Yes, absolutely the Bible can be trusted. While we do not have an original copy of the Bible, it has been faithfully copied and handed down from one generation to another.
Just as the writings of Shakespeare can be reproduced by comparing the many and varied copies of that author’s work, so we can verify the Bible by comparing its manuscripts and translations. In fact, there is far more support for the text of the Bible than any other ancient book.
Compare the span of time and the number of manuscripts of the Bible with these other ancient writings.
• Julius Caesar’s The Gallic Wars was composed between 58 and 50 b.c., with the oldest known manuscript dating to about a.d. 850. A gap of 900 years exists between composition and copies. Only ten manuscripts are known, yet scholars do not question it as being reliable.
• The works of Aristotle were composed between 384 and 322 b.c., but the earliest manuscript we have is from around a.d. 1100, a gap of more than 1400 years. We have but 49 manuscripts, and scholars view these works as reliable.
• The works of Homer, the Iliad and the odyssey, are among the best-known books of antiquity. They were written around 900 b.c. The earliest manuscript we have is from 400 b.c. (a 500- year gap), and we have 643 manuscript copies. These are considered among the best-attested works of antiquity.
Now, compare this to the New Testament. All of the books were written in the first century. We have over 5,800 manuscripts of the New Testament books, and the earliest are from around a.d. 125–250. This puts us within 30 years of the completion of Revelation. When we take into account the number of quotations from early Christians from a.d. 90 forward, we see literally thousands more copies of sacred Scriptures that enable comparison and assure an accurate text.
As soon as they were composed, copies of the New Testament books were being made. They were soon translated into Latin, Syriac, Slavic, Gothic, Coptic, Ethiopic, and Armenian. When we take these into account, there are over 19,300 additional manuscripts.
No other ancient work comes anywhere close in terms of quantity and quality of evidence.
