Chapter 3 Discussion

Here are some responses to the questions I posed for chapter 3.



1. If we don't have the original manuscripts how can we know that the wording of the books of the Bible is authentic? It is important to remember that we don't have the originals for any other ancient manuscript either, except for those carved in stone, so the Bible is not unique here. Authenticity is verified by gathering the oldest copies you can and then if there are multiple copies you compare their wording. Unanimity between copies increases your trust in their wording.




2. How do some other famous pieces of ancient literature compare with the Bible when it comes to the number of copies and time gap from the original to the oldest copy we possess? Most other pieces of literature exist in only a handful of copies and usually not even in the original language. They are dated centuries after the original. We do however possess literally thousands of Biblical manuscripts with many dating less than 100 years after the original. They are also in the original Hebrew and Greek.




3. What is the earliest New Testament manuscript we have? The earliest fragment is called P51. The P stands for papyrus and they are numbered in the order they were discovered and studied. It has several verses from the Gospel of John on it and is dated between 117-138 AD. Since John probably wrote his Gospel around 90 AD we actually possess this fragment that is only 30-50 years after the original. No other ancient piece of literature can claim this.


4. How many total New Testament manuscripts do we have and are any of them in the original language? We have a total of over 24,000 manuscripts and over 5000 of them are in the original Greek.


5. What is a variant reading and how serious are they when examining the New Testament? A variant reading is when one manuscript copy does not match word for word with another. Most of these are spelling variations or word order changes. Since word order is not critical in Greek then most variants do not change the meaning of the verse. No major ideas or doctrines are affected by these variants.


6. The DaVinci Code claims that the Gospel of Thomas is more trust worthy than the Bible and that Jesus was a feminist, how would you respond to this? The Gospel of Thomas only exists in one or two documents that are dated about 200 AD so they are not as authentic as the traditional Gospels. Ironically, Jesus shows respect to women in the real Gospels but in the Gospel of Thomas he is supposed to have said that a woman has to become a man in order to be saved. You have to wonder if these people actually read the books they claim are more trustworthy than the Bible.


7. Do you think books such as the Gospels of Thomas, Judas and Barnabas should have been included in the Bible? They can be found in collections such as "The Lost Books of the Bible". These books are not nearly as authentic as the traditional New Testament books. All of these were written in the second, third and fourth centuries and we know they could not have been written by the person they are claimed to be authored by. One standard for Biblical books is "Apostolic Authority" which means they should be authored by a direct apostle or eyewitness of the events or a close associate. All of the New Testament books were written in the first century and fulfill this requirement. The Church was right to reject these books.


I will be covering chapters 4 and 5 this Sunday August 2nd. I hope you are enjoying the study.