why can I trust the Bible?

1. Part 3
Can I Trust the Bible?

2. Dan Brown, Author

4. The Bible
1. Mistranslated/Miscopied
2. Not Historical
3. Picked by a committee
4. Written by Men
5. Filled with Mistakes

5. 1. Miscopied &
Mistranslated

6. The bible was translated, re-
translated, and re-translated;
copied, re-copied, and re-copied
so that what we have today is
different from what they wrote

8. The Telephone Game!

9. 1. Was the Bible
miscopied or
mistranslated?

10. OT Autographs
NT Autographs
Autographs:
The Original Handwritten Text

11. OT Autographs
NT Autographs Greek NT Copies
Hebrew OT Copies
Greek OT Copies
Dead Sea Scrolls
Copies We Found

12. OT Autographs
NT Autographs Greek NT Copies
Hebrew OT Copies
Greek OT Copies
Dead Sea Scrolls
Latin Bible

13. OT Autographs
NT Autographs Greek NT Copies
Hebrew OT Copies
Greek OT Copies
Dead Sea Scrolls
Latin Bible
Greek OT
Hebrew OT
Latin Bible
Greek NT

19. Our Bibles were translated
From most ancient texts

20. OT Autographs
NT Autographs
Greek NT Copies
Hebrew OT Copies
Greek OT Copies
Dead Sea Scrolls

21. Versus

22. Leningrad Codex (National Library in St. Petersburg, written 1008 AD
From the Masoretic Text dated 600 AD

23. Aleppo Codex, Israel Museum in Jerusalem copied in 900 AD
From the Masoretic Text, 600 AD

24. Codex Amiatinus, Latin Vulgate, British Museum copied in 700 AD
From the Latin Vulgate 400 AD

25. Codex Sinaiticus, British Museum 330 AD
Greek Septuagint 100 BC

26. Great Isaiah Scroll (Q1 Isa a), Israel Museum in Jerusalem, 300 BC

27. Ancient Copies of the Bible
John Rylands Papyrus (130 AD)
Bodmer Papyrus (150 AD)
Diatessaron (170 AD)
Cheater Beatty (200 AD)
Vaticanus Codex (325 AD)
Sinaiticus Codex (350 AD)
Alexandrinus Codex (400 AD)
Dead Sea Scrolls (150 BC)
Septuagint (250 - 100 BC)
Latin Vulgate (400 AD)
Aramaic Targums (100 BC)
Masoretic Texts (600 AD)
Old Testament New Testament

28. Other Copies Available
NT quotations by church fathers
NT quotations in prayer books
OT Quoted in the Talmud
OT quotations in prayer book
OT quotations in rabbinic texts
Old Testament New Testament

29. Compare with Historical Documents
Author Date
Earliest
Copy
# Copies Author Date
Earliest
Copy
# Copies
Plato 100 BC 900 AD 7 Herodotus 400 BC 900 AD 8
Homer 300 BC 1100 AD 643 Josephus 80 AD 1050 AD 120
Julius
Caesar
100 BC 900 AD 10
NT
Greek
90 AD 200 AD 5,800
Aristotle 300 BC 1100 AD 5
NT
Other
90 AD 400 AD 19,300
Tacitus 100 AD 1100 AD 20

30. 2. Not Historical

31. Francesca Stravrakopoulou, Ph.D.
Bible Scholar, Exeter University

32. The Exodus Story
1445 BC

33. “The story was written during the time of
King Josiah of Judah in the 7th Century, 600
years after the Exodus supposedly
occurred.”
(The Bible Unearthed, 2002)
Israel Finkelstein
Israeli Archaeologist

34. David Rohl
Exodus Myth or History (2015)
“Exodus story is historical”

36. Evidence of Hebrew Settlements in 1450 BC

37. Avaris Plague Burial Pit (1450 BC)

38. Kahun Semitic Settlement dated 1450 BC

39. List of Hebrew Slaves from Egypt’s Middle Kingdom
Brooklyn Papyrus, 1800 BC

40. Invasion of Canaan
1400 BC

41. Kathleen Kenyon
(1906 - 1978)

42. Digging Up Jericho
(1957)

43. Tel Jericho, Archaeological Site (1400 BC)

44. Destruction of Hazor (1400 BC)

45. Amarna Letter King Akhenaten to Pharaoh Amenhotep III
Asking help against invading “Hapirus” (1380 BC)

46. Edict of Cyrus
540 BC

47. In the
fi
rst year of Cyrus king of Persia…the
LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus …so that he
made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom
and also put it in writing: “Thus says Cyrus king
of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven has …
charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem,
which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all
his people, may his God be with him, and let him
go up to Jerusalem
(Ezra 1:1–3 ESV)

48. Cyrus Cylinder 530 BC

49. Flood Stories

50. Gilgamesh Epic
Sumeria
7th Century BC

51. Great Flood of Gun-Yu
Chinese Xia Dynasty
2300 BC

52. Legend of Manu & Matsya
India
700 BC

53. Legend of Una Pachakuti
Inca, Peru
700 BC

54. Other Evidences
• Global Jurassic Sea
• Global strata limestone
• Astroid destroyed life
• Settlements on bottom of
Black Sea

