We often highlight how by inspiration God gave the very words of the Scriptures to the men who wrote the books of the Bible (1 Cor. 2:11-13; 14:37; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:20-21). But how do we know that what God originally gave is preserved in the Bible today? Some make the charge that the Bible has been corrupted over the centuries, but can that be substantiated? While space prevents an exhaustive answer, the evidence indicates that we can be confident that the Bible we read today is the faithfully preserved word of God.
While all the autographs (the original writings of each book of the Bible whether it was on stone, clay, papyrus, etc.) no longer survive to this day, an abundance of copies have been made of the originals beginning soon after the time of their composition. Beginning with Moses and Joshua his successor, reference is made to the book of the law (Deut. 31:24, 26; Josh. 1:8; 8:31, 34; 23:6). A copy of the book was to be made for Israel’s leaders (Deut. 17:18). The scribes throughout OT times were very serious about preserving the words of God. This can be seen from the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which include copies of the OT books dating as far back as the second century BC. The Isaiah scroll is amazingly preserved and shows negligible variation from the Isaiah we have in our Bibles today. When the Ethiopian eunuch was reading from Isaiah in his chariot, he no doubt had a copy—not the original autograph—of Isaiah, yet what he read was the scripture (Acts 8:32).
When we open the New Testament, we can see early copying took place. Paul’s letter to the Galatians was not written to one congregation, but multiple congregations in the region of Galatia (Gal. 1:2); thus, it would be necessary for each to makes its own copy. That Paul’s letters were thus circulated is seen in his instruction to the church at Colossae, “And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea” (Col. 4:16). Peter alluded to the fact recognized among first-century Christians that Paul’s epistles were part of the body of inspired Scriptures (2 Pet. 3:15-16). Paul referenced the Gospel of Luke as Scripture, thus he had access to at least a copy of it just as he had to the Old Testament (1 Tim. 5:18; cf. Lk. 10:7; Deut. 25:4). Certainly, early Christians would make copies of writings they regarded as inspired Scripture. This copying has continued throughout the centuries and many fragments and large portions of these copies still exist and can be seen today in libraries around the world. There are more than 5,800 Greek manuscripts of the NT that have been catalogued. Additionally, over a million quotations of the Scriptures can be found in the writings of men known as “church fathers” who lived from the late first century to the middle ages. These “church fathers” obviously quoted extensively from the books of the Bible for they regarded them as inspired of God and authoritative. Their quotations corroborate the accuracy of the Bible text we now possess in line with the manuscripts from each century.
People do not question whether we have the words of Homer, Herodotus, or Shakespeare, yet the Bible has so much more evidence of faithful transmission than these writings. Take some time to investigate and you will find the Lord has kept His promise: “my words shall not pass away” (Mt. 24:35).
-Mark Day
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