REVIEW definition of Verbal Plenary Inspiration: God so moved the human
authors of scripture that the resulting product was the Word of God written,
totally without error in all that it affirms in the original autographs, in
every area including theology, history, geography and science.
Remember the qualifications to this definition described toward the end
of last week's teaching.
OBJECTION: What is problematic with these statements? (play the devil's advocate):
-
"The Bible is inspired because it/Jesus claims to be inspired."
(2 Pet 1:20-21*; 2 Tim. 3:16*) But this is circular reasoning-we
must assume the validity of the conclusion in order to reach the conclusion.
What evidence is there that we should trust the Bible's claims for itself?
And what about the Quran which also claims inspiration yet contradicts
the Bible's content? Why should we believe what Jesus says, and
what confidence can we have that the gospels record reliably what Jesus
said?
-
"I believe the Bible is inspired by God because its contents
resonate with me." There is some truth to this statement.
Since the Bible is living and active (Heb. 4:12) and since the Spirit
convicts people of the truth (John 16:8) we can expect that people will
resonate with the Bible's content to some extent. But this is an
inadequate basis for belief in inspiration because it is too subjective.
People commonly report "resonating" with the Celestine Prophecy
and other books which clearly contradict the Bible. Furthermore
the offensive content in scripture leads to "selective resonation."
The nature of investigation and evidence: Like all matters of historical
inquiry, we do not have a scientific, empirical, "knock out" proof
of verbal plenary inspiration. Imagine for example, a crime scene where various
evidence is gathered. We have lines of evidence that provide us with
sufficient evidence to put our trust in Christ, whose authority then
assures us of the verbal plenary inspiration of the scriptures. This
is an argument from authority (Christ's). We do this by studying, then concluding:
- There is sufficient evidence that Jesus is the Messiah.
- Jesus viewed scripture as inspired by God.
- The Gospels accurately recorded what Jesus said.
Therefore our belief in inspiration is anchored in persuasive and abundant
evidence.
WARNING: It takes time to master this material, but your investment will
yield rich dividends in terms of strengthening your own faith and helping
others! View your notes as a source of valuable information that you can review
for your own sake, and for use with non-Christians and newer Christians.
God uses fulfilled prophecy to validate scripture.
ITS IMPORTANCE: Of all so-called "scriptures," the Bible
is the only one which anticipates our need for external validation of its
contents, and provides a unique means for this through fulfilled historical
prophecy.
Other "scriptures" either do not even claim to be revelation
(e.g., Eastern religious "scriptures" claim only to be human speculation),
or provide no means of external verification for their claim (e.g., the
Qu'ran, the Book of Mormon, and the Writings Baha'u'llah claim inspiration,
but have historical inaccuracies and have only general predictions of the
end of the age — not detailed historical predictions that have been
fulfilled — see Unit Four notes for
more information).
See God's response to Israel's idolatry during Isaiah's day. "I will
give you unique evidence that I am the only true God—I will predict
the future."
-
Isa. 41:21-29 "Present your case," says the LORD. "Set
forth your arguments," says Jacob's King. "Bring in your idols
to tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things
were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or
declare to us the things to come, tell us what the future holds, so
we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad,
so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear. But you are less than
nothing and your works are utterly worthless; he who chooses you is
detestable. "I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes—one
from the rising sun who calls on my name. He treads on rulers as if
they were mortar, as if he were a potter treading the clay. Who told
of this from the beginning, so we could know, or beforehand, so we could
say, 'He was right'? No one told of this, no one foretold it, no
one heard any words from you. I was the first to tell Zion, 'Look, here
they are!' I gave to Jerusalem a messenger of good tidings. I look but
there is no one— no one among them to give counsel, no one to give
answer when I ask them. See, they are all false! Their deeds amount
to nothing; their images are but wind and confusion.
-
Isa. 42:8-9 "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my
glory to another or my praise to idols. See, the former things have
taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being
I announce them to you."
