Nine Pieces Of Evidence That Confirm The Historical Accuracy Of The Bible

[MJFlores]

I'm glad you're prepared, but a little sad for you that you're so convinced your god wants to kill us all and take his favorites back. What's the point? Couldn't he have just created a heaven for everyone where everyone behaved themselves how he wanted? What game is he playing? (I don't think there is a game; its far more likely there's no god than one who does this sort of thing...)

Ecclesiastes 3:10-13 Contemporary English Version (CEV)
I have seen what difficult things God demands of us. God makes everything happen at the right time. Yet none of us can ever fully understand all he has done, and he puts questions in our minds about the past and the future. I know the best thing we can do is to always enjoy life, because God’s gift to us is the happiness we get from our food and drink and from the work we do.

 

[MJFlores]

Yeah, I know I could have invented a far nicer god than the one Christians love and worship.

Strange people, these Christians.

You can invent
You even have claims of healing
You can even get big bucks out it

But the thing is how far can you go?
A lot of people are gullible for these things
They are so desperate for help and prosperity that they stupidly fall for these scams.

On my part, I am a skeptic
I need proof, I demand proof in my satisfaction
Because I know the truth is plain and simple.

 

[MJFlores]

I did a similar thing with an ant farm when I was younger... except I didnt give my ants' babies cancer or send them for eternal torture for being ants

God does not give cancer
Cancer is the outcome of things that give cancer
If you lean in a nuclear reactor, do you think everything would be dandy afterwards?
If you take in carcinogenic drugs or food - do you believe you can get away from it?

Further, there is no hell yet.
God haven't sent anyone to hell
Have you read from the Bible that God sent someone to hell?
The hell we have is the grave other than that
the fiery hell isn't ready for occupancy yet.
When will it be open to the damned public?
On Judgement Day - everyone will be judged by the man, God has appointed
The Books will be opened - the Book of Life and the Book of Deeds
If a person's name does not appear on the Book of Life then
Being sorry always happen in the end, does it?

 

[Dan Mellis]

View attachment 28233

Ecclesiastes 3:10-13 Contemporary English Version (CEV)
I have seen what difficult things God demands of us. God makes everything happen at the right time. Yet none of us can ever fully understand all he has done, and he puts questions in our minds about the past and the future. I know the best thing we can do is to always enjoy life, because God’s gift to us is the happiness we get from our food and drink and from the work we do.

"The flying spaghetti monster does touch each of us with his noodly appendages, and so holds us to the earth. As the population of the earth increases, so does the spaghetti monster exert less of his efforts on each of us. This is why the peoples of the far future will be taller than we are now, as we are taller than the peoples of ages gone." - The Bible of Pastafarianism

I hope this convinced you, as it seems to be the stanard of evidence you require.

 

[Subduction Zone]

"The flying spaghetti monster does touch each of us with his noodly appendages, and so holds us to the earth. As the population of the earth increases, so does the spaghetti monster exert less of his efforts on each of us. This is why the peoples of the far future will be taller than we are now, as we are taller than the peoples of ages gone." - The Bible of Pastafarianism

I hope this convinced you, as it seems to be the stanard of evidence you require.

 

[Skwim]

Maybe, but how would your god account for all the awful stuff in the world? I like the Norse way. They didn't trust, or even particularly like their gods. Because gods are a-holes whichever way you cut it.

He wouldn't have had anything to do with all the awful stuff in the world. That would have been the work of some other god(s), perhaps the god of Abraham.

.

 

[MJFlores]

"The flying spaghetti monster does touch each of us with his noodly appendages, and so holds us to the earth. As the population of the earth increases, so does the spaghetti monster exert less of his efforts on each of us. This is why the peoples of the far future will be taller than we are now, as we are taller than the peoples of ages gone." - The Bible of Pastafarianism

I hope this convinced you, as it seems to be the stanard of evidence you require.

Spaghetti? Can I have chicken with that?
Someone needs to cook spaghetti.
Spaghetti can't exist without pasta
Pasta is made by people and could not simply emerge from

The Big Noodle Explosion.


