Our responsibility is simply to make our witness faithful (1 Cor. 4:2); it is God’s responsibility alone to make it effective.
John MacArthur

What hard evidence says about: ‘The Authenticity of the Bible’

This entry is part 84 of 130 in the series CULT or NOT

CULT or NOT

What hard evidence says about: ‘The Authenticity of the Bible’

    Old Testament:

    • Oldest Hebrew Manuscript dated approx 900 AD
    • Time gap is about 1300 years
    • Reliability about same as other writings of antiquity until discovery of Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947
    • Old Testament manuscripts found with the Dead Sea Scrolls dated before time of Christ (125 BC)
    • Time gap decreases to less than 300 years
    • Dead Sea Scrolls contained over 40,000 inscribed fragments from which over 500 books were reconstructed – some of which were extrabiblical
    • Example: Isaiah – a complete text was found dating 125 BC, 1000 years older than any known text at that time.
    • Example: Isaiah 53 – only difference, other than font variations, was the inclusion of three letters comprising the word ‘light’ in verse 11, which created no change in meaning of verse.
    • Conclusion: In over 1000 years, only 1 minor word deletion occurred out of a possible 166 words – a true testament to the accuracy of the copyists and the provision of God throughout the centuries!

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