Focus Points

     Here are all the focus points listed for the Bible Section.  They should provide you a way for quick review.    
 

1. The Bible
   1. People will view the Bible through their worldview, a set of presuppositions that they have through which they view and interpret reality.
   2. The word "canon" means "standard" or "rule." It is the list of authoritative and inspired Scriptures.
   3. The Roman Catholic Church added the apocrypha in 1546.
   4. The Bible was written by about 40 men in about 1600 years dating from 1500 B.C. to about 100 A.D.
   5. The Septuagint (LXX) is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament.
2. Is the Bible Reliable?
   1. The biblical copies are so accurate that all of the biblical documents are 98.5% textually pure.
   2. Until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1940's, the oldest extant copy of any Old Testament writings were the Masoretic Text dated around 916 AD.  When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, a complete copy of Isaiah was found.  Its date was 125 BC.  The difference in dates between the oldest copy and the newly discovered Isaiah document was 1000 years.  This provided a pristine opportunity to judge the copying accuracy of the Old Testament documents since it would be easily discernable which errors crept in over 1000 years.  The documents proved to be 95% textually identical.  The 5 percent that was different were mainly misspellings of words and did not constitute any threat to the content or reliability of the text.  This shows how accurately it was transmitted. 
   3. If the critics of the Bible want to through it out because some of the copies of the documents are not perfectly identical, then they must also throw out other ancient writings which are no where near as well preserved as the biblical documents.
   4. The New Testament documents fall into three categories:  1) Greek manuscript copies, 2) other language copies, and 3) citations in early church writings.  The NT was written in Greek and we have more than 5000 different Greek Manuscripts from which to compare.  Additionally, there are another 19,000 manuscripts of ancient origin that are translations.  That is, we have 19,000 manuscripts of the New Testament in Latin, .....  And finally, all of the NT (except for 11 verses) can be reconstructed from quotes of early church writings.  It is very well preserved.
3. The Documentary Hypothesis
   1. The Documentary Hypothesis, also know as JEDP, is the theory that the first five books of the Bible, called the Pentateuch consisting of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, were not written completely by Moses, but by different post-mosaic authors:  the Jehovist, the Elohist, the Priestly, and the Deuteronomist.
   2. Those approaching the Bible with this theory have strong presuppositions denying the inspiration of the Bible.  Also, the critics are claiming "they are able to decide exactly what a writer could or could not say, and on this basis to determine what part of the document belongs or does not belong to him."  Different subjects require different styles of writing, so we would expect differences of style in the first five books of Moses since there are different subjects addressed. 
   3. Jesus attributed the first five books of the Bible to Moses.
4. Bible Difficulties
   1. Bible difficulties are almost always answered by looking at the context and applying a little logic.  Therefore, always challenge the critic to look at the verses in context with you.
   2. A contradiction occurs when one statement makes another statement impossible when both statements deal with the same topic at the same time.
   3. It is okay to admit you do not have an answer to a Bible difficulty.  If you find yourself needing to do some research, then tell the critic that and arrange to communicate the answer to him/her.

5. Defending the Bible

   1. The Bible has not been rewritten.  We translate from the original language into our language. It is a one step process and not a series of steps that can lead to corruption.
   2. The New Testament was written before the close of the first century by those who either knew Christ personally, had encountered Him, or were under the direction of those who were His disciples.
   3. The Bible is not a book about science, but when it does speak scientifically, it is accurate. In fact, it was far ahead of any other writing of its time.
   4. The New Testament writers were certainly biased, but their bias was towards honesty and truth, not deceit.  Their intention was to accurately record and testify to the events that they had seen.  Remember, the disciples were followers of Jesus who taught them to love, to be kind, faithful, and honest.