Prove It! Is the bible True?

Question?

How do we know the Bible (especially the Gospels) are historically accurate?

Reliable witnesses? How many copies? How old? Do the documents agree?

Answer!

MANUSCRIPT – We don’t have the original document that the bible was written on – those are called ‘autographs,’ but we have more than 14,000 manuscript copies and fragments of the OT dating as far back as 250 BC. The original OT was completed about 400 BC. The time span between the manuscripts we have and the original is a very short time span. The same is true of the NT text. We possess over 5,300 manuscripts or portions of the Greek NT. The time between the original NT document and the earliest manuscripts of the NT that we have is about 60 years. The bible has stronger manuscript support than any other work of classical literature – including Homer, Plato, Cicero, Aristotle or Caesar.

The Old and NT authors were eyewitnesses or they interviewed these eyewitnesses of the major events they described. E.g. Moses participated in and was an eyewitness of most of the major events that are described in the 1st five books of the bible. The NT had the same eyewitness authenticity. Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke & Acts says that he gathered eyewitnesses testimony and “carefully investigated everything” (1:1-3). Peter reminded his readers that the disciples were “eyewitnesses of Jesus majesty” and “did not follow cleverly invented stories” (2 Pet. 1:16). In short, the bible contains the eyewitness credibility of its human writers. 

Also: 1 John 1:1-3, Acts 2:22

We also know that the bible is reliable because it was written over a space of 1600 years, by over 40 authors, in 3 languages, on hundreds of subjects, and yet there is one consistent noncontradictory theme that runs through it all: That is – God’s redemption of mankind. Clearly, this statistical probability is a powerful indicator of the divine origin and reliability of the bible.