Why Trust the Bible?

An Introduction to Bible Prophecy

Some statistics … Written over a period of 1,400 years

(Moses to C1) by around 40 different “authors” great diversity of writing styles (narrative,

poetry, prophecy, parable, apocalyptic literature, etc.).

And yet it maintains an astounding consistency in theme cohesion.

Bible contains 3,566,480 letters, 773,746 words, 31,102 verses, 1,189 chapters, and 66 books.

The average word of the Bible contains fewer than five letters. Very few big words!

The Anvil Of God's WordLast eve I passed beside a blacksmith's doorAnd heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;When looking in, I saw upon the floor,Old hammers worn with beating years of time.

"How many anvils have you had," said I,"To wear and batter these hammers so?""Just one," said he; then with a twinkling eye,"The anvil wears the hammers out, you know."

And so, I thought, the anvil of God's Word,For ages, sceptics’ blows have beat upon;Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,The anvil is unharmed - the hammers gone.

John Clifford (1836–1923)

More statistics … Middle chapter & shortest: Psalm 117.

Only 2 verses.Middle verse in the Bible: Psalm 118:8. Middle book of the Old Testament:

Proverbs. Middle chapter of the Old Testament: Job

29.Middle verse of the Old Testament: 2 Chron

10:15.Shortest verse in OT: I Chron 1:25; longest:

Est 8:9.Middle book of the New Testament is II

Thess.Bible divided into chapters by Cardinal

Hugo (1250)New Testament verses: Sir Robert

Stephens (1551)

Why Trust it? Typical Answers“We know the Bible is true by faith.” (Heb

11:1)Sound pious, but not very logical, nor a

correct application of Scripture. Scripture proves Scripture! (II Tim 3:16)

Vicious circular argument. Muslims claim the same

Textual Consistency and UniquenessUniqueness & authenticity to the original do

not necessarily prove source is true. Simply mean the Bible is unique and has been accurately transmitted.

Archaeology – confirms but cannot proveProphecy – could claim forgery but see later

Manuscripts

Archaeology

Prophecy

Statistics

Manuscripts Eyewitnesses (Luke) External Enemies Many have tried to

disprove – all failed New in Old

Concealed Old in New Revealed,

Remember the maths

M-A-P-S : Guide to Biblical Reliability

Difficult Questions! How do we know the Bible is true,

and people weren’t just making it all up

1) Masoretes2) Dead Sea Scrolls3) Prophecy4) Loadsa manuscripts!

What is the Bible?

One book … or many?

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS 1500 B.C. – A.D. 100

Who wrote the Bible and Where did it come from?Old Testament: 40 different writers, lots of

scribes.New Testament: 8 or 9 writers; original

manuscripts copied many times as Christians fled persecution.

Many copies destroyed by enemies of the church.

Fortunately many early copies survived – more than any other ancient document!

EARLY COPIES *Codex Alexandrinus A.D. 450*Codex Vaticanus A.D. 340 *Codex Sinaiaticus A.D. 400

Septuagint: 70 Jewish scholars in Egypt translated OT from Hebrew into Greek in about 250 BC

Masoretes: Jewish scribes (600 A.D.) whose job was to keep OT text error-free. How did they do it?

Vulgate Vulgate: (not vulgar!)

Latin translation by Jerome (400 AD)

Was the preferred version of the

Catholic Church for centuries

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS 1500 B.C. – A.D. 100

EARLY COPIES *Codex Alexandrinus A.D. 450*Codex Vaticanus A.D. 340 *Codex Sinaiaticus A.D. 400

ANCIENT COPIESe.g. Septuagint

ANCIENT VERSIONS

Wycliffe (1329-1384) first English translation (from Latin)Tyndale: translation of New Testament in 1525. 15,000 copies, in 6 editions, smuggled to England 1525-30. Church authorities destroyed many copies Couldn’t stop the flow of Bibles from Germany into England.

May 1535: Tyndale arrested Condemned to death after over a year in prison. Strangled and burned at the stake on 6 Oct 1536. Final words: “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.”

Miles Coverdale also fled England Met Tyndale & helped translate

Pentateuch.John Rogers, friend of Tyndale,

published a Bible under name ofThomas Matthew.

