HOW DO WE KNOW THE BIBLE IS TRUE

Presented to ICC English 110 Dr. K. Dusenbery

By: Derek L. Martin March 19, 2012

We all are biased. We all have different backgrounds and upbringings; this causes us to interpret things differently. In the upcoming election in November we will have choices to make. Most of us will decide on who to vote for based on our own values and who we believe will best represent the people of America and make the best decisions for our country. But some people will decide not to vote. Religion is pretty similar. All of us have chosen some sort of religion based on our worldview, whether it is atheism, Christianity, etc. Based on this we cannot interpret data from a non biased perspective. My own worldview is based on the bible. I am a Christian; I made this decision at a young age of around 5. As I have gotten older I have had the opportunity to explore my faith and figure out if the bible is really a true, historical account of the foundation of my faith. There are numerous topics that need to be covered to be able to make a complete and accurate defense of the bible. First and foremost among these is the existence of God. Others include specific items in the bible, such as the divinity of Jesus, the creation account in Genesis, and if the bible is the divinely inspired word of God. Some of these we will touch on, but we are forced to make assumptions to keep the paper within the required limit. The major two assumptions that we are going to make are these. One, God exists. And two, that the events described in the bible have at least some shred of truth behind them. We are going to investigate through the course of this paper; if the events in the bible described accurately or have had creative liberty taken with them throughout the course of history, with our main focus being the New Testament because most of the controversy focuses around this part. When historians uncover documents that claim to be accurate representations of history they have three main tests that they use to determine their accuracy, these tests are the

Bibliographic test, the Internal test, and the External test. The first one that we will cover is the Bibliographic test. According to KnowWhatYouBelieve.com The Bibliographical test examines textual transmission i.e. do we have accurate copies of what was originally recorded? So first we will look at the amount of copies that we have found of the bible and how much variation that we see between copies. According to the previously mentioned website we have found more than 24,000 manuscript copies of the bible in multiple translations located over a large geographic area. Whats more is that among all those copies there are only minor variations between them, these variations consist of spelling differences, phraseology, etc. If the New Testament was subjected to various doctrine changes or other major changes then they would show up in at least a few of these copies, especially because the copies that we have found have been scatted over such a wide area. Also, the bible is widely quoted by the early church fathers. Sir David Dalrymple who was a Scottish historian in the early 1700s (jamesboswell.info) was asked "Suppose that the New Testament had been destroyed, and every copy of it lost by the end of the third century, could it have been collected together again from the writings of the Fathers of the second and third centuries?" After a great deal of investigation Dalrymple concluded: "That question roused my curiosity, and as I possessed all the existing works of the Fathers of the second and third centuries, I commenced to search, and up to this time I have found the entire New Testament, except eleven verses." (Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Josh Mcdowell)
2

Dalyrmple also went on to state that the out of the 11 verses that he could not find, none of the verses were major theologies of the Christian faith. Another item that historians look at when trying to figure out the authenticity of a document is the time length between the original writing of the document and the earliest copy that we have. The bible has several fragments dating about 50-150 years within the original writing, with several almost complete New Testament manuscripts dated within 300-400 years of the originals. All in all we have about 500 different copies of the New Testament within 500 years of the original. These numbers mean nothing though without comparing them with other documents that historians consider reliable. The Iliad by Homer, which is an account of the final weeks of the Trojan War, has the second greatest number of manuscript copies of any work of antiquity and is the only other historical document that comesclose to the bible in the amount of time between the manuscript and the earliest copy. The earliest copy that we have of the Iliad dates about 500 years after the original writing (KnowWhatYouBelieve.org), compared to the 50-150 year gap of the bible. We have 643 copies of the Iliad, compared to the 24,000plus of the bible. Other documents considered the most reputable besides the Bible and the Iliad include, Plato's 'Tetralogies' dated within 1200 years of the original with 7 known copies, and Pliny The Younger's 'History' dated within 750 years of the original with 7 known copies. The second test used is called the internal test. The internal test looks at what the document says, how it fits together as a whole, and how much time passed between the events and when they were written down. First we are going to look at the timing of the writing of the New Testament.