-
Isa. 44:7,24,25 Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him
declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established
my ancient people, and what is yet to come—yes, let him foretell
what will come . . . This is what the LORD says—your Redeemer,
who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, who has made all things,
who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,
who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners,
who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense .
. .
-
Isa. 45:21 Declare what is to be, present it— let them take
counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the
distant past? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no God apart
from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me.
-
Isa. 46:8-10 "Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart,
you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God,
and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make
known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still
to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I
please."
-
Isa. 48:3-5 I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced
them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to
pass. For I knew how stubborn you were; the sinews of your neck were
iron, your forehead was bronze. Therefore I told you these things
long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could
not say, 'My idols did them; my wooden image and metal god ordained
them.'
NOTE- Despite man's sinfulness, God initiates revelation in an effort
to show his preeminence and power with the goal of leading man to repent.
Biblical predictions were written down so they could be preserved and provide
verification for subsequent generations. We have sufficient historical evidence
to establish the fulfillment of many Biblical predictions.
FULFILLED MESSIANIC PROPHECY: Although there are many
kinds of fulfilled biblical prophecies (e.g., the destruction of Tyre in
Ezek. 26 and the dispersion and regathering of Israel), fulfilled messianic
prophecies are especially important because they demonstrate that Jesus
is the Messiah and therefore his teaching about the Bible is authoritative.
The Old Testament contains over 300 prophecies that were fulfilled by Jesus.
Jesus and the apostles considered these prophecies to be sufficient evidence
for believing in his Messiahship.
Luke 24:44-46 He said to them, "This is what I told you while
I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about
me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." Then he opened
their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, "This
is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on
the third day . . . "
Acts 17:2-4 As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on
three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining
and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "This
Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ, " he said. Some of
the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number
of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.
1 Cor. 15:3-4 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance
: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according
to the Scriptures . . .
Of the over 300 fulfilled messianic prophecies, some of the most compelling
are the following. Many of these were not capable of self-fulfillment:
-
Place of birth: Micah 5:2
-
Lineage: Matthew 1 and Luke
3 (online teaching notes of Luke 3 by Gary DeLashmutt); Old
Testament "seed"/ hourglass (Key verses are Luke 3:31-
Note in Luke that the genealogy runs through Nathan and not Solomon.
Matt. 1:12 note Jeconiah who God curses in Jer. 22:30. The Matt. genealogy
is Joseph's and the Luke 3 genealogy is Mary's. This makes Jesus a blood
descendent of David through Mary, thus excluding Jeconiah fulfilling
the curse, but Jesus has legal rights to the throne since he is an "adopted"
son of Joseph.)
-
Time of death: Daniel 9:24-26
-
Manner of death: Ps 22 (both crucifixion and people gambling for his
clothes)
-
Manner of burial: Is. 53:9
We want you to understand the following prophecies well enough to be able
to use them in witnessing situations. See Christianity:
The Faith that Makes Sense, chapters 6 and 7 for an excellent
discussion of these passages.
Daniel 9:24,25 (Time of death)
- How long is a "week?"
"Shabua" means "seven" (NIV). When Jews used
this term to refer to time, they used it as weeks of days or weeks
of years. One must examine the context to determine whether the meaning
is a "seven" of days or a "seven" of years.
Illustration: we say "dozen" - but a dozen of what? Context
decides that usually.
In several instances shabua refers to "seven" of
years.(Gen. 29:27-30)
There are several reasons why this passage refers to weeks of years.
COMMON SENSE: 69 weeks of days would only be a little over one year.
This was nowhere near enough to rebuild the city. It took them over
46 years just to rebuild the Temple (Jn. 2:20).
FOLLOWING CONTEXT: In Dan. 10:2, Daniel says literally "(I) had
been mourning three entire weeks of days." Why would Daniel go
out of his way to notify his audience of such an obvious thing, unless
he had been using "week" in a different way in chapter 9?
HISTORICAL SETTING: Israel's 70 year exile (Dan. 9:2) was God's
punishment for their neglect of the sabbath land rest (Lev. 25:1-7;
26:34,35,43). God removed them from their land one year for every
year they violated this law (2 Chron. 36:20,21)-490 years or 70 "weeks"
of years. Therefore as Daniel looks ahead to 70 future "sevens"
they would most likely be sevens of years and not days.
