Article 7 of 14 | Honest Questions
By Dr Timothy Mann
The Bible is not simply a human document. The textual evidence for what it originally said is extraordinary, the New Testament is the best-attested document from the ancient world by a wide margin, and the internal evidence for a divine author, its unity across fifteen centuries and forty authors, is difficult to explain any other way.
This fourth installment of the Honest Questions series addresses a question that cuts directly at the foundation of everything the Christian faith is built on. If this objection holds, then not just one doctrine falls; the entire structure comes down. If the Bible is merely a human document, a collection of ancient religious literature produced by fallible men with limited knowledge and culturally conditioned biases, then it has no more authority over a person's life than any other ancient text. It could be taken or left, mined for inspiring passages, but submitted to as the Word of God? That would be irrational.
The objection usually sounds something like this. The Bible was written by men. Ancient men, living in pre-scientific cultures, with all the prejudices and limitations of their time and place. It was edited and compiled by committees over centuries. It has been translated so many times that nobody knows what it originally said. It contradicts itself constantly. It reflects the values of a patriarchal, tribal, violent culture. Why would anyone treat it as the authoritative Word of God?
That is a serious objection, and it deserves to be taken seriously. It also rests on several claims that do not hold up when the actual evidence is examined.
The anchor text for this question is 2 Peter 1:20 and 21:
“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:20-21, NKJV)
The Evidence for the Reliability of the Biblical Text Is Extraordinary
The first claim worth addressing is that the Bible has been so badly transmitted that we cannot know what it originally said. That claim sounds plausible to people who have not looked at the actual textual evidence. The evidence tells a very different story.
The New Testament is the most well-attested document in the ancient world, by a factor that is not even close. There are over five thousand Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, along with thousands more in Latin, Coptic, Syriac, and other languages. The earliest of these manuscripts date to within decades of the original writings. By comparison, the works of Julius Caesar survive in ten manuscripts, the earliest of which dates about one thousand years after Caesar wrote. The works of Plato survive in seven manuscripts, the earliest about thirteen hundred years after Plato. Nobody questions whether we have the texts of Caesar or Plato.
The science of textual criticism, the careful comparison of manuscripts to identify the original text, has established the New Testament text with a reliability that scholars across the theological spectrum acknowledge. The variants that exist between manuscripts are almost entirely minor: spelling differences, word order, the kind of variations expected from hand-copying over centuries. No doctrine of the Christian faith is in question because of textual variants.
The claim that we do not know what the Bible originally said is simply not supported by the evidence. The text has been transmitted with extraordinary reliability. What we have is what was written.
The Internal Evidence for a Divine Author Is Compelling
The second claim worth addressing is that the Bible is merely a human document, the product of human invention rather than divine inspiration. Internal evidence in the text itself is genuinely difficult to explain on purely naturalistic grounds.
Consider the unity of the Bible. It was written over approximately fifteen hundred years, by more than forty authors, in three languages, on three continents, across a vast range of literary genres. The authors came from wildly different backgrounds: kings and fishermen, poets and generals, priests and tax collectors. And yet, from Genesis to Revelation, the Bible tells a single coherent story with a single coherent set of theological themes, creation, fall, redemption, restoration, that builds to a single culmination in the person of Jesus Christ. The unity of this document, given the diversity of its human authors across fifteen centuries, is not easily explained by human coordination.
Consider the fulfilled prophecy. The Old Testament contains hundreds of specific predictions about the Messiah: His birthplace, His lineage, the manner of His death, the details of His betrayal, the fact of His resurrection. These were written centuries before Jesus was born. The mathematical probability of any one person fulfilling even a fraction of these predictions by chance is astronomically small. Jesus fulfilled them all.
Consider the Bible's honesty about its human authors. A book invented by men to consolidate religious power would not record the failures of its heroes with the unflinching honesty the Bible does. Abraham lied. Moses lost his temper and was barred from the promised land. David committed adultery and murder. Peter denied Christ three times. These are not the heroes of a human invention designed to make religion look respectable. They are the honest record of real people under the sovereign grace of a God who works through broken instruments.
APPLICATION & REFLECTION
The textual reliability and internal unity of Scripture are not reasons to stop asking questions, they're reasons to ask them more seriously. This week, if you've dismissed the Bible's reliability without examining the actual manuscript evidence, take one honest look at it. What would change if the text you assumed was unreliable turned out to be the best-attested document from the ancient world?
Next time: human authorship and divine inspiration are not opposites. Part two takes up why both can be true at once, and why that matters.
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If you missed the beginning of our series “Honest Questions” find the article links below:
Article 1: If God Is Good, Why Is There So Much Suffering? (Part 1)
Article 2: If God Is Good, Why Is There So Much Suffering? (Part 2)
Article 3: Has Science Disproved the Bible? (Part 1)
Article 4: Has Science Disproved the Bible? (Part 2)
Article 5: How Can a Loving God Send Anyone to Hell? (Part 1)
Article 6: How Can a Loving God Send Anyone to Hell? (Part 2)
FAQ
Q: Can we trust that the Bible we have today matches what was originally written?
A: Yes. The New Testament has over five thousand Greek manuscripts, far more than any other ancient document, with the earliest dating to within decades of the originals. Textual criticism has established the text with a reliability scholars across the spectrum acknowledge.
Q: How is the Bible different from other ancient religious texts?
A: Its unity stands out: forty-plus authors across fifteen centuries, three languages, and three continents produced a single coherent story culminating in Jesus Christ. It also records its own heroes' failures with unusual honesty, unlike texts designed to flatter religious founders.
Q: Does fulfilled prophecy prove the Bible is inspired?
A: The Old Testament contains hundreds of specific messianic predictions written centuries before Jesus, covering His birthplace, lineage, death, and resurrection. The likelihood of one person fulfilling them by chance is vanishingly small, and Jesus fulfilled them all.