Is the Bible Reliable?

Can we really trust the Bible? Is the Bible the true, inerrant (without error), and reliable Word of God? Or is it a mixture of stories, fables, legends, and half truths? Is the information about the existence and character of God, the Creation and Fall of mankind, and the means of salvation absolutely correct? Our faith and our eternal destiny depend on the truthfulness of the Bible, so we need good evidence that the Bible is authentic and unchanged. We need to know that we can rely on the Bible to be accurate and trustworthy.

The evidence that we’ll look at in this chapter falls into four categories: authenticity, accuracy, agreement, and acceptance of Scripture. We’ll answer questions such as:

Has the Bible changed over the years?
Does the Bible contain mistakes?
Do the authors contradict or disagree with one another?
When were the biblical documents accepted as the true and reliable Word of God?

A. Authenticity

Has the Bible changed over the years?

Authenticity is the first step in establishing the reliability of the Bible. When we say a document is “authentic,” we mean that the document is the same as the author’s original written text — nothing has been added, nothing has been deleted, and nothing has been changed. Since the original handwritten documents of the Bible (called “autographs”) are no longer in existence, we should ask, have the biblical writings been preserved carefully over the years? How do we find out if the text we have today is a good, accurate, authentic copy of the original text? First, we need to examine the ancient copies of the biblical documents that are available. We need to get as close to the original documents as possible. Are they the same as the biblical text we have today?

1. Authenticity of the Old Testament text

The Dead Sea Scrolls

The Old Testament was written primarily in Hebrew. Jewish scribes made extremely precise handwritten copies (manuscripts) of the original writings. Jewish scribes followed very strict rules to ensure they produced authentic copies of the biblical documents, with nothing added and nothing deleted from the original text. For example, to be sure no mistakes were made, nothing could be copied from memory. In fact, they actually copied the text one letter at a time! When scribes finished a copy, they counted the words and letters to be sure none had been omitted. Then they made sure that the middle word and the middle letter of the copy were exactly the same as the middle word and the middle letter of the original document. Now that’s a good and authentic copy, even before the days of copy machines and computers!

The Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest existing copies of the entire Old Testament, except for the book of Esther. In 1947 a shepherd boy discovered a clay jar in a cave near the Dead Sea. Inside the jar was an ancient scroll of the book of Isaiah! Other caves, containing more scrolls of biblical documents and commentaries, were discovered. The biblical scrolls consisted of handwritten copies of all the books of the Old Testament, except Esther. Some were complete copies, and some were partial copies. The oldest of the scrolls may have been copied before 200 BC. All indications are that the Old Testament Hebrew text had not changed between the time the original books were written, and the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls. And when they were compared to the Hebrew text of the Old Testament in use today, only a few minor differences were found.

2. Authenticity of the New Testament text

The New Testament was written in Greek. The oldest manuscript of the entire New Testament was found at Saint Catherine’s monastery in the Sinai, and dates to about 350 AD. However, there are many manuscripts with portions of the New Testament that date earlier, and thus much closer to the original documents. One of the oldest existing manuscripts of the New Testament is a small portion of the Gospel of John. It was copied in about 125 AD., only 30-40 years after the original text of the Gospel was written by the Apostle John!

There are over 20,000 ancient handwritten manuscripts of the New Testament in existence today (more than 5,000 of them in the Greek language). In addition, there are more than 86,000 New Testament quotations in early Christian writings. The “Patristic Writings” are commentaries and instructional books written by early Christian leaders that date to the 2nd century A.D. “Lectionaries” are service manuals of the early Church. Both the Patristic Writings and the Lectionaries quote many New Testament passages and help to authenticate the New Testament. In fact, so much Scripture is quoted in these early sources that we could reconstruct almost the entire New Testament just from the quotations in these early Christian writings!

When we compare all these manuscripts, we find some minor differences or variations (called variants), but the vast majority of verses are identical. And in the relatively few variants, no doctrine is involved. In fact, the New Testament manuscripts are considered to be 98.3% in agreement with each other. This a literary miracle! Do these documents agree with the New Testament we have today? Yes, they do! We can be very confident that the New Testament in our Bibles today is authentic.

Other notable historical resources are rarely doubted, despite comparatively little manuscript evidence of their authenticity. For example, no one doubts the existence of Julius Caesar or the historical information in his book Gallic Wars. Yet only 10 manuscripts remain, and there’s a 900-year gap between the writing of the book and the oldest copy! The manuscript evidence for the events recorded in the New Testament and in the life of Jesus is far superior to the evidence for the events in the life of Julius Caesar. Manuscript evidence is essentially the only kind of evidence that can be used to establish the historicity of these events. Critics may attempt to describe the Bible as a book that’s been exaggerated or changed over the years, but we have the evidence to refute them. The Bible is an authentic document!

B. Accuracy

Are there mistakes in the Bible?

