|
A: |
Manuscript evidence of the new and old testament The new testament writer certainly knew the
difference between myth, legend and reality. Some people would like to
dispel this evidence as just like Greek mythology, but there is one obvious
difference between these applied
to Christ and those things applied to Greek mythology that is usually
overlooked. The similar events, such as the resurrection, etc, of Greek
mythology were not applied to real, flesh and blood individuals, but rather
to mythological characters. But when it comes to Christianity, These events are attached to a person the writers
knew in time-space dimension history, the historic Jesus of Nazareth whom
they knew personally. Hear is a small sample for your review of manuscript
that we have on record
Bodmer Papyrus Ii(150-200 A.D.) Is Located In The
Bodmer Library Of World Literature And Contains Most Of John. Chester Beatty Papyri (200 A.D.) Is Located In C.
Beatty Museum In Dublin And Part Is Owned By The University Of
Michigan. This Collection
Contains Papyrus Codices, Three Of Them Containing Major Portions Of The New
Testament. Diatessaron- This Was A Harmony Of The Gospels Done
By Tatian (ABOUT 160 A.D.) TATIAN WAS an assyrian Christians. Codex
Vatican’s (325-350
a.d.) Located in
the Vatican library,
contains nearly all of the bible. Codex sinaiticus ( 350 a.d.) Is located in the
British museum. This ms, which
contains almost all the new testament and over half of the old testament,
was discovered by Dr. Constantin Von Tischendorf in the mount Sinai
monastery in 1859, presented by the monastery to the Russian czar and bought
by the British government and people from the soviet union for 100,000
pounds on Christmas day, 1933. Codex
alexandrinus (400 a.d.) Is
located in the
British museum; encyclopedia Britannica believes it was written in
Greek in Egypt. It contains almost the entire bible. Codex ephraemi (400’s a.d.) Is located in the bibliotheque nationale, Paris. Every book is represented in the ms except II Thessalonians and II john this list goes on but I will stop here. Writings from church fathers
Here is a small list of church fathers writings that
we have; Ignatius (70-110 a.d.) He was the bishop of Antioch and was
martyred. He knew well the apostles. His seven epistles contain quotations
from Matthew John, Acts, Romans, I Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippines,
Galatians Colossians, James, I and II Thessalonians, I and II timothy
and I peter. Polycarp (70-156
a.d. ) martyred at 86 years of age, was
bishop of Smyrna and disciple of the apostle John.
Among others who quoted
from the new testament were( Barnabas 70 A.D.), Hermas (95 a.d.),Tatian (170 a.d.), And
Irenaeus (170 a.d.), Clement of Alexandria (150-212 a.d.) 2,400 of his
quotes are from all but three books of the new
testament; Tertullian (160-220 a.d.) Was a presbyter of the church in
Carthage and quotes the new
testament more than 7,000 times of which 3,800 are from the gospels. Origen(
185-253 or 254 a.d. ) this
vociferous writer compiled more than 6,000 works. He lists more than 18,000
new testament quotes. The list goes on and on but I will stop here for now.
In addition to this source we also have lectionaries. Following the custom
of the
synagogue, according to which portions of the law and the prophets
were read at divine service each Sabbath day, the Christian church adopted
the practice of reading passages from the new
testament books at services of worship. A regular system of lessons
gospels and epistles was developed, and the custom arose
of arranging these
according to a fixed order of Sundays and other holy days of the Christian
year. These lectionaries usually
were rather conservative and used older text,
and this makes them very valuable in textual criticism. In the
case of the Old Testament. We did not have the abundance
of close ms authority as
in the New Testament. Until the recent discovery of the
dead sea scrolls, the oldest complete extant Hebrew ms was around 900
a.d. This made a time gap of 1,300 years (Hebrew o.t.
Completed about 400 b.c). At first sight it would appear that the
o.t. Is no more reliable than other ancient literature.
However with the discovery of the dead sea scrolls,
a number of o.t. Manuscripts have been found which scholars date
before the time of Christ. There are
now more than 5,300 known
Greek manuscripts of
the new testament
. Add over 10,000 Latin
vulgate and at least
9300 other early versions
(mss) and we have more than 24,000 manuscript copies of portions of the new
testament in existence today we have over 5000 manuscripts of the old
testament No other
document of antiquity even begins to approach such
numbers and attestation.
In comparison, the Lliand by
Homer is second with only 643
manuscripts that still survive. The first complete preserved text of homer
dates from the 13th century. Biblical Manuscripts that we have on hand are; John
Rylands’ ms(130 a.d.) Is located
in the john Rylands library of Manchester, England
It is the
oldest extant fragment of
the new testament.
Because of its early date
and location (Egypt)
, some distance from the
traditional place of composition (Asia minor), this portion
of the gospel of john tends to confirm the Traditional
date of the composition of the gospel about the end of the 1st
century. Here is some of the Scientific facts why I believe that the Bible is in fact
from God
The bible is unique.
It is the book different from all the others in the following ways plus a
multitude more. 1. Written over a 1,500 year span. 2. Written over 40 generations. 3 Written by over 40 authors from every walk of life
including kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen,
scholars etc; Moses, a political leader, trained in the universities of
Egypt, peter, a fisherman, Amos, a herdsman, Joshua, a military general,
nehemiah, a cup bearer, Daniel, a prime minister, Luke, a doctor, Solomon, a
king, Matthew, a tax collector, Paul, a rabbi. 4. Written in different places: Moses in the
wilderness, Jeremiah in a dungeon, Daniel on a hillside and in a palace,
Paul inside prison walls, Luke while traveling, John on the isle of Patmos,
others in the rigors of a military campaign. 5. Written at different times: David in times of war,
Solomon in times of peace. 6. Written during different moods: some
writing from the heights of joy and others writing from the depths of sorrow
and despair. 7. Written in three continents: Asia, Africa and
Europe. 8. Written in three languages: Hebrew was the
language of the old Testament. The biblical authors spoke on hundreds of
controversial subjects with harmony and continuity from genesis to
revelation. Yet there is one unfolding story: God’s redemption of
the human race. Historically the bible is 100% accurate Ask yourself the question,
let just ask 10 authors, all from one walk of life, one generation,
one place, one time, one mood, one continent, one language and just one
controversial subject would they agree? |