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HISTORY

This page is intended to establish the historical reliability of the Bible, not prove it is from God. "The historical reliability of the Scripture should be tested by the same criteria by which all historical documents are tested."(Josh McDowell, The New Evidence, pg 33)

There are several tests used to determine the historical strength of an ancient text. Three of which are very interesting when applied to the Bible

Internal Evidence Test

External Evidence Test

Bibliographical Test


"Dr. Geisler summarizes:

The primary sources for the life of Christ are the four Gospels. However there are considerable reports from non-Christian sources that supplement and confirm the Gospel accounts. These come largely from Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Samaritan sources of the first century. In brief they inform us that:

(1) Jesus was from Nazareth:
(2) he lived a wise and virtuous life;
(3) he was crucified in Palestine under Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius Caesar at Passover time, being considered the Jewish King;
(4) he was believed by his disciples to be raised from the dead three days later;
(5) his enemies acknowledged that he performed unusual feats they called ‘sorcery’;
(6) his small band of disciples multiplied rapidly, spreading even as far as Rome;
(7) his disciples denied polytheism, lived moral lives, and worshiped Christ as Divine.

This picture confirms the view of Christ presented in the New Testament Gospels." (Geisler,BECA, 384-385)

(Mcdowell,The New Evidence, pg 60)

Many historians have accepted the authenticity and historicity of documents with far less backing than the New Testament. The chart below illustrates this point.

EVIDENCE THAT DEMANDS A VERDICT

AUTHOR BOOK DATE WRITTEN EARLIEST COPIES TIME GAP NO. OF COPIES Homer Iliad 800 B.C. c. 400 B.C. c. 400 yrs. 643 Herodotus History 480-425 B.C. c. A.D. 900 c. 1,350 yrs. 8 Thucydides History 460-400 B.C. c. A.D. 900 c. 1,300 yrs 8 Plato   400 B.C. c. A.D. 900 c. 1,300 yrs 7 Demosthenes   300 B.C. c. A.D. 1100 c. 1,400 yrs. 200 Caesar Gallic Wars 100-44 B.C. c. A.D. 900 c. 1,000 yrs. 10 Livy History of Rome 59 B.C.-A.D 17 4th cent. (partial) mostly 10th cent. c. 400 yrs. c. 1,000 yrs. 1 partial 19 copies Tacitus Annals A.D. 100 c. A.D. 1100 c. 1,000 yrs. 20 Pliny Secundus Natural History A.D 61-113 c. A.D. 850 c. 750 yrs 7 New Testament   A.D. 50-100 c. 114 (fragment) c. 200 (books) c. 250 (most of N.T.) c. 325 (complete N.T.) + 50 yrs. 100 yrs. 150 yrs. 225 yrs. 5366

F. F. Bruce writes: "There is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament." (Bruce,BP,178)

Compared with nearly 5,700 Greek manuscripts of the NT, the chart demonstrates the poverty of manuscripts of some other ancient documents.(Geisler,GIB,408)

No wonder Ravi Zacharias concludes:"In real terms, the New Testament is easily the best attested ancient writing in terms of the sheer number of documents, the time span between the events and the document, and the variety of documents available to sustain or contradict it. There is nothing in ancient manuscript evidence to match such textual availability and integrity." (Zacharias,CMLWG,162)

 

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