The following items are true facts about the Bible. Regardless of your opinion of the Bible, these things are indisputable. Hopefully, if you doubt the Bible’s authority, this information might change that:
- There are many versions of the Bible. There are versions in Chinese, Russian, Spanish and literally hundreds (over 1400 actually) of other versions of the Bible in languages old and new, foreign and native. Only the people in the remotest and most restricted areas of the world do not have a copy of the Bible in their own language.
- Every Bible translation is based on the original biblical texts and are not produced as the result of a millennium long game of ‘telephone’.
- The Bible is made up of two testaments: the Old Testament (containing 39 books) was composed from about 1400 B.C. to 400 B.C., and the New Testament (containing 27 books) was written from approximately A.D. 50 to A.D. 90.
- Based on the writings of the early scientists in the seventeenth century, we see the Bible was the basis for modern science and was birthed from their belief in an unchanging God of order, purpose, and consistency — the God portrayed in the Bible.
- Our modern concept of law and order are based on the Bible. The Bible says that God has set standards of right and wrong behavior. Many of our current laws are based upon biblical morality.
- The Bible was written by approximately 40 different authors.
- Approximately 168,000 Bibles are sold or given away each day in the US alone.
- The Bible is unique in its continuity. It was written over a period of about 1,500 years by roughly 40 writers from all walks of life. Some were fishermen; some were politicians. Others were generals or kings, shepherds, or historians. They were from three different continents, and wrote in three different languages. They wrote on hundreds of controversial subjects yet they wrote with agreement and harmony. They wrote in dungeons, in temples, on beaches, and on hillsides, during peacetime and during war. Yet their words sound like they came from the same source. So even though 10 people today couldn’t write on one controversial subject and agree, God picked 40 different people to write the Bible— and it stands the test of time.
- The Bible is unique in its circulation. The invention of the printing press in 1450 made it possible to print books in large quantities. The first book printed was the Bible. Since then, the Bible has been read by more people and printed more times than any other book in history. By 1930, over one billion Bibles had been distributed by Bible societies around the world. By 1977, Bible societies alone were printing over 200 million Bibles each year, and this doesn’t include the rest of the Bible publishing companies.
- The Bible is unique in its survival. In ancient times, books were copied by hand onto manuscripts which were made from parchment and would decay over time. Ancient books are available today only because someone made copies of the originals to preserve them. For example, the original writings of Julius Caesar are no longer around. We know what he wrote only by the copies we have. Only 10 copies are still in existence, and they were made 1,000 years after he died. Only 600 copies of Homer’s The Iliad exist, made 1,300 years after the originals were written. No other book has as many copies of the ancient manuscripts as the Bible. In fact, there are 24,633 copies of New Testament manuscripts (5,300 in Greek and the balance in Syriac, Latin, Coptic, and Aramaic), some made within 35 years of the writer’s death. For that matter, the next eight most represented books in antiquity after the Bible (The Iliad, The Works of Sophocles, The Works of Aristotle, of Livy, Julius Caesar, Tacitus, Herodotus, and Plato) combined have less than 1000 manuscripts regardless of language. Nobody doubts the authenticity of these other works; it is the Bible alone that is treated with skepticism.
- The Bible is unique in withstanding attack. No other book has been so attacked throughout history as the Bible. In A.D. 300 the Roman emperor Diocletian ordered every Bible burned because he thought that by destroying the Scriptures he could destroy Christianity. Anyone caught with a Bible would be executed. But just 25 years later, the Roman emperor Constantine ordered that 50 perfect copies of the Bible be made at government expense. The French philosopher Voltaire, a skeptic who destroyed the faith of many people, boasted that within 100 years of his death, the Bible would disappear from the face of the earth. Voltaire died in 1728, but the Bible lives on. The irony of history is that 50 years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society moved into his former house and used his printing presses to print thousands of Bibles.
- The Bible has also survived criticism. No book has been more attacked for its accuracy. And yet archaeologists are providing more proof every year that the Bible’s detailed descriptions of historic events are correct.
