Why do we believe the

Holy Bible?

The Bible is God’s Word The Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Greek “Theo

Pneustos” means Divinely breathed or given by inspiration of God. (2 Tim 3:16 NKJV) “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is

profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (2 Pet 1:20,21 NKJV) “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any

private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”

God sent His message in various methods: He wrote the Ten Commandments with His finger; He spoke directly to Moses and Ezekiel; He appeared in visions and dreams to Daniel, Isaiah and John; He inspired David and the disciples.

The Bible is God’s Word (Exo 31:18 NKJV) “And when He had made an end of speaking

with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.”

(Exo 34:27 NKJV) “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.’”

(Ezek 3:4 NKJV) “Then He said to me: ‘Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them.’”

(Dan 7:1 NKJV) “In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main facts.”

(Dan 10:7 NKJV) “And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision; but a great terror fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.”

The Bible is God’s Word (Rev 1:10-12 NKJV) “I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I

heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands,”

(2 Sam 23:2 NKJV) “The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, And His word was on my tongue.”

(John 14:26 NKJV) “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”

God Protects His Word from Alteration

(Mat 5:18 NKJV) “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”

(Luke 21:33 NKJV) “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”

God Protects His Word from Alteration

If God wants us to receive His message, why would He allow someone to conceal or alter it?

Our God is able to protect His own word. We should have confidence that the Bible in our hands is true and

accurate. God assigned this task to the Jews in keeping the Old Testament

from alteration. The scribes were specially chosen people who transcribed the Holy

Scriptures according to rigorous standards determined by the Jewish High Council. (The council, which was founded by Ezra, had 3 essential principles; the third one required the Jews to be a solid fortress in protecting the Torah.)

God Protects His Word from Alteration

Scribes were ordered to follow the following traditions: Before transcribing bathe, wear the special Hebrew clothes and prepare your

mind with holy submissive thoughts. Use scrolls made from the skins of pure animals. Use pure black ink made of charcoal and coke powder mixed in gum. Do not write a single word out of memory, always look at the original text and

read out loud the word before copying it. Before writing any of God’s names, pause & clean your pen. Before writing the

name of the Almighty wash all your body. At the end of your transcription, if you find three or more errors destroy this copy

and start all over. You should know how many letters are in a page before starting to transcribe it.

Each page should contain 30 equal lines. Count the number of times each letter occurred in each page and in the entire book.

Do not talk with other people during the transcription session.

The Harmony of theBooks of the Bible

Despite the huge differences in the times, places and authors of its books, yet the Bible reveals a unified theme: God’s master plan for man’s eternity (the economy of salvation).

There are no contradictions in its contents. Even more, there are many cross-references that affirm this unity.

Of particular interest are the prophecies and symbols in the Old Testament and their fulfillment in the New Testament (Luke 24:27 NKJV) “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He

expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:44 NKJV) “Then He said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke

to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.’”

The Bible Reveals the Truth Some of the amazing truths revealed by the Bible are beyond human

intelligence or understanding such as: The creation of the universe (Review Genesis 1 & 2; for further materials read Lee

Strobel’s book “The Case for a Creator” and Hugh Ross’s books about Creation) Scientific facts, long before their discovery (e.g. the confluence of oceans in Gen 1:9,

gravity in Job 26:7, the globe in Isa 40:22, dinosaurs in Genesis 1:21 and Job 40:15-18, chlorophyll in Psalm 104:14)

The nature of the human spirit and mind (Genesis 1:27 “God created man in His own image.” Job 38:36 “Who has put wisdom in the mind?”).

The origin of evil, the fallen nature of mankind and the curse cast upon the earth (Genesis 3).

The weaknesses and sins of man, even the holiest of His saints (Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Peter, etc.)

The metaphysical world: the angels and heavenly hosts (Isa 6:2-3, Eze 10, Eph 1:21, Col 1:16), the demons and evil spirits, Satan’s fall (Isa 14:12-15, Eze 28:12-19).

