Scripture

The New Testament speaks of the Old Testament as Scripture, for which the Greek word is graphe, meaning “writing.” The word bible comes from the Greek word for book. Holy Bible means the “Holy Book.” It contains sixty-six separate books (thirty-nine Old Testament and twenty-seven New Testament), written in three languages (Hebrew, Greek, and a bit in Aramaic), over a period of more than a thousand years, by more than forty authors (of varying ages and backgrounds) on three continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe).

Authors of the Bible include kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, and scholars. The books of the Bible cover history, sermons, letters, songs, and love letters. There are geographical surveys, architectural specifications, travel diaries, population statistics, family trees, inventories, and numerous legal documents. It covers hundreds of controversial subjects with amazing unity. It is the best-selling book of all time and is now available in nearly three thousand languages.

The Old Testament was written on papyrus—a form of paper made out of reeds; the New Testament was written on parchment (prepared animal skins). Because both forms of documents easily degrade under hot and dry conditions, it is providential that we have so many copies of ancient manuscripts. The various chapter and verse divisions in the Bible were not part of the original books. A lecturer at the University of Paris created the chapter divisions in 1228. Its current chapter and verse divisions were not fully developed until 1551.

The Bible says that God cannot speak falsely (2 Samuel 7:28; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18), and so all of the Bible is without any error or contradiction (Numbers 23:19; Psalm 12:6, 119:89; Proverbs 30:5-6). But, the Bible also teaches that though it is perfect sometimes our interpretation of it is not for the following reasons:

• God’s thoughts are much loftier than ours (Isaiah 55:9)
• God has secrets that He has not revealed to anyone (Deuteronomy 29:29)
• Sometimes we see the truth as if through a dirty and fogged window ( Corinthians 13:12)
• We are prone to resist God’s truth because it forced us to change (Romans 1:18-19)
• We know in part (1 Corinthians 13:9)
• Some things are just hard to understand (2 Peter 3:15-16)

Therefore, if it appears that there is a contradiction in Scripture we should first dig deeply into our Bible to see if what appears to be an error is in fact not once we have examined it more closely (When Critics Ask by Norman Geisler is very helpful in doing this).

If after careful examination things still remain unclear, it is perfectly reasonable to say that at this time God has chosen not to give us an answer on that particular subject. But, we can look forward to heaven, where we will learn the final word on everything.

While some people will stress that we should not take the Bible literally, they will themselves become quite insulted if we do not take their command to do so literally. The fact is that people speak and books are written because someone is trying to say something that is important enough for them to go to the trouble of communicating. The Bible is no different.

The Bible should be heard like all other forms of communication wherein we assume that what we are reading, seeing, or hearing is to be taken literally unless to do so would be foolish. In those cases, we assume that a literal truth is being communicated, but in a figurative way that requires our imagination to appreciate. For example, when a mother says that her newborn child is a “doll”, or her husband declares that he is so hungry he could “eat a horse” they are speaking literally but in a figurative way.

In this way, the Bible, like other forms of communication, continually speaks literally in either a plain literal or figurative literal fashion. When the Bible speaks in a figurative literal fashion it often tips us off to this fact with the words “like” or “as” that indicate figurative speech.

Some statements from Scripture about Scripture:
• Given by inspiration of God — 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:19–21
• The very words of God — 1 Thessalonians 2:13
• All we need to know God — Luke 16:29, 31
• A perfect guide for life — Proverbs 6:23
• Pure — Psalm 12:6; 119:140
• True — Psalm 119:160; John 17:17
• Trustworthy — Proverbs 30:5–6
• Perfect — Psalm 19:7
• Effective — Isaiah 55:11
• Powerful — Hebrews 4:12
• Nothing to be taken from or added to — Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32
• For everyone — Romans 16:25–27
• To be obeyed — James 1:22

Some poetic images from Scripture about Scripture:
• Sweet like honey — Psalm19:10
• A lamp to guide our life — Psalm 119:105
• Food for our soul — Jeremiah 15:16
• A fire that purifies and a hammer that breaks us — Jeremiah 23:29
• A sword — Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12
• A seed for salvation planted in us — James 1:21
• Milk that nourishes us — 1 Peter 2:2

By its own declaration, the importance of Scripture can hardly be overstated. We will now examine how we received the precious gift of Scripture in the English language.

