Part 2 Bible Evidence

Bible Authority

Part 2 – Bible Evidence

As part of a review from the last session, let’s take a small quiz on some terminology we learned. Please take the “fill-in-the-blank/match” quiz developed by myself.

Some Bible terms for you to know:

• Pentateuch (Torah) – The first 5 books of the Bible written by Moses.
• Greek – The language in which the New Testament was written.
• Apocrypha – Collection of books not considered inspired by God, though some are included in Catholic bibles.
• Codex Vaticanus, Sinaticus, Alexandrinus – Also called “minority texts” of the New Testament and the oldest copies we have to date.
• Vulgate – Jerome’s 5th century translation of the Bible into Latin.
• Aramaic –The language in which a portion of the Old Testament was written.
• New Covenant – 27 books originally written in Greek.
• Canon – The established Bible through a process by which writings were determined to be inspired by God and written by eyewitnesses.
• Dead Sea Scrolls – The oldest known copies of Old Testament manuscripts discovered in the 1940’s.
• Hebrew – The language in which the most of the Old Testament was written.
• Textus Receptus – The “majority text” of the New Testament of which the King James version is based.
• Masoretic Text – The scribe copied manuscripts of the Old Testament.
• Old Covenant – 39 books making up the Hebrew Bible.
• Septuagint – A Greek translation of the Old Testament.

The origin of the Bible can be summed-up as follows: "A mere translation of a translation of an interpretation of an oral tradition" - and therefore, a book with no credibility or connection to the original texts. Actually, the foregoing statement is a common misunderstanding of both Christians and non-christians alike. Translations such as the King James Version are derived from existing copies of ancient manuscripts such as the Hebrew Masoretic Text (Old Testament) and the Greek Textus Receptus (New Testament), and are not translations of texts translated from other interpretations. The primary differences between today's Bible translations are merely related to how translators interpret a word or sentence from the original language of the text source (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek).

Some questions:

• Can I trust my Bible?
• What are the Dead Sea Scrolls?
• Is there archeological evidence supporting the Bible?
• Can the miracles of the Bible be proven?

The author of the Bible is God. It is a historical book that is backed by archeology, and a prophetic book that has lived up to all of its claims thus far. The Bible is God's letter to humanity collected into 66 books written by 40 divinely inspired writers over a period of over 1,600 years. The claim of divine inspiration may seem dramatic (or unrealistic to some), but a careful and honest study of the biblical scriptures will show them to be true. Powerfully, the Bible validates its divine authorship through fulfilled prophecies. An astonishing 668 prophecies have been fulfilled and none have ever been proven false (three are unconfirmed). God decided to use prophecy as His primary test of divine authorship, and an honest study of biblical prophecy will compellingly show the supernatural origin of the Bible.

The Bible is special:

• Divinely inspired
• 668 prophecies fulfilled, not proved false (3 unconfirmed)
• 40 diverse writers, same message and theology
• Spans 1600 years and over 3500 years old
• Survived the entire history of the world
• Natural disasters, weather
• Persecution, ignorance

God does not leave us with just claims of His divine handiwork in the Bible, but also supports it with compelling evidence. The design of the Bible itself is a miracle. Written over more than 1,500 years by vastly different writers, yet every book in the Bible is consistent in its message. These 66 books talk about history, prophecy, poetry, and theology. Despite their complexity, differences in writing styles and vast time periods, the books of the Bible agree miraculously well in theme, facts and cross-referencing. No human beings could have planned such an intricate combination of books over a 1,500-year time span. Bible manuscripts (remember, there were no printing presses until 1455) have survived despite weather, persecution and time. Most ancient writings written on weak materials like papyrus have vanished all together. Yet many copies of the Old Testament scriptures survived.

• >25000 copies since 325 AD with >99.5% accuracy
• As a comparison, Homer’s Odyssey copies have 764 disputing lines
• The entire NT have only 40 questionable lines, OT is less than 10.
• Only a 60 yr gap between originals and the earliest available copies
• As a comparison, the Gallic Wars has a 1000 yr gap and Aristotle’s writings has a 1400 yr gap

The manuscript evidence for the New Testament is also dramatic, with over 5,300 known copies and fragments in the original Greek, nearly 800 of which were copied before 1000 AD. Some manuscript texts date to the early second and third centuries, with the time between the original autographs and our earliest existing copies being a remarkably short 60 years. Interestingly, this manuscript evidence far surpasses the manuscript reliability of other ancient writings that we trust as authentic every day. Look at these comparisons: Julius Caesar's "The Gallic Wars" (10 manuscripts remain, with the earliest one dating to 1,000 years after the original autograph); Pliny the Younger's "History" (7 manuscripts; 750 years elapsed); Thucydides' "History" (8 manuscripts; 1,300 years elapsed); Herodotus' "History" (8 manuscripts; 1,300 years elapsed); Sophocles (193 manuscripts; 1,400 years); Euripides (9 manuscripts; 1,500 years); and Aristotle (49 manuscripts; 1,400 years).

