Evidence for the Bible. Elgin L. Hushbeck Jr.

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in this area) there is growing support for O’Callaghan’s identification.6

      In late 1994, Carsten Thiede, Director of the Institute for Basic Epistemological Research in Paderborn, Germany, announced a startling discovery about a different manuscript. Thiede dated the Magdalen papyrus, which contain portions of the Gospel of Matthew (26:7-8, 10, 14-15, 22-23, 31), to A.D. 66 or slightly earlier.7 Again, as with O’Callaghan’s identification of 7Q5 with Mark, this has caused considerable controversy for the range of dates given for Matthew are from the 40s to 90s with most liberal scholars dating Matthew in the 70s and most conservative scholars dating it in the 60s.

      One of the significant aspects of the Magdalen fragments is that they are from a codex (similar to a book) and not from a scroll. This indicates that these are at least second generation copies and gives us an indication of how rapidly the Gospels were copied and spread throughout the Roman world, which as we shall see shortly is important for establishing their reliability.

      Whether or not the work of O’Callaghan, Thiede and other scholars who support the early date of these and other manuscripts stands up to the examination of other scholars, what is clear is that the textual evidence for the New Testament is far and away stronger than for any other ancient work. By 1989, scholars had catalogued 5488d early Greek manuscript portions of the New Testament.8 These manuscripts, along with about 20,000 translations, which include over 10,000 copies of the Latin Vulgate, provide a truly phenomenal record of the text of the New Testament.9

      As a comparison, let us look at a few other ancient works. About 100 years before the New Testament was written, Julius Caesar wrote his account of the Gaulic Wars. Of this work we have about 10 copies, made about 1000 years after Caesar wrote them. We have about 7 copies of the works of Plato that date approximately 1200 years after Plato died. For any single work of Aristotle we have about 50 copies, written about 1400 years after his death.10 Clearly the text of the New Testament is much more established than any of these works. For most of the ancient writers, we have tens of copies made a thousand years after they were written. For the New Testament, we have thousands of copies, beginning tens of years after they were written.

      Besides the thousands of early manuscripts of the New Testament, we also have another way by which we can confirm these texts. The early church fathers wrote frequently, and when they wrote they often quoted Scripture. From these early quotations, nearly the entire New Testament can be reconstructed. These quotes act as a second witness for the text.

      This is why it can be stated that the claims of those who say that the Bible has been rewritten or edited by this or that church council are simply not supported by the evidence. While the church councils began in the fourth century, we have copies of the Bible and the writings of the church fathers beginning no later than the early part of the second century. If any changes had been made at the councils, they would be very easy to find. We would only have to compare the copies of the Bible made before the councils, to the copies made after, and any changes would instantly become apparent. There are no signs that the text of the New Testament was altered, much less altered so as to remove the teaching of reincarnation or any other doctrines.

      Still some point to the lack of the originals and the gap, however small, between the originals and the earliest manuscripts as evidence of unreliability. It is claimed that without the originals, we really can never be sure the text was not changed. The problem with such claims is that we do not have just a single line of manuscripts but many parallel lines, each confirming the others.

      Figure 1.1 shows an example of this. From a single original, many copies were made and distributed. From the first generation copies, second, third and forth generation manuscripts were made. For this example, say that many years later, only three manuscripts remain (mss #1, #2, & #3), all fourth generation copies. Does this mean we cannot be sure of the text before the fourth generation? Not at all. By comparing these manuscripts, we can determine how accurately the text was copied.

      When two manuscripts agree, the reading they have in common must be earlier than the manuscripts themselves. In our example, when mss #2 and #3 agree, they reflect a reading found in the first generation. When all three agree they reflect the reading found in the original. This example demonstrates a very important concept: there is a difference between the date of a manuscript and the date of a reading found in the manuscript. That a particular manuscript was written in the second century does not mean that the text it contains is from the second century. This difference between the date of the reading and the date of the manuscript is very important in bridging the gap.

      The books of the New Testament were copied and distributed widely during the lifetime of the apostles. Any early changes would have been resisted by them. After their death, there were already copies spread throughout the Roman world. To have changed them all so as to completely eliminate the original readings would have required a tremendous effort. As a result, those who claim that text has been change must face a major problem with their theory.

      To successfully change all the texts of the Bible would have required a large organized effort, yet no such organization existed in the early church. By the time anything approaching the level of organization that would have been required was reached, this would have been well past the time of what are now our earliest manuscripts. Even if such an organized effort had been able to change the Bible used at the time, they could not have changed manuscripts that had already been lost, but would be rediscovered in the last two centuries. As such these early manuscripts show that no such editing occurred.

      One final problem is the fact that early Christians did consider the Word of God to be important and many died to protect it. For example, in 303 A.D. the Roman Emperor Diocletian ordered that all Christian scripture be destroyed. While some Christians complied with the Emperor’s order, many suffered torture and martyrdom to protect God’s word. After Diocletian’s persecution failed, the reaction against those Christians who had turned over scripture to the Romans from other Christians was so strong that it caused a controversy within the church for many years after. In fact it was so strong that a new word entered into our vocabulary. Those who turned over the word of God were called ”those who delivered” which in Latin is traditores and has come into English as traitors.

      The idea that roughly twenty years after the persecution of Diocletian and at the same time that the church was struggling to deal with the traditores, the church councils would have rewritten the Bible without leaving any trace and without anyone complaining is simply impossible. The simple fact is that there were too many Christians throughout the world who where willing to suffer and even die to protect Scripture, as many had so recently done.

      When we consider the thousands of manuscripts and translations that have survived from these various sections of the early church, we can be sure the texts were copied accurately during the very small gap that remains between the originals and the earliest manuscripts.

      This is not to say that the Bible we have today is exactly the same as when it was written down by the apostles and prophets. In some places there are still some questions concerning the text. These questions arise when there are minor differences between the various ancient manuscripts, and scholars are unsure as to which one is actually correct.

      Scholars who evaluate the thousands of manuscripts, translations, and quotations and from them attempt to assemble the original text are called textual critics. For the vast majority of the Bible (probably over 95 percent) there is no doubt concerning the ancient reading of the text. In those sections about which there is still some question, the differences found among the various manuscripts are minor and have no effect on the teachings of the church, regardless of which reading is correct.

      Even here there is no secrecy or attempt to deceive.

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