"SO WHAT?!" Podcast Series
"We answer the Biblical questions withheld from polite company."
"What is the Bible?"
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We often hear that the teachings of the Bible are good-and-well, but we must not take the writings too seriously. They tell us the Scriptures have been corrupted overtime and now we possess only a fragment of the original. So, we are inclined to cherry pick verses we like and ignore ones which cause division or confusion. Of course we want to be given the desires of our hearts (Ps 37:4), but we don’t really want to face eternal punishment (Rev [20:11]-15). But, what if we held an uncorrupted and true Bible, not just true, but inerrant, infallible and all sufficient- the very word of God? Such a Bible would change our very conception of faith and our current relationship with God. We hope to briefly address the topic of biblical inerrancy using both biblical and extra-biblical evidence to disprove the conception of a corrupted biblical text and show the truth of the Scriptures.
First, we must turn to the sixty-six books composing the Bible. If the Bible does not itself claim inerrancy, infallibility, and sufficiency, then we begin a pointless conversation. Fortunately, the Scriptures come with assembly and operation instructions. Let us start in the Old Testament, the Jewish Torah, composing the first 39 books of our modern Bible. In Joshua 1:8, we read, “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.” God speaks directly to Joshua and confirms the necessity of His book of the law. The “book of the Law” refers to the writings of Moses, also know as the Pentateuch, which compose the first five books of our Old Testament. We note two things from this admonition: first, God does not mention any textual corruption; second, the book of the law is all-sufficient and should be a constant source of reflection and thought. Moses also asserts the all-sufficient nature of the Scriptures instructing all the people to “diligently [teach the Law] to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up (Deut 6:5-7).” The word of God is true, infallible, uncorrupted, and sufficient for all teaching- day and night.
Now, approximately 1,500 years pass between God’s admonition to Joshua and the ministry of Jesus Christ. The Jewish nation experienced exile and war. Corrupt kings often ruled the nation and corrupt priests oversaw the temple. Yet, the Jewish Torah, our Old Testament remained uncorrupted. During Jesus’s earthly ministry, He had the ability to redact or edit the Scriptures. Certainly, we see him changing the teachings of His time: “you have heard it said…but I say to you…(Matt [5:21]-48).” But, Christ never corrects the Scriptures. In fact, He confirms their validity and asserts the entire Jewish Canon. In Matthew [23:35], he says, ““so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar (Matt [23:35]).” In this sweeping statement, Christ confirms the truth of the Scriptures. Abel, the son of Adam, was no fictitious character. The guilt for His blood is as real as the blood of Zechariah. Additionally, Christ reveals the Jewish canon. Genesis, the first book of the Torah, tells of Abel’s murder; while Chronicles, the last book of the Torah, presents Zechariah’s death. These two books sandwich “the Law, the Writings, and the Prophets” and significantly exclude the apocryphal books: 1 and 2 Maccabees, Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom, Baruch, Tobit, Judith, and additions to Daniel and Esther. While the compilers of our modern Bible rearranged the order of the books, the content remains the same.
A reliance and reverence for the Scriptures continues into the New Testament church. In 2 Timothy [3:16], Paul writes, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” In short, the word of God is sufficient for all manners of life. Moreover, the Greek word Paul uses for inspired literally translates to God breathed- theopneustos. God breathed out all Scripture. Also, the apostles ascribe the same authority to the New Testament as the Old Testament. Paul upholds both testaments as Scripture, writing “for the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing,” and “The laborer is worthy of his wages (1 Tim [5:18]).” In this verse, he first quotes from the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 25:4, and then from our modern day New Testament, Luke 10:7. He refers to both as Scripture connoting their status as God breathed writings. The internal biblical evidence compellingly demonstrates the Bible as the literal truth of God, breathed out, without error, profitable for instruction in all aspects of life.
Finally, we will briefly examine the extra-biblical evidence in support of Biblical inerrancy. In writing the Secular City, J.P. Moreland writes, "approximately 5,000 Greek manuscripts, containing all or part of the New Testament, exist.” These manuscripts date from as early as A.D. 70 to as late as A.D. 200. In addition to the existing 5,000 Greek manuscripts, another 8,350 manuscripts survive in other languages (Latin and Syriac (Christian Aramaic)). Most convincingly, these extant manuscripts disagree less than 1% and largely in areas of punctuation and grammar. We may rest assured that the Bible we hold is the Scriptures Jesus upheld, and that our modern canon of Scripture faithfully preserves the Gospels and Letters of the New Testament Church. Lastly, let us quickly view the Bible’s wealth of evidence compared with other books of history. Caesar’s Gallic Wars claims only 10 surviving manuscripts. Herodotus’ History possesses only 8 existing manuscripts and the earliest dates 1,300 years from the original. Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War continues the trend with only 8 manuscripts 1,000 years from the original.
Overwhelmingly, both biblical and extra-biblical evidence assert the validity of our modern day Bible. Our Bible has withstood more textual criticism than any other book in all of history. No effort of research or scholarship has destroyed the fact of its faithful preservation or its enduring truth. We hold the inerrant, infallible, all-sufficient Scriptures breathed out by God, affirmed by Jesus Christ, and faithfully preserved by the early Church. We know true disciples of Christ meditate upon His word (John [8:31]), so we may confidently continue in the Christian faith through the reading of our Bibles.
*Moreland, Scaling the Secular City, 136-136
Charles C. Ryrie, What You Should Know About Inerrancy, (Moody Bible Institute of Chicago Press, 1981), pp. 35-41
Nathan Busenitz, Reasons We Believe, (Crossway Book, 2008), pp 149-152
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