By Nathanael Hernandez
(Christmas Tree Cluster And The Cone Nebula SHO Palette Narrow Band - stock photo- Getty Images)
Disclaimer to the reader: These views are written by the writer, they don’t in any way reflect the views of The Arrowhead SBVC or that of the school. This is all completely the writer's view and is indeed protected by the First Amendment.
Depending on how we think and how we grow up, we may often live life thinking faith or religion is without evidence. Perhaps we grow up believing the Bible is entirely of myths and legends. We may also be told to believe the Bible because it says so. The rational person or anyone who isn't naive will know they need to see if evidence can support that belief. Humans are rational beings and must-see things to believe them; how else could they be true? Who would want to believe something that just isn’t true?
In his book The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown explores an alternative religious history. The book mentions, "The Bible did not arrive by fax from heaven…. The Bible is the product of man, my dear. Not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions."
So I wanted to find out for myself how true this claim is. Also to find out how true is the claim that the Bible is the Word of God since many believe it is. Considering how popular the Bible is and important, the question of whether the Bible is the Word of God is important. Indeed, extraordinary discoveries have been made that may prove the Bible is more than just being written by man or a good religious book. The scientific, historical, archaeological, bibliographical, and prophetic discoveries altogether show it is the Word of God.
What is the Bible, and why does it even matter?
The Bible comes from "Bibilos," a collection of books. The Bible comprises two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is also called the Hebrew Bible, the story of the nation of Israel and the Jews. God promised to use Israel to bless the whole world and bring the Christ/Messiah(which means the anointed one). The New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament and is about Jesus/Yeshua the Messiah. Jesus who came to save humanity from its downfall and sin(lawlessness). Both of the Testaments in no way contradict but rather complement each other. The Bible has been written by many different people from all walks of life for different purposes and at various times. However, it focuses on the theme of the redemption of humankind in both testaments. It matters since it deals with important issues: How to live, what the purpose of life is, what is right and wrong, who God is and what he is like, and what happens after death, heaven and hell. It may not matter to you, but the person next to you may be seeking answers and the truth.
To the believer, it's important to know what you believe and why you believe it. I mean, don't you want to know the truth of what you believe or whether it's even true?
The Bible and Science
From what I remember in middle school, a classmate during 8th grade had a belief in God, which I believe was the God of the Bible based upon similarities. Yet the science teacher made it seem as if her religious beliefs weren’t true. Due to this I used to think that religion and science were contradictory. Which at times made me doubt if what I believed was even true and even not believe in God for a period of time. It's not just me, it's often widely believed by many that the Bible and Science don't go together or that one can't simultaneously trust in science and faith. After researching I found just like other religions, science and the Bible do, at times, correlate with each other. It's important to acknowledge however the Bible is not a scientific textbook.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, in 1845, a doctor named Dr. Ignaz Semmeleis would see that many women would die after childbirth. At least 30% of women would die. Semmeleis discovered that the doctors examined expectant mothers without washing their hands. Doctors would wash their hands in bowls but not in running water. Due to this discovery, Semmeleis would initiate doctors to wash their hands in running water. According to the New Scientist, "the mortality rate for women delivered by doctors fell from 18 percent to 2 percent – the same as it was for midwives. When he began washing medical instruments, it fell to just 1 percent.". The Bible would give instructions on hygiene through 'running' water and even clothes.
"And when he who has a discharge is cleansed of his discharge, then he shall count for himself seven days for his cleansing, wash his clothes, and bathe his body in running water; then he shall be clean" (Leviticus 15:13) written between 1440-1400 B.C.
According to the Bible, the Jews were instructed to circumcise their males on the eighth day. Even Jesus himself was circumcised on the eighth day. According to Research Gate, "the level of vitamin K is highest on this day, and vitamin K plays a pivotal role in regulation and control of the important clotting factors in the coagulation pathway that helps in stopping bleeding." How exactly could the writers of the Bible have gotten the best day to circumcise without modern technology or knowledge?
The importance of quarantine is talked about in the Bible long before medical science discovered how important it was. Around 1440-1400 B.C., The Bible states that those with a skin condition like leprosy stay outside the camp.
Arturo Castiglione, a medical historian and professor, wrote about the importance of this quarantine law, stating, "The laws against leprosy in Leviticus 13 may be regarded as the first model of sanitary legislation" (A History of Medicine). According to Grant R Jeffery, a theologian and author, "During the devastating Black Death of the Fourteenth century, patients who were sick or dead were kept in the same rooms as the rest of the family. People often wondered why the disease was affecting so many people at one time. They attributed these epidemics to 'bad air' or 'evil spirits.' However, careful attention to the medical commands of God as revealed in Leviticus would have saved untold millions of lives" (The Signature of God).