Lev. 25 1:-4 The LORD then spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying,2
"Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, `When you come
into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a
sabbath to the LORD. 3 `Six years you shall sow your field, and
six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop,4
but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest,
a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field nor prune your
vineyard.
2 Chron. 36:20,21- And those who had escaped from the sword he
carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his
sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word
of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed
its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until
seventy years were complete.
- What kind of year?
The Jews used a lunar year of twelve 30-day months, irregularly adding
a leap month to correct the calendar. So Daniel's audience would have
understood this to refer to 360-day years. Other passages referring
to the last "week" (Rev. 11:2,3) confirm this 360-day
year.
- When was the decree year?
Although several decrees pertained to the return of the Jews to Jerusalem
and rebuilding their temple, the only decree that authorized a full
rebuilding of Jerusalem (including fortifications-see Dan. 9:25)
was the one given in 444 BC by Artexerxes Langimanus (see Neh. 2:1-8).
Converting from Daniel's 360-day lunar years to our present solar years
makes 69 "weeks" just over 476 years long. Crossing from BC
to AD requires that we move one year further because there is no "zero"
year. This brings us to 33 AD, the very year that Jesus rode into
Jerusalem, was hailed as Messiah by the multitude of disciples (see
Luke 19:35-44), and was crucified. No other Jewish Messiah claimant
besides Jesus was within 100 years of this date.
Also notice that when Jesus predicts the destruction of Jerusalem in
Luke 19:42-44, he is merely repeating what Daniel predicted on
Dan. 9:26 (see below).
(Further discussion on Xenos Central Teaching audio tape: 7348; "Chronological
Aspects of the Life of Christ" by Harold Hoehner, Gary DeLashmutt's
paper on "Sejanus" on the Xenos web site www.xenos.org)
Psalm 22:1-18 (Manner of death)
-
Establish that David cannot be talking about himself: he never fell
into his enemies' hands (vs 12,16), he died in peace in his bed
rather than by execution (vs 15), and he was born in a state of
iniquity (vs 9,10 contrasted to Ps. 51:5).
-
Demonstrate that he is describing crucifixion: dehydration (vs 14:
poured out like water;" vs 15: "my tongue cleaves to my jaws),
dislocation (vs 14: "all my bones are out of joint"), heart
failure (vs 14: "my heart is like wax"), physical exhaustion
(vs 15: "my strength is dried up like a potsherd"), pierced
hands and feet (vs 16), and nakedness (vs 17: "I can count all
my bones"). This form of death was not invented until several centuries
after David died.
William D. Edwards, M.D. on the physical death of Jesus Christ.
JAMA, March 21, 1986-Vol. 255, No. 11, pp. 1455-1463.
NOTE: "They pierced my hands and my feet" (22:16) describes
the unique aspect of crucifixion—no other form of execution involves
this. This is so clear that some opponents to Christianity have charged
that Christians altered the text. The Jewish Bible (using the Masoretic
text) says "like a lion, they are at my hands and my feet."
The Hebrew word for "they pierced" is ka'arey. The
word for "like a lion" is ka'aru. The only difference
is the length of the stem of the last letter. Did the Christians alter
the text to help their cause? Two reasons say this is not so.
First, the phrase "like a lion, my hands and my feet" makes
no sense. "They are at my" is not in the Masoretic text,
and even if one assumes those words the image of a lion being at someone's
hands and feet makes no sense.
Second, the Septuagint (LXX), authored by Jewish scholars in 250
BC, translates "they pierced." This means their Hebrew text
was ka'arey. Therefore, ka'aru is a scribal error or
alteration.
- Jesus would have been unable to deliberately fulfill the soldiers' gambling
for his clothes (vs 18), the mockery of his Jewish countrymen (vs
6-8), or Gentiles executing him (vs 12,16).
