Last week: The Bible is inspired by God.
For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21)
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, (2 Timothy 3:16)
I. Jesus recognized God as the source of the Bible. (From Foundations by Holladay and Warren)
Jesus recognized the Spirit as the author. He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’? (Matthew 22:43-44)
Jesus quoted the Bible as authoritative. But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Lk 11:28)
Jesus proclaimed the uniqueness of the Bible. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (Matthew 5:18)
Jesus called it the “Word of God.” “thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.” (Mark 7:13)
Jesus believed the people and places of the Bible were real.
He believed the prophets “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand)” (Matthew 24:15)
He believed in Noah Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. (Luke 17:26)
He believed in Adam and Eve He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female” (Matthew 19:4)
He believed in Sodom and Gomorrah Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town. (Matthew 10:15)
He believed in Jonah For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:40)
To deny the inspiration of Scripture is to reject the integrity of Christ. – David Platt Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, (Luke 24:44-46)
II. Since we do not have the original documents of the New Testament, how reliable are the copies that we have today? ( from A Ready Defense by Josh McDowell)
Ancient manuscripts of the New Testament in existence today: • 5,300 Greek manuscripts • 10,000 Latin manuscripts (Latin Vulgate [4th century Latin translation]) • 9,300 other early versions • 24,000 manuscript portions of the New Testament
Two questions to judge how reliable ancient manuscripts are to the original texts: 1. What was the time span between the original writing and the manuscript? (The closer in time to the original document, the higher the confidence in the manuscript.) 2. How many manuscripts are available to compare? (The more manuscripts there are, the higher the confidence in the manuscripts.)
The New Testament compared to other ancient writings.
“There is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament.” - F.F. Bruce