Some people say that the authors of the bible dont come out and state that what they are writing is supposed to be taken as a factual account of the events. This is simply not true, 2 Peter 1.16 reads For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version). Other places in scripture were this claim is made are: Luke 1.1-3; 1 John 1.3; John 19.35. Does this automatically mean that the bible is true? No, this just means that the authors intent was for it to be taken as true. We then start to look at other key items to see if the bible matches up with what we already know about history. The New Testament names a large number of specific names, dates, events, and places. As we are gaining a more complete knowledge of history we are seeing that the bibles account of history is completely correct. Another aspect that the Internal test looks at is the time gap between the events and the time of writing. Homers Iliad was written about 400 years after the Trojan war and is considered an accurate account. The Gospels, which are the first four books of the New Testament and give the account of Jesus ministry from the viewpoint of four different people, are believed to have been written between 40-70 years after the events. Because they were written so soon after the events that they described, there still would have been other people around who were also eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus and would have corrected any mistakes that could have been in the writing. Likewise the same people who remembered what happened would have backed up the accounts that the authors wrote. Another item that falls into this category is the lives of the authors of the New Testament. Thousands of people were killed and tortured for the message written down in the bible. People are still facing persecution for the gospel. Its not just the people who heard and believed the
4

message either. At least 10 out of the 12 disciples were killed for preaching the gospel (AboutJesus.org), we know this from sources besides the bible as well. If what they were preaching was a lie, then the authors were great fools to let themselves be tortured and killed for the message they were preaching. Paul, probably one of the greates evangilists in the bible besides Jesus says this in 2 Corinthians 11.24-28: Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. (ESV) Many times these men had a choice, admit that what they were preaching was false, or face persecution. Jesus even had a choice; he could have said that he was lying, but instead he continued to say that he was God. Because of this he was killed in the most painful way that had been devised up to that date. When he rose from the dead, which is another paper for another time, he proved that what he was preaching was in fact the truth. The last thing I will mention in this section is the supposed contradictions in the bible. I do not have enough space to delve into this as deeply as it should be, so I will only mention that when contradictions come up all of the ones that I have researched or have heard about can be solved by either going back to the original language or by recognizing that different people have given accounts of the same events. Some people place more emphasis on certain details then others. These are not contradictions, merely different aspects of the same thing. The finale test that we will cover is named the External test. This test looks at what other external sources have to say about what is depicted in the document in question.
5

Iraneus, bishop of Lyons in AD 180 wrote this about the gospels. Matthew published his gospel among the Hebrews [i.e. Jews] in their own tongue, when Peter and Paul were preaching the gospel in Rome and founding the church there. After their departure [i.e. death, which strong tradition places at the time of the Neronian persecution in 64], Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, himself handed down to us in writing the substance of Peters preaching. Luke, the follower of Paul, set down in a book the gospel preached by his teacher. Then John, the disciple of the Lord, who also leaned on His breast [this is a reference to John 13:15 and 21:20], himself produced his gospel, while he was living at Ephesus in Asia. (A Ready Defense, Josh McDowell) This is only one example of many in which the biblical account of various events is mentioned in other sources. There are even writings that we have found from the time period of Jesus that try to provide a non-divine explanation for his miracles. This provides even more evidence that there in fact was a person named Jesus who did things out of the ordinary. Places and people mentioned in the bible that were thought to be made up because they were mentioned nowhere else, have been found by archeological digs. Due to space constraints I am unable to delve into this anymore. As you probably have gathered from this paper I believe that the bible is true. The more I research the more I am convinced of this. There are many more arguments that I wish that I could cover, but since space is limited I must draw to a close. I would like to end with a quote from C.S. Lewis, a prominent Christian author from the mid 1900s. In most parts of the Bible, everything is implicitly or explicitly introduced with "Thus saith the Lord". It is... not merely a sacred book but a book so remorselessly and continuously sacred that it does not invite -- it excludes or repels -- the merely aesthetic approach. You can read it as literature only by a tour de force... It demands incessantly to be taken on its own terms: it will not continue to give literary delight very long, except to those who go to it for something quite different. I predict that it will in the future be read, as it always has been read, almost exclusively by Christians. --C.S. Lewis

Works Cited "Evidence For The Christian Faith." KnowWhatWouBelieve.com. Web. 17 Mar. 2012. <http://www.KnowWhatYouBelieve.com>. Frandzen, Thomas. "David Dalrymple Biography." Web. 17 Mar. 2012. <http://www.jamesboswell.info/biography/david-dalrymple-lord-hailes>. Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2001. Print. Lewis, C.S. "Quotes about the Bible." Tentmakers Ministries. Gary and Michelle Amirault. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. <http://www.tentmaker.org/Quotes/biblequotes.htm>. McDowell, Josh. A Ready Defense. United States: Here's Life Pub, 1990. Print. McDowell, Josh. Evidence That Demands a Verdict. San Bernardino, CA: Hers's Life, 1979. Print. "What Happened to the Apostles?" The Martyrdom of the Apostles. Web. 18 Mar. 2012. <http://www.about-jesus.org/martyrs.htm>.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.