(see Xenos audio tape number 7566)
Isaiah 52:13 - 53:1-12 (Purpose of death)
-
Jesus could not have orchestrated the manner of his burial (vs 9).
-
This prophecy is not about the nation of Israel (common Jewish interpretation)
because the Servant dies for Israel (vs 4-6,8).
-
This prophecy explains the gospel (substitutionary atonement-vs 5,6,8,10,11,12),
and that a Person was to fulfill the Old Testament sacrificial system.
(see Xenos audio tape number 7396)
CONCLUSION: Biblical prophecy provides unique and sufficient
evidence to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Once we establish Jesus
as the Messiah, what he says about scripture must be true. We could never
establish verbal plenary inspiration by proving every passage is inspired
or inerrant. Even if we get someone to agree that the above prophecies (plus
other fulfilled prophecies) are inspired, this still doesn't account for the
other approximately 75% of the Bible.
This is an argument from authority. As Christians, our view of the Bible
rests on the authority of Christ. The Bible claims that Jesus is God incarnate.
Jesus claims that of himself (John 8:58; 10:30-33). If this is true, then
what he has to say about the Bible should carry the ultimate authority in
establishing our views about Scripture. Does Christ view scripture as inspired
and authoritative?
a. What was Christ's view of the Old
Testament?
Matt. 5:17,18* "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or
the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell
you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter,
not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law
until everything is accomplished.
Jesus says the Old Testament is eternally authoritative down to the very
letters used.
In Matthew 22:22-32, Jesus draws attention to the tense of the verb "to
be" to prove the resurrection from the dead.
John 10:35,36 "If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came—and
the Scripture cannot be broken—what about the one whom the Father
set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse
me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'?"
Jesus is responding to the Jews' charge of blasphemy because he said
"I and the Father are one." Citing Ps. 82:6, in which God called
people "gods" (elohim), Jesus argues (a fortiori)
that if it is appropriate for humans to be called "gods," how
much more appropriate is it for him (as the Son of God) to refer to himself
as "one with the Father."
Notice that Jesus views the entire Old Testament, even seemingly incidental
statements, as incapable of error.
Mark 7:5-13 "You have let go of the commands of God and are holding
on to the traditions of men . . . Thus you nullify the word of God by your
tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that."
Jesus viewed the Old Testament in a totally different category than religious
tradition.
Jesus affirmed the historicity of Old Testament characters and events.
See also Matthew 12:38-40 [Jonah]; Matthew 19:4-5 [creation of Adam and
Eve]; Luke 17:26-32 [Noah]; Luke 20:37 [call of Moses]; John 3:14 [Moses/serpent
in wilderness].
CONCLUSION: Jesus Christ quoted and viewed the Old Testament as the authoritative
word of God. What the Old Testament said, God said.
b. What is Christ's perspective of his
own words?
Matt. 24:35"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never
pass away."
Notice the deliberate parallelism to Matt. 5:18. Jesus is consciously
equating the authority of his own words to that of the Old Testament.
Matt. 7:24-27 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and
puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against
that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice
is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the
streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell
with a great crash."
John 12:48 "There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not
accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last
day."
In both of these passages, Jesus claims that people's eternal destiny
will be decided by how they respond to his words (see also Jn. 5:24).
John 8:31,32 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you
hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the
truth, and the truth will set you free."
Notice that Jesus regards his teaching as "the truth" which
is capable of setting people free from sin. Old Testament passages like
Ps. 119 make similar claims for the word of God.
NOTE: Old Testament prophets' "Thus said the Lord" is similar
to Jesus' "Truly I say to you". This would have been heard
loud and clear by his audience as a statement of divine authority.
CONCLUSION: Jesus viewed his own words as divinely authoritative. What
Jesus said, God said.
c. What was Jesus' view of his apostles'
writings?
Matt. 10:40* "He who receives you receives me, and he who receives
me receives the one who sent me . . . "
Notice how similar this statement is to John 12:48 (see above). Jesus
is the Father's authoritative spokesman, so that to reject his words is
to reject the Father. So also the apostles (the original audience in this
passage) are his authoritative spokesmen, so that to reject their words
is to reject Jesus and the Father.