During the American Civil War, thousands of soldiers died from "illnesses such as typhoid, tuberculosis, mumps, measles, and dysentery during the Civil War. These illnesses spread rapidly in both Union and Confederate Army camps due to crowding, poor hygiene, lack of sanitary disposal of garbage and human waste, and inadequate nutrition," according to Dr. Lloyd W. Klein. The Bible already speaks about bodily disposal. "Also you shall have a place outside the camp, where you may go out; and you shall have an implement among your equipment, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuse." – Deuteronomy 23:12-13 Written around 1440-1400. Not many would have died of diseases if taking your disposal outside the camp were used during the Civil War. While these are just examples of how the Bible has benefited medical science, what about creation?
We know that the Universe had a beginning. Life itself has a start and cannot come from nothing. We can observe the things around us, like cars, buildings, creatures, humans, and plants. We all know that something must have created them since life cannot appear out of nowhere without a cause. According to the University of California - Santa Barbara Scienceline, our planets could have formed due to the dust and the gas surrounding the Sun. The planets themselves would grow when objects such as meteoroids and dust collide with the planets. The planets had a cause and didn't just appear without a reason.
In the same way, we look at mountains, nature, and manufactured buildings, we know there is a process before something is created. Does this mean God created the Universe? It shows there is something behind the Universe. Many ancient myths would not describe the Universe as being made but instead existing chaos. Legends may say that the Universe came forth from a giant egg. Babylonians believed the gods that created the Universe would come from two oceans. Both science and the Bible agree that creation had a beginning. The creation of the universe "bears an uncanny resemblance to the Genesis command," according to Jim Holt, a Wall Street Journal Science writer. According to Time Magazine in December 1976, "Most cosmologists - scientists who study the structure and evolution of the universe - agree that the biblical account of creation, in imaging an initial void, may be uncannily close to the truth." That is interesting, considering how old the Book of Genesis is.
Another exciting thing is how each of our human bodies contains periodic scientific elements, and 97% of the human body includes four elements: hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon. The rest of the percentage of mass is sodium, sulfur, magnesium, potassium, and chlorine. This is interesting since scientists discovered 21 elements in the Earth's crust are in the human body. This correlates with the Holy scriptures.
"The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7). (Written between 1400-1440 B.C.)
Concerning creation, the method God used to bring Eve could be foreshadowing. God would put Adam in a deep sleep to get Eve out of Adam's rib—a similar way in which modern anesthesiology is used. People are put under anesthesia in order not to feel pain. In the same way, Adam would be placed in a "deep sleep" by God. It's supernatural for someone to come out of someone's rib. However, one could question if God was trying to foreshadow the use of anesthetics in the future.
It's important to acknowledge different viewpoints on exactly how the first three chapters of Genesis are meant to be read. Contrary to popular beliefs, the facts presented show that Science and the Bible can go together. One may be looked down upon because they believe in God and science. However, one may need to recognize that everything one does in life requires trust.
One doesn't know if their heart will stop beating the next minute, yet they continue to trust as if they will have their next breath. One who reads the News doesn't usually attend the events, yet trusts the News. One may not make scientific discoveries yet still trusts the scientists. One who works trusts that they will get paid. What happened in the past requires trust in the evidence and what historians have to say. Our relationships require that we trust our partners, friends, or family. Faith is part of our lives and our everyday activities. Obviously, this doesn’t apply to every single person and every scenario, but you get the idea. This doesn't mean faith is blind since the evidence is compelling enough for us to trust that thing, belief, idea, or person. Some scientists believe in the God of the Bible and its miracles. Yet would carry out scientific research and discovery throughout history.
(Sir Isaac Newton analyzing the ray of light - English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian - stock photo- Getty Images)
Francis Bacon (1561-1626), who would be associated with the "Scientific method." The scientific method stresses verification and observation rather than philosophical conjecture. Bacon believed God gave us two books to study: nature and the Bible.
Johann Kepler (1571-1630) is the founder of physical astronomy. He would discover laws of planetary motion and establish the discipline of celestial mechanics. Some of his contributions to science include devising a method of mapping star movement, contributing to the development of calculus, and demonstrating the heliocentricity of the solar system. Kepler would coin the phrase and the idea that research and discovery were "thinking God's thoughts after him."
