Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site scgvaxd.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!pesnta!pertec!scgvaxd!dan From: dan@scgvaxd.UUCP (Dan Boskovich) Newsgroups: net.religion.christian Subject: Re: Evidences for Religion Message-ID: <331@scgvaxd.UUCP> Date: Thu, 30-May-85 14:59:27 EDT Article-I.D.: scgvaxd.331 Posted: Thu May 30 14:59:27 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 1-Jun-85 01:57:23 EDT References: <509@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> <2054@topaz.ARPA> <330@scgvaxd.UUCP> Reply-To: dan@scgvaxd.UUCP (PUT YOUR NAME HERE) Organization: Hughes Aircraft Co., El Segundo, CA Lines: 87 Summary: Reliability of The New Testament It is true that Christianity views the bible as God's revealed word to mankind. Those who oppose this view object that the biblical account can not be deemed reliable. It is argued that the accounts would become distorted during their textual transmission. However, it can be shown that the New Testament documents are the most reliable of all historical documents; and to reject the New Testament records without rejecting all other historical documents and regarding them unreliable, would be to act in utter bias and absurdity. Manuscript Evidence There are more than 5300 known Greek manuscripts of the New Testament today. Over 24,000 manuscript copies of portions of the New Testament. No other document of antiquity even begins to approach such numbers and attestation. In comparison, the "Iliad", by Homer, is second with only 643 manuscripts that still survive. Besides the number of manuscripts, the New Testament differs from all other writings in its interval of time between the composition of the book and date of the earliest extant manuscripts. The New Testament books were written (originals) in the latter part of the first century. The oldest manuscripts in exsistance are of the fourth century. From 250 - 300 years later. This is nothing compared to most of the great classical authors. Examples below: no. of manuscripts interval of time Ceasar's Gallic Wars 10 900 years later Roman History of Livy 35 400 years Histories of Tacitus 14 800 - 1000 years History of Thucydides 8 1300 years History of Herodotus ? 1300 years Greenlee writes in "Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism", "The oldest known manuscripts of most of the Greek classical authors are dated a thousand years or so after the authors death. In all of these thousands of manuscripts, there is a discrepency rate of less than 1 per cent while there is five per cent textual corruption in the Iliad. 40 lines of the New Testament in question as compared to 764 lines in the Iliad. Gleason Archer, "A careful study of the variants of the various earliest manuscripts reveals that none of them affects a single doctrine of Scripture. Benjamin Warfield, "If we compare the present state of the New Testament with that of any other ancient writing, we must declare it to be marvelously correct. The New Testament has been transmitted to us with no or next to no variation; and even the most corrupt form in which it has appeared, the real text of the sacred writers is competently exact. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947. The scrolls were dated 125 B.C. and was placed in the location about A.D. 68. The tremendous exactness with the Isaiah scroll found compared to the Massoretic text of Isaiah that we already possessed, dated 916 A.D., demonstrates the unusual accuracy of the copyists of Scripture. Reliability supported by external writings The church Fathers of the first and second centuries qouted the scriptures in their writings extensively. Between Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alex., Origen, Tertullian, Hippolytus, and Eusebius, the Gospels were quoted over 19,000 times, the book of Acts quoted 1352 times, Paul's epistles over 14,000 times, general epistles 870 times, book of revelation 664 times for a total of 36,289 quotations. Are the Scriptures reliable? F. F. Bruce, "Scholars are satisfied that they possess substantially the true text of the principal Greek and Roman writers whose works have come down to us; of Sophocles, of Thucydides, of Cicero, of Virgil; yet our knowledge of their writings depends on a mere handful of manuscripts, whereas the manuscripts of the New Testament are counted by hundreds, and even thousands.