Jesus promised the apostles that the Holy Spirit would enable them to speak
for him. In other words, the Holy Spirit would inspire their words.
John 14:26 "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of
everything I have said to you."
The Holy Spirit gave them supernatural recall of Jesus' words and the ability
to interpret Jesus' life and death.
John 15:26,27 "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you
from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he
will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with
me from the beginning."
The Holy Spirit gave them the authority to "bear witness" (provide
legal testimony) concerning Jesus.
John 16:13 "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide
you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what
he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come."
The Holy Spirit would enable them to interpret Jesus' coming death and
resurrection, and to prophesy concerning the future (e.g., John in Revelation).
Who were the Apostles? Jesus' original twelve disciples, minus Judas, plus
Matthias (Acts 1:26), plus Paul (Gal. 1:1) and James the Lord's brother
(Gal. 1:19), were given apostolic authority.
The New Testament speaks of many others as being "apostles" in
a more generic sense, but it refers to this special class of "Capital
A" apostles as uniquely authoritative (generic: Phil. 2:25; 2 Cor.
8:23; probably Rom. 16:7 cf. 2 Cor. 12:12). (See Unit
#2 Week #9) .
{There was no apostolic succession, contrary to Roman Catholicism's doctrine
of papal authority. One had to have witnessed the resurrection to be an
Apostle (1 Cor. 9:1), and Paul was the "last of all" to have
witnessed the resurrected Christ (1 Cor. 15:8).}
Many passages corroborate Jesus' teaching about the authority of
the apostles' writings:
The authors claim that their own writings are inspired and authoritative.
-
1 Cor. 14:37 "If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually
gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord's
command."
-
1 Thess. 2:13 "And we also thank God continually because, when
you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted
it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which
is at work in you who believe."
-
1 Jn. 4:4-6 "You (his Christian audience), dear children, are
from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater
than the one who is in the world. They (the Gnostic heretics) are from
the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the
world listens to them. We (the apostles) are from God, and whoever knows
God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us.
This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood."
The authors recognized each other's writings as inspired and authoritative.
-
2 Pet. 3:15,16 "Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation,
just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God
gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them
of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand,
which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures,
to their own destruction."
-
1 Tim. 5:18 For the Scripture says, "Do not muzzle the ox while
it is treading out the grain," and "The worker deserves his
wages." Paul is quoting Luke 10:7.
Instructor's Note- Not included in lecture.
{The apostles also corroborate Jesus' view of the Old Testament scriptures
as inspired and authoritative.
-
Acts 4:24,25 When they heard this, they raised their voices together
in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made
the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke
by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
"'Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?"
-
Gal. 3:8-10 The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles
by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All
nations will be blessed through you." So those who have faith are
blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. All who rely on observing
the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone
who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."}
We have presented evidence for Jesus Christ being the Messiah as evidenced
through fulfilled prophecy.
We have also shown that Jesus Christ views the Old Testament, his own words
and the words of the apostles as inspired and authoritative.
BUT our claims for the Bible are coming from the Bible. With the exception
of several fulfilled prophecies (which secular historical sources can verify),
our arguments depend upon the Bible being a reliable historical document.
Therefore we must determine whether the Bible accurately records Christ's
words and actions.
There are three tests to which all historical source documents are
subjected to determine their reliability.
a. Bibliographical
b. Internal
c. External
a. Bibliographical Test : How close is our text
to the inspired original?
Since we do not have the original documents (autographs), the question
becomes "do we have sufficient number of copies and copies close
enough in time to the originals to be reasonably confident in the reliability
of our present text?"