Homer's "Iliad", the most renowned book of ancient Greece, has 643 copies of manuscript support. In those copies, there are 764 disputed lines of text, as compared to 40 lines in all the New Testament manuscripts (Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible, Moody, Chicago, Revised and Expanded 1986, p. 367). In fact, many people are unaware that each of William Shakespeare's 37 plays (written in the 1600's) have gaps in the surviving manuscripts, forcing scholars to "fill in the blanks." This pales in textual comparison with the over 5,300 copies and fragments of the New Testament that, together, assure us that nothing's been lost. In fact, all of the New Testament except eleven verses can be reconstructed from the writings of the early church fathers in the second and third centuries.

Why is the Bible so hated?

• Outlawed with penalties of prison or death
• Saudi Arabia, North Korea, China, Belarus
• Even in the U.S. you could be fired
• Attempts to destroy it
• Early translations into common languages were burned along with their translators
• Some Communist countries are still burning Bibles
• Kicked out of school
• No allowed to be used as a historical textbook or even as literature
• Denied
• Many agnostic and atheist groups are publicizing information denying the Bibles authenticity, accuracy, and divine origins
• Mocked, misquoted, and blasphemed
• Even by Christians

As a point of evidence of its divine author and its significance in human life is the fact that the Bible has been absolutely hated through the ages. Isn’t it amazing how so many have wanted to destroy it, outlaw it, belittle it, and mock it, but somehow it continues to survive and continues to change lives? What is in its pages that threatens our leaders, our society, our government, our teachers, and even ourselves so much? Could it be that the possibility of an Almighty God, a Creator, the Ruler of the Universe existing and giving us a written Word substantiates His existence and His sovereignty that tells us that we have a standard to live by that we will be held accountable and life on this earth really does have a purpose and the other side of death is an eternal reward or punishment?

Archeological evidence

• Dead Sea Scrolls
• The most significant find of our day!
• Clay pots containing scrolls and scroll fragments found in a cave near the Dead Sea in 1947

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a large collection of scrolls discovered in the Dead Sea area. The first scrolls were discovered in early 1947 by three Bedouin shepherds. Eventually, some of the scrolls made their way into the hands of archaeologists and Hebrew scholars who were amazed to find an entire copy of Isaiah which they dated to the first century BC. At that time, this was about 1000 years older than the next oldest manuscript of any part of the Bible.

• All of the writings are 1000 yrs older than any other copy we had prior

All the manuscripts are dated between 150 BC and AD 250. Until this discovery, all translation was based on the Masoretic text which is a little over 1000 years old. The Dead Sea Scrolls are about 2000 years old! Yet when compared with the Masoretic text, there was hardly any difference. Because of their great age, they provide amazing evidence that the Bible has been faithfully copied by scribes for centuries. So accurate has this copying been, that it provides compelling evidence that God has preserved his word for future generations.

• Subsequent digs have discovered 11 caves and over 800 documents
• Every book of the OT except Esther
• Entire scroll in perfect condition of Isaiah

The scrolls are also interesting because they help to date prophecies. Before the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, some critics said that prophecies about Jesus, such as those in the Psalms and Isaiah, were written after the event. The Dead Sea Scrolls proved that they were true prophecies that predated Jesus, and we know they were fulfilled. Again, this gives further evidence that God inspired the Bible, and preserved it for us to read.

• Ruins have been discovered near by indicating a community called “Qumran” of Essenes.
• Probably dedicated to keeping and studying the scrolls
• Destroyed by Romans in 68 AD

Besides copies of scriptural texts, from the caves in the Qumran area came sectarian documents that open a panorama on the obscure Jewish group apparently related to the production and deposition of the manuscripts. [4] This group was likely the Essenes, previously known from references to them in the writings of Flavius Josephus, Philo Judaeus, and Pliny the Elder. All the texts discovered, taken together, open a critical window into events in Palestine in the decades prior to and following the birth of Christ (although no NT texts were found among the scrolls) up to the time of the First Jewish Revolt against the Romans. The historical period of the Dead Sea Scrolls illuminates the environment in which Christianity developed in Palestine, the transformation of Judaism into Rabbinic Judaism in the aftermath of the First Revolt of the Jews against the Romans with the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, and the context in which the canonization of Holy Scripture was progressing.

More Archeological evidence

• Davidic Stele
• One of the newest finds (1993)
• Inscription referencing the House of David
• Dated late 9th century to early 8th century BC

More than a quarter of a century of excavations at Tel Dan in the north of Israel at the foot of Mount Hermon produced little in the way of written material. The excavations have been directed through the years since 1966 by Dr. Avraham Biran, distinguised Israeli archaeologist. Then on July 21, 1993, while work crews were preparing the site for visitors, a broken fragment of basalt stone was uncovered in secondary use in a wall. Surveyor Gila Cook glanced at the stone in the rays of the afternoon sun and saw what looked like alphabetic letters. On closer examination it turned out that, indeed, they had found an inscribed stone.. The discovery was of a fragment of a large monumental inscription, measuring about 32 cm. high and 22 cm. at its greatest width. Apparently the stone had been purposely broken in antiquity. It turned out that the stele fragment mentions King David's dynasty, "the House of David." As the preparatory work for tourism proceeded, two additional fragments of the stele were recovered in two separate, disparate locations in June of 1994.