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) is the father of hydrostatics science - studying the pressure that fluids exert on other objects. Pascal has to do with the development of the theory of probability, the development of the barometer, and the development of calculus. He was a profoundly religious man and would be known for "Pascal's Wager," which asks why anyone would risk living as if there is no God.
Isaac Newton (1642-1727) is credited with the three laws of universal motion, discovering the law of universal gravitation, and refining calculus into a branch of mathematics. Newton was a Christian from his youth and believed the Bible authenticated itself better than any other historical record.
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) was instrumental in developing the germ theory of disease and, among other contributions, in chemistry and physics. His research would help develop vaccines against many diseases and helped demolish the evolutionary theory of spontaneous generation of life.
Francis Collins (Present), the Director of the Human Genome Project, has affirmed his belief in God. He would state this about the spiritual wonders of scientific research: "When something new is revealed about the human genome, I experience a feeling of awe at the realization that humanity now knows something only God knew before."
Leslie Wickman (Present) is an internationally renowned research scientist, engineering consultant, and author. Dr. Wickman was once an engineer for Lockheed Missiles & Space Company, where she worked on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and International Space Station Programs. She would receive commendations from NASA for her contributions. She remains a firm believer in the God of the Bible and is part of the American Scientific Affiliation.
Who is to say we can’t trust God when some of history's greatest minds did and still do? However, this doesn't answer the difficult questions and elaborates on things like seven-day creation, evolution, creationism, and Noah's flood, as this is a short piece. I wanted to establish that faith and science can sometimes go together despite what one may believe based on some of the evidence provided. That it encourages you to challenge what you were taught to think and go beyond the stars and ideologies.
The Testing of the Authenticity of the Bible
How exactly can we test writings, research papers, and historical documents? How would we know what is reliable and trustworthy? While each professor and scholar will probably say something different, I think Chaucey Sanders, a military expert and historian, writes it best in his book on how to know if something is reliable and trustworthy. In his book Introduction to Research in English Literary History, he states that there are three tests for the reliability of a literary work:
Internal evidence is what the document claims for itself.
External evidence is how the document aligns with facts, dates, and persons.
Bibliographical evidence is the tradition of textual evidence, from the original document to the copies and manuscripts we possess today.
The Internal Evidence
The Bible is claimed to have been written over 1,600 years or 40 generations ago altogether, which is estimated to have been written by around 40 different authors from different walks of life and written initially in three different languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The Bible stays consistent throughout the other books, even with many controversial topics. They stay focused on God's redemption of humankind and all of creation. It also claimed to be inspired by God. However, skeptics and atheists have argued that the Bible contradicts itself. Frank Zindler, former Interim President and current member of the Board of Directors of American Atheists, would state, "The Bible is not its divine authorship; it's that such a concoction of contradictory nonsense could be believed by anyone to have been written by an omniscient god." If it is from God, then it must not be contradictory; otherwise, it's a fraud, which is logically sound. Here are some alleged contradictions which the Bible contains:
"The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father…" — Ezekiel 18:20 KJV
while it states, "I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation…" — Exodus 20:5 KJV.
The contradiction, as it appears, is that God doesn't punish the children because of their parents' sin. Yet the other verse sounds like God does. However, the issue is the context is missing. The last few words of the second verse state, "of them that hate me and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." Ezekiel 18:20 is personal and that each person is held accountable for their own actions “neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.” which is the rest of the verse. While Exodus 20:5 can best be explained due to the fact that the parents' sin affects the next generations. Therefore God is going to visit that sin, though that doesn’t mean that God is going to punish the future generation if they do what is right. Yet the effects of sin and consequences of the parents actions will affect the future generations. For example, it is proven that children with parents that are divorced are most likely to divorce themselves. Point is parents' actions affect the future generations and if they will do good or bad, which we could see today. Though children will unfortunately and most likely learn from bad behavior/disobedience. Or they may learn good behavior. Therefore, there is no contradiction between the two verses.
“And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the Land of Egypt.” - Exodus 12:41
“What God said to him was, 'Your descendants will be aliens in a foreign land, where they will be in slavery and oppressed for four hundred years.”- Acts 7:35
The contradiction is that the numbers don't line up at first glance. However, it can easily be explained since the Israelites were in Egypt for 430 years, yet they were slaves for 400 years. There is no contradiction as they both go together. An example is, "John went to college for four years in total, though he went to university for two years." Obviously, he most likely was in community college for two years and university for two years. There is no contradiction here.
