>• First, the reliability of the Scriptures. Did you know that we have more than 5,000 manuscripts of the Greek New Testament? That is a huge amount. Some manuscripts date to within 100 years of the autographs (the original writings) and all agree with each other. (Yes, there are minor differences, but there are so many copies available we can look at them and get a very accurate picture of what the New Testament writers said.) What this means is that the Bible is extremely reliable as an historical document.<
There are lots of ancient stories written about from all over with the stories varying only slightly. The Illiad is one example.
While what you say is true, there are well over 5,000 copies of the New Testament in the original Greek. Of the Illiad you mention, we have approximately 600 copies still intact. The fact that of these 600+ copies, there is around a 5% variation (or error rate), leads one to believe they are correct copies. The error rate for New Testament transcripts is closer to 99%. What does that tell you about it’s authenticity? If you take the numbers and add in the translations to other languages, there are over 20,000 copies of the New Testament. Frankly, dismissing it because it is hard to believe is foolish at best, and fearsome in the extreme, at worst.
“The error rate for New Testament transcripts is closer to 99%. What does that tell you about it’s authenticity? If you take the numbers and add in the translations to other languages, there are over 20,000 copies of the New Testament. Frankly, dismissing it because it is hard to believe is foolish at best, and fearsome in the extreme, at worst.”
There’s a latin phrase that describes your logic.
“Non sequiter.”
>While what you say is true, there are well over 5,000 copies of the New Testament in the original Greek. Of the Illiad you mention, we have approximately 600 copies still intact. The fact that of these 600+ copies, there is around a 5% variation (or error rate), leads one to believe they are correct copies. The error rate for New Testament transcripts is closer to 99%. What does that tell you about it’s authenticity? If you take the numbers and add in the translations to other languages, there are over 20,000 copies of the New Testament. Frankly, dismissing it because it is hard to believe is foolish at best, and fearsome in the extreme, at worst.<
Wow so with millions of copies of “The Davinci Code” in print and all happening to have the exact same text, it must be true right?
Popularity of an idea doesn’t make it true either.