By: Deanna Huff, PhD Candidate | December 18, 2022
Written by 40 authors, over 1500 years, on 3 different continents and in 3 different languages, the Bible is a fascinating document. A story about God and his people. It is full of love, tragedy, restoration, and hope. But is it just another story alongside the Epic of Gilgamesh or the Iliad? Is Jesus historical? Are the Gospels of the Bible just another myth? Why does it matter if it is reliable?
These questions are often asked by people searching for answers; although they cannot be answered with absolute certainty, they can be answered with high plausibility. Uncertainty does not prevent reasonable conclusions. When dialoguing with someone who is searching or skeptical about the reliability of the Bible, start with the acrostic ICE to develop your case.
There are 3 important things to establish in an ancient document. First, do the writers of the document internally claim the information is historical? Second, is there evidence that the manuscript is a changeless text? Third, is there external evidence that agrees with the ancient document being evaluated? The acrostic ICE develops a framework to answer these questions and establish that the Bible is a reliable text.
Internal Evidence
What does the Bible itself claim? Did the authors believe that they were writing an accurate account of the things taking place?
The authors of the Gospels make claims about the accuracy and life of Jesus. Mike Licona recognizes the genre of the Gospels as historical biographies.[1] Luke a writer for Paul accentuates the point that he is providing an exact account from eyewitnesses that have been investigated (Luke 1:1-4). In addition, he includes embarrassing things of the disciples in order to reveal the actual events. Craig Keener writes, “most scholars see Luke’s first volume as biography.”[2]
Bart Ehrman, an agnostic and professor at the University of North Carolina, says regarding the Gospels, “if historians prefer lots of witnesses that corroborate one another’s claims without showing evidence of collaboration, we have that in relative abundance in the written sources that attest to the existence of the historical Jesus. He also recognizes Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, 1 Thessalonians, Philippians, and Philemon to be undisputedly reliable texts (even though he does not believe them by faith).
The authors of the Scriptures specifically claimed that they were writing the truth.
- Psalm 119:160 The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.
- John 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
- John 17:8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. (Jesus speaking)
Changeless Text
Is there evidence for a changeless text?
The Dead Sea Scrolls are considered the greatest archaeological discovery. They were found in 1946 and eventually included findings in 11 caves. There were around 850 fragmented manuscripts that were uncovered. All of the texts were in some way related to the Bible and the only book of the Hebrew Bible that was missing was Esther. The Great Isaiah is a complete and noted manuscript that dates back to 100-75 BC.
Although some people may argue about small variants they do not change the concept or narrative of the Bible. Bart Ehrman argues for a changing text from the variants in the documents of the New Testament. He writes, “One of the things people misunderstand, of course-especially my nineteen-year-old students from North Carolina-is that when we’re reading the Bible, we’re not actually reading the words of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, or Paul. We’re reading translations of those words from the Greek of the New Testament. And something is always lost in translation.”[3]
It is true that not all translations are equal. However, Craig L. Bloomberg attests that “of the 1,438 variants…most of the latter involve the presence or absence of a single word, often an article, conjunction, particle, or adverb. Or else they have to do with the word order, with the meaning of the text remaining unaltered or extremely little altered.”[4] Thus, “it is true that there are no originals from the New Testament, but that is true of all ancient literature.”[5]
There are more than five thousand copies of the New Testament that are able to reveal a changeless text. “The best and most important of these go back to somewhere about AD 350, the two most important being the Codex Vaticanus, the chief treasure of the Vatican Library in Rome, and the well-known Codex-Sinaiticus, which the British Government purchased from the Soviet Government.”[6]
External Evidence
Is there external evidence that attests to biblical accounts?
Lastly, when examining ancient documents there must be other external evidence that validates the accounts of the Bible. Josephus was not a Christian but a Jewish historian. He mentions “many figures who are well known to the New Testament: the colorful family of the Herods; the Roman emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero, along with many other historical accounts.”[7] He also mentions “James ‘the brother of Jesus the so-called Christ’, in such a way as to suggest that he has already made some reference to Jesus. And there is found a reference to Him in all extant copies of Josephus, the so-called Testimonium Flavianum in Antiquities xviii.3.3.”[8] Gary Habermas claims that out of his sizeable research that ten documents refer to the life and death of Jesus. The research includes writings of Lucian and Tacitus, as well as the Talmud.
Establishing Reliability Springboards into Jesus
Establishing the reliability of the Bible to others provides an opportunity to share about the life of Jesus. Encourage the seeker or skeptic to examine this reliable text talking about the life of Jesus. I leave you with the words of C. S. Lewis writing of encountering Jesus.
Lewis writes, “People often say about Jesus, ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic or else he would be the Devil of Hell. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.”[9]
About the Author
Deanna Huff is a wife and mother. She has been teaching and training for the last twenty years equipping people to know their Christian faith and share it with others. Deanna has led many seminars for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Ladies Retreat, and the State Evangelism Conference. She taught high school students for ten years at Christian Heritage Academy, in Bible, Universal History, Apologetics and Philosophy. Deanna is a Ph.D. candidate in Apologetics and Theology at Liberty University. She holds a Master of Theology in Apologetics and Worldview from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, a Master of Divinity with Biblical Languages from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Oklahoma.
Deanna is an active member of Capitol Hill Baptist Church where she participates with her pastor in a worldview podcast called The Analysis. She also participates with her daughter in a podcast called but why should i care. She and her husband teach an adult Sunday school class discipling others in the faith.
Notes
[1] Michael R. Licona, The Resurrection of Jesus (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2010), 203. “The ancient biographers were concerned with a number of issues pertaining to the subject, including his Jesus death, moral philosophy, teachings, political beliefs, stories told in tribute to and praise of him.”
[2] Craig Keener, Christobiography (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2019), 221.
[3] Bart D. Ehrman and Daniel B. Wallace, “The Textual Reliability of the New Testament: A Dialogue,” in The Reliability of the New Testament (Minneapolis, MN; Fortress Press, 2011) 14.
[4] Craig L. Bloomberg, The Historical Reliability of the New Testament, (Nashville, TN; B &H Academic, 640.
[5] Brian Morley, Mapping Apologetics, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005) 313.
[6] F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents, (Grand Rapids, MI; Eerdmans, 1981) 10.
[7] Ibid 106.
[8] Ibid 111.
[9] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Signature Edition. (London: William Collins, 2012), 52.