The 66 books of the Bible were written over the course of more than a thousand years. Below is a timeline that helps better understand when the Old and New Testaments were written.

Old Testament	Silent Years	Life of Jesus	New Testament
1800 - 400 BC	400 - 0 BC	1 - 33 AD	45 - 95 AD

Some people struggle in trusting that the early copies of the original copy of each book of the Bible is trustworthy. To help bolster confidence in the early copies of the Bible, below is a comparison of the New Testament books with various other books that are widely read and accepted in Western literature.

There are three forms of evidence for the trustworthiness of the copies of the New Testament books:

• the bibliographical test (number and quality of manuscripts)
• the internal test (the consistency of the text to not contradict itself)
• the external test (the accuracy of the text in relation to other works of history from that period)

The Bibliographical Test

The bibliographical test seeks to determine the quantity and quality of documents, as well as how far removed they are from the time of the originals. The quantity of NT manuscripts is unparalleled in ancient literature. There are over 5,000 Greek manuscripts, about 8,000 Latin manuscripts, and another 1,000 manuscripts in other languages (Syriac, Coptic, etc.).

Author	Date Written	Earliest Copy	Time Span	Number of Copies	Accuracy
Homer	Ca. 850 BC	-----	------	643	95%
Herodotus	Ca. 450 BC	ca. AD 900	About 1,350 years	8	-----
Euripedes	Ca. 440 BC	ca. AD 1100	About 1,500 years	9	Not
Thucydides	Ca. 420 BC	ca. AD 1100	About 1,300 years	8	enough
Plato	Ca. 380 BC	ca. AD 900	About 1,300 years	7	copies
Aristotle	Ca. 350 BC	ca. AD 1100	About 1,400 years	5	to
Caesar	Ca. 60 BC	ca. AD 900	About 950 years	10	reconstruct
Catullus	Ca. 50 BC	ca. AD 1500	About 1,600 years	3	the
Livy	Ca. 10 BC	-----	------	20	original
Tacitus	Ca. AD 100	ca. AD 1100	About 1,000 years	20	-----
New Testament	Ca. AD 60	ca. AD 130	About 100 years	About 14,000	99.5%

Source: I'm Glad you Asked by Ken Boa, page 78

Possibly the oldest New Testament manuscript is a scrap of papyrus (p52) containing John 18:31-33, 37-38, dating from AD 125-130, no more than 40 years after John’s gospel was likely written. A non-Christian scholar, Carsten Peter Thiede even claims that he has dated a fragment of Matthew to about 60 AD. By comparing the ancient manuscripts we find that the vast majority of variations are minor elements of spelling, grammar, and style, or accidental omissions or duplications of words or phrases. Only about 400 (less than one page of an English translation) have any significant bearing on the meaning of a passage, and most are footnoted in Modern English translations. Overall, 97-99% of the New Testament can be reconstructed beyond any reasonable doubt, and no Christian doctrine is founded solely or even primarily on textually disputed passages.

The Scripture quoted in the works of the early Christian writers (most 95-150 AD) are so extensive that virtually the entire New Testament can be reconstructed except for 11 verses, mostly from 2 and 3 John.

Critics of the accuracy of the Bible routinely claimed that it was in fact a series of fables and legends that had developed over hundreds of years because there were not enough copies of ancient manuscripts to alleviate their skepticism. Curiously, a simple shepherd boy dealt a death blow to their criticisms in 1947. He wandered into a cave in the Middle East and discovered large pottery jars filled with leather scrolls that had been wrapped in linen cloth. Amazingly, the ancient copies of the books of the Bible were in good condition despite their age and harsh climate because they had been well sealed for nearly 1900 years. What is now known as The Dead Sea Scrolls are made up of some 40,000 inscribed ancient fragments. From these fragments more than 500 books have been reconstructed, including some Old Testament books such as a complete copy of Isaiah.

Simply, if someone seeks to eliminate the trustworthiness of the New Testament they would also have to dismiss virtually the entire canon of western literature and pull everything from Homer to Plato and Aristotle off of bookstore shelves and out of classroom discussions.

The Internal Test

This test of the Bible’s accuracy is indeed important because each book is a witness to a body of truth. This is not unlike a legal case in our day--if a witness were to contradict him or herself their testimony would not be deemed trustworthy. Below are a few simple examples that illustrate the amazing internal unity of the Bible.