"… with God all things are possible." — Matthew 19:26 KJV
"…The LORD was with Judah, and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron." — Judges 1:19 KJV.
This seems like a contradiction since it seems to show that with God, all things are not possible since it claims he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain but not the inhabitants of the valley. Throughout the Bible, including in Genesis, God makes the impossible possible, like Sarah giving birth at an impossible age, the walls of Jericho coming down, and the parting of the Red Sea. How is it that God is not able to drive out certain people? The verses after would show the tribes of Israel not being able to drive out the inhabitants of the lands since they wouldn't listen to God, which is mentioned in the preceding chapter. Overall, God is allowing it to happen since they wouldn't listen. The word "he" refers to Judah, not God.
"Honor thy father and thy mother…"– Exodus 20:12
"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." — Luke 14:26
The contradiction here seems to be that God wants us to honor our parents, though Jesus says we must hate them. This is a misconception, as Jesus here refers to the fact that we must love God more than anything in our lives. Jesus would speak in parables and metaphors and sometimes be literal in statements. This does not contradict honoring our parents, as Jesus commands believers to love our enemies. Also, Jesus called out man-made traditions of the Pharisees and Torah teachers who valued tradition more than honoring their father and mother in Mark 7:5-13.
This is nothing but a minimal example of "apparent" discrepancies. Over 900 of the "apparent" discrepancies can be reconciled if one reads the Bible in context and connects the puzzle pieces.
If one reads the Bible or any other literature with fixed prejudices, they are bound to take the passages out of context, which becomes a pretext and, therefore, a misrepresentation.
The External Evidence
(An ancient Jewish synagogue - stock photo- Getty Images)
A magnificent and ancient Jewish synagogue from the 3rd to 6th centuries CE built with white limestone. Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee, Israel. April 3, 2008
It moves on to external evidence, which is evidence supported by facts, events, and people. This will look at evidence outside of both Old and New Testament findings, as well as things skeptics would say that would later be debunked.
In 1879, assyriologist and author Hormuzd Rassam discovered The Cyrus Cylinder in the ruins of Babylon. It contains a declaration by Cyrus the Great and is inscribed in Akkadian cuneiform script. According to BibleArcheologyReport, "The inscription confirms Cyrus' general policy of returning exiles to their ‘settlements’ and allowing them to take their gods with them and rebuild their ‘sanctuaries.’ The Jewish people had no idols, so the articles that had been taken from the Temple were returned. Cyrus' specific proclamation for the Jews is recorded in Ezra 1:1-3". Skeptics in the 19th century couldn't believe the Biblical claim of a king allowing a people they captured to return home. However, the cylinder doesn't specifically refer to the events in Ezra. It does show that the claim in Ezra is very plausible.
In 1838, a former congregationalist minister, Edwin Robinson, discovered an ancient aqueduct in Jerusalem. In 1880, a young Christian Arab boy would accidentally find a commemorative inscription carved on the wall. The Paleo-Hebrew inscription dates back to the 8th Century B.C., during the time of King Hezekiah. Hezekiah was king in Jerusalem during 727- 698 B.C. King Hezekiah anticipated the Assyrian Army to attack the cities of Judah. He planned to dig an underground aqueduct to connect the waters so the Assyrians could not recover any water. The inscription and tunnel of Hezekiah would further provide significance to the historical events found in the Bible. These events are found in 2 Kings 20:20 and 2 Chronicles 32:2-4.
In 1896, British archaeologist Flinders Petrie at Thebes would make an important discovery in Egypt. He would discover a tablet known as the Merneptah Stele, an upright stone slab bearing the inscription that served as a monument. This inscription would include the name of Israel. Merneptah was a pharaoh who ruled Egypt from 1212 to 1202 B.C. This stele indicates that Israel was a significant entity in the late 13th century B.C. and is the earliest extra-biblical reference to Israel as a nation.
In 1964, Paolo Matthiae, who led the Italian Archeological Mission, began an archeological dig at Tel Mardikh in Northern Syria. In 1968, a statue of the king of Ebla was discovered, and from 1974 to 1976, two thousand complete tablets were found. There were four thousand fragments and more than ten thousand chips, which date back to around 2300 B.C. Names such as Eber, Adam, and Yithro were found, including the gods of Ebla, Baal, Dagon, and Ashtar. All these names are found in the Bible. The name "Canaan" was once thought to be misused in the Bible, but this was not true.
