HAS GOD REVEALED HIMSELF IN A WRITTEN RECORD?
Some Bible Numbers
By orders of magnitude, the Bible is the best-selling and most widely distributed book of all time. According to Guinness World Records, an estimated 5 billion copies have been sold and distributed.{37} Estimates place the number of Bibles printed each year at over 100 million. Based on this number, over 250 000 Bibles are sold or given away per day. {38}And this does not reckon on the countless numbers of Bibles that have become available via the internet.
At least a portion of the Bible has been translated for 3,312 of the living languages in the world. The New Testament is available in 1,521 languages, with portions in 1,121 languages. The complete Bible has been translated into 670 languages.{39}
The Bible itself is an ancient set of books written over a period of approximately 1500 years, from the 14th century BC to the 1st century AD, by 40 writers. {40}
Based on these numbers, one can venture to say that the Bible is the most influential book of all time. It has been available to more people spanning thousands of years, again by orders of magnitude, than any other written document.
The Word of God?
The question of this chapter is whether God has revealed himself in a written record? The answer is yes, in the Christian belief, the Bible is the word of God. This is how John Piper, a prominent Christian author, puts it:
“God, the Creator of the universe, the one who holds all things in being, and who therefore knows everything there is to know, and who is infinitely wise, and full of grace and truth – this God inspired the writers of the Bible in such a way that the Christian Scriptures are the infallible word of God.”{41}
A statement such as this is based on Scripture, for example, the following:
“All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16
Now, if the Bible is the very word of God, what does it say?
The Bible does not set out to prove that God exits (although it does that as well) but God chooses to make himself known through Scripture. It is known as revelation, meaning to reveal or to unveil.
How does God do this?
Though words: he speaks. This should not come as a surprise to us. After all, we use words to communicate. God is not an idea, or a force. He is a person who speaks. It is trite that one cannot give consistent obedience to an unspoked command. To do so would give way to licence, where people do what is right in their own eyes. So, it is not surprising that God has chosen to speak through the Bible, a written document.
What does he speak about?
One of the things he speaks about is to tell us about himself. Little by little, the further we go, the more we will learn about God. We will meet the living God as we read the Bible. It is not about rules, or wisdom, or philosophy. In the Bible, God introduces himself personally.
What is the purpose of this?
In the Christian faith, the answer is to know God.
He also speaks to us about ourselves. It is not advice or motivational speaking. He reveals truth about us. We will get to know more about ourselves as we start to know God. He introduces us to ourselves! He tells us that we are in need of being rescued.
God also tells us about his saving work; how he saves people in need of rescue.
These are but some of the things that God speaks about in the Bible. There are many, many more.
Is the Bible Authentic?
For anyone who wishes to take the subject seriously, it is worth investigating the reliability and authenticity of the Bible for oneself. But it is a big topic and this entire study, and much more, could be devoted to it.
Over time, there have been many lines of attack against the Bible. Let us look at one of them.
The Bible comes from a time when writing was done by hand on rolls of parchment. In order to make written documents available, and to preserve their message, they were studiously copied by hand, that is to say, a written document would have been re-written, word for word, to produce a copy. Such a copy is called a manuscript.
Now, some claim that during the centuries of copying by hand, and where texts were translated, mistakes and errors would have occurred, distorting or losing the original message. I have heard it argued that scribes who did the copying were at liberty to insert their own ideas while they were doing their work.
But, firstly in the case of the Old Testament, this idea is unsustainable. Take, for example, some other ancient documents, like the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Septuagint is a translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek, undertaken by a group of Jewish rabbis in the city of Alexandria in about 200 BC. By that time most of the known world had been Hellenised after the conquests of Alexander the Great, with Greek as the mainly universal language. Written by Jewish scholars, the Septuagint is an accurate translation into Greek of the Jewish Old Testament.{42}
The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1948 in caves near the Dead Sea. They were written by the Essenes, a strict Jewish sect, dated around 200 BC. Although the scrolls are mainly in fragments, they are an accurate copy of the Old Testament Jewish texts, and contain the entire book of Isaiah. The Dead Sea Scrolls are indeed a witness to the scholarly and reliable work of the ancient scribes.{43}
In the case of the New Testament, the argument of inaccurate or untrue copying is also not sustainable.
The twenty-seven books of the New Testament were written between 40 AD and 100 AD, which few serious historians doubt.
As in the case of the Old Testament documents, the original New Testament texts no longer exist (which applies to all ancient writings). But today there is in existence over 24 000 early manuscript copies of portions of the New Testament. With such a wealth of manuscript evidence, no one could achieve their own version of the original writing. Such a version would simply not match the numerous other available copies.
In addition to the large number of manuscripts, one should consider their proximity to the original. The earliest manuscript portions of the New Testament date from around 125 AD (although there may be some earlier). Existing manuscripts which contain much or all of the New Testament date from around 200 AD.{44}
Now, let us consider the case of other ancient writers such as Homer, Caesar, Plato, and Sophocles.
