is the bible reliable
TRANSCRIPT
And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind.” But Paul said, I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words. For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.” And Agrippa said to Paul, "In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?” (ESV)
Acts 26:24‐28
A synagogue roll must be written on the skins of clean animals
These must be fastened together with strings taken from clean animals
Every skin must contain a certain number of columns, equal throughout the entire codex
The length of each column must not extend over less than 48 or more than 60 lines; and the breadth must consist of thirty letters
The whole copy must be first‐lined; and if three words be written without a line, it is worthless
The ink should be black, neither red, green, nor any other color, and be prepared according to a definite recipe
An authentic copy must be the exemplar, from which the transcriber ought not in the least deviate
No word or letter, not even a yod, must be written from memory, the scribe not having looked at the codex before him
Between every consonant the space of a hair or thread must intervene
Between every new parashah, or section, the breadth of nine consonants
Between every book, three lines The fifth book of Moses must terminate exactly with a line; but the rest need not do so
Besides this, the copyist must sit in full Jewish dress, wash his whole body, not begin to write the name of God with a pen newly dipped in ink, and should a king address him while writing that name he must take no notice of him
‐ Talmudist Samuel Davidson
Author Book Date Written
Earliest Copies Time Gap No. of Copies
Homer Iliad 800 B.C. c. 400 B.C. c. 400 yrs 643
Herodotus History 480‐425 B.C.
c. A.D. 900 c. 1350 yrs 8
Plato 400 B.C. c. A.D. 900 c. 1300 yrs 7
Demosthenes 300 B.C. c. A.D. 1100 c. 1400 yrs 200
Caesar Gallic Wars
100‐44 B.C.
c. A.D. 900 c. 1000 yrs 200
Tacitus Annals A.D. 100 c. A.D. 1100 c. 1000 yrs 20
Pliny Secundus
Natural History
A.D. 61‐113
c. A.D. 850 c. 750 yrs 7
New Testament
A.D. 50‐100
c. 114 fragment c. 200 books c. 250 (most NT) c. 325 (full NT)
+50 yrs 100 yrs 150 yrs 225 yrs
5801
“To be skeptical of the resultant text of the New Testament books is to allow all of classical antiquity to slip into obscurity, for no documents of the ancient period are as well attested bibliographically as the New Testament.”
‐ John Warwick Montgomery
Contradictions?
“Historically it is quite doubtful whether
Christ ever existed at all, and if He did we do
not know anything about Him.”
‐ Bertrand Russell
“Hence to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the
name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time, broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also.”
‐Tacitus (A.D. 55‐120)
“Thallus, in the third book of his histories, explains away this
darkness as an eclipse of the sun – unreasonably, as it seems to me (unreasonably, of course,
because a solar eclipse could not take place at the time of the full moon and it was at the season of
the Paschal full moon that Christ dies).” ‐ Julius Africanus (quoting
Thallus, A.D. 52)
“What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise King? It was just after that that their kingdom was abolished. God justly avenged these three wise men: the Athenians died of hunger; the Samians were overwhelmed by the sea; the Jews, ruined and driven from their land, live in complete dispersion. But Socrates did not die for good; he
lived on in the teachings of Plato. Pythagoras did not die for good; he lived on in the statue of Hera. Nor did the wise King die for good; He lived on in the
teaching which He had given.”
‐Mara Bar‐Serapion (A.D. 70)
“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew
over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him. And the tribe of Christians so named
from him are not extinct at this day.”
‐ Josephus (A.D. 37‐100)
“Historically it is quite doubtful whether
Christ ever existed at all, and if He did we do
not know anything about Him.”
‐ Bertrand Russell