The Bible (Greek; biblia) is a collection of sixty-six books of divine inspiration. The Bible is a timeless masterpiece that has been printed in 2,454 different languages. Skeptics, humanists and modernists dismiss the Bible’s contents as contributing to a “God intoxicated society” that “shackles the mind and enslaves the spirit.” The Bible; however, reveals a reward of eternal existence where no pain, hunger, or sorrows will be experienced (see Revelation 21:1-7). Let us examine the origins of this inspirational work so that you may conclude that it is indeed a authentic book.
Internal Evidence of the Bible’s Authenticity
The apostle Paul said “All scriptures is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The word “inspired” (Greek theopneustes) means “divinely inspired[1] (“to affect, guide, or arouse by divine influence… to be the cause or source of… to breath upon”).[2] (Moulton’s Analytical Greek Lexicon revised – 1978 Edition, pp. 193). The Psalmist said “By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth” (Psalms 33:6). Notice the “word of Jehovah” is equivalent to “the breath of his mouth.” What that says is that God made known his will by spoken revelation (his breathing into) the apostles and prophets. The apostle Peter gives a commentary on the inspiration of the scriptures by saying “no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). The word “moved” (Greek (phero) means “to produce, bring forward, cite… to bring one word, to tell, announce” (LS 858). The apostles and prophets were speaking the mind of God being told what to announce by the Holy Spirit. These divine words are what our Bibles are comprised of. Never did a prophet, apostle, or truly inspired person write their own ideas, opinions, or personal convictions (see Galatians 1:11-12; Ephesians 3:2-5).
The Old Testament tells of various authors who wrote, according to God’s instruction, so that future generations would have divine instruction. There are a total of 39 inspired Old Testament books that are in our Bibles. Consider these Old Testament authors:
- Moses (Exodus 17:14; 24:4; 34:27; Deuteronomy 31:9,24).
- Priest (Numbers 5:23).
- Joshua (Joshua 8:32).
- Samuel (1 Samuel 10:25).
- Jeremiah (Jeremiah 30:2; 36:2).
- Ezekiel (Ezekiel 43:11).
- Habakkuk (Habakkuk 2:2).
The New Testament has authors as well (men who were moved by the Holy Spirit to write). These men include Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John who wrote the books that bear their name. Luke also wrote the book of Acts and John wrote 1, 2, and 3rd John in addition to the book of Revelation. Paul is the main contributor to the divine New Testament standard. The Apostle Paul wrote 15 books (if we consider the book of Hebrews his work). Peter, James, and Jude also wrote books that bear their names. There are a total of 27 inspired New Testament books that are in our Bibles.
External Evidence of the Bible’s Authenticity
Old Testament
“Almost all of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament are written in Hebrew. Hebrew is of a large family of languages known as Semitic, and is akin to such languages as Aramaic, Syriac, Akkadian (Assyrian-Babylonian) and Arabic.”[3] Many Hebrew Manuscripts (hand written copies or portions of text) have been discovered. Attempts; However, to find original hand written Old Testament Hebrew documents will yield no results. The Hebrew manuscript discoveries that do exist do not date back as far as the New Testament Greek manuscripts. The scribes responsible for copying old and worn out manuscripts often destroyed the old and replaced them with newer ones. They did this because they appended a since of holiness to the paper that it was written on. There are three principle manuscripts of the Hebrew Old Testament:
1. Aleppo Codex dated AD 920
2. Leningrad Codex dated AD 1008
3. The Dead Sea Scrolls (discovered in 1948) dated around 200 – 300 BC. Seven hundred scrolls and thousands of manuscript fragments have been discovered since the 1948 discovery. The discovery site was the ruins of Qumran located on the northwest bank of the Dead Sea. Scrolls of Old Testament scriptures dating back to 2nd and 3rdcentury BC have been located along with a manuscript of Isaiah dating back as far as 100 BC. The importance of this discovery can not be overlooked. When newer manuscripts of the OT, such as the 2 listed above, are compared with the older Dead Sea manuscripts, they are remarkably parallel. This is proof that the scribes painstakingly and accurately copied the original manuscripts. Therefore, we are confident that our OT scriptures are accurate and sure. The above pic is Qumran cave 4, one of the caves in which the scrolls were found (Wikipedia).
