by jimwalton » Sat Jun 17, 2023 7:14 am
The Bible is legit, for sure. Let’s break down her questions (and accusations), even though I’m sure you’re giving them to me as generalities rather than necessarily her specific questions.
> How do we know who wrote it?
Much scholarly effort is devoted to the authorship question. Most of Paul’s letters are beyond doubt (most of the New Testament). The authors of the Gospels are embattled territory, but I’ve studies the issue of the authors thoroughly, and I have concluded that the case for the traditional authors is the strongest case. As far as the NT books like James, Peter, and Jude, we go by tradition and style and early attestation, and the authors are most likely James, Peter, and Jude. The authors of the NT are fairly certain.
The Old Testament is a different story. Many question the authorship of Moses for the first five books, and again, this is highly debated. There is very good reason to consider Moses the authority behind the books if not the actual author. Most of the history books of the OT are anonymous—we never did know the authors and never will. But it doesn’t matter who wrote them.
As for the books of the prophets, we can be fairly certain they were written by the prophets they’re identified with. But each book would have to be discussed on its own.
The bottom line is that the authors of the books are strongly evidenced as being written by the people they’re attributed to.
> How do we know it’s accurate?
The Bible is subject to the same tests of truth as anything else: Does it reflect reality? What corroborates what’s written? Does it make sense? Does it match with what we know of history? Does it match with what we know about the ancient cultures, with the science of the era, with what archaeology has found. Over and over the answers show us that the Bible is accurate. People doubt the miracles, but there’s no way of corroborating those. But if it’s accurate in every other instance, do we have reason to doubt the miracles? I say no. Nothing has ever been discovered by historians or archaeologists to disprove anything in the Bible.
> how do we know people haven’t changed it to fit the times right now!
Because we have thousands upon thousands of ancient manuscripts that we can compare to each other and with what we have now. Compared to any other ancient work, it’s almost embarrassing how many documents and manuscripts we have of the Bible. That’s how we know it hasn’t been changed to fit the times right now.
Keep asking, and I’ll keep answering. Glad to be of help in this conversation with your cousin. The Bible is well-established and quite defensible. People just need to ask, as your cousin is doing, rather than make false assumptions and believe the lies, as so many do instead.
The Bible is legit, for sure. Let’s break down her questions (and accusations), even though I’m sure you’re giving them to me as generalities rather than necessarily her specific questions.
> How do we know who wrote it?
Much scholarly effort is devoted to the authorship question. Most of Paul’s letters are beyond doubt (most of the New Testament). The authors of the Gospels are embattled territory, but I’ve studies the issue of the authors thoroughly, and I have concluded that the case for the traditional authors is the strongest case. As far as the NT books like James, Peter, and Jude, we go by tradition and style and early attestation, and the authors are most likely James, Peter, and Jude. The authors of the NT are fairly certain.
The Old Testament is a different story. Many question the authorship of Moses for the first five books, and again, this is highly debated. There is very good reason to consider Moses the authority behind the books if not the actual author. Most of the history books of the OT are anonymous—we never did know the authors and never will. But it doesn’t matter who wrote them.
As for the books of the prophets, we can be fairly certain they were written by the prophets they’re identified with. But each book would have to be discussed on its own.
The bottom line is that the authors of the books are strongly evidenced as being written by the people they’re attributed to.
> How do we know it’s accurate?
The Bible is subject to the same tests of truth as anything else: Does it reflect reality? What corroborates what’s written? Does it make sense? Does it match with what we know of history? Does it match with what we know about the ancient cultures, with the science of the era, with what archaeology has found. Over and over the answers show us that the Bible is accurate. People doubt the miracles, but there’s no way of corroborating those. But if it’s accurate in every other instance, do we have reason to doubt the miracles? I say no. Nothing has ever been discovered by historians or archaeologists to disprove anything in the Bible.
> how do we know people haven’t changed it to fit the times right now!
Because we have thousands upon thousands of ancient manuscripts that we can compare to each other and with what we have now. Compared to any other ancient work, it’s almost embarrassing how many documents and manuscripts we have of the Bible. That’s how we know it hasn’t been changed to fit the times right now.
Keep asking, and I’ll keep answering. Glad to be of help in this conversation with your cousin. The Bible is well-established and quite defensible. People just need to ask, as your cousin is doing, rather than make false assumptions and believe the lies, as so many do instead.