Matthew’s Bible revised in 1538 – sent to all churches

in England. Called the Great Bible (it was

huge!) First English Bible the king

allowed to be used in public.

•James VI of Scotland (1566–1625)

•1603: QE I died; James I of

England and Ireland

•Religious conflicts in England.

•1604 refused Puritan petition

•Authorised official translation of

the Bible, “King James Version”

•Guido Fawkes & co objected!

King James authorised a new English translation - more accurate than previous translations.

More than fifty scholars, trained in Hebrew and Greek, began the work in 1607. Several committees before it was finalised.

After KJV was published, earlier and better manuscripts discovered.

Revised Version (1885) - many changes to AV based on ‘better’ Greek texts

Dead Sea Scrolls & lots of other manuscripts - all discovered in 20th C. Provided scholars with 100’s of ancient manuscripts - much better idea of what the Bible originally said.

At the same time, discoveries have shown that the Bible as we know it is very accurate.

Scroll with book of Isaiah from Dead Sea Scrolls

Can I trust it?Remember the Masoretes?

After a scroll was completed, another scribe would count the letters.

Letters as numbers - if they did not add up to the correct amount, the scroll was destroyed.

Next, middle word of the Old Testament was found and compared to what it should be. If it did not match, the scroll was destroyed. Smallest mistake would result in the destruction of the scroll.

Copying process was so exact that little difference seen comparing the Isaiah scroll found by the Dead Sea (2nd Cen B.C.) and the Masoretic text (9th Cen A.D.)

NT: 13,000 manuscripts + lots of quotes - reconstruct our entire New Testament except for 11 verses!

Textual ProofAUTHOR WHEN

WRITTENEARLIE

ST COPY

TIME SPAN

(YEARS)

N° OF COPIES

New Testament 40-100 AD 125 AD 25 24,000 +Livy (Titus Livius) 59 BC –AD

174TH C 300 20

Homer (Iliad) 900 BC 400 BC 500 643Pliny the Younger (History)

61-113 AD 850 AD 750 7

Suetonius (De Vita Caesarum)

75-160 AD 950 AD 800 8

Also minor works 100 AD 1000 AD 900 1Horace 900Caesar 100-44 BC 900 AD 1,000 10Tacitus (Annals) 100 AD 1100 AD 1,000 20

God’s seal of authenticity on the BibleWhat do OT prophecies about Jesus

mean to NT Christians?Many prophecies about Jesus already

fulfilled down to last detailWe can be confident of the accuracy,

faithfulness, & reliability of the Word of God.

If all of the prophecies about the first coming of Christ were fulfilled precisely, why doubt whatever else God says in His Word?

The Importance of Bible Prophecy

First, some Maths ... Let’s say a prophecy has a 50:50

probability of being fulfilled This is the same as a 1 in 2 chance or

1/2If P = probability and n = number of

proph’sThen for a 1 in 2 probability, Pn = ½n For 1 prophecy Pn = ½1 = 0.50 or 50%

(1/2)If P=¼, for 2 prophecies, P2 =¼2 The Bible has 1,817 individual

predictions concerning 737 separate subjects! (more)

Examples of prophecy fulfilledTopic Prophecy Where

fulfilled1. Called “Mighty God” Isa

9:6-7 2. Called from Egypt Hos

11:1 3. Children slaughtered Jer

31:15 4. Died with wicked Isa

53:9 5. His stripes = healing Isa

53:4 6. People’s disbelief Isa

53:1 7. Suffered for us Isa

53:4 8. Virgin birth Isa

7:14 9. When to be born Dan

9:25 10.Where born Mic

5:2

Luke 1:35 Matt 2:14-15Matt 2:16-18Luke 23:331 Peter 2:24John 12:37-38Matt 8:17Matt 1:23Lk 2:1-2 Matt 2:5-6

ObjectionsThe Church made it all up ...

Even their enemies knew that was not so!

No historic incident better supported than the resurrection of Christ. Biased assumptions

Jesus knew the prophecies – He arranged itMany prophecies were outside of His

controlProphecies written after the event

Septuagint translated between 3rd – 1st C. BC