Can we Trust the Bible?
- Coptic Orthodox Church in India
- Mar 20
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 21
Did Christian Corrupt the Bible to prove their faith?
What is the Holy Bible?
The Holy Bible is the inspired Word of God, revealing His love, truth, and plan for humanity. Comprised of the Old and New Testaments, it guides people to the path of eternal life. Through this book, we encounter the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior Himself, and we see the story of humanity from the creation of the first human, the fall of humanity into sin, and until the coming of the Savior Himself.
An Overview
Before diving into the topic of the authenticity of the Holy Bible, we need to know that the Holy Bible is the written word of God, which our Lord used to communicate with people. So, the belief that God is all-powerful, the creator of heaven and earth, makes it essential to be sure that the Bible is indeed preserved, and it’s unthinkable that God would allow humans to tamper with His message or leave any room for doubt. He said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”(1)
Does the Holy Bible contradict itself? How was it written?
The Bible was written by 40 authors over a period of 1,600 years. Despite this, it shows no contradictions; instead, every chapter complements the other. This would be impossible unless the book was written through divine inspiration. For if 10 authors were to write a book in 10 years, their ideas would inevitably conflict due to their differences and the passage of time.
What are the Manuscripts & Fragments of the Holy Bible?
Whenever a person tries to prove that the Holy Bible is corrupted, there will be many stumbling blocks waiting. One of them is archaeological manuscripts of the Bible, which serve as scientific evidence that shows the authenticity of the Bible. Biblical manuscripts are handwritten copies of the books of the Bible, created before the invention of the printing press, preserving the text in various languages and forms, while fragments are small pieces that contain surviving parts of the original manuscript.
Looking at the New Testament, we see that there are more than 5,800 manuscripts in the original language (2), which is Greek, and more than 15,000 translated manuscripts in Coptic, Syriac, Latin, and other ancient languages. On the other hand, the Old Testament has over 4,000 manuscripts, from the Dead Sea Scrolls (3), Masoretic and Greek. When comparing the Holy Bible with other ancient books, we see that the most preserved books are Homer's Iliad with 1,900 manuscripts and Plato’s works with only around 250 manuscripts. These numbers presented show that the Bible has by far more manuscripts than any other book.
How identical are the Manuscripts to what we have now? Are they even old enough?
The oldest manuscript of the Bible is the Dead Sea Scrolls, which was written around the 3rd century BC, which contains an early complete version of the full Old Testament, except the book of Esther. The scrolls, according to secular academic sources, are 99% identical to what we hold now as the Old Testament (5). On the other hand, the New Testament’s oldest fragment is the P52 John Rylands Papyrus, which contains parts of the gospel of John. This fragment is from 125 AD (6), which is around 90 years after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. These New Testament manuscripts and fragments are also extremely accurate with more than 99.5% accuracy to the text we read today as the New Testament, with these less than 1% variations coming from human grammatical errors and variations, which don’t change any meaning in the text itself. (7)
What are Patristic quotations? How do they prove the authenticity of the Holy Bible?
Patristic quotations are writings from early Church Fathers, like St. Irenaeus and St. Athanasius, who lived in the ancient times of Christianity. Those people wrote about God and explained the Holy Bible in detail, and their writings are still available until this very day. Examining their writings, we see that they extensively quoted the Bible. If we consider the writings of the early Church Fathers who are before the year 325 AD, we'll see that they quoted from the Bible over 35,000 verses (8). These writings alone would be enough to reconstruct the whole New Testament, except around 11 verses (10). So even if, in a hypothetical scenario, all the original manuscripts were lost, we can still reconstruct the New Testament. Even before that, when considering only one Church Father, Tertullian, who was born around 160 AD, we see that he alone quoted more than 7,000 verses (9) from the Bible.
Are there Historical Accounts of Jesus Other Than the New Testament?
Non-Christian historical accounts support key elements of Jesus' life and legacy. Josephus, a 1st-century Jewish historian, mentioned Jesus twice in Antiquities of the Jews. He referred to Jesus as a wise man, a doer of wonders, and the Christ, noting His execution under Pilate and the resilience of His followers (11). Roman historian Tacitus affirmed this, describing Christ’s crucifixion and persecution of Christians, emphasizing their devotion despite severe punishments (12). Other ancient writers who lived around the time of Jesus, such as Cornelius Tacitus, Gaius Plinius, Gaius Suetonius, and others, also mentioned similar events about Jesus and the Christians who lived at the time. These accounts are significant because they come from non-Christian, independent sources who would have no interest in affirming the Christian beliefs. They affirm Jesus's existence, His execution, and the growth of His movement, providing historical context that aligns with the New Testament narrative.
References
(1) Holy Bible Luke 21:33 NASB
(2) "The Text of the New Testament", Bruce M. Metzger, p. 30.
(3) "The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Full Translation", by Geza Vermes (New York: Penguin Classics, 2004), pp. 213-217
(4) "The Text of the Old Testament", Ernst Würthwein, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), pp. 103-105
(5) "Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction," Timothy H. Lim (Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 53-56
(6) The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, Bart D. Ehrman (Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 95
(7) Metzger, "The Text of the New Testament", p. 235
(8) Metzger, Bruce M., The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, 1992
(9) Philip Schaff, Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume III – Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1885), Introduction to Tertullian's Writings
(10) Metzger, Bruce M., The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, 4th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 118-120
(11) Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Books 18 & 20.
(12) Tacitus, Annals, Book 15, Section 44
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