Neither Islam, nor any other world religion or cult can present any specific prophecies concerning the coming of their prophets. However in the Bible we see hundreds of fulfilled prophecies extending hundreds, and sometimes over a thousand years into the future. Consider the following prophecies and their fulfillment in Jesus Christ:

1. Born of a woman (Genesis 3:15 cf. Matthew 1:20; Galatians 4:4)
2. Descendant of Abraham (Genesis 22:18 cf. Matthew 1:1; Galatians 3:16)
3. Born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14 cf. Matthew 1:18)
4. Born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2 cf. Luke 2:1-7)
5. Prophesied by the forerunner John the Baptist (Isaiah 40; Malachi 3:1 cf. John 1:19-52)
6. Rejected by his own people (Isaiah 53 cf. John 1)
7. Presented as a king riding a donkey (Zechariah 9:9 cf. Luke 19:35-37)
8. Betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:9 cf. Matthew 26:50)
9. Betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12 cf. 26:15)
10. Blood money thrown on temple floor & used to buy a potters field (Zechariah 11:13 cf. Matthew 27:5-7)
Note: the temple was destroyed in 70 AD so the Messiah must have come prior to then.
11. Crucified (Psalm 22:16 cf. Luke 23:33) (Note: crucifixion didn’t exist until hundreds of years after Psalms was written)
12. Crucified with thieves (Isaiah 53:12 cf. Matthew 27:38)
13. Forsaken by God (Psalm 22:1 cf. Matthew 27:46)
14. Lots cast for His clothing (Psalm 22:18 cf. John 19:23)
15. Buried in a rich man’s tomb (Isaiah 53:9 cf. Matthew 27:57)
16. Resurrected & exalted (Psalm 16:10, Isaiah 52:13, 53:10-12 cf. Acts 2:25-32)
17. Ascended into heaven (Psalm 68:18 cf. Acts 1:8, Ephesians 4:8).

The Bible is clearly a book of history and not just philosophy. It continually promises concrete historical events that in time come to pass exactly as promised. These promises show the divine inspiration of the Bible and their fulfillment proves that there is a God who rules over human history and brings events to pass just as He ordains them. Because of these facts, we can trust the internal consistency of the Bible to be a chorus of faithful witnesses who sing together in harmony.

The Historical Test

The historicity of Jesus and events surrounding the time of his life has been well established by early Roman, Greek, and Jewish sources. Such ancient historians include Flavius Josephus, Mara BarSerapion, Cornelius Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, Lucian, and the Jewish Talmud. Simply, when the New Testament mentions such historical facts as rulers, nations, people groups, political events, and the existence of Jesus non-Christian historical sources confirm the accuracy of the New Testament accounts.

In translating the Bible into English, three general categories of translation are most common. Word for word translations, thought for thought translations, and paraphrases. The same three options are also used in the translation of other ancient books into English.

Word for word translations make a special effort to carefully interpret each word from their origninal Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic into English. Word for word translations tend to be the best for studying because of their accuracy, though they sometimes lose the poetic nuances of the original languages. Probably the best word for word translations are the New American Standard Bible (NASB), English Standard Version (ESV), and the New King James Version (NKJV). The King James Version (KJV) is also a word for word translation but because of its use of old English it is very difficult for some people to read.

Thought for thought translations attempt to convey the full nuances of a passage by interpreting the scriptures entire meaning and not just the individual words. They may include words that were not included in the originals in an effort to give the same meaning that the reader of the original languages would have had. The best and most widely read thought for thought English translation is the New International Version (NIV).

Paraphrased translations pay even less attention to specific word meanings than thought for thought translations in an attempt to give the poetic or narrative essence of a passage. For this reason, many paraphrased translations do not even have verses in them. Examples of paraphrased translations include The Message, The New Living Bible, and The Amplified Bible.

Some translations are very poor and we would not recommend that they be used as credible translations for study. These include the Jehovah’s Witness translation called the New World Translation, which was written by editors with no working knowledge of the original languages. We would also not recommend current politically correct attempts to remove the masculine names for God in Bibles like the New Revised Standard Version.