Job 11:7-9 Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
“Do you think you really understand God?
Do you completely understand God All-Powerful?
That knowledge is higher than the heavens
and deeper than the place of death.
So what can you do?
How can you learn it all?
It is greater than the earth
and bigger than the seas.

 

[Subduction Zone]

Spaghetti? Can I have chicken with that?
Someone needs to cook spaghetti.
Spaghetti can't exist without pasta
Pasta is made by people and could not simply emerge from
View attachment 28243
The Big Noodle Explosion.


Job 11:7-9 Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
“Do you think you really understand God?
Do you completely understand God All-Powerful?
That knowledge is higher than the heavens
and deeper than the place of death.
So what can you do?
How can you learn it all?
It is greater than the earth
and bigger than the seas.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is just as likely as the God that you believe in. Plus he has higher morals. And he has a better heaven. Why not convert?

 

[sooda]

I would not call the mythical nature of Genesis and Exodus nothing.

I say myth and allegory......

 

[MJFlores]

I did a similar thing with an ant farm when I was younger... except I didnt give my ants' babies cancer or send them for eternal torture for being ants

Stay away from wind turbines because it causes cancer says the POTUS

So keep your ant's babies away from those darn windmills.

 

[sooda]

He should have asked you how you know. He could have demanded links that support your claims. But like most literalists he probably does not want to know how you know. For literalists ignorance is one of their tactics. They seem to know that a lack of knowledge is the only thing keeping them from being liars.

The question presented by serious scholars is did the creation myths start out alike and diverge when Israel and Judah separated or did the different stories develop independently.

What they do know is that during the reign of King Omri he was trying to reunite the two and ordered a rewrite to combine the two versions.. That's why you have "doublets".

 

[sooda]

Nothing of the definition of fiction requires it to entertain, and indeed many pieces of fiction have been created with the intention of informing (parables are perhaps the oldest form of fiction-to-inform).

Parables.. Yes.. didactic literature.

Consider Aesop's Fables. Are they true? My answer is yes, yes, yes… and no.

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

Now that would take a brave man. Who would dare to lionscape a lion's junk?

Well, Daniel was cool with lions, so maybe he could.

I do realize you don't like the Bible, but not liking something does not make it untrue.

Even if you ignore historical, biological, and archaeological evidence, many times the bible just simply contradicts its own narratives, so it even fails as a literary work. Fans go nuts complaining that Spider-Man: Homecoming seems to mess up the MCU timeline, but we have to keep our mouths shut when the bible does even WORSE things with its storylines?

Already men's hearts are failing them for fear of those things coming on the earth. Creatures manifesting from hell. Meanwhile scoffers are still going to be doing their thing.

Just get anyone who played Resident Evil a lot or something. Hell's creatures coming on earth would only cause fear for non-geeks. Geeks will jump at the opportunity for epic LARPing.

I think that @sooda has a more rational Christian approach to prophecy. They are not predictions of future events, they are commentaries on the times when they were written or even of events in the past.

Indeed. Much of the bible is just coded commentary, like how Invasion of the Body Snatchers isn't really about pod people.

Josiah led Judah to religious and social reform

And probably helped invent much of the OT anyway, at least up to that point in the story.

Of course the ancients knew air held water,
even if they did not use the word "vapour".
It would be next to impossible not to be know
it was there. You just made that up.

Surely the Greeks and such who invented steam-related devices knew about "vapour".

Deny it or accept it, near everyone has read it.

Given the kinds of things many Christians believe, I doubt most have read anything but Chick Tracts.

That's an odd thing, actually, that the most purchased book in the world is also one that is not read very much. Must mean something, but darned if I know what.

I've also noticed that the loudest of the literalists are the idolators who have read it the least. You'd think if you believed the Word of God was literally from God's mouth, you'd investigate it more.

There are so many holes in the story, it astounds me that grown people can still believe it is a fact.

I like the African tale where some people got tired/angry about all the flooding so they just went up to the Rain God and shot Him. Very Klingon.

ALL of the Bible was written when the highest level of technology was the war chariot.

