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TheReliabilityoftheBibleI–EvidenceandInerrancySeidelAbelBoanerges

I. Authorship:WhowrotetheBible?

Allof ScripturewasauthoredbyGod,butwrittenbymenas theywere ledby theHoly Spirit. 2 Peter 1:20-21: Above all, you must understand that no prophecy ofScripturecameaboutbytheprophet'sowninterpretation.Forprophecyneverhaditsorigininthewillofman,butmenspokefromGodastheywerecarriedalongbytheHolySpirit.Writtenover1500years

• 40differentAuthors:Authors fromdifferentwalksof life, a king, amilitaryleader, a philosopher, a poet, a musician, a tax collector, a shepherd, ahistorian,afisherman,acupbearerandarabbi.

• Different Places: Wilderness, dungeon, hillsides, prisons, under exile andwhiletravelling.

• Different Moods: Height’s of joy, depths of sorrow, confusion, doubt,convictionanduncertainty.

• Different Literary Styles: Poetry, songs, romance, satire, biography,autobiography,law,prophecy,parable,narrativesandallegory.

• 3Continents:Asia,AfricaandEurope.

• 3Languages:Hebrew,AramaicandGreek.

• Categorization: Pentateuch, OT History, Poetry, Major Prophets, MinorProphets,Gospels,NTHistory,PaulineEpistles,GeneralEpistles,Prophecy.

• Though some say that theNewTestamentwaswritten100-300 years afterChristdied,thetruthisthatitwaswrittenbeforethecloseofthefirstcenturyby thosewhoeither knewChristpersonally, hadencounteredhim,orwereunderthedirectionofthosewhowereHisdisciples.

II. FormationoftheBible

ThewordBiblecomesfromtheGreekwordτὰβιβλία(tabiblía)meaning‘Thebooks’.

NowwhodecideswhattoincludeintheBible?

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The question concerning how it wasdecided which books would becomepart of the Bible is the question ofcanonicity. The word canon comesfrom the root word reed. The reedwas used as a measuring rod, andcametomean‘standard’.Old Testament: The documentaryevidence shows that the OldTestament canon was establishedbetween1500-150B.C.Thebooksweretraditionally24innumberandweredividedintothreesections–Law,ProphetsandWritings.Thenumberdifferstoourcurrentnumber of 39 because we divide books such as Samuel, Kings, Chronicles in twodifferent books. All the Minor Prophets were classified as one book called ‘TheTwelve’.Our protestant Bible has the same 39 books of the Old Testament as the JewishTanakh. However, in the Catholic Bible, their Old Testament has 46 books. It hasextra books known as theApocrypha (Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2Maccabees,Wisdom,SirachandBaruch).Apocrypha:Greek–apokryphos =obscure;Medieval Latinapocryphus = secret,ornon-canonical.Theywereaddedtothecatholicbiblein1545–CouncilofTrentThereareafewreasonswhytheApocryphaisapartoftheHebrewcanon.1

• They abound in historical and geographical inaccuracies and anachronisms.Forexample,thebookofJudithincorrectlysaysthatNebuchadnezzarwasthekingoftheAssyrianswhenhewasthekingoftheBabylonians.

• They teach false doctrines and foster practices that are at variance withscripture.Forexample,prayers for thedead,payingmoney for their sins (2Macc12)andsmokefromfish’sheartdrivesawayevilspirits(Tobit)

• Theylackdistinctiveelementssuchaspropheticpowerandreligiousfeeling.

Additionalreasonswhytheyarenotpartofourprotestantcanon.2

• JesusandtheNewTestamentwritersneverquotedfromtheApocrypha.• NoChristianCouncilrecognisedthemasinspired.• ManyChurchFathersspokeoutagainsttheApocryphasuchasOrigen,Cyrilof

JerusalemandAthanasius.• MartinLutherandotherreformersrejectedthem.

1MerrillF.Unger,Unger'sBibleDictionary,3rdedn(MoodyPress,1966),p.85.2NormanGeislerandWilliamNix,AGeneralIntroductiontotheBible(Chicago:MoodyPress,1986),p.272-273.

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NewTestament:JustinMartyr(A.D100-165)referringtotheEucharist,writesinhisFirstApology1:67‘AndonthedaycalledSundaythereisagatheringtogether…andmemoirs of the apostles or thewritings of the prophets are read as long as timepermits’.However,hedoesnotlistthebooksoftheNewTestament.

Figure1–AcceptanceofNewTestamentBooks3

ItseemsthatthefirstChristiansstartedtocollectthewritingsoftheapostlesataveryearlystageandstartedtoregardthemasauthoritativeanddivinelyinspired.

Oneofthefirst listsofthebooksoftheBiblewegetisfromA.D90.It iscalledtheMuratorian Canon (Please see Figure 1).Muratorian Canon gets its name from itsdiscovererL.A.Muratoriwhofirstdiscoveredit.The4thcenturychurchhistorian,EusebiusagreedwithmostofthelistbutdisputedJames,2Peter,2&3John,andJude,butRevelationcontinuedtobewilderhim.Thefulllistofthe27bookscomesfromBishopAthanasiusinA.D367.Canoncriteria–apostolicity(apostolicage),catholicity(universal)andorthodoxy.Apologists Geisler and Nix give a few reasons why other books such asGospel ofHebrews, Shepherd of Hermas, Letter of Barnabas andRevelation of Peter did notmakeitintotheNewTestamentcanon.4

3BruceShelley,ChurchHistoryinPlainLanguage,4thedn(Nashville:ThomasNelson,2008),p.73.4NormanGeislerandWilliamNix,AGeneralIntroductiontotheBible(Chicago:MoodyPress,1986),p.135.