Since each style of translation has different strengths and weaknesses it is best for students of the Bible to use multiple translations that include word for word, thought for thought, and paraphrase versions to gain a fuller insight into the Scriptures. Generally, it is best to use the NIV or ESV as your primary study Bible as they are good modern day translations.

While purchasing a study Bible can be quite expensive, it is imperative that every serious student of the Bible invest some money purchasing at least one nice Bible with some helps and room for their notes. When buying a Bible the general rule is that the more money you spend the better the quality of paper, binding, and leather you will receive.

Many volumes have been written to explain the miraculous and fascinating process necessary for the Bible’s existence. To help you understand the process in a brief and simple way, I will explain a five-step sequence that has occurred for you to read the Bible.

God --> Revelation/Inspiration --> Transmission --> Translation --> Interpretation --> Application --> Your Life

1. Revelation is the miraculous event whereby God revealed Himself and His
Truth to someone and inspired them, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to write down what He had to say—perfectly. This original copy is called the autographa.

2. Transmission occurred when the autographa was carefully copied by trained scribes so that other copies could be made available for people to read. While these handwritten copies have the occasional minor error (e.g., spelling or punctuation), they were accepted as accurate and authoritative by God’s people (e.g., Deuteronomy 17:18 cf. 1 Kings 2:3; Ezra 7:14; Nehemiah 8:8). For example, the apostles, who were the senior leaders in the early church, taught from copies of the books of the Bible (Acts 17:2; 18:8), and the early church tested all teachings against the existing scrolls (Acts 17:11). Furthermore, Jesus Himself taught from copies of the books, not the autographa, and treated them as authoritative (e.g., Matthew 12:3–5; 21:16, 42; Luke 4:16–21; 10:26). In conclusion, God’s people have always relied on manuscripts, and these writings have proven to be accurate and trustworthy. Jesus’ own perfect example assures us of their trustworthiness.

Tragically, opponents of Scripture have attacked its trustworthiness by falsely stating that our current English translations are built upon poorly transmitted copies. However, the bibliographical test of Scripture flatly refutes this false argument. The bibliographical test seeks to determine the historicity of an ancient text by analyzing the quantity and quality of copied manuscripts, as well as how far removed they are from the time of the originals. The quantity of New Testament manuscripts is unparalleled in ancient literature. There are more than five thousand Greek manuscripts, about eight thousand Latin manuscripts, and another one thousand manuscripts in other languages (Syriac, Coptic, etc.). As the following chart illustrates, both the number of transmitted manuscripts we possess of Scripture and their proximity in date to the autographa are astounding and unparalleled in the canon of Western literature.

Author	Date Written	Earliest Copy	Time Span	Number of Copies	Accuracy
Homer	Ca. 850 BC	-----	------	643	95%
Herodotus	Ca. 450 BC	ca. AD 900	About 1,350 years	8	-----
Euripedes	Ca. 440 BC	ca. AD 1100	About 1,500 years	9	Not
Thucydides	Ca. 420 BC	ca. AD 1100	About 1,300 years	8	enough
Plato	Ca. 380 BC	ca. AD 900	About 1,300 years	7	copies
Aristotle	Ca. 350 BC	ca. AD 1100	About 1,400 years	5	to
Caesar	Ca. 60 BC	ca. AD 900	About 950 years	10	reconstruct
Catullus	Ca. 50 BC	ca. AD 1500	About 1,600 years	3	the
Livy	Ca. 10 BC	-----	------	20	original
Tacitus	Ca. AD 100	ca. AD 1100	About 1,000 years	20	-----
New Testament	Ca. AD 60	ca. AD 130	About 100 years	About 14,000	99.5%

*Taken directly from Ken Boa’s I’m Glad You Asked, page 78

Possibly the oldest manuscript is a scrap of papyrus (p52) containing John 18:31–33 and 37–38, dating from AD 125–130, no more than forty years after John’s gospel was likely written. Bible scholar and papyrologist Carsten Peter Thiede even claims that he has dated a fragment of Matthew to about AD 60. By comparing the ancient manuscripts, we find that the vast majority of variations are minor elements of spelling, grammar, and style, or accidental omissions or duplications of words or phrases. Only about four hundred (less than one page of an English translation) have any significant bearing on the meaning of a passage, and most are footnoted in modern English translations. Overall, 97 to 99 percent of the New Testament can be reconstructed beyond any reasonable doubt, and no Christian doctrine is founded solely or even primarily on textually disputed passages.