Maybe in that area. Other cultures had cool stuff. Being a "scholar" in the bible only meant you studied scriptures. There doesn't seem to be any attempt by Hebrews/Israelites/Jews to create any kind of schools for other topics. Stonehenge is more scholarly than the people in the bible.

By whose objective morality do you affirm to be better than an all powerful God?

Objective morality wouldn't involve ANY "whose". That's the point of it being called "objective." If something is moral just because God said so, it's SUBJECTIVE, not OBJECTIVE.

God is stronger than anything

This is not particularly shown in the bible nor in reality. God is a lazy incompetent wuss in most of the stories. If He truly had HALF the powers the authors claimed, the plots would've been resolved much more simply.

and you say He is not fair?

"Then the one who had received the one talent came and said, 'Sir, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.' But his master answered, 'Evil and lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I didn't sow and gather where I didn't scatter? Then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received my money back with interest! Therefore take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten. For the one who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless slave into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'"

— Matthew 25:24–30, New English Translation

Note that this is from JESUS, who is probably unknowingly admitting that God is an unjust lazy jerk who takes what isn't His.
(bolding mine for emphasis)

If God were just, the parable would've had the ruler complain that he IS just and fair. He wouldn't be admitting to being a horrible person.

That's not what the verse means. It means for people to unlearn all the nonsense they learned from the worldly wisdom. So they can learn God's wisdom.

Israel and Judah might've lasted longer had they known anything about how reality works. Their neighbors did.

It's like how in Once Upon a Time, people mock Belle for reading as she travels to "China", but she is the only one to guess where the monster is correctly precisely because she was reading about it and followed the clues.

This is why "God's armies" can be defeated by chariots with some iron accessories on them. That's what happens when you ignore education.

For example the world teaches us pride is good. God says it's wrong. Who to listen to?

You'd rather listen to the Hypocrite who is overflowing with hubris with every word?

God told me every bit of His Word is true.

Then your deity isn't mine. I worship Truth, and God said that He didn't say half of what's in there and it was written by men with agendas. And behold, it was, so my God isn't lying to ME. Maybe you should upgrade. My God told me that anything He willed would be verifiable in reality. Yours seems to want to distract you with pages from a book so you won't look up and see what's going on.

(And, yes, I know I just talked about Belle and reading and such, but my previous point was about education in general, not reading specifically.)

And you don't see what will be revealed.

The sciences have revealed more than your God has.

Can the vase refuse to hold flowers? Does the vase reply against it's maker? "I will not hold flowers for you!" Certainly not.

It can if it's alive, even artificially.

It's not that I believe God was ever happy about it; just like He was not happy with divorce but allowed it for the time.

Being complicit is just as bad as doing it yourself. There was never anything stopping Him from banning it. He made the choice not to.

As I've explained before on the topic of slavery. It's not that I believe God was ever happy about it; just like He was not happy with divorce but allowed it for the time. (Matthew 19:8) The Israelites were an unregenerate people. Not filled with the holy Spirit. (Numbers 11:29) They did not really care for spiritual things. They wanted to be wealthy, powerful people in the world. This in the bronze age, meant having slaves. The Law was there to bring them closer to God; but they were not prepared for some kind of anti-slavery revolution. Just read the Iliad for example to see bronze age views on slavery. War captives = slaves. The Law in the Bible is very "progressive" compared to Hammurabi's code for example; which unabashedly gives legal advantages to rich people.

Judah was the CSA of that area: a few dumb hicks in the south who assumed they were morally superior to the cosmopolitan northern country and led a war to split the nation just to prove how "awesome" they were. I don't see how you can say they weren't "ready" for slavery bans but could put up with banning "lies" and anything else in over 600 rules. Slavery is bad for business. Even if you lack the moral capacity to see it as wrong, there's still the crass economic reasons, such as paying your employees would prevent costly rebellions that eat up profits. POW slaves are just people who will shank you later for killing all their neighbors. Being a good boss is much more profitable in the long run, but not even Jesus can give any examples of good leadership. He, too, thinks incompetent lazy selfish idiots are role models.