The resurrection of the dead, the judgment day and the second life (Review the book of Revelation).

The POWER of the Bible Biblical teachings are superior to human intellectual capacity. They are highly ethical and refined (example Matt 5:43-48). Many philosophers stood in awe of their magnificence. Great men were touched by its contents:

“It is impossible to rule the world justly without God and the Holy Bible.” George Washington

“In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book.”

Abraham Lincoln

“Of the many influences that have shaped the United States into a distinctive nation and people, none may be said to be more fundamental and enduring than the Bible.”

Ronald Reagan

The POWER of the Bible “I am sorry for men who do not read the Bible every day. I wonder why they

deprive themselves of the strength and pleasure.” Woodrow Wilson

“Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your liberties, write its precepts on your hearts and practice them in your lives.”

Ulysses S. Grant

“The Bible is a book in comparison with which all others are of minor importance, and which in all my perplexities and distresses has never failed to give me light and strength.”

Robert E. Lee

The POWER of the Bible The worst sinners were transformed into saints by the power of the

Word of God (e.g. St. Augustine, St. Moses the Black, St. Mary the Egyptian).

The message of the gospel was too powerful for the Jews and the Romans to suppress it.

Despite fierce persecution, Christianity spread swiftly across the civilized world of the first century.

Now the Bible has been made available in over 1,500 languages, and over 500 million copies. (Isa 55:9 NKJV) “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways

higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. (John 6:63 NKJV) The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. (Matt. 16:18 NKJV) On this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades

shall not prevail against it.

How the Bible Spread? During the first few decades of Christianity, the message of the

gospel spread by word of mouth (Review Gal 2:1-10). Each disciple and each apostle preached the gospel, even though there were none written.

The first gospel to be written was St. Mark’s, believed to be around 45 AD; and the last was St. John’s around 95 AD.

All the remainder of the New Testament was written during the 50 years in between.

At that time the Old Testament was available in two versions; the original Hebrew and a translated Greek (called the Septuagint translation, or the Alexandrine translation, dating 280 BC)

By the turn of the century, Christians had started to translate the Bible. St. Clement of Rome mentioned that at his time (95 AD) there were about 3,000 copies of the Bible in use.

How the Bible Spread? The first translation was the Syriac translation (Peshitta),

characterized by its simplistic style. This translation originated from the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament. It is still used by all the denominations of the Syriac churches.

Shortly afterwards the Latin translation started to appear, translated from Greek (both Old and New Testaments).

Numerous manuscripts of both translations are present today, dating as early as the fourth and fifth centuries.

How the Bible Spread? It was during the second century that the church defined the

canonical books, which currently comprise the Bible. By the end of that century, some scholars started translating the Old

Testament from Hebrew to Greek (Aquila of Pontus, Theodosius of Ephesus, Simakhous, Origen of Alexandria) Origen compiled these versions into a six-column text for easy comparison.

The Coptic translation appeared first in the third century. (Around year 270 AD, St. Anthony heard the gospel in church, when he sold all his belongings to follow Christ.)

Our Katameros (Coptic Church lectionary) reveals remarkable concordance between the Arabic translation from Coptic, and the current Arabic Version (Beirut Version) translated from the KJV-English.

The first Arabic translation appeared in Spain in the seventh century, derived from a Latin translation.

The Languages of the Bible The Old Testament was written in Hebrew with a few passages in

the Aramiac language (in Ezra and in Daniel). It was first translated into Greek 280 BC (Septuagint). The New Testament was written in Greek. Some scholars believe

that St. Matthew used notes of Jesus’s quotations, that he had written earlier in Aramiac (Jesus’s native tongue).

Eusabius, the fourth century historian, reported that an Aramiac version of St. Matthew’s gospel was found in India, brought there by Bartholomew the disciple.

Historical and Archeological Evidences of the Bible

During the second and third centuries, the early church fathers left us a rich heritage of Christian teachings, where the Bible was repeatedly used as a main reference, with consistent accuracy.