Moreover, the Scripture quoted in the works of the early Christian writers (mostly AD 95–150) are so extensive that virtually the entire New Testament can be reconstructed, except for eleven verses, mostly from 2 and 3 John.

Critics of the accuracy of the Bible routinely claim that it is in fact a series of fables and legends that have developed over hundreds of years because there are not enough copies of ancient manuscripts to alleviate their skepticism. However, a simple shepherd boy dealt a death blow to their criticisms in 1947. He wandered into a cave in the Middle East and discovered large pottery jars filled with leather scrolls that had been wrapped in linen cloth. Amazingly, the ancient copies of the books of the Bible were in good condition despite their age and the harsh climate because they had been well sealed for nearly nineteen hundred years. What are now known as The Dead Sea Scrolls are made up of some forty thousand inscribed ancient fragments. From these fragments, more than five hundred books have been reconstructed, including some Old Testament books such as a complete copy of Isaiah.

Simply, if someone seeks to eliminate the trustworthiness of the New Testament, then to be consistent they would also have to dismiss virtually the entire canon of Western literature and pull everything from Homer to Plato to Aristotle off of bookstore shelves and out of classroom discussions. The transmission process of Scripture is, by God’s providential grace, without peer.

3. Translation occurs in service to people who want to read the books of the Bible but are not familiar with the original language in which they were written (Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic). Teams of language theory scholars carefully undertake the painstaking process of translating the original languages into the languages of other peoples. Today, the Bible has been carefully translated into nearly three thousand languages. While the thought of a translation may concern some people, the fact remains that most of the canon of Western literature has also been translated because we do not use their original languages either. The first translation of the English Bible was initiated by John Wycliffe and completed by John Purvey in AD 1388.

4. Interpretation occurs when someone reads the Bible in a language they can understand and determines the meaning of the verses they read by the enablement of God the Holy Spirit who also inspired the writing of Scripture. Each text of the Bible has only one true interpretation and so we must be careful to read the truth out of the Bible (exegesis) rather than reading our beliefs and desires into it (eisegesis).

A common question arises at this point: is the Bible to be interpreted literally? The answer is yes. There are plain-literal and figurative-literal portions of the Bible. We begin by assuming the plain-literal meaning and if that seems absurd then we go with a figurative-literal interpretation. A figurative-literal Scripture teaches a truth in a poetic way and often uses the words “like” or “as” to tip us off that figurative language is being used. But even when figurative language is being used, it is still communicating a literal truth. For example, in the poetic Song of Songs, the man says to his beloved, “your eyes are doves” (1:15). In this figurative language, the man is communicating a very literal truth. He likens her eyes to doves, which come in pairs, and when their tail-feathers flutter they appear like eyelashes. Doves have just one faithful mate throughout their lives, possibly indicating that her eyes are focused on him alone. The dove is also a symbol of peace and purity, alluding to her virginity.

5. Application is the result of taking what we learn from the principles in the Bible and making changes in our thoughts and actions by God the Holy Spirit’s empowering grace so that our life is congruent with the Bible. There are a seemingly infinite number of applications for a text of the Bible. For example, when the Bible says that we should love people, the applications for that principle are endless.

In this five-step process (Revelation/Inspiration --> Transmission --> Translation --> Interpretation --> Application), we see how God speaks to us and cares deeply about our lives. We also see how the chasm between God and us is graciously filled by God’s revelation, which is more accurate and true than our human speculation (e.g., religion and philosophy). While the first step (Revelation/Inspiration of the autographa) is the only one that is guaranteed to be perfect, the other steps are indeed accurate. We must be increasingly careful as we move through the steps, however, because the opportunity for error increases at each step. Lastly, the third step of translation is incredibly important because that is what we depend on for the learning and living of our Christian faith. On this point, noted theologian J. I. Packer said, “I find myself suspecting very strongly that my work on the translation of the ESV Bible was the most important thing that I have done for the Kingdom, and that the product of our labors is perhaps the biggest milestone in Bible translation in the past fifty years or more.”

What is the Bible?

Does the Bible contain errors?

Should all scripture be read literally?

What does the Bible say about itself?

When was the Bible written?

Why should I trust the transmitted copies of the Bible?

Why are there different Bible translations?

How did we get the Bible?