New Testament
The language of the New Testament is Koine Greek (a commonly used language in the 4th to 6th century BC). The Greek language is a precise language. It is described by Britannica online as having a vocabulary of extraordinary richness, a syntax that is unmatched in other languages. A. T. Robertson said, “These old Greek words in the New Testament are rich with meaning. They speak to us out of the past and with lively images to those who have eyes to see.”[4] It has been said, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Due to its precise nature, it is no wonder that God, in his infinite wisdom, chose this language to construct His divine will to man. Overall, the Bible was composed over a period of ~ 1,500 years. The ravages of time, coupled with natural and unnatural disasters of fire and war took the original copies away forever. Though the pages of originals have decomposed with time, the words of our Lord will forever be indestructible. Jesus said, “heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).
No other ancient text is more preserved than the New Testament Bible (5,400 complete or fragmented Greek manuscripts, 10,000 Latin, and 9,300 manuscripts in various other ancient languages including Syriac, Slavic, Gothic, Ethiopic, Coptice, and Armenian). There were two styles of writing in the early koine Greek manuscripts. First, there are the Uncials. Uncials are a formal style of writing that resembles our capitalized letters. Here is an example of an Uncial. Picture taken from Frederic G. Kenyon, M.A., D.Litt. “Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts” page 136. This is a page out of the Codex Vaticanus (4th Century).
The second style of writing found in Greek manuscripts is known as minuscules or cursives. Minuscules or cursives are smaller more space efficient letters. Here is a Picture taken from Frederic G. Kenyon, M.A., D.Litt. “Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts” page 148.
There are three primary Greek Manuscripts of interest to this study.
a. Codex Sinaiticus (Codex Alpha; 4thcentury AD), the only known complete copy of the Greek New Testament in uncial script. Sinaiticus was discovered in 1844 by Constantine Tischendorf in the monastery of St. Catherine, at Mt. Sinai. Tischendorf watched a monk use old paper for fuel in a furnace and decided to look at the papers. To his surprise the paper was a codex of the Bible.
b. Vatican Manuscript (Codex B; 4thcentury AD). The Vatican Manuscript contains most of the Old and New Testament with much of Genesis and Psalms missing. It was written in “small and delicate uncials, perfectly simple and unadorned.”[5] The Vatican was discovered ~ 1471 in the Vatican Library of at Rome.
c. Alexandrian Manuscript (Codex A; 5thcentury). Much of the Alexandrian Manuscript is missing and does not have the quality of either the Vatican or Sinaiticus Codex. The Alexandrian Manuscript was gift to James I of England in 1627. “It includes all four books of the Maccabees”4 as well as the complete LXX (Greek Septuagint).
Other New Testament manuscripts of importance are the Codex Bezae (400 AD / comprised of the four gospels and Acts), The Textus Receptus (the “received text” / 1516), Vetus Latina (Old Latin Bible / 382-405 AD), and the Vulgate (Jerome’s revision of the Vetus Latina 5th century AD).
The Canon of Scripture
The word canon has a very interesting history of etymology. It was a word that originally “denoted a straight rod…of which the idea of straightness is manifest. Besides being straight, for other uses the canon had to be incapable of bending.”[6] The words “criterion” and “standard” were derivatives of canon. Little by little the word ‘canon’ came to be used as a standard, rule, or concrete thing. Eventually the word came to be used to refer to the list of books regarded as authoritative or inspired. The Bible itself gives strong testimony to its function as a standard in passages such as Isaiah 28:17.
The very first use of the word ‘canon’ was by Athanasius in his “Decrees of the Synod of Nicaea” written about 350 AD. “In AD 367 Athanasius identified which books are in fact the canonical books in opposition to the apocrypha; this is the earliest listing of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament”[7]
Let us note; however, that God’s inspired word had been completed far before Athanasius declared it so in 367 AD. Consider these Bible facts:
The Word of God is complete (2 Peter 1:3; Jude 3).
- The Word of God is pure and perfect (Psalms 12:6-7).
- The Word of God alone is man’s spiritual standard (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
- The Word of God will stand for ever (Isaaiah 40:7-8; Luke 21:33; 1 Peter 1:23-25).
