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

Questions:

My friend claims that the Bible is inaccurate and that means that Jesus was not God. Also because of the contradictions in the Bible, plus we do not have the original biblical texts, so Jesus is not God.  By the way is there a way to get your book “Is There a God?” as an E-book, instead of a physical book ?

Answers:

Your friend’s statement is not logical at all.  Let me explain.  First of all, to say that the Bible is inaccurate is mere rhetoric unless we have specific examples of this claim.  So, these are just words for now.  What are these supposed inaccuracies?  I know of none.

But, let us concede for the sake of argument that the Bible is inaccurate.  For example, let us say that Jesus were betrayed for 60 pieces of silver, rather than 30 pieces of silver.  What does that have to do with the question of whether he is God?  The two are not connected.  Either Jesus is God or he is not God.  If the Bible has an inaccuracy on some particular detail, this is not connected with the question of whether Jesus is God.  Your friend needs to explain himself. Otherwise this is mere rhetoric.

What about contradictions?  I believe that there are no bona-fide contradictions in the Bible.  None.  I have answered hundreds of supposed contradictions and shown them to not be contradictions at all.  The claim of contradictions is simply NOT TRUE.  Either way, in this context, your friend is just using rhetoric, unless he has a specific example.

But let us concede, for the sake of argument, that there are some contradictions in the Bible.  Let us say, for example, that there are some inconsistent statements about the events after the resurrection. (I do not agree with this, but for the sake of argument).  How does this prove that Jesus was not God?  This is not logical.  If your friend does not believe Jesus is God, he needs to provide actual reasons, not mere rhetoric.

It is true that we do not have the original texts.  We do not have the original text of any ancient writings.  This does not make people doubt Aristotle or Plato or Theucidides.  How could the fact that we do not have the original texts mean that Jesus is not God?  This is simply NOT LOGICAL.  Besides, we have many thousands of ancient Greek and Hebrew manuscripts, and we have the science of biblical criticism which allows us to reconstruct virtually the exact original of the Greek and Hebrew.  Again, how does this do anything to undermine belief in the inspiration of the original texts, or belief that Jesus was God.

You should present your friend with this and see what he has to say.

On the book, sure, go to www.ipibooks.com   My publisher has e-versions of most of my books.  I assume that includes Is There a God?

John Oakes

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