Can I Trust The Bible?

Introduction

In the past, when religious people would debate, they would debate over doctrine in the Bible. This still happens, but in a sense times have changed.

Now instead of debating doctrines, we find ourselves debating the truth of the Bible.

Again, in the past the Bible itself was not up for discussion. People just took for granted the truth and validity of the Bible, but not anymore.

So, in this lesson we are going to talk about whether or not we can trust the Bible.

Can I trust the people who wrote it?

How do we know that the people who wrote about Jesus didn’t make up the story? Here are a few things to consider.

Time Frame

First of all, these books were written soon after the resurrection of Jesus.

Some people will claim that the New Testament writings were forged in the 2nd century and contain little truth to them.

It’s just not so. The consensus among scholarship is that the New Testament was written in the first century with some of the earliest works being written in the 50s.

This is evident from secular history. Clement of Rome writes a letter to the Corinthians church in AD 95, and he advices them to consult Paul’s letter to them. (1 Clement 47:1 for reference)

The Apostolic Fathers: English Translations 47

Take up the epistle of the blessed Paul the apostle. (2) What did he first write to you in the “beginning of the gospel”? (3) Truly he wrote to you in the Spirit about himself and Cephas and Apollos, because even then you had split into factions. (4) Yet that splitting into factions brought less sin upon you, for you were partisans of highly reputed apostles and of a man approved by them.

We could go down the rabbit hole on this one, but there is a reason why the consensus is that these books were written in the first century. That’s where the evidence points

Eye Witnesses Still Alive

Since they were written so early, it would be unlikely that someone would falsify events in Jesus’ life when the eyewitnesses were still alive.

1 Corinthians 15:1-7.

1 Corinthians 15:1–7 CSB

1 Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. 6 Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

Paul tells the Corinthians that there are people who witnessed Jesus’ resurrection. If it’s all just one big lie, then the people who knew the truth would come forward.

There is a quote. “History is written by the victors.” Why is that? Because the other side is not alive to dispute the facts.

So, the fact that it was written soon after the resurrection, gives the story itself credibility. If the story were not true, the eyewitnesses would say so.

Martyrdom

The people preaching the good news of Jesus were martyred for their faith.

We know from secular history, that James – the brother of Jesus – was martyred. We know that Peter was martyred.

Paul says that James was one of the eyewitnesses. 1 Corinthians 15:7.

1 Corinthians 15:7 CSB

7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

If James made up the story about seeing the risen Jesus, why would he die for that lie?

Why do people lie? There are plenty of reasons, but mostly because people are selfish. The truth will hurt them, so they choose to lie. This is why liars don’t die for a lie.

Corroboration

Many of the New Testament claims are corroborated by secular history.

This is what Tacitus writes:

Tacitus: The Histories and The Annals, Volumes I–IV: English Translation Book XV

Therefore, to scotch the rumour, Nero substituted as culprits, and punished with the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class of men, loathed for their vices, whom the crowd styled Christians. Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilatus, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judaea, the home of the disease, but in the capital itself, where all things horrible or shameful in the world collect and find a vogue.

This is what Josephus writes:

The Works of Josephus: New Updated Edition Chapter 3: Sedition of the Jews against Pontius Pilate; Concerning Christ, and What Befell Paulina and the Jews at Home

Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works—a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ; (64) and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.

Now, many scholars question the authenticity of this passage, but there is a strong case to be made based on Josephus’ diction that the core of this statement is authentic.

F.F. Bruce says this:

The Journey from Texts to Translations: The Origin and Development of the Bible Period of Oral Transmission

Josephus bears witness to Jesus’ date, to his being the brother of James the Just, to his reputation as a miracle-worker, to his crucifixion under Pilate as a consequence of charges brought against him by the Jewish rulers, to his claim to be Messiah, and to his being the founder of the “tribe of Christians.”

This is what the Babylonian Talmud, a collection of Jewish traditions reads:

The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary 6:1H–J

On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, ‘He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Any one who can say anything in his favor, let him come forward and plead on his behalf.’ But since nothing was brought forward in his favor he was hanged on the eve of the Passover!

This was written some 200+ years after Jesus, but this was a passage where the Jews were trying to justify their crucifixion of Jesus, so they paint him as a sorcerer.

So, this isn’t just some make believe story with no corroborating secular history. There are other historians who write about this Jesus.

For a long time, people quibbled with some of the details in Luke’s writings. Luke includes so many details in his gospel and Acts, and people used that to criticize him.

Acts 18:12 CSB

12 While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack against Paul and brought him to the tribunal.

For some time the skeptics would criticize Luke for adding this detail. There was no evidence that Gallio was proconsul of Achaia. But in the early 1900s, we found an inscription, that is now called the Gallio Inscription, that describes him as proconsul of Achaia.

Embarrassing Details

The writers include embarrassing details about themselves.

If you’re going to make up a story, then you are going to make yourself look good. If you are concerned about recording actual events, then it doesn’t matter if it makes you look good.

The disciples were concerned with recording events, whether it made them look good or bad.

History tells us that Peter was behind Mark’s account of the Gospel, and if he was fabricating events, you would think it would be to make Peter look good.

Mark 8:31-33.

Mark 8:31–33 CSB

31 Then he began to teach them that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and rise after three days. 32 He spoke openly about this. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning around and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You are not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.”

If Peter wasn’t concerned with telling the true story of Jesus, you would think that they would just leave that out.

So, the question is can we trust the people who wrote it. It seems that we can. There is a lot of evidence that gives the authors of the New Testament credibility.

Can I trust the people who copied it?

Maybe the disciples did a great job recording various events, but can we trust that their words weren’t changed at a later date? It would be extremely hard to do that. Here’s why:

The Volume of Manuscripts

The sheer volume of manuscript evidence.

There are over 5,000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, and this is only the Greek manuscripts. There are an additional 9,000 New Testament manuscripts in other languages.

This makes the New Testament the best attested document from ancient history. Most documents in the ancient world have manuscripts in the single or double digits.

Tacitus’ historical work has only two manuscripts.

The ancient document that comes in second place after the New Testament is Homer’s Iliad which has 643 manuscripts.

This means that changing the original wording of these books would be very difficult. If someone didn’t like what Paul said about husbands loving their wives, they would have to find thousands of manuscripts and alter all of them.

Early Dating

The early date of some of these manuscripts.

The manuscripts that we have for Homer’s Iliad are 1,000 years older than the original. We don’t have any of the originals, but we still consider the manuscripts reliable.

We don’t have any original NT documents either, and if the only manuscripts we had were dated to 1,000 years after the originals, we might be skeptical. But we have NT manuscripts that are within 100 years of the original.

Critical Scholars

The intense curiosity of critical scholars.

The NT documents are some of the most critically examined documents from antiquity.

F.F. Bruce tells us that one of the reasons we have a credible account of Jesus’ life is because

“no body of literature has been subjected, over the past two centuries, to more intensive and critical analysis than the New Testament writings in general and the four Gospels in particular”

So, we can trust the people who copied it. This isn’t to say that there aren’t spelling and word variations between the manuscripts, but the message of the gospel is clearly unaltered from the original.

Conclusion: Can I trust that I have all the right books?

So, the writers were honest, and the copyist did a great job, but how can I know that there aren’t any missing books of the Bible?

You may have heard something like this before. Maybe you watched some documentary on the discovery channel about the "missing gospels."

How do we know we have all of the books that God wants us to have. Maybe there are some missing doctrines that have been removed through history.

We will talk about this tonight.