The Bible

The title “The Bible” means the book and I will explain to you why. Unlike many other religious books that were written by one or two men during a lifetime The Bible is a combination of 66 books written by 40 authors over 1,600 years and the last book was written 2,000 years ago! The authors range from sheppards to kings and it was written in palaces and in jails. It is the number one printed book of all time and the foundation of the largest religion in the world. Everyone who considers themselves an intellectual or seeks knowledge regarding our world should read the Bible for its importance regardless of their beliefs.

For 1800 years people have been trying to prove the Bible wrong yet it still stands strong today in its claim to be the word of God and the one true meaning of life. Some of the biggest misconceptions about the Bible are that the fulfillments of the hundreds of prophecies were added later or that the hundreds of miracles were embellished over time or never happened at all. Anyone who suggests either of these has not done his or her research.

In 1947 The Dead Sea scrolls were found in a cave. They turned out to be the oldest biblical manuscripts found by almost 1,000 years written around the third century B.C. to 68 A.D. One of the manuscripts found was a complete copy of Isaiah dated at 125 BC.

When it was compared to our earliest copy before the Dead Sea Scrolls we were astonished to find out that in 1,000 years of making copies the two were 95% textually identical. The 5% was mainly misspelling of words and did not threaten the reliability of the text. Concerning the prophecies it is important to remember that the prophecies were spoken publicly, written down and studied by the Jewish people until their fulfillment. To change the Bible sometimes hundreds of years later to fulfill a prophecy you would have to get everyone who ever read it to participate.

We have a combined copy of nearly the entire New Testament in the Chester Beatty Papyri within 150-200 years of the originals and a fragment of John dating back to just 25 years after the original. The earliest copy of Plato (Tetralogies) we have is 1,200 after the original and we only have 7 copies in all. We have over 5,000 manuscripts and portions of manuscripts of the New Testament!

Concerning the miracles being embellished acts that actually took place or lies that never happened it is improbable. The Gospel of Matthew was written by one of the disciples of Jesus. He spent years with Jesus and wrote his Gospel only 35 years after he was crucified. He describes 20 miracles performed by Jesus including many that were done in crowds of thousands of people. There was no time for the acts to be embellished or for Matthew to lie. The same people who were hearing his Gospel had either seen the miracles themselves or could ask someone who was there what happened.