Is The New Testament Reliable?
Scroll down and click play to listen along
Main Question for today
How do we know that the New Testament Scriptures are reliable?
Consider this...
Take the time to think about why we believe the New Testament Scriptures to be true?
Three standards of evidence
1. What is the number of Greek manuscripts of the New Testament that are available to us today?
2. What is the dating of and the time interval in between the original document and the earliest copies?
3. What is the textual accuracy of the manuscripts themselves?
Ancient Text Date Written Earliest Copy Gap Number of Copies
Homer's Iliad 800 BC 400 BC 400 years 643
Plato's Writings 400 BC AD 900 1300 years 7
Caesar's Gallic War 100-44 BC AD 900 1000 Years 10
New Testament Texts AD 49-100 AD 130 <100 years 5686
Read 1 Peter 1:24-25
During this time, the class watches a video by Jay Warner Wallace found at ColdCaseChristianity.com
Check out the website for yourself to see some resources on the reliability of the Christian Scriptures.
Wallace's Key points:
1. Were the texts of the New Testament Written early?
2. Can the New Testament Texts be corroborated with other evidence outside of the Bible?
3. Have the New Testament Texts changed over time from the earliest manuscripts?
Read Luke 1:1-3
Consider this...
"Our faith did not originate from a book, but from an event. The Resurrection. Now that event and others were recorded, so others would know about it."
"The New Testament writers did not create the resurrection, the resurrection created the New Testament writers."
~ Frank Turek ~
crossexamined.org