"But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught [it], but by the revelation of Jesus Christ" Galatians 1:11-12

After reading this, I begin contemplating the authenticity of the Bible. I have always heard arguments where people say "The Bible was written so long ago, we cannot prove its accuracy." or that there is no historical evidence of in favor of the Bible. So I decided to take a day and scour the web to try and find if our Bible 1. Is the Word God intended for us to have and 2. Has any historical standing.

When compared with other works, I was very surprised! Here is what I found:

OLD TESTAMENT:
Up until 1946, the oldest complete copy of the Old Testament was "Codex Babylonicus Petropalitanus" from AD 1008, more than 1,400 years after the Old Testament was completed. In 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. These scrolls close the gap to about 200 years. So in that gap when man could have added whatever he wanted, such as prophecies about Christ, did he? The answer is: No! There were no changes between "Codex Babylonicus Petropalitanus" and the Dead Sea Scrolls. This shows the Jewish people were great at keeping records and that the Old Testament we have today is completely reliable and trustworthy.

The Bible mentions the Hittites forty times, but for centuries there was no secular record so they were presumed to not exist. In 1906, a German archeologist uncovered what is now known as the Hittite Empire capitol. This shows the Bible knew things before any human ever did!

NEW TESTAMENT:



WORK WRITTEN Earliest Copy Time Span Number of Copies

• Herodotus------------488-428 BC-----AD 900------------1,300-----------------8
• Thucydides-----------460-400BC-----AD 900------------1,300-----------------8
• Tacticus--------------AD 100---------AD 1100-----------1,000-----------------20
• Ceasar's Gallic Wars--58-50 BC-------AD 900------------950------------------9-10
• Livy's Roman History-59BC-AD17----AD 900------------900------------------20
• New Testament------AD40-100------AD 130------------300------------------5,000 Greek, 10,000 Latin, and 9,300 others.
  

From the table, we can see that the earliest existing documents concerning Roman history were found 900 years (Almost 1 whole Millenium) after the events happened and only 20 copies exist. Yet Roman history is taught as complete fact even to this day. The Bible manuscripts date from only 30-150 years after they happened and more than 30,000 copies exist. By comparison, Roman history becomes a mere fairy tale.

What makes the bible so special?
The Bible was written over a period of about 1,500 years by more than 40 authors from various backgrounds (Joshua-Military General, Daniel-Prime Minister, Peter-Fisherman, Nehemiah-Cup Bearer, ETC) in many locations (Wilderness-Moses, Prison-Paul, Patmos Exile-John, ETC) on three different continents (Africa, Asia, and Europe) and in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek) yet the Bible is in complete unity. There is not one place where it contradicts itself.


2 Timothy 3:16 is true where it says that all scripture is God Breathed. He gave us His very word and protected it for thousands of years. The Bible has not only proven the test of time, but it has history backing it up.