How the Bible Got From God to Us
Three Steps in the Process 1. Inspira+on From the Mouth of God 2. Canoniza+on Recognized By the People of God 3. Transmission Copied By Scribes of God
God is the Source of Inspira=on 2 Sam. 23:2 The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue. Zechariah 7:12 They made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets.
God is the Source of Inspira=on 2 Tim. 3:16. All Scripture is given by inspira+on of God. 2 Peter 1:21. For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
God Has Revealed His Word Hebrews 1:1 God who at various +mes and in different ways spoke in +me past to the fathers by the prophets. 1. God spoke to the prophets. 2. God spoke through the prophets.
How God Spoke to the Prophets By angels (Gen. 18, 19) By dreams (Dan. 7:1; cf. Num. 12:6) By visions (Isa.1:1; Ezek. 1:1; 8:3; 11:24; 43:3; cf. Hosea. 12:10)
How God Spoke to the Prophets By miracles (Ex. 3:2; Jud.6:37; Jonah 1:1; 4:6) By nature (Psa. 19:1) By an audible voice (1 Sam. 3:4) By an inner voice (Hosea 1:1; Joel 1:1 etc.)
How God Spoke to the Prophets By the Urim and Thummim (Ex. 28:30; Num. 27:21) By cas+ng lots (Prov. 16:33) By other prophe+c wri+ngs (Dan. 9:1-2)
The Bible is the Authority of God GOD SAYS; SCRIPTURE SAYS; Gen. 12:3 Gal 3:8 Now the Lord said to Abram The Scripture preached to Abraham saying
The Bible is the Authority of God SCRIPTURE SAYS; GOD SAYS; Gen. 2:24 Mag. 19:4-5 [Author of Genesis] said, a man shall leave his father and mother. He [God] said, a man shall leave his father and mother.
The Bible is Without Error 1. The Bible is the Word of God. 2. God Cannot Err. 3. Therefore, the Bible Cannot Err.
The Bible is Without Error Romans 3:4 Let God be true and every man a liar. John 17:17 Thy Word is truth. John 10:35 The Scripture cannot be broken.
When God Revealed His Word Between 1500 B.C to 100 A.D.
Canoniza=on: Discovered By the People of God
Discovered By the People of God 1. Was it wrigen by a prophet of God? 2. Was he confirmed by an act of God? 3. Did he tell the truth about God. 4. Did it have the power of God? 5. Was it received by the people of God?
Transmission: Copied By the Scribes of God
New Testament Scrolls
The Tes=mony of the Scrolls There Are More NT Manuscripts The NT Most Other Books 5700 mss. 10-20 mss.
The Tes=mony of the Scrolls There are Earlier NT manuscripts New Testament Most Other Books 25 150+ yr. gap c. 1000 yr. gap
The Tes=mony of the Scrolls John Ryland: 115 A.D. five verses from John 18:31-33; 37-38. Bodmer Papyri: 200 A.D. most of John, 1&2Peter, and Jude. Chester Beaty Papyri: 250 A.D. nearly all the NT books. Va+canus Manuscript: 325-50 A.D. most of OT and NT.
The Tes=mony of the Scrolls Noted Ms. Expert: Sir. Frederick Kenyon; The interval between the dates of original composi+on and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last founda+on for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down substan+ally as they were wrigen has now been removed. Both the authen+city and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established (Kenyon, Bible and Archaeology, 288).
More and Earlier NT Mss. # Manuscript Copies Time Gap in Years New Testament Homer Demosthenes Herodotus Plato Tacitus Caesar Pliny 25 500 643 1400 200 1400 8 1200 7 1000 20 1000 10 750 7 5686 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
The Tes=mony of the Scrolls And if you received this message, you would have no doubt! "Y#U HAVE WON TEN MILLION DOLLARS" "YO# HAVE WON TEN MILLION DOLLARS" "YOU #AVE WON TEN MILLION DOLLARS"
The Tes=mony of the Scrolls Note: 1. Even with mistakes, 100% of the message comes through. 2. The more errors, the more sure you are of the message. 3. The Bible has many less errors in the copies than this message does.
The Tes=mony of the Fathers EARLY CITATIONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT Writer Gospels Acts Pauline General Revelat- Epistles Epistles ion Totals Justin Martyr 268 10 43 6 3 330 (266 allusions) Irenaeus 1,038 194 499 23 65 1,819 Clement Alex. 1,017 44 1,127 207 11 2,406 Origen 9,231 349 7,778 399 165 17,922 Tertullian 3,822 502 2,609 120 205 7,258 Hippolytus 734 42 387 27 188 1,378 Eusebius 3,258 211 1,592 88 27 5,176 Grand Totals 19,368 1,352 14,035 870 664 36,289
The Old Testament Scrolls
The Number of the OT Mss. 1. More than 10,000 OT mss. 2. Da+ng from 250 B.C to 1100 A.D.
Number of Biblical Fragments Found in the Dead Sea Area
The Dead Sea Scrolls Where Were They Found? At Qumran near NW side of the Dead Sea. When Were They Found? 1947-56. How Valuable Are They? W. F. Albright called them "the greatest manuscript discovery of modern +mes.
The Dead Sea Scrolls How Old Are They? c. 250 B. C. to 70 A.D. OT was wrigen between 1500-400 B.C. We have no original Mss. of the OT. Earliest previous Mss. were from about 900 A.D.
The Dead Sea Scrolls What Was Found?; Hundreds of manuscripts, mostly OT. Some mss. of every OT book but Esther. Some complete mss. (e.g., Isaiah).
The Accuracy of OT Mss. Known From: The Greek (LXX) Transla+on of OT The careful Prac+ce of Jewish Scribes
The Accuracy of OT Mss. Known From: The Large Number of Hebrew Mss. The Early Date of Dead Sea Mss. Comparison with Other Ancient Books
The Accuracy of OT Mss. # Manuscript Copies Time Gap in Years Old Testament Homer Demonsthenes Herodotus Plato Tacitus Caesar Pliny 150 10,000 500 643 1400 200 1400 8 1200 7 1000 20 1000 10 750 7 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000
The Accuracy of OT Mss. Millar Burrows: "It is a mager of wonder that through something like a thousand years the text underwent so ligle altera+on. Herein lies its chief importance, suppor+ng the fidelity of the Masore+c tradi+on" (Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls, 304).
The Accuracy of OT Mss. Gleason Archer: Isaiah "proved to be word for word iden+cal with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95% of the text. The 5% of varia+on consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and varia+ons in spelling" (Archer, OTI, 19).
The Accuracy of OT Mss. F.F. Bruce: It may now be more confidently asserted than ever before that the Dead Sea discoveries have enabled us to answer this ques+on [of reliability of the OT text] in the affirma+ve with much greater assurance than was possible before 1948" (Bruce, 61-69).