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| <~~~ Back clearly shows the bone nailed to a fragment of olive wood. And like Jesus, this crucified man had been buried in a tomb, receiving a proper Jewish burial. ( http://www.konnections.com/Kcundick/crucifix.html and http://www.tfba.org/articles.php?articleid=2 ) The list goes on and on. For more information about science and the Bible, check out this pdf file: http://www.khaudio.org/freemp3/bibleetmessage.pdf 2. Old And New Bibles Show Discrepancies. The Bible is a unique document in that we have more existing copies of it than any other ancient text. There are, for example, 25,366 existing copies of the New Testament. In terms of existing copies, the runner up is Homer�s Iliad, and only 643 copies of it have survived. Scholars tell us that the Iliad�s purity is 95%. Scholars consider this excellent; it�s the major reason they say our modern copies of the Iliad are reliable and accurate to the original. Yet the New Testament, which is older, is 99.5% pure. Looking at the two major ancient copies of the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint text, scholars have found that while there is an 800-1000 year gap between them, they have a variant of less than .5%. (And yes, there is a period before that five.) To the shock of scholars, the variants are minor, and do not affect the doctrine or the message of the Bible. (The differences involve, for example, the use�or not�of conjunctions, or the spelling of particular words�much like modern spelling differences between �color� and �colour� or �too� and �two.� Not exactly earth-shattering stuff, and clearly mistakes made when hand copying. No reasonable person can expect that hand copyist wouldn�t occasionally forget to cross a �t;� this is why modern publishing houses hire a staff of editors to look over each book they publish�and, even in this age of computers instead of quills, errors still manage to slip by.) In fact, those who claim the Bible is unreliable must also claim that all other ancient documents currently believed to be accurate by secular scholars are also unreliable. Why? Because when the Bible is put under careful textural scrutiny, it not only holds its own against other reliable ancient documents, but surpasses them. For a little more on this topic, you might check out http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/bib-docu.html and http://www.apologeticspress.org/abdiscr/abdiscr01.html . Also check out The Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties by Gleason L. Archer: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0310241464/qid=1055170469/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-0892368-4620947?v=glance&s=books 3. The Bible Contradicts Itself. As my dad�in�law recently put it: �Really? I�d love it if somebody would tell me just where it actually contradicts itself.� Like other ideas about the Bible�s inaccuracy, the argument that the Bible contradicts itself is a myth. Paul tell us: �All Scripture [not some, not most] is God-breathed�" (2 Tim. 3:16) And Jesus says, �I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished� (Mat. 5:18). There�s simply no justified reason for questioning the accuracy of any part of the Bible. GOT A QUESTION? I invite you to ask it. What stumps you? I'll do my best to find an answer! To ask a question, email me at [email protected]. (c) Copyright 2003 by Kristina Seleshanko. |
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