NEW TESTAMENT
|
AUTHOR
|
WRITTEN
|
EARLIEST COPIES
|
TIME SPAN
|
NUMBER OF COPIES
|
- Caesar (Gaellic Wars)
|
58-50 B.C. |
A.D. 900 |
950 years |
10 |
| Tacitus (Annals) |
100 A.D. |
A.D. 1100 |
1,000 years |
20 |
| Aristotle |
384-322 B.C. |
A.D. 1100 |
1,400 years |
49 |
| Homer (Illiad) |
900 B.C. |
400 B.C. |
500 years |
643 |
| New Testament |
40-100 A.D. |
A.D. 350 |
250 |
5,500+ |
*"In addition to the 5500+ Greek documents... there are thousands
of other ancient New Testament manuscripts in other languages. There are
8,000 to 10,000 Latin Vulgate manuscripts, plus a total of 8,000 in Ethiopic,
Slavic, and Armenian. In all, there are about 24,000 documents in existence."
- Strobel, Lee.The Case for Christ, A Journalist's Personal
Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus, Zondervan. Michigan: Grand
Rapids (1998). p. 63.
It is obvious that even the best Greek literary comparison is far from
the New Testament documents in both numbers of copies and closeness to the
original date of writing. When you include fragments (E.G. Ryland's Fragment
of John goes back as far as ~125 AD), the contrast is even more impressive.
Sir Frederic Kenyon, former director and principal librarian of the British
Museum, was one of the foremost experts on ancient manuscripts and their
authority. Shortly before his death, he wrote this statement concerning
the New Testament:
The interval between the dates of original composition (of the New
Testament) and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be
in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures
have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed.
Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New
Testament may be regarded as finally established. (Sir Frederick Kenyon,
cited in Thompson, J.A., The Bible and Archaeology. Grand Rapids:
Eerdman [1982], pp. 288-289.)
The variant textual traditions of the Quran were destroyed by Uthman (Josh
McDowell, "The Islam Debate", p. 52).
OLD TESTAMENT
Many have been skeptical about the Old Testament's historical reliability.
Scholars in past generations have rejected the extraordinary prophecies
concerning Christ in the Old Testament while contending that these prophecies
were inserted after the fact by Christians to prove their case. Why? Because
the earliest extant copies dated to about 900 A.D.—fully 1,300 years
after the Old Testament was completed (400 B.C.). Certain discoveries have
demonstrated the accuracy of Old Testament transmission.
The Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) were discovered in 1947. These texts were left
by the Qumran community, a Jewish sect. These copies have been reliably
dated to between 200 B.C. and A.D. 70. The copies include complete copies
of much of the Old Testament. This is important for 2 reasons:
- The copies of the Old Testament were virtually identical to the Old
Testament we read today! There is only a 5% variation between DSS and
the modern Old Testament. Where variation exists, it is in the area of
spelling and punctuation. There is therefore no substantial change in
the meaning of the text.
Historical reliability of ancient texts:
b. Internal Test
There are two integral questions to this test: Are the authors sufficiently
close to the events they record and do their accounts contain internal contradictions?
- Eyewitness evidence is preferable. If a person is writing history
on the basis of what someone else has told them, then the accuracy of
what is recorded is more questionable since the author is not able to
speak as a personal witness of the events.
New Testament authors claim to be eyewitnesses:
The internal test also emphasizes that the benefit of the doubt must
be given to the document unless it disqualifies itself. In other words,
we begin by accepting its claims unless it disproves itself. Otherwise,
there is no way to do history. This is the problem with liberal scholarship
and the Jesus Seminar. They begin with the presupposition that the supernatural
does not exist and then begin to read scripture from that starting point.
They have unjustified radical skepticism of the authors. The burden of
proof really lies with those who were not present yet would try
to refute an eyewitness.
- Internal consistency is important
"What about the Bible contradicting itself?" Critics and skeptics
of the Bible have claimed that internal inconsistencies and contradictions
in the Bible make it impossible to believe that it is God's inerrant, inspired
truth.
These apparent contradictions are usually resolved in one of two ways:
- They are explained by using textual criticism as applied to errors
in transmission or translation. (E.G. 2 Kings 8:26 vs. 2 Chron. 22:2
[in KJV]; 2 Chron. 22 in KJV — says Ahaziah was 42 when became
king, 2 Kings says 22. 2 Kings is correct since his father died
at age of 40. In some manuscripts, the proto-Hebrew [old Phoenician]
alphabet was used and the 42 and 22 were very similar. NASB & NIV
have corrected this and have both at 22.)