- The Word of God will be the standard that judges man (John 12:48).
A History of Bible TranslationAccording to the United Bible Society, as of December 31, 2007, translations of the full Bible were available for 438 languages, translations of one of the two testaments in 1,168 additional languages, and portions of the text existed in 848 additional languages. This means that partial or full translations of the Bible exist in a total of 2,454 languages. One of these 2,454 languages is English. Within the English language alone there are approximately 450 versions. To examine each one of these versions would be beyond the scope of this study. We will; however, examine the approaches used in interpreting these English Bibles and look to a few examples.
- Septuigent (LXX)(70 – indicates the number of translators that worked on the translation) The Hebrew scriptures translated from Hebrew to Greek at 3 BC (a formal / paraphrase text). The oldest surviving completed text are found in the Sinaiticus and Vaticanus manuscripts.
- Vetus Latina (Old Latin Bible) – from the LXX to 382 AD (translated from the LXX rather than the original Hebrew manuscripts). Not one single Bible but a multitude of copies from various translators that varied in their translations.
- Latin Vulgate(382 AD by Jerome under Pope Damascus I). Hebrew / Greek to Latin (the de facto (practiced) language of Rome). Known as the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. Translated directly from Hebrew and Greek Manuscripts. The pic to the right is an artist rendition of Jerome in his study (wikipedia.com).
- The Synod of Hippo (393 AD): for the first time a council of bishops listed and approved a canon of Sacred Scripture that corresponds to the modern Roman Catholic canon, including the deuterocanonical books classed by Protestants as “Apocrypha“.
- Wycliffe’s AD 1384 English Bible (Latin to English using the Latin Vulgate). Only the educated of this time were able to read Latin. The common man depended upon oral reading of the Latin Vulgate to have any knowledge of scripture. These oral readings were often skewed and biased toward personal convictions. Wycliffe was thereby motivated to write an English version of the Bible so that the common man could study it himself. The text would be read rather than one’s interpretation.
- Textus Receptus: “The story of the ‘Textus Receptus’ begins in 1514. The Polyglot Bible was to be the first printed Greek text. However it was not without competition. Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam actually published and put to market the first Greek NT. Sensing the public was ready for a Greek text, Erasmus did all he could to produce such a work in a short amount of time with limited resources. In one years time he had produced a Bible and sent it to the market loaded with typographical errors. The manuscripts he used were inferior, at times he used Jeromes’ Latin Vulgate to fill in the blanks and was even known to add his own text when others were not available to him. Despite the lack of scholarship, Erasmus’ text was well received. Soon other Greek versions were produced by others which only served to seal the reputation of Erasmus’ text being the ‘received text.’ One such work was produced by a man named Beza who had at his disposal far more reliable manuscripts than did Erasmus yet he did not deviate much from the ‘received text’ in fear that his work would not be accepted by the public. It was not till 1633 that the phrase ‘the text received by all’ was used. It was actually an advertisement found in the preface of a bible that was translated from an earlier Beza bible (1565). From this point on, the official designation for the received text was the ‘Textus Receptus’ (The received text). The Textus Receptus “lies at the basis of the King James Version…So superstitious has been the reverence accorded the Textus Receptus that in some cases attempts to criticize or emend it have been regarded as akin to sacrilege. Yet its textual basis is essentially a handful of late and haphazardly collected minuscule manuscripts, and in a dozen passages its reading is supported by no known Greek witness” (The Text of the New Testament by Bruce Metzger pg. 106).
- Tyndale’s Bible1526 AD: First English interpretation from original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts as well as an examination of the Latin Vulgate. First Bible mass produced due to advances in printing technology. Tyndale was inspired to write an English version Bible primarily because of the work of Martin Luther’s german translation (The Luther Bible). Tyndale’s version was rejected and banned by the Catholic church of England because it used the word “congregation” in place of the word “church.” The Catholic church felt challenged by Tyndale and so banned the version. The Catholic church viewed the priest and clergy as those who comprised the church rather than all baptized believers. Tyndale’s translation of presbuter into elder rather than the “priests” again challenged the Catholic doctrine of separation of lay members and clergy. The whole of Catholisism was challenged by Tyndale and Luther’s translations. A photo of William Tyndale taken from wikipedia.com.