• Amulet scroll
• Found in 1979 in some Jerusalem tombs dating back to 7th century BC
• Contains Num 6 priests blessing and the oldest recording we have of God’s name (YHWH – Yahweh)

In 1979 Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay, working with a group of students from the Institute of Holy Land Studies (now Jerusalem University College), excavated several tombs in Jerusalem on the "Shoulder of Hinnom," on the southwestern slope of the Hinnom Valley adjacent to the Scottish Presbyterian Church of St. Andrew. In one burial cave a repository for grave goods was found, containing approximately 700 items, including burial gifts of pottery vessels, over 100 pieces of silver jewelry, arrowheads, bone and ivory artifacts, alabaster vessels, 150 beads and a rare, early coin. Among the silver items was a rolled-up amulet bearing the tetragrammaton, the name of God (the consonantal letters yod, he, waw, he), YHWH. The tomb dates to the end of the Davidic dynasty, approximately the seventh century BC. The silver amulet thus dates to the end of the seventh or early sixth century. The prayer-like inscription containing the divine name provides the oldest extra-biblical evidence for the name of God thus far archaeologically recovered in Jerusalem. The scripture passage on the amulet is from the Aaronic or priestly blessing found in Num 6:24-25. The owner apparently wore the inscribed, rolled-up silver amulet during his/her lifetime, and people felt it appropriate that such objects should accompany the owner in death as in life.

• Galilean boat
• Found in 1986 during an extreme drought dating back 2000 years
• Measures 30 ft long x 8 ft wide
• Typifies the boat Jesus and the disciples used

A severe drought in 1985-86 brought the Sea of Galilee to unusually low levels, exposing large areas of the lakebed along the shoreline. Two brothers–Moshe and Yuval Lufan--from Kibbutz Ginnosar, near Tiberias along the northwest shore of the sea, discovered the remains of a 2,000 year old boat buried in the mud along the shore. Israeli archaeologist Shelley Wachsman, an expert in marine archaeology, examined the sunken boat in situ and was able to confirm that it was an ancient rather than a modern craft. His judgment was based on a construction technique used in antiquity in which the planks of the hull were edge-joined with mortise and tendon joints held together by wooden pegs. This was the first time an ancient boat had been discovered in the Sea of Galilee. The boat measured approximately 30 feet long and 8 feet wide at its greatest width. It was excavated during February, 1986, and carefully moved some 1600 yards to a specially constructed conservation pool where it remained for several years undergoing treatment for its preservation. On the basis of pottery fragments found in the boat, it has been dated between the latter part of the first century BC. Evidence was found that the boat could be both sailed and/or rowed. Apparently the boat could accommodate four oarsmen plus a helmsman. It is estimated that the boat could hold some fifteen individuals, similar to the boats in which Jesus and his twelve disciples traveled across the sea.

• Ciaphas ossuary
• In 1990 a dump truck crushed the roof of several buried chambers
• The most significant find in the old tombs was the tomb of Ciaphas and his family

A dump truck accidentally smashed through the roof of a tomb in November, 1990, during some work in the Jerusalem Peace Forest, leading to the discovery of the ossuary which contained the bones of the High Priest in the time of Jesus. An ossuary is a stone bone box, used for secondary burials. Tombs belonged to families, so subsequent burials were normal. Two of a dozen ossuaries in the tomb contained a form of the name Qafa', or Caiaphas. The most intricately carved ossuary was decorated with two circles each containing five rosettes, and twice carved into an undecorated side appears the name, "Yehosef bar Qafa'" (Joseph son of Caiaphas). The oldest bones are believed to be the bones of Caiaphas, before whom Jesus was brought for questioning.

• Pilate’s inscription
• Found in 1961
• Bears the text: “Tiberius [the Roman emperor of the period]/Pontius Pilate/Prefect of Judea “

Although Pilate is also mentioned in Josephus, Philo and Tacitus and coins issued during his governance exist, inscriptional evidence for Pilate was discovered in Italian excavations at Caesarea Maritima in 1961. Antonio Frova, director of the excavations, found a dedicatory stone that bore a three-line inscription: Tiberieum/[Pon]tius Pilatus/[Praef]ectus Iuda[eae], "Tiberius [the Roman emperor of the period]/Pontius Pilate/Prefect of Judea." The stone, in secondary use in the theatre at Caesarea, had been shaped to fit its new use and in the process some of the inscription had been mutilated, although it was easily reconstructed. The inscription not only confirms the historicity of Pilate, it clarifies the title that he bore as governor. It is now on display in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.