- They are explained by a thorough inductive study of the passage which
shows how to harmonize the apparent contradiction. Luke 18:35 vs. Matthew
20:29; There were two Jerichos — Roman & Greek. Makes
sense that Luke, as a Greek, would be referring to the Greek one.
Gleason Archer has written the book, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties,
to address this very issue. Dr. Archer is uniquely equipped for this job.
He has command of ancient languages and of the tools of biblical scholarship,
as well as years of personal study and teaching. With regard to the issue
of inconsistency, contradiction and error, he concludes:
As I have dealt with one apparent discrepancy after another and have
studied the alleged contradictions between the biblical record and the
evidence of linguistics, archaeology, or science, my confidence in the
trustworthiness of Scripture has been repeatedly verified and strengthened
by the discovery that almost every problem in Scripture that has ever
been discovered by man, from ancient times until now, has been dealt with
in a completely satisfactory manner by the biblical text itself—or
else by objective archaeological information. (Archer, Gleason. Encyclopedia
of Bible Difficulties. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982, p. 12.)
To get a look at some of the more common contradictions cited and cogent
explanations, see R.L. Harris, Inspiration and Canonicity, pp. 104-108.
Because so many apparent contradictions have been resolved like this in
the past, we are justified in expressing confidence that presently unresolved
problems could be resolved similarly if and when enough data becomes available.
Historical Reliability of ancient texts: External
Test
Are there sources outside of the Bible which can contradict or confirm
the witness of the accounts themselves? Even an eyewitness account loses
credibility if it can be proven to have factual inaccuracies from sources
outside (external) itself.
When we look at other "scriptures," we find they do not interface
with history at all, or they interface inaccurately.
The eastern "scriptures" have no interest in history, because
this is the world of illusion from which we are to be delivered. Ancient
polytheistic religions likewise had no interest in history. Their gods
acted only in myths, removed as far as possible from real history.
The Koran is almost entirely assertions of Allah. It has very little
historical interface, and what there is contains clear inaccuracies.
Sura 26:55-60 says that the Israelites under Pharaoh were but
"a scanty band" (in contrast to the multitude mentioned in
Ex. 1:9) and that in leaving Egypt they forsook "their gardens
and fountains and splendid dwellings" (in contrast to their slavery
and hardship mentioned Ex. 1:11-14). This renders the whole motive for
Israel's deliverance obscure.
Sura 5:119 reflects Muhammad's gross misunderstanding of the
Trinity—that it is composed of the Father, Jesus and Mary.
The Book of Mormon makes many historical references, but it too is full
of historical anachronisms and geographical inaccuracies.
1 Nephi 2:5-8 states that the river Laman emptied into the Red Sea.
But there has never been any river that emptied into the Red Sea, either
in historic or prehistoric times.
Alma 46:15 states that believers were called "Christians"
back in 73 BC—fully seven decades before Jesus was even born!
Early extra-biblical Records - Most of what we know about Jesus
Christ is reported in the Bible. But there is also early extra-biblical
attestation to Jesus.
-
Tacitus (Roman historian) - During his comments on Nero's attempt
to blame Christians for the burning of Rome, he says " . . . Nero
fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class
hated for the abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus,
from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during
the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one or our procurators, Pontius
Pilatus . . ." (Tacitus, Annals xv, 44. The Oxford Translation,
Revised [New York: Harper & Bros., Publishers, 1858], p. 428).
(Two other Roman historians, Suetonius and Pliny also
refer to Christ).
- The Early Church Fathers, who wrote from the end of the first
century through the second century, confirm the highest regard for the
apostles and the inspiration of the letters they had written. They viewed
them as "Sacred Scriptures," "Holy Word." Between
them, they quote and name all the books of the New Testament canon.
- Archaeology has also resolved many apparent discrepancies, thus
demonstrating the Bible's historical and geographical accuracy.