How can you --who are finite-- accuse God when He is infinite in knowledge and power? You know more than God?

If God doesn't want His own words thrown back at Him, He shouldn't say them in the first place.

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

There you go again, see you are using an argument to popular appeal.

I don't get this argument at all. Christians don't even qualify as half the global population. Non-Christians are the majority.

 

[joelr]

I have replied based on the Scriptures.
If it is outside of the Scriptures, it is foreign and that is not what I believe in.
Sola Fide - is Latin for Faith Alone
But it is just half the part of being saved, a saved must have deeds too.
A human without breath of life [spirit] is dead.
Same is true with Faith without works is dead.

And yet millions of Catholics disagree with you also based on scripture. Like I said there is no resolution to these contradictions.

There is the one true faith
the faith were all questions of faith are answered
not by men but from the Scriptures
People say the Scriptures have a lot of contradictions
And it is flawed because people made it up, not God
When people make things up, they have their motives
Wicked people would do it for money
But God inspired people would do it for what?
We don't even know their faces so its not fame.
We don't even know their relatives so its not for royalties
They died and performed their duty to God so their work could be seen
By many for salvation which is the ultimate prize a man with true faith and good works can achieve
To be with God and his Son Jesus in a place called New Earth and New Heavens.

Seems an imaginary baloney?
That is where true faith is tested - knowing and believing of things to come and things yet to be seen.

Since the first civilizations people have been crafting mythologies, it's just what people do. A god, his son and a nice afterlife is pagan mythology.

Faith is just something people claim when they have no evidence.
Claiming the bible is true and your source is the bible?
That isn't any kind of point at all, you're just stating your beliefs?

A lot have predicted but they were found false
The bible says - don't even make a guess
Only the Father, the only true God knows when that Day will come
Jesus ain't know it even though he is seated at the right hand of God
the angels ain't know it even though they are in heaven 24/7
But people want to guess hoping money would come out of it.

View attachment 28231

Well why did you say we are NOW in the end times then if your religious book says not to make a guess?

 

[joelr]

On my part, I am a skeptic
I need proof, I demand proof in my satisfaction
Because I know the truth is plain and simple.

Then why have you been using circular arguments? Using scripture to show scripture is true? That doesn't show it's true it shows you believe it.
You've put forth no proof.

 

[Shad]

The question presented by serious scholars is did the creation myths start out alike and diverge when Israel and Judah separated or did the different stories develop independently.

What they do know is that during the reign of King Omri he was trying to reunite the two and ordered a rewrite to combine the two versions.. That's why you have "doublets".

There was also earlier issues between the Levites that were pro-Jerusalem, so-called Aaronites, vs a more decentralized system. I think it is at Dan there are ruins of temple structure and ritual structure only expected in the Temple in Jerusalem.

 

[MJFlores]

And yet millions of Catholics disagree with you also based on scripture. Like I said there is no resolution to these contradictions.



Since the first civilizations people have been crafting mythologies, it's just what people do. A god, his son and a nice afterlife is pagan mythology.

Faith is just something people claim when they have no evidence.
Claiming the bible is true and your source is the bible?
That isn't any kind of point at all, you're just stating your beliefs?




Well why did you say we are NOW in the end times then if your religious book says not to make a guess?

Let us go to the basics about the Bible:

THE BIBLE IS the “book of books.” Even though there are many “sacred books” used by different religions, the Bible is above all these “sacred books.” The Bible is unique, possessing characteristics and attributes that cannot be found in any books of different religions. What is the uniqueness of the Bible that makes it different from other religious books?

The Bible is Unique in Writing

The 66 books of the Bible were written at different times and under various circumstances. The Bible is unique in writing because it is the only book that was:

1. Written in the span of 1500 years:

· The Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, was written c.1447-1407 BC, and the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, was written approximately c.90-100 AD. Thus, the Bible was written in a span from 1447 BC to 100 AD.

2. Written in three languages:

· Hebrew. Most of the Old Testament books were written in Hebrew.
· Aramaic. Small fractions of the Old Testament (like fractions of Daniel and Ezra) were written in Aramaic.
· Greek. The whole New Testament was generally written in Koine Greek, or common Greek.

