagonal, 15-inch baked clay prism found at the Assyrian capital of Nineveh describes Sennacherib's invasion of Judah in 701 BC in which it claims that the Assyrian king shut Hezekiah inside Jerusalem "like a caged bird." Like the biblical record, however, it does not state that he conquered Jerusalem, which the prism certainly would have done had this been the case. The Assyrians, in fact, bypassed Jerusalem on their way to Egypt, and the city would not fall until the time of Nebuchadnezzar and the Neo-Babylonians in 586 BC. Sennacherib himself returned to Nineveh where his own sons murdered him.
The Cylinder of Cyrus the Great
2 Chronicles 36:23 and Ezra 1 report Cyrus the Great of Persia, after conquering Babylon, permitted Jews in the Babylonian Captivity to return to their homeland. Isaiah had even prophesied this (Isa. 44:28). This tolerant policy of the founder of the Persian Empire is borne out by the discovery of a nine-inch clay cylinder found at Babylon from the time of its conquest, 539 BC, which reports Cyrus's victory and his subsequent policy of permitting Babylonian captives to return to their homes and even rebuild their temples. So it goes. This list of correlations between Old Testament texts and the hard evidence of Near Eastern archaeology could easily be tripled in length. When it comes to the intertestamental and New Testament eras, as we might expect, the needle on the gauge of positive correlations simply goes off the scale. To use terms such as "false testament" for the Hebrew Bible and to vaporize its earlier personalities into nonexistence accordingly has no justification whatever in terms of the mass of geographical, archaeological, and historical evidence that correlates so admirably with Scripture.
P rophecy (a divine utterance regarding specific future events)
The Old Testament contains over 300 references to the Messiah that were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Computation using the science of probability on just 8 of these prophecies show the chance that someone could have fulfilled all 8 prophecies is 1017 power or 1 in 100 quadrillion.
Out of the Old Testaments, 23,210 verses - 6,641 contain predictive material or 28.5%.
Out of the New Testament 7,914 verses - 1,711 contain predictive material or 21.5%.
In the entire Bibles' 31,124 verses - 8,352 contain predictive material or 27%.
According to Dr. J. Barton Payne's Encyclopedia of Biblical prophecy he cited more than 125 separate specific prophecies in the OT about Jesus Christ first coming. Interestingly, over 1,800 verses in 29 books (including 318 verses in the NT) deal with the second coming of Christ. If this means anything, it means that the physical return of Jesus Christ to the earth has the same chance of being fulfilled as the prophecies of His first coming – as we will see a 100% probability.
Other Examples of prophecy fulfilled is in Daniel 2 - the rise and fall of Kingdoms (Babylon (606-538 B. C), Medo-Persia (538-331 B.C.), Greece (331168 B. C.) and Rome (168 B.C. - 476 A D), Ten Kingdoms (476-Second coming of Jesus Christ), which was written in 536 B.C.
S tatistics (The Bible stands alone/unique)
It is unique in its consistency. If just 10 people today were picked who were from the same place, born around the same time, spoke the same language, and made about the same amount of money, and were asked to write on just one controversial subject, they would have trouble agreeing with each other. But the Bible stands alone. It is written over a period of 1,600 years by more than 40 writers from all walks of life. They were fir om 3 different continents, and wrote in 3 different languages. They wrote on hundreds of controversial subjects yet they wrote with agreement and harmony.
It is unique in its circulation. Since the invention of the first movable type with its first published book (the Bible), it has been read by more people and printed more times than any other books in history. By 1930, over 1 billion Bibles had been distributed in Bible societies around the world. By 1977, Bible societies alone were printing over 200 million bibles each year, and it doesn't include the rest of the Bible publishing companies.
It is unique in its translation. The Bible has been translated into over 1,400 languages. No other book comes close.
It is unique in its survival. In ancient times books were copied by hand onto manuscripts which were made from parchment and would decay over time. Ancient books are available today only because someone made copies of the originals to preserve them. Like Julius Caesar, he only has 10 copies in existence and was made 1,000 years after he died. It is unique in withstanding attacks. No other book has been so attacker throughout history as the Bible. In 300 AD, The Roman emperor Diocletian ordered every Bible burned because he taught that by destroying the scriptures he could destroy Christianity. Anyone caught with a Bible would be executed. But just 25 years later, the Roman emperor Constantine ordered that 50 perfect copies of the bible be made at government expense. The French philosopher Voltaire boasted that within 100 years of his death, the Bible would disappear from the face of the earth. He died in 1728, but the Bible lives on, and the irony of history is that 50 years ether his death, the Geneva Bible society moved into his former house and used his printing presses to print thousands of Bibles.