These writings of the early church fathers contain over 36,000 references to the New Testament, which if used alone can reconstruct the entire New Testament, except for eleven verses.

Many church fathers owned actual manuscripts that they used to teach their churches from. For instance, St. Polycarp (martyred 156 AD) possessed all 14 epistles of St.

Paul, 1 John, 1 Peter and Matthew.

Historical and Archeological Evidences of the Bible

There are several original complete manuscripts of the Bible, dating from the fourth century: The Sinai manuscript was discovered in St. Catherine’s monastery 1844 AD. It

is considered the oldest manuscript. It was presented to the Russian Emperor who kept it in St. Petersburg. Later it was transferred to England. It contains the New and Half the Old Testaments.

The Vatican manuscript is still preserved in Rome. It contains the Old Testament and Deuterocanonical Books, and almost all the New Testament.

The Alexandrine manuscript dating from the early fifth century was kept by the Popes of Alexandria until 1628 AD when it was gifted to King Charles I of England. It is now found in the British museum in London. It contains the complete scriptures with the Deuterocanonical Books.

The Ephraemic manuscript, currently preserved in Paris, dates from the fifth century.

Historical and Archeological Evidences of the Bible

The Dead Sea Scrolls are probably the greatest biblical archeological discovery of the century. They were found in a cave by the Dead Sea 1947 AD. They contain parts of each of the Old Testament books (except the book of Esther) in Hebrew, with surprising accuracy. The entire book of Isaiah was found, almost word for word concordant with current translations. Archeologists believe that these scrolls were written during the first century BC. They are the only manuscripts available in Hebrew dating before 900 AD.

Other manuscripts of small portions of the bible were discovered in the twentieth century, dating from the second and third centuries. For instance, the earliest manuscript containing a part of the Gospel of St. John, dates from 130 AD, was found in Egypt. Another papyrus, currently in Dublin, contains most of the New Testament and dates from 200 AD.

Historical and Archeological Evidences of the Bible

The recorded history is very consistent with the events and cultures described in the Bible. The fall of the Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians; paintings of Adam and Eve; Noah’s flood and the ark; the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah; and the fall of Jericho’s walls are all recorded on old relics found by

archeologists.

The descriptive styles of the authors of the gospel, particularly Mark and Luke, convey writings originating in the mid-first century AD.

Josephus, a famous Jewish Historian who lived in the middle of the first century, recorded much of the early church events and described Jesus in his writings. His writings shed light on the Hebrew culture of his time, helping Bible students better understand scriptures.

The Bible in Our Coptic Church The Bible is at the center of church life and all its activities:

The Bible is read at least 9 times throughout the liturgy of vespers, matins and mass.

The Bible is the origin of most of the prayers quoted during liturgy. The Agpeya is mostly based on the psalms and other biblical quotations. The church specified a litany for the spread of the gospel. The gospel reading is revered by standing still “in awe and trembling” with

candles light on each side. A gospel is placed over the altar at all times, and is kissed with awe and respect

by the priest and clergy. The Augnostos is a special clerical degree dedicated to reading and explaining

the Bible. All church prayers and sacraments incorporate Bible readings, particularly during

the Passion Week. The Coptic Church calendar and feasts revolve around biblical events and

characters.

The Bible in Our Coptic Church The Bible is the basis of all the church bylaws and regulations. The church puts a particular emphasis on daily Bible reading by all its members. Individual & group Bible study is encouraged whenever possible. It is not an

activity restricted to clergy. Official interpretation of the Bible is the responsibility of the Holy Council,

particularly when a controversy appears. The church further emphasizes laying stress on comprehending the Bible as a whole rather than focusing on a single verse, without regards to the rest of the scripture.

Think About It???

Do you have your own personal Bible reading / study program?

Bible Verses About The Bible (2 Tim 3:16 NKJV) “All Scripture is given by

inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

(Luke 21:33 NKJV) “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”