- Aristotle’s Ode to Poetics was written between 384 and 322 B.C. The earliest copy of this work is dated A.D. 1100, and there are only forty-nine extant manuscripts. The gap between the original writing and the earliest copy is 1,400 years. There are only seven extant manuscripts of Plato’s Tetralogies, written 427–347 B.C. The earliest copy is A.D. 900—a gap of over 1,200 years. What about the New Testament? Jesus was crucified in A.D. 30. The New Testament was written between A.D. 48 and 95. The oldest manuscripts date to the last quarter of the first century, and the second oldest to A.D. 125. This gives us a narrow gap of thirty-five to forty years from the originals written by the apostles.
- The Bible has corroborating writings unlike any other ancient book. Writings confirming Jesus’ birth, ministry, death, and resurrection include Flavius Josephus (A.D. 93), the Babylonian Talmud (A.D. 70–200), Pliny the Younger’s letter to the Emperor Trajan (approx. A.D. 100), the Annals of Tacitus (A.D. 115–117), Mara Bar Serapion (sometime after A.D. 73), and Suetonius’ Life of Claudius and Life of Nero (A.D. 120).
- The Bible has fulfilled prophecies unlike any other book. The Bible predicted the rise and fall of great empires like Greece and Rome (Daniel 2:39,40), and foretold the destruction of cities like Tyre and Sidon (Isaiah 23). Tyre’s demise is recorded by ancient historians, who tell how Alexander the Great lay siege to the city for seven months. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had failed in a 13-year attempt to capture the seacoast city and completely destroy its inhabitants. During the siege of 573 B.C., much of the population of Tyre moved to its new island home half a mile from the land city. Here it remained surrounded by walls as high as 150 feet until judgment fell in 332 B.C. with the arrival of Alexander the Great. In the seven-month siege, he fulfilled the remainder of the prophecies (Zechariah 9:4; Ezekiel 26:12) concerning the city at sea by completely destroying Tyre, killing 8,000 of its inhabitants and selling 30,000 of its population into slavery. To reach the island, he scraped up the dust and rubble of the old land city of Tyre, just like the Bible predicted, and cast them into the sea, building a 200-foot-wide causeway out to the island. Alexander’s death and the murder of his two sons was also foretold in the Scripture. Another startling prophecy was Jesus’ detailed prediction of Jerusalem’s destruction, and the further spreading of the Jewish diaspora throughout the world, which is recorded in Luke 21. In A.D. 70, not only was Jerusalem destroyed by Titus, the future emperor of Rome, but another prediction of Jesus Christ in Matthew 24:1,2 came to pass—the complete destruction of the temple of God. There are over 300 prophecies regarding the Messiah. Here are just a few: In the Book of Daniel, the Bible prophesied the coming of the one and only Jewish Messiah prior to the temple’s demise. The Old Testament prophets declared He would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) to a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12,13), die by crucifixion (Psalm 22), and be buried in a rich man’s tomb (Isaiah 53:9). There was only one person who fits all of the 300+ messianic prophecies of the Old Testament who lived before A.D. 70: Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary.
- New discoveries continue to support the Bible. The Dead Sea Scrolls confirm of the Hebrew Text, the Masoretic Text, and the Greek translation of the Hebrew Text (the Septuagint). Since the New Testament often quotes from the Greek Old Testament, the Dead Sea Scrolls provide further confidence for the Masoretic texts in this area where it can be tested.
- Archaeology continues to affirm the Bible. According to Dr. Nelson Glueck, “It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries.”
- The Bible itself claims to be ‘of God’, ‘inspired by God’, and quotes God as ‘God said…’. While this might appear to be circular reasoning, in fact it is not. To prove the President lives in the White House, the most authoritative method to do so is to look into it. The same is true of the Bible. Look into it and see if what it says is true. But I must warn you. Skeptics have been doing just that for 2000 years and the Bible still stands. The skeptics, however, are skeptical no longer and are instead believers.
Information taken from ‘Archaeology and History Attest to the Reliability of the Bible’ by Richard M. Fales, Ph.D.; ‘Evidence That Demands a Verdict’ by Josh McDowell; School of Biblical Evangelism, Lessons 52-55; ‘Dead Sea Scrolls’ by Norman Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of Chrisian Apologetics; ‘The Bible Stands Alone’ compiled by Jordan and Justin Drake; ‘The Dead Sea Scrolls: “The greatest manuscript discovery of all times”‘ by William F. Albright