3. Written by more than forty authors from different walks of life, including:

· A “son of the daughter of Pharaoh,” and a political leader, judge, and trained in the civilization of Egypt (Moses);
· A military leader (Joshua);
· A king, poet, musician, shepherd and warrior (David);
· A herdsman (Amos);
· A prime minister (Daniel);
· A king and philosopher (Solomon);
· A priest and scribe (Ezra).
· A cupbearer to a pagan king (Nehemiah);
· A physician and historian (Luke);
· A fisherman (Peter);
· A Pharisee (Paul);

4. Written in different times:


· In the time of the Exodus (the writngs of Moses)
· In times of war and conquest (the writings of Joshua)
· During the establishment and expansion of the kingdom (the writings of David)
· In times of peace and prosperity (the writings od Solomon)
· During the Babylonian captivity (the writings of Daniel)
· During the Roman period (the New Testament books)


5. Written in different places:

· In the wilderness (the Torah);
· In a dungeon (Jeremiah);
· On a hillside and in a palace (Daniel);
· Inside prison walls (Epistles of Paul);
· While traveling (Acts);
· While in exile on the island of Patmos (Revelation).

6. Written in a wide variety of literary style:

· Historical narrative;
· Biography;
· Autobiography;
· Poetry;
· Song;
· Didactic treatise;
· Memoirs;
· Personal correspondence;
· Satire;
· Law;
· Prophecy;
· Parable; and
· Allegory.

No other book religious or secular was written in the span of 1,500 years, by forty men from every walks of life, in different places and times, and in a wide variety of literary style. These make the Bible unique from any other book.


The Bible is Unique in Transmission

The Bible is unique even in terms of its transmission. How unique is the Bible in terms of transmission? Since time immemorial, the Bible was copied, first by priests or temple scribes, then by professional scribes – the Sopherim, the Talmudists, and the Masoretes. The Bible is the only book having tens of thousands of manuscripts or copies by hand.

The Old Testament

The Old Testament has about 12,000 manuscripts and manuscript fragments, including the Geniza manuscripts and the Dead Sea Scroll:


“Even though the Old Testament does not boast of the same quantity of manuscripts (MSS) as the New Testament, the number of manuscripts available today is quite remarkable. Several reasons have been suggested for the scarcity of early Hebrew manuscripts. The first and most obvious reason is a combination of antiquity and destructibility; two – to three thousand years is a long time to expect ancient documents to last. Nonetheless, several lines of evidence support the conclusion that their quality is very good. First, it is important to establish the quantity of manuscripts available. There are several important collections of Hebrew manuscripts today. The first collection of Hebrew manuscripts, made by Benjamin Kennicott (1776-1780) and published by Oxford, listed 615 manuscripts of the Old Testament. Later, Giovanni de Rossi (1784-1788) published a list of 731 manuscripts. The most important manuscript discoveries in modern times are those of the Cairo Geniza (1890s) and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1947 and following years). In the Cairo synagogue attic, a geniza, or storehouse, for old manuscripts was discovered. Two hundred thousand manuscripts and fragments (Kahle, CG, 13 and Wurthwein, TOT, 25), some ten thousand of which are biblical (Goshen-Gottstein, BMUS, 35), were found.”1


The New Testament

The New Testament has about 25,000 manuscripts:


“There are now more than 5,686 known Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. Add over 10,000 Latin Vulgate and at least 9,300 other versions (MSS), and we have close to, if not more than, 25,000 manuscript copies of portions of the New Testament in existence today. No other document of antiquity even begins to approach such numbers and attestations. In comparison, Homer’s Iliad is second, with only 643 manuscripts that still survive.”2

As compared to other Greek documents of antiquity, the New Testament has about 5,686 Greek manuscripts, while second to it is Homer’s Iliad, with only 643 manuscripts.

