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 part 1 in the series, click on the link below:
The History of the Bible video, 1 of 3
The History of the Bible video, 2 of 3
The History of the Bible video, 3 of 3
The History of the Bible video, 2 of 3
The History of the Bible video, 3 of 3
To look at the PowerPoint slides used in the presentation, click on the link below:
To view the manuscript evidence Word document, click on the link below:
To view the manuscript history chart created by Pastor Powell and Pastor Scott Woodlee, click below:
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