In 1993, archaeologists uncovered a ninth-century B.C. inscription made of Basalt at Tel Dan, which referred to the house of David and the King of Israel, which proved that the King of David was more than a mere legend. It was also claimed that no Assyrian King named Sargon existed, which was recorded in Isaiah 20:1. This name was unknown in any other record. Sargon's palace was discovered in Iraq, and his capture of Ashdod is mentioned in Isaiah. Fragments of the stele memorializing Sargon's victory were also found at Ashdod.
The ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah have been discovered southeast of the Dead Sea, and the evidence aligns with the Biblical account. The destruction of debris was about three feet thick, and the buildings were burned from fires that would have started on rooftops. Frederick Clapp, an American geologist, theorizes that pressure from an earthquake could have spewed out sulfur-laden bitumen. Sulfur-laden bitumen is similar to asphalt and is found through the fault line where the city of Sodom and Gomorrah rests.
Thomas Paine was a founding father and philosopher of the American Revolutionary War. Also, a deist, which is the belief in God but does not reveal themselves. In his book The Age of Reason, Paine would quote, "There could be no such person as a King Herod because the Jews and their country were then under the dominion of the Roman Emperors who governed then by teachers, or governors." A couple of centuries later, coins were discovered with the inscription "King Agrippa." Who is King Agrippa? That's King Herod, proving his existence!
Pontus Pilate is one of the most infamous historical characters in the New Testament. The person who handed Jesus/Yeshua over to be crucified. His history has never really been in doubt due to being mentioned by ancient writers and historians Tacitus, Philo, and Josephus. In 1961, a stone inscription was unearthed bearing the words in Roman alphabet then translated to English "Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea," which was part of a dedication to Tiberius Caesar. Tacitus, a Roman historian, would describe Pilate as a Procurator. Procurators were people who were appointed as civic officials who governed politically and had financial backgrounds. While the stone describes Pilate as a Prefect, the Prefects were military men who were selected to keep the peace in a particular province in the Roman Empire. In the early 40s C.E., during the reign of Claudius, the office of prefect was abolished, which explains why Tacitus would use the word procurator instead of prefect since it was the most he was familiar with. The gospel writers would describe Pilate as one who leads. The archeological findings further support the existence of Pontius Pilate and his role as a Roman Prefect.
Frank Zindler would even deny that Jesus ever existed. He once argued that the town that Jesus grew up in, Nazareth, never existed—calling it "as mythical as the Jesus family that was supposed to have lived there.". In 2009, Yardenna Alexandre and her Israeli Antiquities Authority team unearthed a Nazareth house. She stated this concerning the findings: "The discovery is of the utmost importance since it reveals for the very first time a house from the Jewish village of Nazareth and thereby sheds light on the way of life at the time of Jesus. The building we found is small and modest and is most likely typical of the dwellings in Nazareth in that period."
According to the New Testament, there were synagogues in the early first century Capernaum where Jesus the Messiah would preach. Would this be true? Skeptical New Testament Scholar Robert M. Price would question their even being synagogues in early first century Capernaum. Price states, "A major collusion between the gospel tradition and archeology concerns the existence of synagogues and Pharisees in pre 70 C.E. Galilee. Historical logic implies that there would not have been any since Pharisees fled to Galilee only after the fall of Jerusalem.". However, what does archeology have to say? Expert Ted Wright writes that the remains of a first-century synagogue in Capernaum were excavated where Jesus would have spoken and performed a miracle. Sir Charles Warren first identified the site in the 19th century. Price most likely stated this since a synagogue from the fourth century was found on top of the first-century synagogue. Despite this, further research proves that synagogues were part of Capernaum's early first century. This proves the New Testament to be accurate in this sense.
According to Dr. Nelson Glueck, a renowned American rabbi and archeologist who discovered 1,500 ancient sites, says, "It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever contradicted a Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made, which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries."
Sir William Mitchell Ramesy was Regius Professor of Humanity at Aberdeen and was an archaeologist. What does it mean for one to become a Regius professor? It means one must be appointed either by the queen or the king, showing he was one of the top scholars of his time. He was suspicious of the Book of Acts and viewed it as an imaginative creation. He eventually concluded that Luke, the writer of the Book of Acts and the Gospel of Luke, is "among the historians of the first rank." Meaning that he is one of the most trustworthy historians of his time.
Overall, the Bible seems to be reliable when it comes to facts, dates, and events. However, there are missing things in the Bible's history, such as The Patriarchs, The Exodus, and The conquest of Joshua. The argument from silence doesn't work since we can see the Bible has been thus reliable in many instances. What is the argument from silence? It is essentially because there is no evidence for something, then it didn't happen or is invalid. Something old is always dug up in Israel, which leads to new discoveries.