In the list that follows, the number of surviving copies of the original writing is given, followed by the timespan between the original writing and the earliest surviving copies.
Homer: 643 copies, 500 years
Caesar: 10 copies, 1000 years
Plato: 7 copies, 1200 years
Sophocles: 193 copies, 1400 years
New Testament: 24000 copies, 40 - 90 years
Thus, say in the case of Caesar, there are only ten surviving manuscripts in existence today, and the earliest of those are dated 1000 years after the original document.
The following is a statement of Sir Frederick Kenyon, former director and principal librarian of the British Museum:
“The interval between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures may have come to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.” {45}
On the topic of the New Testament, it is worth bearing in mind that many of the books are eyewitness accounts.
One of the writers, John, recorded:
We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard,”
1 John 1:3
Peter wrote:
“We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty."
2 Peter 1:16
Much of the authenticity of the judicial system anywhere in the world today is based on the principle of eyewitness evidence. No less so the authenticity of the Bible.
Did the writers of the New Testament make up their accounts? Early church history attests that the Apostles were persecuted and martyred for their faith, except John who was banished to an island.{46}
Would persecution and martyrdom sustain a deception? Would the Apostles gave gone to their death for a lie?
Prophesy
When examining the authenticity of the Bible, it is worth bearing in mind that it is a prophetic book.
According to one researcher there are more than 1,500 prophesies that foretell in remarkable detail the future of prominent cities, kings and kingdoms.{47}
Here is a prophesy from the time of the Persian empire:
“This is what the Lord says – your Redeemer who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord who has made all things … who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, “Let it be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Let its foundations be laid.”
Isaiah 44: 24 – 28 (parts)
Isaiah prophesied from about 740 BC to 681 BC. When this prophesy was made, Cyrus, who ruled over the Persian empire from 559 BC to 530 BC, had not yet been born, nor had Jerusalem been conquered.
In 586 BC, some 100 years after Isaiah’s prophesy, the Jewish people of the southern kingdom of Judah were conquered by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, Jerusalem and the temple destroyed, and the people taken into captivity to Babylon.
In 538 BC, almost 50 years later, King Cyrus issued a declaration allowing the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem to build the temple.
For interest sake, some 50,000 exiles initially returned to Jerusalem for the task of rebuilding the temple, which, although at first delayed, was completed in 516 BC.{48}
According to another researcher, there are over 300 prophesies concerning Jesus recorded in the Old Testament of the Bible. Of these, there are 29 prophesies that were fulfilled about him in one twenty-four period surrounding his death. They dealt with the place, time and manner of his death and people’s reaction to it, even to the dividing up of his garments. These prophesies were made by different people in five different centuries, from 1000 BC to 500 BC.
Here is a small sample:
“But you Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me, one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times.”
Micah 5:2
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
Isaiah 53: 5
Note the use of past tense in prophesy, given with certainty as though it has already occurred.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? … All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads … I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint … a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and feet.”
Psalm 22 (extracts)
The first quote above foretells the birthplace of Jesus, and the next two his death.
The question is this. Are there, apart from the Bible, any other documents anywhere, ancient or modern, that contain accurate prophesies stretching over hundreds or even thousands of years, that have come true in history?
The fulfilled prophesies should cause one to reflect whether any other documents have this kind of signature.
Likewise, the mere existence of the Bible should give the same pause for reflection. How did these ancient writings survive the ravages of centuries to become a Bible with its unified message?
How can we not marvel that the Bible carries the signature of an infinitely wise God who reveals himself to us?
Authority
One of the questions that should confront all people, is what is my authority? We all bow to authority, but what is mine, and what is yours? I am not speaking of the civil or government authorities. We all have to obey them. The question here is the personal authority that each of us submits to in our personal lives. One can call it the source of truth for each of us. What is my or your source of truth?
There are many options, some of which can overlap. Let us look at some of the options.
What differentiates the first three sources of authority from the last? My suggestion is that the differences are fairly plain. As a source of authority, the first three are subjective, the last is objective. The first three can be uncertain, the last is certain. The first three can be imaginative, speculative, oral, and unwritten. The last is certain. The first three are variable – they can change as circumstances change. They can change as the wind changes. The last is fixed. It is unchanging and unchangeable. The first three are generational, the last, as a source of authority, cannot change, no matter how many generations pass. The first three are fallible, the last is infallible.
Now it is a personal matter as to what we accept or see as the authority in our lives. Though some people may say that they submit to no authority, they will nevertheless submit to some authority, albeit their own as fashioned by themselves.
Despite its status as the most influential book ever written, or because of it, the Bible has been challenged, ridiculed or dismissed from earliest times. And yet, it has been preserved to the present day, and continues its remarkable march of truth. The vital and unaltered message of the Bible continues to be read and heard by millions of people around the world. It is really a miracle right here in our hands.
Let us end this discussion with this charming quote from CH Spurgeon, a renowned Christian preacher of a past time:
“Defend the Bible? I should as soon defend a lion. Turn it loose and it will look after itself!”