- Luther Bible of 1534: Luther translated the NT Greek Erasmus text into the German language. During this period (1500’s) the Reformation movement developed a Sola Scriptura(i.e., Latin for Scripture Alone) appraoch to interpretation. Sola scriptura is the teaching that the Bible is the only inspired and authoritative Word of God, is the only source for Christian doctrine, and is accessible to all — that is, it is perspicuous and self-interpreting. That the Bible requires no interpretation outside of itself is an idea directly opposed to the teaching of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Coptic, Anglican, and Roman Catholic faiths, which teach that the Bible can be authentically interpreted only by Apostolic Tradition and the ecumenical church councils. Martin “Luther said, ‘a simple layman armed with Scripture is greater than the mightiest pope without it’. The intention of the Reformation was to correct the perceived errors of the Catholic Church by appeal to the uniqueness of the Bible’s authority and to reject what Catholicsconsidered to be Apostolic Tradition as a source of original authority alongside of the Bible, wherever Tradition did not have biblical support or where it supposedly contradicted Scripture” (Wikipedia.com).
- The Great Bible(1539 by Myles Coverdale) – Known for its GIANT print (was to be placed in the church for all to read).
- Council of Trent (1546): This council meeting was to be the Catholic response to the strong prodestant reformation movement. Its purpose was two fold: First, to condemn the prodestant reformation movement and secondly, and more important for this study, was that the church’s (Catholic) interpretation of the Bible was final. Any Christian who substituted his or her own interpretation was a heretic. Also, the Bible and Church Tradition (not mere customs but the ancient Tradition that made up part of the Catholic faith) were equally authoritative. The Latin Vulgate was reaffirmed as the sole authoritative Bible (Catholic Church’s Bible). Above is a pic of the 1546 Council of Trent (wikipedia.com).
- Geneva Bible(1560) – first Bible to divide the text into verses… Prodestant believers were persecuted by the Queen of England and fled to Geneva Switerland. There, they made their own translation of the Bible. The Geneva Bible was Calvinistic and prodestant in character and thereby disliked by the Catholic church.
- The Bishop’s Bible (1568): The thorough Calvinism of the Geneva Bible offended the high-church party of the Church of England, to which almost all of its bishopssubscribed. They associated Calvinism with Presbyterianism, which sought to replace government of the church by bishops (Episcopalian) with government by lay elders. However, they were aware that the Great Bible of 1539 – which was the only version then legally authorized for use in Anglican worship – was severely deficient; in that much of the Old Testament was translated from the Latin Vulgate, rather than from the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. In an attempt to replace the objectionable Geneva translation, they circulated one of their own, which became known as the Bishops’ Bible.
- Sistine Vulgate (1590) a standard Vulgate Text.
- Sixto-Clementine Vulgate(1592) remained the official Roman Catholic Bible until 1979. Pic. taken from wikipedia.com.
- King James Version Bible (1611) – original version was intended to replace the Bishop’s Bible as the official “English” Bible of the Church of England (Catholic) and so originally included the uninspired apocyriphal books. The translators of the King James Version were instructed to take the 1602 edition of the Bishops’ Bible as their basis, although several other existing translations were taken into account. After it was published in 1611, the King James Versionsoon took the Bishops’ Bible’s place as the de facto standard of the Church of England (see notes on Textus Receptus above).
Methods of Translating and Modern Bible Versio
There are two methods of translating the original Bible language to a more modern language. First, is to translate the Bible by means of the “Dynamic Equivalence” method. A Dynamic Equivalence text is formed by taking the original language such as Hebrew, Arabic, and Greek and translating the thought by paraphrasing the meaning rather than translating the exact words and meanings. Consider these Dynamic Equivalence texts:
A. The 1971 “Living Bible” – is a paraphrase of the 1901 American Standard Version Bible.
B. Good News Bible(1976) a “Dynamic Equivalence” text. Unlike most other versions because it contains pictures to illustrate text. The thoughts coveyed by this version regarding the virgin birth and deity of Christ are perverted. This version changes the idea of the inspiration of scriptures and the atonement of sins through the blood of Christ too. Consider Acts 20:7, “On Saturday evening we gathered together for the fellowship meal. Paul spoke to the people and kept on speaking until midnight, since he was goint to leave the next day” (Good News Bible). The original Greek stated that this event took place on the “first day of the week” not “Saturday evening.”