The Bibliographical Evidence
(Dead Sea Scrolls Jerusalem Shrine of the Book Israel - stock photo- Getty Images)
Ode to Poetics, Aristotle's work was written between 384 and 322 B.C. Our earliest copy of Ode to Poetics dates to 1100 CE. Plato's Tetralogies were written between 427-347 B.C. The earliest copy we have is from 900 CE. Herodotus Histories, considered the founding work of history in Western literature, was written between 425 and 420 B.C. The earliest manuscript dates to 900 CE as well. It is interesting how we trust works that are centuries upon centuries later. What about the Old and New Testaments?
The Old Testament would be in written codex, a set of manuscript pages held together by stitching and essentially the earliest form of a book. It would replace the scrolls and wax tablets in ancient times. In the sixth century C.E., a group of scholars called the Masoretes started to collect and keep track of the proper text of the Bible. They would be known for the Masoretic text, which is not a specific text; instead, it is an umbrella term for what is considered the authoritative Jewish text for the Old Testament. The Masortetes included everything from the text, proper vocalization, accents, and complete verses and compared all the existing manuscripts. They regarded the words of God with the utmost reverence by being very meticulous and professionally trained at copying documents. For example, if they copied the book of Isaiah, the entire text would be in capital letters with no punctuation and paragraphs; if it didn't match their work, they would discard it and start a new copy.
In 920 CE, a scribe named Shlomo Ben Buya wrote a manuscript in the true Masoretic tradition in the city of Tiberius, Israel. The manuscript is known as the Aleppo Codex and is considered the most authoritative text of the Masoretes. In 1947, one of the greatest archeology discoveries ever happened: the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the earliest complete manuscript was the Leningrad Codex, dating to 1008 CE.
The Dead Sea Scrolls consisted of various scrolls from the fifth century B.C. to the first century C.E. The scrolls include every book of the Old Testament except the book of Esther, and a comparison with recent manuscripts like the Aleppo Codex shows them to be virtually identical. The differences are the spelling of some individuals' names and stylistic differences. For example, rabbinic scholars and Old Testament Scholars like Gleason Archer would compare Isaiah 53 from the Dead Sea Scrolls to Isaiah 53 from the Masoretic text. In one instance, they only found seventeen letters that differed out of 166 words in the chapter. Spelling differences like "honor" and "honour" and different spelling of the word "light." In other words, there are at times no discrepancies in the texts we read today. Impressive considering a 1,000-year gap. Though it also depends on which translation you're reading the Old Testament
Bible translations are also based on other versions of the Old Testament including the Samaritan Pentateuch(127 B.C.) and the Greek Translation of the Hebrew Bible(3rd Century B.C.). It is, in fact, true that there were unintentional scribal errors, though the text critics can quickly identify these errors. There are also intentional modifications to the text to provide relevance and clarity to the community with the scribe. The changes are usually evident, and scholars can identify the original reading. It is important to note that translations will never be perfect. According to Dr. Josh Mcdowell, a biblical scholar and apologist, the changes don't change core theological and historical truths within the texts.
What about the New Testament? History shows the New Testament to be much recognized much earlier than when the composition of the New Testament was officially settled at the Council of Carthage in 397 CE. The early church fathers would quote from the New Testament. For example, in 95 CE, Clement of Rome quoted 11 books from the New Testament. Around 107 CE, Ignatius quotes from nearly every New Testament book. Around 110 CE, Polycarp, a disciple of the Apostle John, quotes from 17 New Testament books. The entire New Testament can be made using quotes from these early church fathers, except around 25 verses, most of which come from John 3. Marcion proposed the New Testament in 140 CE, although he was a Docetist. The following proposed collection of the New Testament was the Muratorian Canon. The Muratorian Canon is dated to around 170 CE, which includes all four gospels, 13 of Paul's letters, the first, second, and third John, Jude, and Revelation. This shows that the New Testament was far recognized earlier than what was officially decided on at the council of Carthage.
