History of the Bible

Is the Bible the Word of God?  That is a question that only faith can answer.  Is the Bible we have today an accurate representation of what its authors originally wrote?  That is a question that evidence can prove.  The Bible is by far the most well attested ancient document with a rich manuscript history and a fascinating story of ordinary people who rose to the occasion to protect it, or sank to the depths to try to keep it from the people.  It is a story of hand-written copies, and a story of translation efforts from the original Greek and Hebrew.  This three part series will open the door to the much larger subject of the history of the text of the Bible, its preservation and transmission from the ancient world to the plethora of English Bibles that we have available to us today.  Along the way, it will help answer questions about the reliability of our text, the affect that variants have upon our confidence in the text, as well the reasons why we have so many translations in English today.

            There are skeptics who don’t believe that we can have any confidence that our text is the same as what was originally written. Amazingly, they agree with the essential facts of history that the Bible’s manuscript tradition is rich and ancient, sadly, they draw opposite conclusion from this evidence and end up with nothing but doubt. There are “perfect” Bible zealots who have complete confidence in one particular translation of our text, made 400 years ago, who are immune to evidence because their belief in the text of the Bible is a matter of faith not facts.  Both of these groups think that ordinary Christians will have their faith destroyed if they learn the truth about the history of the Bible, they’re both wrong.  The Word of God has been handed down to each new generation throughout the history of the Church, and that story is something that every Christian should want to know.

In order to best understand the lecture, please take the time to download the PowerPoint, Word document, and especially the manuscript chart.  Having them in front of you while you listen will allow you to more fully understand the information that is being presented.

To watch the series, click on the links below:

                                                (Part 1 of 3, from 1st Baptist of Linesville, 8/17)

                                               (Part 2 of 3, from 1st Baptist of Linesville, 8/17)

                                               (Part 3 of 3, from 1st Baptist of Linesville, 8/17)

The History of the Bible video, 1 of 3 (2014 version)

The History of the Bible video, 2 of 3 (2014 version)

The History of the Bible video, 3 of 3 (2014 version) 

History of the Bible (2022 version): Part 1

History of the Bible (2022 version): Part 2

History of the Bible (2022 version): part 3

To look at the PowerPoint slides used in the presentation, click on the link below: History of the Bible: PowerPoint

History of the Bible PowerPoint - Updated 2022

To download a note taking form: History of the Bible note taking form

To view the manuscript evidence Word document, click on the link below:

Manuscript evidence

To view the manuscript history chart created by Pastor Powell and Pastor Scott Woodlee, click below:

Manuscript History chart

a helpful chart created by Mark Raja

For an additional video series on the History of the Bible that says much of the same things that I cover in my lecture, check out this one by inspiringphilosophy.org: Bible manuscripts video series
For an excellent video by noted textual expert Daniel Wallace on the disputed texts of the NT, click on the following link: Dan Wallace - Disputed NT Passages.  Dr. Wallace has a number of excellent YouTube videos available on the issues related to the reliability of the N.T. text of the Bible.