There are two things that are vitally important to the faith
that Christians have. One is the accuracy of the bible and the other is the
truth of this man called Jesus. Since both of these aspects of Christianity are
so very important I will look in some depth to the evidence of the historical
accuracy of the bible and the historical significance of Jesus throughout
history. Oh yeah and my sources will be 100% OUTSIDE of the bible!
The Bible
Many skeptics will say it is hard to support that the bible
is accurate because it has contradictions, many different writers over many
years, it’s not been properly interpreted, and if it were why would there be so
many different translations? Despite what many Christians will say I think it
is great to have these objections. Why? Because those questions cause us to
seek and I firmly believe that when we deeply investigate the bible we will
become confident that it remains completely accurate to
this day.
Historical Manuscripts
There are literally THOUSANDS of records of the teachings,
the prophecies, the significance of Jesus’ birth, work, and death in historical
manuscripts of not only Jesus time but as well as afterwards. Most historians
verify the accuracy of ancient manuscripts by how consistent they are to the
other works of the time period in terms of writing style and historical events
documented. The bible is unique in that the books of the bible are not single
manuscripts, archeologists have found hundreds of manuscripts of the SAME
writings that we now make up the books of the bible. Of course the bible was
written by numerous authors expanding over the course of a couple thousand
years however there is still remarkable consistency and unification between the
books of the bible. There are many duplications of the same writings all over
the middle East stretching into the European countries of each book of the
bible.
The bible continues to be historically accurate. For example
archeologists believed for some time that Moses could not have written the
first 5 books of the bible because there was very little written works in the
time of Moses, that was, however until archeologists discovered other writings
of the same era such as; The code of Hammurabi, the lipit-Istar code, and the
laws of Eshnunna. The bible also has a vast array of historical data that
archeologists are still finding and piecing together to this day. The bible
talks about ancient cities, kingdoms, the exact locations of these places,
exact dimensions and detailed descriptions of major architectural giants
(pilate’s court, the jewish temple…) the kings and pharaohs of the time and many
major historical events. Sir William Ramsey, an amazing and accomplished archeologist
demonstrated that Luke made no mistakes in references to 32 countries, 54
cities, and 9 islands.
Using the bible alone, Jewish archeologists have been able
to uncover dozens of ancient cities such as Haran, Hazor, Dan, Megiddo,
Shechem, Samaria, Shiloh, Gezer, Gibeah, Beth Shemesh, Beth Shean, Beersheba, and
Lachish. By historical standards there is more than enough evidence that proves
the validity of the bible.
So what’s with the different translations?
Many translations occur simply because the style in which we
write and talk changes as time passes. For example although the King James
version of the bible is very accurate and was extremely relevant a few hundred
years ago, many people today prefer the New International version of the bible because
it is more similar to the way in which we speak today and therefore easier for
us to understand.
There is a divide in between translators of the bible
because some translations of the bible are based on a word to word translation.
However because the Hebrew language is so very different from the English
language some translations are based more on the main idea of the passage
instead of exact word for word translation in an effort to be more clearly
understood. Both are without a doubt accurate but this does create a few more
translations.
This man named Jesus
I think it’s safe to
say that Jesus has had the more impact on the world than any other person in
existence. Here I would like to explore in some detail some of the historical
evidence of the truth of Jesus Christ OUTSIDE of what the bible says. I think
you will find, whether you are a Christian or not, that Jesus was unlike any
individual and that is why 2000 years later he still has such a significant
role in the world today. While it would seem if Jesus was an ordinary man (the
bible states Jesus had no political power, religious titles, no property or
fortune, and suffered a death that some of the “low class” encountered) would
have no place in the historical records of the time, however for some strange
reason Jesus is recorded MANY times by various political and religious bigwigs!
The evidence for this “common” man is worth taking it seriously.
There are many ancient and completely credible documents
that can attest the profound existence of Jesus.
There are writings from
Tacitus one of the most important documentations of Jesus apart from the bible.
Other notable writings include those written by Pliny the younger, the
Babylonian Talmud, Lucian (2nd century satirist), and Josephus, a 1st
century Jewish historian. For the sake of time and space here is a link to the
word for word references of Jesus from these sources;
One of the most wonderful things about the bible is as
Jewish archeologists and scholars discover even more about their ancient past
the bible stands the test of time and history again and again. As Christians we
can be encouraged that we have a great tool to stand boldly behind the truth of
the bible and the truth of our God. I have no doubt that the more we understand
about our history the more we will understand about the God who created us!
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