The earliest preserved text of the New Testament (almost the whole New Testament) dated c.250 AD, only 150 years away from the New Testament (written c. 50-100 AD). The earliest fragments of the New Testament (the Gospel according to John) dated 120 AD, only 20 years away from the writing of the said book (John was written about 90-100 AD), while the earliest copies of Homer’s Iliad are dated 400 BC, a 400 year gap from the writing of Iliad (800 BC).

Thus, no other document of antiquity can equal the existing quantity of the manuscripts (MSS) of the Bible (both Old and New Testaments). This also makes the Bible unique from not only any religious books, but even from any documents of antiquity.

------

If you would question the credibility of the book,
we couldn't really move forward.
Might as well read something else
maybe from George R. R. Martin

 

[MJFlores]

Then why have you been using circular arguments? Using scripture to show scripture is true? That doesn't show it's true it shows you believe it.
You've put forth no proof.

I have written my proofs
But it seems no one seem to challenge these.
#517 MJFlores, Thursday at 2:42 PM

So far I have presented 5 seals of the Book of Revelations and compared it with History.
And I found no challengers, only scared cats

 

[Subduction Zone]

Let us go to the basics about the Bible:

THE BIBLE IS the “book of books.” Even though there are many “sacred books” used by different religions, the Bible is above all these “sacred books.” The Bible is unique, possessing characteristics and attributes that cannot be found in any books of different religions. What is the uniqueness of the Bible that makes it different from other religious books?

The Bible is Unique in Writing

The 66 books of the Bible were written at different times and under various circumstances. The Bible is unique in writing because it is the only book that was:

1. Written in the span of 1500 years:

· The Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, was written c.1447-1407 BC, and the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, was written approximately c.90-100 AD. Thus, the Bible was written in a span from 1447 BC to 100 AD.

Nope, modern scholars disagree. The Old Testament tends to date from less than 600 BCE. That is after the Babylon captivity. You are assuming that certain fictional characters in the Bible were real. That is as bad as assuming that Spiderman is real because there is a real New York City.

2. Written in three languages:

· Hebrew. Most of the Old Testament books were written in Hebrew.
· Aramaic. Small fractions of the Old Testament (like fractions of Daniel and Ezra) were written in Aramaic.
· Greek. The whole New Testament was generally written in Koine Greek, or common Greek.

Yes, so what?

3. Written by more than forty authors from different walks of life, including:

· A “son of the daughter of Pharaoh,” and a political leader, judge, and trained in the civilization of Egypt (Moses);
· A military leader (Joshua);
· A king, poet, musician, shepherd and warrior (David);
· A herdsman (Amos);
· A prime minister (Daniel);
· A king and philosopher (Solomon);
· A priest and scribe (Ezra).
· A cupbearer to a pagan king (Nehemiah);
· A physician and historian (Luke);
· A fisherman (Peter);
· A Pharisee (Paul);

No, Moses, and Joshua were definitely fictional. That works attributed to David were almost certainly not by David. The same applies to Solomon, Ezra probably was written by Ezra, but that is a more recent book. The author of Luke was anonymous and assigning Luke/Acts to Luke is merely church tradition, it is not well supported by evidence. Peter may have written 1 Peter, but that itself is rather doubtful, he almost certainly did not write 2 Peter.. And Paul did write quite a bit of what was attributed to him, but not all Of course he was never an eyewitness and some of his tales appear to be rather clearly false.

4. Written in different times:


· In the time of the Exodus (the writngs of Moses)
· In times of war and conquest (the writings of Joshua)
· During the establishment and expansion of the kingdom (the writings of David)
· In times of peace and prosperity (the writings od Solomon)
· During the Babylonian captivity (the writings of Daniel)
· During the Roman period (the New Testament books)

And again no. Moses was a fictional character. You really should study the history of the Bible a bit. The tales of Joshua too do not match up with reality. Daniel was most likely written by three different authors over a span of time. You are not helping yourself here. Once again, read up on the history of the Bible.

5. Written in different places:

· In the wilderness (the Torah);
· In a dungeon (Jeremiah);
· On a hillside and in a palace (Daniel);
· Inside prison walls (Epistles of Paul);
· While traveling (Acts);
· While in exile on the island of Patmos (Revelation).