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• Noneofthemenjoyedanymorethanatemporaryorlocalrecognition.• Mostofthemneverhadanythingmorethanasemi-canonicalstatus.• NomajorChurchcouncilincludedthemasinspired.• Mostofthemfootnotedtheirsourcesasthecanonicalbooks.

GospelofThomas,200AD:Jesuscreatedsparrowsoutofclay.Achildrananddashedagainsthisshoulder,Jesusrebukedhimandhedied.Aquotefromthegospel-SimonPetersaystothem:"LetMarygooutfromourmidst,forwomenarenotworthyoflife!"Jesussays:"See,Iwilldrawhersoastomakehermalesothatshealsomaybecomealivingspiritlikeyoumales.ForeverywomanwhohasbecomemalewillentertheKingdomofheaven."

III. Reliability:IsthecontentiftheBiblicalmanuscriptsreliable?

Ø Theintegrityofanyancientdocumentisdeterminedbythenumberofdocumentedmanuscripts that still exist. The time factor and the content need to be given acarefulstudy.

Manuscriptevidenceforancientwritings.5Author Written TimeSpan No.ofManuscriptsCaesar 100-44BC 1000Years 10Plato 427-347BC 1200Years 7Homer(Iliad) 900BC 500Years 643Tacitus 100AD 1000Years 20NewTestament 40-100AD 25-50Years 24,000

Ø 5,300 Greek Manuscripts, 10,000 Latin Manuscripts and 9,300 early portions invariouslanguagessuchasSyrian,Coptic,Armenian,Gothic&Ethiopic.

Ø Bruce Metzger says ‘Out of the 20,000 lines of the New Testament, it is safe foranyonetosaythatthereisatleast99.6%documentaryevidencereadilyavailable’.

Ø GoodexamplesofmanuscriptsareCodexVaticanusandCodexSiniaticuswhichareparchmentcopiesoftheentireNTfromthe4thCentury(325-450AD).

Ø There are approx 86,000 quotations of the early church fathers. If the entire NTdisappearsovernight,wecanstillbuildwholeoftheNTwithjustanexceptionof20verses.6

5AmyOrr-Ewing,WhyTrusttheBible,IVP,2005,39.

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Ø The Dead Sea Scrolls (68 AD) – 40,000 inscribed fragments found in the QumranCaves. Confirms 95% of our Old Testament and the other 5% are only minorvariationsthatdon’taffectthecontentofthetext.TheyalsofoundsomeoftheNTfragmentsaswell.

Ø NewTestamentconfirmstheOldTestament.TherearenumerouscitationsbyJesus,theapostlesandvariousothersthatconfirmthetruthfulnessoftheOT.

Ø Themodern archaeological evidences amazingly confirm the reliability of the bothOldandNewTestaments.

Quran:AngelGabrielrecitingtheversestoMuhammedin610AD,andcompiledbyAbuBakrafter125yearsafterMohammed.CanonizedbyUthman.UponthecanonizationoftheQur'an,UthmanorderedtheburningofallpersonalcopiesoftheQur'an.Buddhism: Pali Tipitaka dates back to 500 BC. Earliest text, 250 BC – 250 yearsdifference.Compilation–100AD–600yearsdifferenceHinduism:Vedasdateback to1500BC. Earliest text,500BC–1000yearsdifference.Compilation–200BC–1300yearsdifference.

IV. AllegedContradictionsandDiscrepancies

Inerrancy means that when all the facts are known, the scriptures in their originalautographs,properlyinterpreted,willshowtobewhollytrueineverythingtheyaffirm.7Thescriptureswererecordedinancienttimesusingancientstandards.BibleisthewordofGodthatmeansthattherearenoerrorsorcontradictions,butthatdoesn’tmeanthattherearenodifficultiesinit.Augustineoncesaid,‘Ifweareperplexedbyanyapparentcontradictioninscripture,itisnotallowabletosaythattheauthorofthebookismistaken,buteitherthemanuscriptisfaulty,orthetranslationiswrongoryouhavenotunderstood.’8Principlesinunderstandingtheseallegedcontradictionanddiscrepancies.1. Understandthecontextofthepassage.

6Orr-Ewing,Trust,42.7McDowell,Evidence,338.8NormanGeislerandThomasHowe,TheBigBookofBibleDifficulties,BakerBooks,1992,15.

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2. TheUnexplainedisnotnecessaryunexplainable.

3. Interpretdifficultpassagesinthelightoftheclearones.

4. Fallibleinterpretationsdon’tmeanfalliblerevelation.

5. Justbecausethereportisincompletedoesnotmeanit’sfalse.

6. NewTestamentcitationsoftheOldTestamentneednotalwaysbeexact.

7. TheBibledoesnotnecessarilyapproveofallitrecords.

8. TheBiblemayuseroundnumbersaswellasexactnumbers.

9. Anerrorinthecopydoesnotequateanerrorintheoriginal.

10. Laterrevelationsupercedespreviousrevelation.

Lookingatsomeoftheexamples:Activity

Ø WasJesuscrucifiedonthe3rdHourorthe6thHour–Mark15:25&John19:14

Ø WasitGodorSatanwhomovedDavidtocountIsraelandJudah–2Samuel24:1&1Chronicles21:1

QuestionsforReflection:

1. Nametwoorthreenewaspectsthatyoulearntintoday’slecture.

a.

b.

c.

2. Pleasediscusshowthesenewaspectsinformorimpactyourfaithnow?