C. New International Version Bible (First eddition 1978) – Combination of Formal and Dynamic Equivalence text. The core translation group of 15 scholars and 100 additional participants rangeing over twenty different denominations such as Baptists, Evangelicals, Methodists, Lutherans, Anglicans, and others.
D. New Living Translation Bible (2004) – a Dynamic Equivalence text (87 translators). This Bible is a revision of the paraphrased “Living Bible.”
E. The Message Bible (2002) – a paraphrase by Eugene H. Peterson a Presbyterian pastor. Consider Romans 10:8-10, “The word that saves is right here, as near as the tongue in your mouth, as close as the heart in your chest.’ It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—”Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!”” Please do read a formal equivalence text now to get the original meaning and you will see the dangers associated with a dynamic equivalent text.
Secondly, some Bibles are the product of a “Formal Equivalence.” The Formal Equivalence method of translating Bible text into another language is the idea of taking the exact words and moving them over to the target language without concerns over continuity and fluidity of reading. This is a literal translation or a word for word translation of God’s word. Please consider the following formal equivalence texts:
A. Young’s Literal Translation (YLT) 1862 – a “extreme literal version” (i.e., word for word). Reading Young’s Translation is difficult but the reader is not left guessing regarding the meaning of the text.
B. The Revised Version(1885 – a tranlation of the KJV with more modern manuscript discoveries). Recognized as a “literal translation.”
C. 1901 American Standard Version (ASV) – a derivative of the 1885 Revised Version and recognized as a “formal equivalence” version. Because the language of the ASV was limited to Elizabethan English (that is, the use of archaic type writing such as “thee and thou”), as well as because of what some perceived to be its excessive literalism, it never achieved wide popularity, and the King James Version would remain the primary translation for most American Protestant Christians until the publication of the Revised Standard Version in 1952. The divine name of the Almighty (the Tetragrammaton) is consistently rendered Jehovah in the ASV Old Testament, rather than LORD as it appears in the King James Bible. The reason for this change, as the Committee explained in the preface of the 1901 ASV, was that “…the American Revisers…were brought to the unanimous conviction that a Jewish superstition, which regarded the Divine Name as too sacred to be uttered, ought no longer to dominate in the English or any other version of the Old Testament…” The word Greek word Tetragrammaton means ‘four-letter [word]’, (Encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com) and are usually transliterated JHWH in German, and either YHWH, YHVH, JHWH or JHVH in English.
D. New American Standard Bible (1971) and the updated NASB at 1995. Recognized as a formal equivalence as it is translated from the 1901 ASV without all the archaic words.
E. New King James Version Bible (NKJV) completed 1982 and written on a junior high school level. The text is recognized as a “formal equivalence” text.
F. Other Formal Equivalence Text: The English Standard Version (2001) and the 1997 ASV (World English Bible [still being translated])
Bible Recommendation
A good “Formal (literal) Equivalence” text should be used for your studies (i.e., the ASV, KJV, NKJV, NASV, English Standard Version, and Young’s Literal Translation). Be very cautious when using a “Dynamic Equivalence” text because they often do not convey the accurate original meaning God intended (see examples above where the dynamic version completely changed the original meaning).
Conclusion
No doubt the Bible is an inspired book. There will be no valid excuse accepted by God on the day of judgment for the man or woman who lived their lives rejecting its truths (see Romans 1:18-23).
[1]Moulton, Harold K. The Analytical Greek Lexicon Revised 1978 Edition; pp. 193
[2] American Heritage Dictionary; pp. 666
[3]Lightfoot, N. R. How We Got The Bible; page 31
[4] Robertson, A. T. Word Pictures in the NT; Vol. 1, pg. X
[5]Lightfoot, N. R. How We Got The Bible; pg. 47
[6] Kenyon, F. G. Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts; pg. 60
[7] Ibid. Pg. 292