The number of New Testament manuscripts far outnumbers the ancient world's manuscripts. For example, there are 5,300 Greek manuscripts and 24,633 altogether from Syriac, Latin, Coptic, and Aramaic. We also have over 13 thousand copies of portions of the New Testament. We also have New Testament codexes. The Codex Vaticanus is the oldest extant manuscript of the Greek Bible, dated paleo graphically from 300-325 CE. Paleography is the study of ancient forms of writing for dating purposes. The Codex Sinaiticus is an Alexandrian text-type manuscript dated from 330-360 CE. Even earlier, we have fragments and papyrus of portions of the New Testament that date from 180-225 CE. Papyrus, like the Beatty Papyrus and the Bodmer Papyrus II, XIV, and XV, can alone construct all of the books of Luke, John, Romans, first and Second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, first and Second Thessalonians, and Hebrews. Portions of Matthew, Mark, Acts, and Revelation can also be reconstructed. The Rylands Papyrus is, so far, the oldest fragment we have to date, and it is paleographically dated to 130 CE. It was once asserted that John couldn't have written the fourth Gospel, forcing the Gospel to be placed in the first century. The papyrus contains essential topics like the truth about God, the Messiah(Christ), sin, man, and salvation.
Sir Frederic G. Kenyon, a paleographer who is an expert in ancient handwriting, would quote, "The interval then between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.". In other words, the New Testament can be trusted without doubt due to its proximity to the original date. While we don't have any of the original manuscripts themselves, there are variations within the manuscripts. The main message within Christianity and the New Testament is not affected even in the slightest way. Compared to ancient works, the New Testament is one of the most reliable and preserved books of the ancient world. While the Bible's modern translations may be biased, we can rest assured that we have the manuscripts.
(Chart from Evidence That Demands A Verdict by Dr. Josh McDowell and Dr. Sean McDowell) - A picture of the chart of total Biblical Manuscripts and their dating. Numbers are subject to have changed and are changing.
The Prophetic Evidence
(Book of revelation or the apocalypse. - stock photo- Getty Images)
How can we know that the Bible is inspired by God? One thing that is unique to The Bible is prophecy and it makes up 27% of The Bible. A prophecy is a message from God, either forthtelling or foretelling. Forthtelling is prediction about the present, while foretelling is predicting events in the future that are yet to come. A prophet 8is one who speaks for God. Also, one who speaks of a false prophecy is a false prophet and a liar. Looking at history, countless prophets and religions have predicted what will happen in the future but didn't. People like Christ Ahnsahnghong, Charles Taze Russell, David Koresh, and Jim Jones said things that didn't come true as they prophesied.
According to the Prophet Isaiah, God told him that his(God's) prophecies never fail and one of the ways to know he is different from other gods. Is this true? Here are some examples of prophecies in the past and now that either have been fulfilled or are being fulfilled, which proves that the Bible is indeed inspired by God.
The Prophet Ezekiel, who lived between the years 622 BC and 570 BC, predicted about Tyre: "They shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets amid the sea." Ezekiel 26:4-5. In 332 B.C., Alexander the Great conquered the island fortress of Tyre by building a causeway from the ruins of the old city. At the time of Ezekiel, Tyre was the capital of Phoenicia, and the island fortress had yet to be built. Alexander scraped away everything two hundred years later, leaving bare rock and fulfilling the scriptures.
The Prophet Nahum prophesied the condition of the Ninevites at the time of their demise. "They will be entangled among thorns and drunk from their wine; they will be consumed like dry stubble (Nahum 1:10), which was written around 614 BC. In Nahum 3:11, the Prophet said during the final hours of the attack on Nineveh, the Ninevites would be drunk. According to the ancient Greek historian Diodorus Siculus: "The Assyrian king gave much wine to his soldiers. Deserters told this to the enemy, who attacked that night." Siculus compiled his historical works around 600 years after the fall of Nineveh, which confirmed the Biblical account centuries later.
The Prophet Isaiah would prophesy that a land would become a nation, this land referring to Israel. “Before she was in labor, she gave birth. Before her pain came, she delivered a male child. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.(Isaiah 66:7-8 TLV). Written/spoken around between 701 and 681 B.C. In 1948, Defense Minister David Ben-Gurion would declare the Jewish state known as Israel after the events of the Holocaust. It's impressive if you look at the history of the Jewish people.
Jesus Christ is said to have fulfilled over 300 messianic prophecies. Examples of these are the betrayal of Jesus, place of Jesus' birth, time and death of Christ, manner of Christ's birth, conditions surrounding the Messiah's death, mockery of the Messiah, and type of burial. Peter W. Stoner was the chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena City College, and his book Science Speaks outlines the probability of a man like Jesus fulfilling just eight of the prophecies. He found "the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 1017 (1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000).". H. Harold Hartzler, Ph.D., of the American Scientific Affiliation, Goshen College, would also confirm that Stoner's calculations are indeed proper. Now, the chances of winning "the Powerball or Mega Millions are roughly one in 292.2 million and one in 302.5 million," according to The Balance Money. Now imagine the probability of someone like Jesus/Yeshua fulfilling over 300 hundred. Overall, you have a higher chance of winning the lottery, and Jesus fulfilling these prophecies is a miracle in itself.