55. Historic Jesus

56. Extra-Biblical Accounts
On the Eve of Passover they hanged Jesus the Nazarene
Sanhedrin 43a
There was about this time Jesus, a wise man…a doer of wonderful
works…He drew over to him both many of the Jews and man of the
Gentiles…Pilate had him condemned to the cross.
Antiquities of the Jews (XVIII 3:3)

57. Extra-Biblical Accounts
Nero blamed Rome’s fire on a class…called Christians.
Christus, whom they were named after, was executed during
the reign of Tiberius…by Pontius Pilatus, for mischievous
superstition
Tacitus Book 15 ch 44

58. 3. Picked by Committee

59. Smokey Backroom Deal

60. Da Vinci Code (2006)

61. Gospel of Judas (150 AD)

62. Who picked the
Books?
Gospel of Judas (150 AD)

63. Books weren’t picked but recognized
•Who was the writer?
•What was their authority?
•Were they an eye witness?
•Who vouched for the book?
•Is their doctrine consistent?

64. Early Lists of the Old Testament
• 100 BC - Septuagint listed most of the OT
• 50 BC - Targum translated most OT Books
• 95 AD - Josephus listed most of the OT
• 100 AD - New Testament listed most OT Books
• 400 AD - Latin Vulgate listed all the OT Books
• 500 AD - Talmud lists all the OT Books (Bava Batra 14b)

65. Early Lists of the New Testament
• 130 AD - Marcion a heretic listed Paul’s letters and Luke
• 150 AD - Justin Martyr listed Gospels, and most Epistles
• 170 AD - Muratorian fragment, all except Hebrews, James, Peter
• 200 AD - Syriac NT, all books except 2 & 3 John, Jude, Rev.
• 250 AD - Origen, books of NT
• 300 AD - Codex Vaticanus, all NT except Timothy, Titus, Philemon
• 330 AD - Codex Sinaiticus, all NT
• 367 AD - Athanasius, all NT

66. But what about the other books?

67. Gospel of Judas
180 AD
El Minya, Egypt (2005)

68. Gospel of Thomas
100 AD
Cairo Geniza (1945)
Nag Hammadi MSS

69. Critical text exercise

70. 4. Human Book

71. Predicted An
Historical King
Cyrus of Persia

72. Babylonian Exile (586 BC)

73. Persian Empire (539 BC)

74. Isaiah 44:24–45:1, ESV
I am Yahweh…who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall
be inhabited,’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They
shall be [re]built, and…who says of CYRUS…he
shall fulfill my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She
shall be built,’…This is what Yahweh says…to
CYRUS.

75. 750 BC
“This is what Yahweh says to Cyrus”

76. Isaiah
750 BC
• First Temple
• During King Hezekiah
• Before Nebuchadnezzar
• Before Babylonian Exile

77. Cyrus
539 BC
Edict Return Exiles

78. Cyrus Cylinder (535 BC)

80. Isaiah Scroll, Israel Museum in Jerusalem, 350 BC

81. Predicted
Destruction of
Jerusalem

82. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the
prophets and stones those who are sent to
it…Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell
you, you will not see me until you say:
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord!”
(Luke 13:34–35 ESV)

83. When you see Jerusalem surrounded by
armies, then know that its destruction has
arrived…Flee to the mountains, and let those
who are inside [Jerusalem] escape.
(Luke 21:20–24 ESV)

85. The Christians in Jerusalem were commanded by a
prophecy before the war to escape and go to the city
of Pella in Perea. [They] left Jerusalem…all Jesus’
followers abandoned Jerusalem and Judea.
(Eusebius 3.5.3, 4th Century)

86. Predicted
scattering and
regathering of the
Jews

87. And the LORD will SCATTER you among all peoples,
from one end of the earth to the other.
(Deut. 28:64 ESV)
Then the LORD your God…will GATHER you again
from all the peoples where the LORD your God has
scattered you… And will return you the land that your
fathers possessed.
(Deut. 30:3–5 ESV)

88. 1400 BC Israel not yet conquered Canaan

89. • 70 AD Temple is Destroyed
• Jews are scattered
• Hebrew stops
Jewish Diaspora

90. 1880-1930 Jews return
1920 Hebrew reborn
1948 Israel reborn
Jewish Regathering

91. Palestine in 1870, 382,000

92. Israel in 2021 9.05 Million

93. It was a self-fulfilling
prophecy!!

94. Ben Gurion Golda Maier Chaim Weizmann Vladamir Jabotinsky
Theodore Herzl
Albert Einstein

95. Supernatural Authorship
1. Predicted a king & his edict 350 years
2. Predicted destruction of Jerusalem 40 years
3. Predicted the scattering & regathering of the Jews

96. 4. Mistakes
True!
False!

97. The Bible
1. Reliably transmitted
2. Historically accurate
3. Books were recognized
4. Evidence of supernatural
authorship
5. Determine autographs