We’ve established that the Bible is an authentic and unchanged copy of the original manuscripts, but we need to go further. We must validate that the author’s original written material was correct and accurate. The Bible claims to be the word of God and Christians can have faith in its accuracy. However, this course will teach us how to defend our faith and show that the Bible doesn’t contain errors. For example, it’s been demonstrated that the author of the Gospel of Luke is an accurate historian. Luke stated that his specific purpose in writing his books was to write an orderly account, “that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed” (Luke 1:3-4). Let’s look at several areas of biblical accuracy.

1. Scientific Accuracy

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Some critics of the Bible claim that the Bible is scientifically inaccurate. Much of the criticism stems from the fact that the Bible is written from the viewpoint of ordinary people, using everyday language and popular expressions. The purpose of the Bible is not to teach science, and the language of the Bible is not meant to be scientific. For example, a critic might say that the phrase, “the sun rises and the sun sets” (Ecclesiastes 1:5) is a scientific error. We all know the sun doesn’t move around the earth. The earth rotates! But it’s obvious that “the sun rises and sets” is a common phrase—used both then and today—to describe the day from dawn to dusk. Another criticism is the use of the phrase, “the four corners of the earth” (Isaiah 11:12). A critic might say that this phrase is a scientific mistake made by an author who thought that the Earth was flat. But “the four corners of the earth” is just a descriptive phrase (that’s still used today) for the whole world.

When the meaning of words and phrases in the original languages are examined more carefully, other alleged “scientific mistakes” are shown not to be mistakes at all. In fact, sometimes the inspired writers went “beyond the knowledge of their time” and used language that was more scientifically accurate than they realized! For example, the fact that the earth is a sphere may be indicated in Isaiah 40:22, “God sits enthroned above the circle of the earth.” This was written hundreds of years before the earth was proven to be a sphere. The great wind circuits that circle the earth and the earth’s hydraulic cycle mentioned in Ecclesiastes 1:6-7 were probably beyond the scientific knowledge of Solomon’s day. So although the purpose of the Bible is not to teach science, there are no mistakes where the Bible does touch on science. God’s Word is scientifically accurate!

2. Medical Accuracy

The medical advice and information given in other ancient literature is filled with gruesome myths and ridiculous therapies, but the Bible is different. Where the Bible mentions medical matters, it makes no mistakes. Many of the regulations of God’s Old Testament Law were given to protect the health of His people, even though the people of that day didn’t understand the medical principles behind the laws. When we compare those rules with the medical knowledge of today, we see that the “clean and unclean” laws were very important for promoting good health and preventing disease.

One amazing example of medical accuracy is found in Leviticus 12:3. This law required Jewish baby boys to be circumcised on the eighth day after birth. We now know that vitamin K, a substance necessary for blood to clot, naturally reaches its peak in an infant’s body when the baby is eight days old!

There are similar examples throughout the Bible. Paul’s advice to Timothy to “…use a little wine for your stomach’s sake, and your frequent infirmities” (1 Timothy 5:23) is not an “old wives’ tale.” In those days water was not purified as it is today. Medical research has found that drinking a little wine with meals can be help combat intestinal illness caused by contaminated food and water, and it may help to prevent heart disease as well! (As a side note, 1 Timothy 5:23 is not making a statement on social drinking. It’s medical advice.) These are just two examples of biblical health regulations / therapies that have been validated by current medical research and knowledge. The Bible is medically accurate!

3. Historical, Geographical and Prophetic Accuracy

A study of Bible geography, history, and prophecy will show that the Bible is accurate, right down to the smallest details. This evidence will be discussed in more detail in chapters 2 and 3.

C. Agreement

Do the human authors of the Bible agree?

The Bible is composed of 66 books, written over a period of about 1500 years, by more than 40 authors. The authors were different ages, from different backgrounds and walks of life, and they used different literary forms. Yet there’s amazing harmony among the authors of Scripture! While critics attempt to point out small details that seem to disagree, these are generally only apparent or surface “contradictions.” With careful examination, the criticisms of these “contradictions” can be resolved.

A few very brief examples:

Criticism: Genesis 1:26-27 and Genesis 2:7, 21-22 are contradictory accounts of the creation of man and woman.
Answer: Genesis 1 is a summary statement about the creation of humans, and Genesis 2 gives us a more detailed account of God’s methods.
Cristicism: The genealogies (family records) of the Old Testament are not always in agreement.
Answer: Biblical chronologies are sometimes shortened or condensed. This was not unusual in ancient times, and it does not make the genealogy untrue.
Criticism: John’s account of Jesus “cleansing the Temple” comes at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, while Matthew, Mark, and Luke say the “Temple cleansing” was at the end of Jesus’ ministry.
Answer: Jesus “cleansed the Temple” on two different occasions. When we read the accounts, we see some significant differences in the descriptions. These differences clearly indicate there were two different cleansing events.
Criticism: In the three Gospels that record the account of the healing of the blind man/men near Jericho, the number of men and the location are different. In Luke 18:35, one blind man was healed as Jesus was entering Jericho. In Mark 10:46, one blind man named Bartimaeus was healed as Jesus left Jericho. In Matthew 20:30, two blind men were healed as Jesus left Jericho.
Answer:
a. The number of men: Two blind men were healed. Mark and Luke chose to mention only one of them, maybe the one who did the talking. Mark even gives his name: Bartimaeus.
b. The location: One possible solution is that the healing took place between the two locations of Jericho. There was more than one Jericho. The Old Testament city was conquered by Joshua, and a New Testament location, was where King Herod built a winter palace. Matthew and Mark, who were Jewish writers and raised in the Hebrew tradition, wrote that the healings took place as Jesus was leaving the locale of the Old Testament Jericho. Luke, the Gentile writer, wrote that the man was healed as Jesus was approaching New Testament Jericho. One other possibility: the request for healing came as he was entering New Testament Jericho, and the actual healing took place as he left New Testament Jericho.
Criticism: The accounts of the resurrection of Jesus differ in the different Gospels.
Answer: Each writer gives his own account of the events from his own perspective, so that each author includes different details of information. All the information can be harmonized, and thus a complete account of the resurrection is presented. The fact that there are differences in their accounts is actually a strong indication that the authors did not collaborate to fabricate a phony resurrection story!