The book of Revelation is written by the Apostle John who receives a prophecy about the end times and multiple things. One of the things John is told is that the world is gonna get at one point, hotter.
"The fourth one poured out his bowl on the Sun, and it was permitted to burn people with fire. People were burned by the intense heat, yet they cursed the name of God, who had the authority over these plagues, instead of turning from their sins to give him glory." Revelation 16:8-9
The New York Times states this about a hotter future "At 1.5 degrees of warming, scientists have found, the dangers grow considerably. Nearly 1 billion people worldwide could swelter in more frequent life-threatening heat waves. Hundreds of millions more would struggle for water because of severe droughts. Some animal and plant species alive today will be gone. Coral reefs, which sustain fisheries for large swaths of the globe, will suffer more frequent mass die-offs." I mean, how on earth could anyone predict the world would get hotter 2,000 years ago? Maybe John was a genius or something.
Another prophecy John receives is that the Euphrates river will dry up, when being told about the seven bowls of God’s fury upon the world.
“The sixth one poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water dried up, in order to prepare the way for the kings from the east.” Revelation 16:12.
Discover Magazine stated this “Levels are dangerously low and the concern is that the river will dry up completely by 2040. While the Euphrates River drying up will have a terrible impact on the civilizations of today, it does tell us the story of many of the civilizations of years past.”. We can already see these events happening in the near future. Even though there are multiple factors as to why the Euphrates river is drying up, who is to say God can’t use natural or man-made factors to ensure his plans? Why is God bringing judgment and these horrible things, you may ask? Jesus according to the Bible is bringing upon these things because evil would increase. If he didn’t bring judgment, how could he be a just God?
The Bible speaks about the return of Jesus and how everyone will see him.
"Look! He is coming with the clouds! Every eye will see him, including those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the Land will mourn him." Revelation 1:7
If you think about it, we live on a globe. When an event happens, not everyone can witness it. When Jesus returns, it is going to be in Jerusalem. How could the Americans, Africans, or Austrians even witness that event if every eye was going to see Jesus? Now, with technology, we can. When an event happens, we can see it within minutes like the News. Technology is still advancing. Interesting, right?
Also, according to the Bible, Jesus will return on the Mount of Olives which will be split from east to west when he arrives. “On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which lies to the east of Yerushalayim and the Mount of Olives will be split in half from east to west, to make a huge valley. Half of the mountain will move toward the north, and half of it toward the south.” Zechariah 14:4.(Written between 520-518 B.C) According to a geography of the Mount of Olives “In a cross-section from west to east, it is in the eastern margins of the synclinal ridge of the Judean Mountains, and on the eastern border of the anticline of the Judean Mountains with the syncline of the Judean Desert. The fault line is from west to east, in the southern portion of the Mount of Olives”. and according to Christianity Daily “In an astonishing turn of events, geologists discovered a major fault line composed of multiple fractures under Mount Olives in 1964 when the Jordanians tried to build a hotel on the fabled mountain.” Meaning there is a fault line from the west to the east in Mount of Olives. Which helps explain how God will split the mountain. There is also evidence of a massive earthquake that is still yet to come in Israel. Though God didn’t need to already have a fault line there since he is God. Could this really be a coincidence? I doubt it.
Conclusion
My high school A.P. history teacher once stated, "If I have left any mark on you at all, I hope it is that you will always look for evidence before trying to make a point or attack one. The world is full of folks trying to pull you one way or another, so use the logic and reason you possess to make decisions based on solid facts.". Looking back now, that statement is still valid, especially in today's age. Whether you believe in God or not, I hope you can learn that not everything one may have grown up believing and what is popular is not always true. Or what critics have to say is not necessarily always true. Whether you want to find the truth or not is up to you. The Bible, for sure, isn't fictional and manufactured as Dan Brown or others would write based upon a tiny piece of evidence conducted. Not just an ordinary book, but the Word of God. This cannot answer all arguments; instead, it introduces the evidence. Remember to research deeply and see if these claims are true for yourselves. Seek The Truth and be set free, while there is still time. Shalom and God bless!
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