What Evidence Is There That The Bible Is True?

What evidence is there that the Bible is true and thus, we can believe what is written in it?

The Bible

The word “Bible” comes from the Greek word “biblios” which means “books” or “little books” and the Bible is just that; a collection of sixty-six books written by 40 authors over a 1,500 year span and many of these authors, not having known one another, agree contextually to certain themes in the Bible like “the just shall live by faith” (Hab 2:4; Rom 1:17; Heb 10:38) which appears in both the Old Testament and the New Testament and is the foundational principle of the Christian faith (Eph 2:8-9). Instead of referring to Christianity as a religion, it is more like a relationship; a relationship with God and in particular, Jesus Christ. Most of the religions of the world are “do, do, do” but with Christianity, it is “done!” or as Christ said on the cross “It is finished” (John 19:30) which in the Greek is like an accounting term much like “paid in full.” Many of those who wrote the Scriptures ended up as martyrs and sometimes even owning a Bible cost them their lives but much of the world today doesn’t have access to the Word of God but that is changing rapidly.

Ancient Historians

Many of the ancient historians wrote about the severest forms of Christian persecution that were mentioned in the New Testament that occurred in the first century which took place in Rome, Antioch, and Judea (present day Israel and Lebanon) among others locations and these ancient historians were not Christians writing about these accounts but were professional historians, sometimes employed by the Roman Empire and included authors/historians like Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Josephus, Tertullian, Julius Africanus, Rome’s Suetonius (A.D. 110), and the Roman governor Pliny Secundus (A.D. 100-110) all of who wrote before A.D. 250 and several of these make direct references to Jesus to affirm the historical New Testament references about His life and death.

The Mountains of Manuscripts

No other book in human history has as rich of a resource as the copious amounts of manuscripts than does the Bible. This includes both the Old Testament and the New Testament. There are over 20,000 known manuscripts today that document the New Testament accounts alone and the reliability has proven true by archeological findings throughout the Middle East. The earliest of these manuscripts date from around the turn of the first century. If you compare other books and writings of ancient antiquities and the fact that these are generally accepted as accurate, then why wouldn’t we accept the authenticity of the Bible? When compared to most human historical documents, biblical manuscripts reign supreme by far. There are over 5,700 complete or fragmented Greek manuscripts, 10,000 Latin manuscripts and 9,300 manuscripts in various other ancient languages including Syriac, Slavic, Gothic, Ethiopic, Coptic, and even Armenian. The dates of these manuscripts range from around the first century B. C. up to the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. And every year two or three New Testament manuscripts handwritten in the original Greek format are discovered. The latest large find was in 2008 when 47 new manuscripts were discovered in Albania and at least 17 of them unknown to Western scholars. The short time period between the original manuscripts ensures the trustworthiness of the New Testament manuscripts. Historically, the oldest Old Testament manuscript ever found quoted verses in Numbers: 6:24-26. They date from 800-700 B.C.

Other Ancient Books

Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars was written in the first century B.C. There are only 10 manuscripts in existence. The earliest textual evidence we have was copied 1,000 years after the original. Aristotle has forty nine copies of his writings and the copy that is closest to the time of his living came 1,400 years after he had written them. It’s interesting that when compared to secular human history, we have some seven remaining manuscripts of one of the earliest philosophers, Plato, from around 300 B.C. but the most recent copy of these compositions came 900 years after they were written! Aristotle’s Poetics was written in the fourth century B.C. There are only 5 manuscripts in existence and the earliest textual evidence we have was copied 1,400 years after the original.

Old and New Testament Manuscripts

There are more than 14,000 manuscripts and fragments of the Old Testament of which are divided into three different kinds: approximately 10,000 from the Cairo Geniza (storeroom) find of 1897, which date back as far as about A.D. 800, nearly 190 from the Dead Sea Scrolls finds from 1947 to 1955. The oldest of these dates all the way back to 250 to 200 B.C. and the third type contains, at minimum, 4,314 assorted other copies. These include over 5,600 Dead Sea Scrolls with different authors from the Old Testament, all agreeing textually with each other (about .01% which includes vowel’s differentiation, consonant blends, etc. but never affecting the text or the context). New Testament manuscripts have been preserved by the thousands too with over 24,000 New Testament manuscripts, 5,000 of which date from the first century.

Conclusion

It’s interesting that we believe the accounts of Caesar’s Gallic Wars with only 10 manuscripts in existence; we believe Plato’s writings but these manuscripts came 900 years after Plato wrote them; we believe Aristotle’s writings with only 49 manuscripts and these came over 1,400 years after his writing them but we don’t believe the Bible which has, at present, over 25,000 ancient manuscripts discovered and archived so far with at least 5,600 of which are copies and fragments in the original Greek. The number of Old Testament manuscripts is well over 600 and growing. Believing is a matter of choice. You either believe the Bible and must repent or perish or you choose to disbelieve and face the judgment of God for all time. The Word of God says that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2nd Tim 3:16) so the choice seems clear so I would ask you, why not believe in the only name given to us whereby we must be saved and that is Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12)?

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book  Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon.