Reliability of the Bible

/Category Archive for "Reliability of the Bible"

wrote in Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, General, History, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: I came across this forum on Reddit about the Old Testament. It says that it is mostly oral histories rather than detailed written histories. See the comment by BigBennP.  https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/8k455b/there_are_two_places_that_i_know_of_in_the_bible/ He referenced Schinderman’s book that I’m quite familiar with.  I’m not sure if this is correct.  But if it is true, then I have to ask […]

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wrote in Church History, General, History, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: I have a question regarding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Do we know if the disciple Christians fled to the mountains like Jesus advised or did they participate in the Jewish-Roman war?     Mark 13:14-15  14 “When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ standing where it does not belong– let the […]

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wrote in Anthropology, Archaeology and the Bible, General, History, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: I have a question regarding the biblical history of humanity and the archaeological view which has been bugging me lately.  Allow me to explain: In the early chapters of Genesis, there is evidence of human agricultural activity (Gen 2:15) (Gen 4:2) before the Tower of Babel incident which spread humanity across the face of the […]

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wrote in Church History, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: My questions are about authorship of the gospels.  We know that the first man to say that the second gospel was written by Mark was Papias, However some skeptics say that it’s a long time between Mark (who may have died in 60s) and Papias (who may have been born at the same time). It’s […]

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wrote in Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, Church History, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: My questions are about authorship of the gospels.  We know that the first man to say that the second gospel was written by Mark was Papias, However some skeptics say that it’s a long time between Mark (who may have died in 60s) and Papias (who may have been born at about the same […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: I have a question regarding Jesus as being God. It is clearly stated in the Gospel of John, and in some of the epistles that Jesus is God as well as the Son of God. But after some research I found that the reliability of the Gospel of John and of those epistles are […]

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wrote in General, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: Recently, I read a Muslim’s article and the writer stated that the Bible itself says that it is corrupted using Jeremiah 8:8. How would you respond to this? Answer: First of all, almost without exception Muslim writers are disingenuous in their treatment of the Bible.  If they study the Bible, they only do so […]

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wrote in General, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: I have recently had some doubts in my faith. I am worried about the many similarities between Christianity and Zoroastrianism. I have already read your posts on the subject, but I have also seen how the major scholars of this religion like Mary Boyce unanimously believe that Zoroaster lived in 1200 BC. I am […]

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wrote in Archaeology and the Bible, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: Is the history of Israel’s kings recorded in the OT/NT all there is we have on those kings?  O r is there significant Israeli history we should know outside the biblical narrative that can help our faith? Answer: The Old Testament is the most thorough and reliable source of historical information from the ancient […]

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wrote in Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, Daniel, General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: I recently heard an argument that Bill Maher uses to debunk the authority and authenticity of the Bible. It says, “the Bible was a book written by men and edited by men as well”. How would you respond to this? Answer: My response would be to say that this is true.  Maher is right.  […]

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wrote in General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, The Flood .

Question: I found the cartoon below on the internet.  It is about calculating the amount of  rain water which supposedly would have been enough to destroy Noah’s Ark. I’m not sure how they measure rain water so any comment would be appreciated. Kind regards. Answer:  I have never believed or taught that the level of […]

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wrote in Church History, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: Some people claim that Jesus Christ didn’t rise on Sunday but on Saturday.  This claim is based on that the Bible said that Mary Magdalene came to the tomb very early in the morning in the first day of the week, and Jesus rose before that, perhaps on Saturday.  They also claim that the […]

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wrote in Church History, General, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

[Editor’s note: this is a follow-up question from a Christian who is in debates with Muslims over the reliability of the Bible. The Gospel of Barnabas is a pseudepigraph (falsely claimed authorship) from about the sixteenth century by a Muslim person who is trying to make it appear that the Gospels are in line with […]

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wrote in Church History, General Apologetics, History, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: I found this article particularly interesting due to the impact it may have on a historical interpretation of Revelation. I am not familiar with much of the evidence the author uses to support his perspective but I do understand the bottom line. In short the author claims that there was no Domitian persecution of […]

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wrote in Archaeology and the Bible, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: My question is, do you have any insight into the story of Sargon vs. the story of Moses? It seems that these tablets from Ashurbanipal are dated much earlier than the account of Moses’ origins written in Exodus. I would greatly appreciate just a brief exposition of your knowledge on the subject. Answer: First […]

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wrote in Daniel, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Theology and Doctrinal Questions .

I have a question regarding an article that was posted a few days ago. In this article it talks about how Satan is linked to the serpent in Genesis. The author then goes on to state that the idea of a “prince of darkness” only came about in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC and […]

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wrote in Daniel, General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Uncategorized .

Question: I read your book Daniel: A Prophet to the Nations (editor’s note: available at www.ipibooks.com) and enjoyed it very much. I was going over my notes from it and got to the part where you talked about the prophesies in Daniel about Antiochus IV and how he was going to desecrate the temple and […]

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wrote in Archaeology and the Bible, General, Miracles, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: I recently got a new study Bible, which describes historical events. In a part of the Bible that says “Ancient Texts Relating to the Old Testament” it describes “Sennacherib’s Prism”: “Sennacherib vividly describes his siege of Jerusalem in 701 BC, making Hezekiah a prisoner of his own royal city (but cf. 2 Kings 19:35-37).” […]

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wrote in General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Supposed Inconsistencies in the Bible .

Question: While reading the book of John, I noticed that Jesus drives out the moneylenders out of the temple long before the triumphant entry in Jerusalem. This differs from the other 3 gospels which shows the scene of cleansing the temple just after the triumphant entry. What do you think of this? Answer: There are […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, General, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: I live in Dubai and have a lot of great Muslim friends. Sometimes we get in discussions on who Jesus is and as you know their view of Jesus is different. They are using Bible quotes to argue that Jesus himself said that he is not God. I can argue that there are many […]

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wrote in Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Versions of the Bible .

Question: My question is about John 1:18. If we use a modern translation, we can clearly notice that the verse says that Jesus is God. But the textus receptus translations just say that Jesus is Son. Which do you think is authentic? Answer: This is a question of translation, not of an error, either in the […]

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wrote in General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: This is a question that has been bothering me quite a bit for a long time. It can be easily found that there are differences in the four gospels on certain events. For instance, Jesus says to bring a donkey and its colt for the ride to Jerusalem in Matthew, while it is mentioned […]

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wrote in Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, Church History, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: What is your response to Robert Eisenman’s theories on the Dead Sea scrolls and New Testament?  He states that James is the teacher of righteous and the true leader of the church instead of Peter while Paul is the man of lies and tried to corrupt the Church from within. He also states that […]

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wrote in Church History, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

[Editor’s note: this question is coming from a Christian in a Muslim country who is answering criticism from Muslims who claim the New Testament has been corrupted] Question: Please, I have questions about the time of writing of the gospels.  The first source outside the New Testament that quoted from the gospels is Clement of […]

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wrote in Church History, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: What is your response to the claim in the Clementine Homilies stating that there are falsehoods in scripture and that the Bible was written to try us and test our faith. Apparently it was Peter who told Clement that. Also Simon was used as an alias for Paul in the Clementine Homilies, and in […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, Creation, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Theology and Doctrinal Questions .

Questions: 1) In your answer of my previous question, you said that Original Sin is unbiblical. But doesn’t the Bible say that all humans inherit the evil tendencies/desires ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed God for the first time? 2) In the book of Joshua, it is mentioned that God stopped the sun from moving […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, General, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: I would like to ask about John 20 : 28.  While I was searching in Islamic websites, I found one that claimed that there are some manuscripts that don’t contain the word “the”, so the verse will mean that Thomas thought that Jesus was a god not God, like Moses.   What is your […]

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wrote in Archaeology and the Bible, General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, History, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: In Jeremiah 45, God says that Egypt will fall and most all the remnant of Judah will be destroyed.  How does this work historically?  I don’t see where Babylon invaded Egypt at this time in history. Am I incorrect? Thanks for clarifying. Answer: I assume you mean Jeremiah 46.  In this prophecy we are […]

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wrote in Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, Daniel, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: I have seen so many contradictory claims about the philological and linguistic analysis of the Book of Daniel. Does the Book of Daniel resemble Aramaic and Hebrew dialects from an earlier or later period? Does this depend on what part of the book one is looking at? Typically the sources I have found on […]

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wrote in Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, Church History, General, General Apologetics, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: Should I have faith in the canonical Bible being reliable and inspired because of those who established it back then, or should I mix this with trying to see the biblical evidence for myself? It is tempting to want to find all the evidence myself, as if I am the one who determines what […]

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wrote in Archaeology and the Bible, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: It makes me extremely uncomfortable to be the devil’s advocate regarding Exodus but just to give fair treatment to both sides of the story, I read the Wikipedia section summary of numbers, logistics, and archaeology. They all seem to have strong arguments of how the Exodus just couldn’t have happened. Do you have any […]

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wrote in Archaeology and the Bible, General, General Apologetics, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Science and the Bible .

Question: I believe that you have heard about the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Reading its historical background, I see that this was used by Bobby Henderson as a logical supportive argument why Intelligent Design should not have equal attention in science classes along with evolution. The argument is that a religious faith such as a belief […]

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wrote in Apocrypha, Church History, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: I’d like to ask a question.  It’s about the book of Revelation.  I read that the book of Revelation wasn’t accepted until now in the Syriac Orthodox Church… Is that right???  In addition, is there another difference between churches about the canonicity of the books of the New Testament today?  Another question, Why were […]

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wrote in General, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: How is Christianity true when true ancient Satanism and the ancient satanic Scriptures pre-date Christianity and Jesus himself? Answer: I am afraid that your argument is a classic example of the logical fallacy of appeal to age.  This logical fallacy is that something is right or better simply because it is older.  If that […]

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wrote in Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Uncategorized, Versions of the Bible .

Question: Is it true that 1 john 5 :7 was added later and was not in Greek manuscripts until the 1500s?  Please explain this to me. If so why is it in King James Version?  If this is the case, has the Bible been subject to changes by human hands? Answer: Yes, this is true. […]

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wrote in General, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Resurrection of Jesus .

Question: People say that the story of Jesus’ resurrection is a copy cat from the Egyptian myth about the gods Horus and Isis. Is this claim credible? Answer: I have heard this charge many times.  It is a very common point of discussion on the internet.  At ARS we sponsored a public debate on this […]

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wrote in Archaeology and the Bible, General, General Apologetics, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Miracles, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: How do we know the Bible, a collection of books and letters written of centuries, is the word of a deity? Answer: Given the amazing evidence for the inspiration of the Bible, the fact that it is a collection of writings written over many centuries makes it even more impressive.  The Bible contains the […]

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wrote in Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: What was the oldest manuscript we had before the Dead Sea Scrolls?  Was it the Aleppo Codex or Leningrad codex?  If  it is the Leningrad Codex, why do we compare the Aleppo codex with the Dead sea scrolls?   Can you please give me the dates of these manuscripts?   On the internet every site has a  different […]

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wrote in Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, Church History, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: What is the evidence that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John really wrote the four gospels? I have searched and found that the oldest man (whose writings are available now) who said that the four gospels were written by these four men was Irenaeus.  Irenaeus said that about 180 AD about a century after the […]

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wrote in General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Supposed Inconsistencies in the Bible .

Question: I have a question about something in the Bible that bothers me. In Genesis 19, Angels come into Lots home. When under attack, Lot offers the men his daughters to, basically rape. I find this hard to understand? Is there any explanation to understand Lots mindset? Answer: I will have to say that this […]

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wrote in Archaeology and the Bible, Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, Church History, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: I was reading on your website an article about Nimrod and any evidence for Nimrod. I would like to take it a step farther. What if Sargon of Akkad was actually Moses?  What if the Enuma Elish which talks about Apsu the fresh pure water god and Tiamat who was the bitter salty water […]

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wrote in Creation, General, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: Before Jesus’ birth at ~7-2 BCE, there were thousands of different religions around the world from the those of the Native Americans to thoses of the Africans and of course, those of the Far East. 1. Why do they exist? 2. Why did God choose the Jewish people? 3. What could make Christianity true […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Supposed Inconsistencies in the Bible .

Question: Hello, thank you for your ministry. I have a question on when Jesus was called Messiah and when Simon was first called Peter. In John 1:41, Andrew tells Peter that Jesus is the Christ, but in Matthew 16:16-17, Peter declares that Jesus is the Christ and Jesus says flesh and blood did not reveal […]

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wrote in Bible Interpretation, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible, Supposed Inconsistencies in the Bible .

Question: Is it plausible that John and the author of Revelation (presumably John) is praising Ephesus for their rejection of Paul as a false apostle in Rev. 2:2 with regard to Acts 19:8-9 and 23, 2 Tim. 1:15, and Eph. 1:1, and again in 1 John 2:18 as described in Acts 21:18-26 from a purely […]

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wrote in Anthropology, General, General Apologetics, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: These are the questions I have in mind.   They stem from a discussion I had with a friend of mine who likes Christianity (especially Bart Ehrman and the Gnostic Gospels) [editor’s note: we are not sure what the questioner means by this comment] but rejects the idea that Jesus was resurrected because: a […]

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wrote in Archaeology and the Bible, Church History, General, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible .

Question: There is a substantial amount of extra-biblical material written by historians that lived within a couple generations of Christ’s ministry supporting His existence, His status as a well-known miracle worker, and His crucifixion (Josephus, Tacitus, Seutonius, Pliny the Younger, Philo, as well as mention in much later editions to the Talmud). However, there is […]

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