Tuesday April 14, 2015

Read Exodus 19:3, Exodus 34:27

The Bible is divided into two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament began its existence when God spoke to the various leaders and prophets He had chosen. These people were then to record what God had said. See Exodus 19:3 and 34:27 as examples. Because it was a word spoken by God, the prophets, priests and scribes that God spoke to went to great lengths not to change even the smallest fraction of what was said. These people built up very many tests (number or letters, length of scroll, middle letter of scroll etc) to ensure that what was written and later copied would be exactly what God had originally said. If an error were made on the particular scroll they were copying, the entire scroll was burned and the process begun again. No errors were acceptable because they were copying the very words of God.

Added to this, the copying was never done in secret like Chinese Whispers. Unfortunately many people today have played Chinese Whispers and have been erroneously taught that all communication throughout the ages is subject to such corruption. People are especially taught that the Bible can’t be trusted because of the Chinese Whispers process. But this is a complete and utter lie! People in Bible days learned huge chunks of Scripture off by heart and could easily detect any changes when the scrolls were read out. (Deuteronomy 31:12). People knew and revered the Scriptures and would not tolerate any change to them.

But how do we know that what was written centuries ago is still the same as what we have today? When the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered, copies of Isaiah (and other bits of the Bible) were included which were about 1,000 years older than any other Old Testament copies that we had. This older Old Testament was exactly the same as the one we have except for some few spelling differences. If the Bible hadn’t changed in this 1,000 year period, it’s safe to extend that process backwards to the original documents. We can be very certain that what we have today is the same as what was penned by the original author.

Added to this, modern translators of the Bible go back to the original Hebrew documents that we have to make modern translations. The words may change to suit the audience but the content is exactly the same as the original.

Also in favour of the accuracy of the Bible is archaeological evidence. Time and time again archaeologists have uncovered evidence to prove the truth of the Old Testament. In the 19th Century critics argued that there was no King Sargon and that the Hittites did not exist. Archaeological evidence proved the existence of this king and that the Hittites not only existed but were a significant people.

It all adds up to food for thought, doesn’t it?