Again, read up on the history of the Bible.

6. Written in a wide variety of literary style:

· Historical narrative;
· Biography;
· Autobiography;
· Poetry;
· Song;
· Didactic treatise;
· Memoirs;
· Personal correspondence;
· Satire;
· Law;
· Prophecy;
· Parable; and
· Allegory.

No other book religious or secular was written in the span of 1,500 years, by forty men from every walks of life, in different places and times, and in a wide variety of literary style. These make the Bible unique from any other book.

You forgot myths and tall tales.

The Bible is Unique in Transmission

The Bible is unique even in terms of its transmission. How unique is the Bible in terms of transmission? Since time immemorial, the Bible was copied, first by priests or temple scribes, then by professional scribes – the Sopherim, the Talmudists, and the Masoretes. The Bible is the only book having tens of thousands of manuscripts or copies by hand.

"Tens of thousands of manuscripts" is a rather pointless claim. Most of them are by the Catholic Church after the year 300. And for some odd reason the number of "manuscripts" being produced drops to almost zero per year after the invention of the printing press. That leads to a big "So what?"

The Old Testament

The Old Testament has about 12,000 manuscripts and manuscript fragments, including the Geniza manuscripts and the Dead Sea Scroll:


“Even though the Old Testament does not boast of the same quantity of manuscripts (MSS) as the New Testament, the number of manuscripts available today is quite remarkable. Several reasons have been suggested for the scarcity of early Hebrew manuscripts. The first and most obvious reason is a combination of antiquity and destructibility; two – to three thousand years is a long time to expect ancient documents to last. Nonetheless, several lines of evidence support the conclusion that their quality is very good. First, it is important to establish the quantity of manuscripts available. There are several important collections of Hebrew manuscripts today. The first collection of Hebrew manuscripts, made by Benjamin Kennicott (1776-1780) and published by Oxford, listed 615 manuscripts of the Old Testament. Later, Giovanni de Rossi (1784-1788) published a list of 731 manuscripts. The most important manuscript discoveries in modern times are those of the Cairo Geniza (1890s) and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1947 and following years). In the Cairo synagogue attic, a geniza, or storehouse, for old manuscripts was discovered. Two hundred thousand manuscripts and fragments (Kahle, CG, 13 and Wurthwein, TOT, 25), some ten thousand of which are biblical (Goshen-Gottstein, BMUS, 35), were found.”1

And again most of those "manuscripts" are after the year 300 CE. Again, so what?

The New Testament

The New Testament has about 25,000 manuscripts:


“There are now more than 5,686 known Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. Add over 10,000 Latin Vulgate and at least 9,300 other versions (MSS), and we have close to, if not more than, 25,000 manuscript copies of portions of the New Testament in existence today. No other document of antiquity even begins to approach such numbers and attestations. In comparison, Homer’s Iliad is second, with only 643 manuscripts that still survive.”2

As compared to other Greek documents of antiquity, the New Testament has about 5,686 Greek manuscripts, while second to it is Homer’s Iliad, with only 643 manuscripts.

The earliest preserved text of the New Testament (almost the whole New Testament) dated c.250 AD, only 150 years away from the New Testament (written c. 50-100 AD). The earliest fragments of the New Testament (the Gospel according to John) dated 120 AD, only 20 years away from the writing of the said book (John was written about 90-100 AD), while the earliest copies of Homer’s Iliad are dated 400 BC, a 400 year gap from the writing of Iliad (800 BC).

Thus, no other document of antiquity can equal the existing quantity of the manuscripts (MSS) of the Bible (both Old and New Testaments). This also makes the Bible unique from not only any religious books, but even from any documents of antiquity.

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If you would question the credibility of the book,
we couldn't really move forward.
Might as well read something else
maybe from George R. R. Martin

More of the same nonsense. That you have to clutch at fabrications and tall tales tells us that the Bible is no credible. You really should study the history of the Bible. The "manuscripts" that would give it a hair of credibility are missing and it gets quite a few facts wrong. That is why desperate posts like this only make the failure of the Bible more obvious to those willing to do the research.[/quote][/quote]