Is my Bible reliable?

Is it translated from an accurate reproduction of the original God-inspired Scriptures?

Is my Bible reliable?

• The Bible claims inspiration for itself! (2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 1:10-11; 2 Peter 1:20-21)

• God has promised that His Word will be preserved and abide in this world! (Isaiah 40:6-8; 1 Peter 1:23-25; Psalm 100:5)

Those who deny that we have an accurate reproduction of God’s word, while claiming to

believe in God, put themselves in the position of denying both the power and promises of God.

What Jesus said about the reliability of the Scriptures He used:• What inspired writings or Scripture did

Jesus have access to?– The Scriptures Jesus used were written from the

time of Moses to Malachi (1,400 to 400 B.C.)– What was available in Jesus day were copies of

Hebrew manuscripts and translations of Hebrew into Greek (Septuagint) and Aramaic (Targum).

• Jesus treated these Scriptures as reliable (Luke 24:44; 4:16-21; John 10:35)

What Jesus thought about using translations of Scripture:Jesus’ use of the translations of His day.

• The Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek in the 3rd century B.C. in a translation that is known as the Septuagint (LXX). – Jesus appears to quote from the Septuagint in

Mark 9:12 and elsewhere.

• Jesus’ language in Mark 4:12 agrees with the Aramaic translation known as the Targum.

The Witness of the Dead Sea

Scrolls200 copies or

partial copies of Old Testament books were found in caves near the Dead Sea circa 1947.

These scrolls verify the accuracy of Hebrew

copies of the Old Testament that were

written more than 1,000 years later!

Inspired New Testament Autographs(none of these original documents are extant)

Your Bible

How did we get from the original New Testament

writings to our modern Bibles?

Inspired New Testament Autographs(none of these original documents are extant)

Ancient Manuscripts

SinaiticVatican

Washington(300-400 A.D.)

Partial CopiesRylands, Bodmer, Beatty

(100-200 A.D.)

Ancient Versions

Syriac, Old Latin & Coptic (2nd – 4th cent.)

Vulgate (385 A.D.)

Quotations by Early Christians

Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Clement

Over 5.000

Copies!

Now Available to Verify the Text of Your Bible

“Last eve I paused beside the blacksmith’s door,

And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;Then looking in, I saw upon the floor, Old hammers, worn with beating years

of time. ‘How many anvils have you had,’ said I,‘To wear and batter all these hammers so?’‘Just one,’ said he, and then with twinkling eye,‘The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.’“And so, I thought, the Anvil of God’s WordFor ages skeptic blows have beat upon;Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,The Anvil is unharmed, the hammers gone.” —Attributed to John Clifford

‘The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.’