Written by A.D.H. Thomas

Brethren Of Christ Articles - How to read the Bible

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Why we can trust the Bible
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We should make it clear that when we use the term ‘the Bible’ we are referring to that book usually called ‘The Holy Bible,’ which contains both the Old Testament and the New Testament. What then do we mean when we say “Can we trust the Bible?” There are two elements to this question.

Firstly, how do we know that the writings that comprise the Bible are a true transcript of the original text? Can we trust the documents from which the Bible is compiled? In other words are those books comprising the Old and New Testaments, that we read in our own language today, an accurate transcript of the original texts.

Secondly, “can we trust the Bible” in the sense of believing its historic, prophetic and doctrinal records. In other words can we trust the author of the Bible; can we believe what is written?

I feel reluctant to postulate this question, which appears to throw in doubt the Divine authority of the Bible. We tend to credit human authors, by and large, with trustworthiness; how much more should the Divine Author be regarded. Regrettably, because of the present cynical and sceptical climate, which espouses the theory of evolution and rejects the evidence of creation and a Creator, the question needs to be addressed.

Let us consider the textual accuracy of the documents from which the Bible is transcribed. The original Old Testament documents were, we understand, written in Hebrew, the original New Testament documents were written in Greek. These documents may no longer exist. Certainly they have not, to date, been found. What we have are copies transcribed from previous copies. In the case of the New Testament, the underlying Greek text of the latest copy is known as ‘Textus Receptus’ or the Received Text. This is the Greek text from which the A.V. or Authorised Version of the Bible is derived. How reliable is the Received Text? It might be thought that, over time, with successive scribes copying these documents, errors would arise in the transcription. In fact we are able to see from later discoveries of early documents, such as the Codex Sinaiticus, which is a parchment written in the 4th century of the whole New Testament, and discovered in 1844, a remarkable confirmation of the trustworthiness of the Received Text. The original New Testament documents were written around 40 to 96AD, some 1900 or more years ago. The earliest copy of parts of the original text, so far discovered, was written in 125 AD, and there are over 24,000 copies of various parts of the New Testament that were written about this time.

This remarkable fact provides us with the confidence to accept the accuracy of the New Testament Greek text, supported as it is by this weight of evidence. Many original ancient texts of well known persons, which are readily accepted as trustworthy, can claim no such supportive testimony. For example, the earliest copies discovered of the historian Herodotus’s original works, were written around 900 AD, i.e. some 1,300 years after the original ! Again, although we do not have the original Old Testament documents, copies exist, some, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, going back over 2,000 years old. The discovery of these scrolls in 1947 was described by scholars as ‘sensational.’ They contained all or parts of all the Old Testament books with the exception of the book of Esther, and they are virtually the same as the accepted or Hebrew Received Text on which the A.V. Old Testament is based.

We need to consider now the trustworthiness of what the Bible records and reveals. Much of the Bible concerns God’s dealings with the Jewish people, their history and their destiny. It also records the history and destiny of other nations in so far as they relate to the people and nation of Israel. And, of course, it reveals God’s purpose with the earth and the means by which it will be realized. Central to this plan is he who is the subject of Old Testament prophecy and principal subject of the New Testament; variously referred to as the Messiah, the Anointed, the Saviour, and most commonly as Jesus Christ. It is appropriate at this point to say that we shall consider later why the trustworthiness of the Bible is so important. We live our lives, for the most part, without depending upon or needing to know whether certain statements are trustworthy or whether certain individuals are trustworthy. The need depends upon the extent to which statements or actions, by others, affect us or those we have some affinity or relationship with. And what the Bible records and reveals does, we shall show, have a direct bearing upon our own life. As evidence and support of the trustworthiness of the Biblical record or message we have, archaeological discoveries which provide physical evidence for the truthfulness of the Bible. The fulfilment of predicted events and the history of the Jewish people. Apart from the foregoing there is, what might be called, the internal witness. There is an inherent truthfulness in the Biblical record, which all impartial readers must surely acknowledge and although recorded over many years and by different scribes, yet there is a unifying theme throughout the whole of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments.