Why Trust These Documents?
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The thoughts of the righteous are just;
the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.
Jer.
The land trembles and writhes in pain,
for the Lord’s purposes against Babylon stand,
to make the land of Babylon a desolation,
without inhabitant.
In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
2 Kings 18:
In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
2 Kings 19:35
And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
2 Kings 19:
And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Comparing Books of World Religions
The word Bible stems from the Greek word biblia, which means books
There are 66 books in the Bible, 39 in the OT and 27 in the New. The Bible was written over a period of 1500 years by 40 different authors, and three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek).
Contrast the Bible to other major religious books:
The Bhagavad Gita of the Hindu faith was written between 400 and 200 B.C. by one author, Vyasa.
The Quran of the Muslim faith was written between 609 and 632 B.C. by one author, Muhammad.
The Mormon trio: Book of Mormon, Doctrine of Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price were written between 1820 and 1851 by Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.
Historical Accuracy
Archaeologist’s discovered Sennacherib’s Prism in 1830 which directly supports the Biblical account of Hezekiah’s reign.
In 1993 an excavation at Tel Dan in Northern Israel discovered an inscription from the king of Damascus verifying the reign of king David. Prior to this event, many critics had assumed the Bible was wrong about the existence of King David due to the lack of archaeological evidence from his life.
Critics have often sought to disprove the Bible due to a current lack of archaeological evidence to substantiate the many claims within it’s pages. However, over the years, there have been numerous discoveries to refute these critiques:
The Hittite Nation discovery of 1912.
The 1854 discovery of king Belshazzar and his many accomplishments.
The recent DNA evidence of the remaining Canaanite descendants in Lebanon. Many media outlets immediately sought to paint the Bible as erroneous, based on God’s command to destroy and wipe them out (). However, they fail to mention that the Bible also records how the Israelites never fulfilled God’s command ().
Manuscripts and Copies
There exists as many as 25,000 manuscripts from the ancient world that contain either the whole NT or parts of it.
The famous Greek, Homer and his writing, Iliad holds second place with 643 copies.
While Plato’s Tetralogies has a whopping seven copies known.
Copies of Plato are made nearly 1,200 years after the original was written.
The first copy of Homer’s writing was nearly 500 years after the original.
The oldest known copy of the New Testament text is from 150 A.D. Only one century since the original documents were written.
Josephus wrote Antiquities around AD 95 concerning events from the years 200 B.C. – AD 65. The earliest copy we have available dates AD 1050.
Tacitus wrote the Annals around AD 100-120 concerning events between AD 14-68. The earliest copy we have is from AD 850.
Suetonius wrote Lives in AD 120 concerning events between 50 B.C. and AD 65. The earliest copy we have is also AD 850.
· Suetonius wrote Lives in AD 120 concerning events b
Compare these ancient manuscripts with the New Testament:
The Gospel of Matthew was written between AD 50-70 (that is giving some leeway for scholarly debate) concerning events from 4 B.C. to AD 30. The earliest copy is from AD 200.
The Gospel of John was written between AD 60-95 (with room for scholarly debate) concerning events between AD 27-33. The earliest manuscript copy is AD 130.
Paul’s letters range from writing about events as far back as AD 34 on to AD 65-67. All of the letters are written between AD 49-67. The earliest copy is AD 200.
We must conclude that if these others writings can be held to a standard of historical accuracy, so must the Biblical account. Regardless of all the other claims of the Bible (miracles, curses, etc.) we must accept the historical aspects of the Biblical narrative.