The Word
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Ps 119:105)
THE BIBLE'S AUTHORITY
… is attacked by those who want you to believe the word of men rather than the Word of God. They use many deceptive and dishonest arguments to try and establish their authority.
Translated too many times?
• Our Old Testament is translated from Hebrew.
• Our New Testament is translated from Greek.
Missing Books?
• The Old Testament books were accepted by all the prophets, including Jesus.
• The New Testament books were accepted by first century apostles and prophets.
Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha?
• These are not writings of men inspired by God.
• Many were written by false prophets like the Gnostics, who are called the antichrist by the Apostle John.
Changed by Catholics?
• The Dead Sea Scrolls (100 B.C.) and Septuagint (250 B.C.) both predate Catholics.
• There are thousands of Greek New Testament manuscripts, many of which predate Catholics.
Textual Criticism
• Comparison of manuscripts to decipher any changes.
• Only one half of one percent has any question as to whether it was in the original.
• Doesn’t involve any important Christian doctrine.
• Obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling.
Three Major Tests
1. The internal evidence test finds that the New Testament history was given by eye-witnesses who published their testimony during the lifetimes of those who were contemporaries of the events described.
2. The external evidence test finds that the New Testament is confirmed by literally hundreds of well-established facts of history known from external historical sources and from archaeology.
3. The bibliographical test examines the manuscript authority of the New Testament based on the number of manuscripts in existence and their closeness to the original. We can best comprehend the superior wealth of manuscript authority for the New Testament by comparing it with textual material from other notable literature of antiquity, and we find that the New Testament leads all others by a staggering margin.
|
Author |
When Written |
Earliest Copy |
Number of Copies |
|
Caesar |
100 - 44 B.C. |
900 A.D. |
10 |
|
Plato (Tetralogies) |
427 - 347 B.C. |
900 A.D. |
7 |
|
Tacitus (Annals) |
100 A.D. |
1100 A.D. |
20 |
|
Pliny the Younger |
61 - 113 A.D. |
50 A.D. |
7 |
|
Thucydides |
460 - 400 B.C. |
900 A.D. |
8 |
|
Suetonius |
75 - 160 A.D. |
950 A.D. |
8 |
|
Herodotus |
480 - 425 B.C. |
900 A.D. |
8 |
|
Sophocles |
796 - 406 B.C. |
1000 A.D. |
193 |
|
Catullus |
54 B.C. |
1550 A.D. |
3 |
|
Euripides |
480 - 406 B.C. |
1100 A.D. |
9 |
|
Demosthenes |
383 - 322 B.C. |
1100 A.D. |
200* |
|
Aristotle |
384 - 382 B.C. |
1100 A.D. |
49* |
|
Aristophanes |
450 - 385 B.C. |
900 A.D. |
10 |
|
Homer (Iliad) |
900 B.C. |
400 B.C. |
643 |
|
New Testament |
40 - 100 A.D. |
125 A.D. |
24,000 + |
|
* Demotheses - All 200 copies derived from just one copy.
* Aristotle - No more than 49 copies of any one work. |
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