With regard to the Old Testament, higher critics have taught
that during the time of Moses and his alleged writings, humans did
not yet write. Such detailed legislation, they alleged, wasn't recorded
until the Persian period (about 538 B.C. or about 900 years after
Moses). They also claimed that many of the cities and people of the
Old Testament were fictitious. Many recent discoveries have refuted
their objections.
In 1968, the statue of King Ibbit-Lim of Ebla Kingdom was discovered
in northern Syria (part of Moses' world). This kingdom's power flourished
between 2500-2200 B.C. Since 1974, 17,000 tablets have been unearthed.
These tablets contain detailed descriptions of laws, customs, and
historical events of that kingdom.
They confirm the biblical description of the people, customs, and
laws of this time which modern scholars were trying to deny.
Their economic records include references to biblical sites such
as Hazier, Gaze, Megiddo, and Jerusalem. Their commercial texts
mention the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah..
They also mention Chedorloamer and the other city-kings mentioned
in Gen. 14—who were long considered fictitious by higher critics.
They also describe the wealth and affluence of their society before
the calamity described in Gen. 14, which supports the biblical account.
Several discoveries including evidence for King David's existence
are summarized in a US
News and World Report Article (October 25, 1999) titled, Is
the Bible True? King David was identified by an inscription
in stone found in excavation at Dan in 1993.
This is why the renowned Jewish archeologist Nelson Glueck says,
"It may be stated categorically that no archeological discovery
has ever controverted a biblical passage. Scores of archeological
findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact
detail historical statements in the Bible." Nelson Glueck,
"Rivers in the Desert" (Phil.: Jewish Publication Society,
1969), p. 31.
With regard to the New Testament, there has been less critical
opposition. Higher critics rejected Acts, citing several presumed historical
inaccuracies until archeological evidence demonstrated its reliability.
Sir William Ramsay, one of greatest archaeologists who ever lived, researched
much of Asia Minor in an effort to disprove Luke's history by demonstrating
inaccuracies. He entered his research with the assumption that "Luke"
had written almost 100 years later than he claimed, inferring that it
wasn't written by an eyewitness at all.
After 30 years of archaeological research, Ramsay concluded: Luke's
historicity is unsurpassed in respect to its trustworthiness . . . Luke
is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact
trustworthy . . . this author should be placed along with the very greatest
of historians. (Ramsay, W. The Bearing of Recent Discovery on
the Trustworthiness of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker (1953).
p. 222)
Consider this summary by Joseph Free:
We pointed out that numerous passages of the Bible which long puzzled
the commentators have readily yielded up their meaning when new light
from archaeological discoveries has been focused on them. In other words,
archaeology illuminates the text of the Scriptures and so makes valuable
contribution to the fields of Biblical interpretation and exegesis.
In addition to illuminating the Bible, archaeology has confirmed countless
passages which have been rejected by the critics as unhistorical or
contradictory to known facts. (Free, J.P. Archaeology and Bible
History. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publication, Inc. 1973)
In the area of the tests for historical reliability for Scripture - the
Bible has shown itself to be trustworthy. This allows us to place confidence
in the truthfulness of it's claims.
There are usually two ways to approach verbal plenary inspiration:
Above argument (Christological), coupled with the historical reliability
of the gospels.
The argument may start by providing evidence for Jesus' messiahship (primarily
messianic prophecy); then look at Jesus' view of scripture and then the
historical reliability of the text (bibliographical, external, and internal
evidence). Volumes of material have been written on this subject. Or, the
starting point might instead be the historical reliability of the Bible,
and then look at what Jesus says about the Word's inspiration. Regardless
of the starting point, the crux of the defense is Christ's perspective of
the Bible.
Another line of evidence: "The integrity of the Bible's message"
(overhead). The biblical message corresponds with reality in a way that
no other worldview does.
When approaching difficulties in scripture, Christians should remember Jesus'
view of it. The heart of the issue of inspiration is that if we come to Christ
believing his words of salvation then we must also believe his words about
the Bible.
