Jon Topping – Is the New Testament Historically Reliable?

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Note on Historical Arguments

These arguments DO NOT presume the infallibility or inerrancy of the Bible.

“You can’t use the Bible to prove the Bible!” – Not what we’re doing.

Scrutinizing the Bible to see whether it’s reliable or not.

Bible is AT LEAST an ancient book of religious literature

              That’s all we assume for these arguments.

We can then show, based on agreed upon evidence, that the New Testament is reliable.

 

Argument Against the Reliability of the Bible

The Bible has been copied and translated many times.

When something is copied and translated many times, it loses integrity.

Therefore, the Bible isn’t trustworthy.

   “What good is it to say that the autographs (i.e., the originals) were inspired? We don't have the originals! We have only error-ridden copies, and the vast majority of these are centuries removed from the originals and different from them . . . in thousands of ways.” – Bart Ehrman, “Misquoting Jesus”

 

Problems with this argument

We have documents in the original language, later translations aren’t a problem.

We have very early copies (earlier than almost anything else).

We have many more copies than anything else. Easy to see the original text.

 

Historical Reliability of the New Testament – Compared to other ancient texts

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Problem here = Other texts are “whole” copies, while the NT is any “scraps” found.

 

Citations for chart

Norman Geisler, Christian Apologetics, by, 1976, p. 307.

The article “Archaeology and History attest to the Reliability of the Bible,” by Richard M. Fales, Ph.D., in The Evidence Bible, Compiled by Ray Comfort, Bridge-Logos Publishers, Gainesville, FL, 2001, p. 163.

Josh McDowell, A Ready Defense, by, 1993, p. 45.

Norman Geisler & Peter Bocchino, Unshakeable Foundations, Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2001, p.256.

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Evidence for Tiberius = Emperor of Roman Empire during Jesus’ time

Four sources for his life

              One was a hired propagandist = Obviously biased information.

              We do have early scraps, one is earlier than NT manuscripts, the other three are later.

              Only one from the first century, two from the second, and last from the third.

                           So, they are quite a bit worse compared to the NT.

              Full texts are multiple times later than the NT full texts.

 

Velleius Paterculus wrote about Tiberius = Wrote down, earliest manuscript from 1st century.

              Full text = 16th century. Earlier, just scraps of bits and pieces

              Problem = Literally a propagandist hired by the Roman government.

Tacitus = Written and earliest manuscript from 2nd century (notice he’s 100 years removed)

              Full text = 9th century.

Suetonius = Written and earliest manuscript from 2nd century (again, 100 years removed)

              Full text = 9th century.

Cassius Dio = Written 3rd century, earliest manuscript from the 9th century.

              Full text = 9th century.

 

Evidence for Jesus

All four Gospels were written in the first century (no one doubts this today)

Full text copies from 300 years after Jesus

Many other biblical books as well.

Many other non-biblical early Christians books as well.

              Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, Papias of Hierapolis, Quadratus of Athens

Many other non-Christian sources that talk about Jesus as well.

              Josephus, Tacitus, Mara bar Serapion, Suetonius, Babylonian Talmud.

 

Matthew and John = Written in the 1st century, manuscripts from 2nd century.

Mark and Luke = Written in the 1st century, manuscripts from the 3rd century.

              Full text for all four = 4th century (only 300 years after composition).

 

Comparing Jesus and Tiberius

No other characters during their time even come close to these two.

Only scraps of evidence on Tiberius until the 800s ad century.

For the Gospels, we have the full texts by the 300s ad.

 

Skeptic’s claim = There’s not enough evidence for Jesus.

              There’s more than literally everyone else during that time!

              Even more than the emperor of the Rome!

 

Earliest Accounts of the Gospel

1 Corinthians 15:3-7 = Written 54ad (20 years after Jesus died and rose)

Contains basics of Christianity – Christ died for our sins, raised on third day, appeared to many.

              This sounds very much like a creed that would have been recited.

Says it was “delivered” and “received,” implying oral tradition prior to being written.

Extremely early account of basics of Christianity (less than 6 years after Jesus).

Within the lifetime of people who would have been witnesses!

              If it was false, countless people would have known first hand, and been able to refute it.