D. Acceptance

When, and by whom, was the text accepted as true?

If it can be shown that original documents were accepted as true accounts right from the time of the recorded events, it’s a powerful argument for the reliability of the record. For example, try to get people today to believe a reconstructed history from World War II, including the idea that U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower miraculously healed the injured, or that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill parted the waters of the English Channel for the troops to cross into France. How many people would accept your story?! The fact that the documents were accepted as true at the time they were written demonstrates that much of the surface criticism of the Bible is not logical.

1. Old Testament

The Old Testament text, miracles and all, was accepted as the true, reliable, and authoritative Word of God as far back as we can trace the documents and the people in those ancient civilizations.

a. By the Jewish people

The Jewish people accepted the Old Testament documents in their entirety from the time they were written.
If the written information had been completely false, the Jewish people would have rejected the documents immediately.
If the documents had some historical or numerical errors, the Jewish people would have revised and corrected them. There’s not a shred of evidence that this ever happened.
If the documents were not entirely reliable, the Jewish people would have simply denied that they were truly Scripture, and they would not have been included as Scripture. For example, the Jewish people never accepted the intertestamental books (the “Apocrypha”) as Scripture.
Even when the Jewish people didn’t like the contents of a book, they still accepted the documents as the true Word of God. They didn't try to change or delete or “sanitize” the many accounts of their sin and rebellion, or the resulting judgment God sent upon them.

b. By Jesus Christ

Jesus accepted and quoted the Old Testament as reliable and true. For example, Jesus referred to the Genesis account of Creation (Matthew 19:4-6), the worldwide Flood (Matthew 24:37-39), and the story of Jonah (Matthew 12:40-41). He obviously considered these accounts to be true, even though many people today dismiss them as fables or Jewish mythology.
If Jesus accepted the Old Testament as true, and it was not true, then either Jesus was ignorant, or else He knowingly went along with legends that were false — and thus He would have deliberately deceived people!

2. New Testament

The New Testament text was accepted as the true Word of God by the early Christians, including the miracles and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

a. In a short time

Even while the New Testament was still being written, Christians believed that the information in the documents was true and reliable. They accepted them as documents of Scripture (see 2 Peter 3:15-16). However, the early Christians never accepted other books written around this time as true and reliable (such as the apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writings of the time).
The time gap between the events and the time when the records were written is brief. It’s certainly too short for blatant exaggerations or obvious errors to have been inserted (see Acts 26:25-26).
Eyewitnesses to the events recorded in the Gospels and Acts were still alive when the documents were written (see 1 Corinthians 15:6). These witnesses would have certainly denied exaggerated or falsified accounts. Furthermore, they would have corrected any documents that were only partially true. But there’s no evidence that any of the New Testament documents were ever revised.

b. In spite of persecution

Some early Christians were imprisoned, and some were executed for their faith. Is it reasonable to believe that so many people would be willing to suffer persecution, torture, and death for a lie, when they knew it was a lie? (For a few examples, see Acts 4:1-3, 5:17-18, 7:57-60, 12:1-4.)

Conclusion

The Bible is unique. It’s a book with a stamp of its supernatural Authorship clearly upon it. Despite the fact that it consists of 66 books, written by a wide variety of human authors, over a period of at least 1500 years, the Bible is a unified book. The writers tell one story: the message of God, who loves people enough to personally provide a plan of salvation for them.

Compared to other ancient documents, the Bible is incredibly reliable. If it’s accurate in every area that we can check, we can be confident that it tells the truth about areas we can't check. It speaks with authority on otherwise unknowable subjects, such as heaven, hell, angels, demons, the character of God, and eternity past and future, thus displaying its supernatural origin.

The fact that the Bible is still in existence today is further evidence that it's a supernatural book. Over the centuries it's been hated, banished, suppressed, and burned… but the Bible is still here! It’s by far the “best seller” the world has ever known. And its message is still changing lives!

Is the Bible Reliable?