Many claim that the current version of the Bible is not the original and has undergone changes. However, this assertion is untrue. There is, in fact, ample proof that the Bible that we have now is exactly as it was written in the beginning.
Reasons for believing the Bible is not original
Many contend that in order to avoid confronting the claims of Christ on our lives, the Bible has been distorted or modified over time. Similarly, Muslims frequently claim that the Bible has been corrupted since the Quran and the Bible disagree, in order to avoid suggesting that the Quran is in error. For instance, the Bible claims that Jesus died, but the Quran claims otherwise (Surah 4:157). As a result, the Bible must be tainted. The data, however, unequivocally refutes any Bible corruption. While some of the issues are slightly different, we shall address the Old and New Testaments separately.
Why the Old Testament is original
Three primary Old Testament manuscripts exist: the first is the Masoretic text, a Hebrew text that dates to approximately the year 1000 AD. The second is the Septuagint, a third-century BC Greek translation of the Hebrew text. The Dead Sea Scrolls from 408–318 BC are the final. Despite a few small variations, all of these are substantially in agreement. As a result, we may be certain that the Old Testament we have today is the same as the one that Jesus used (and freely quoted from) and that the Jews were using four centuries prior to the arrival of Jesus!
The manuscripts of the New Testament
The New Testament situation is slightly more complex. There are over 5,800 Greek manuscripts, the language the New Testament was originally written in. However, it was also translated into many other languages very early on like Latin, Coptic, Syriac, Armenian and others. The total number of manuscripts numbers in the tens of thousands. However, most of these manuscripts come from the 2nd century AD and most do not contain the whole New Testament. Some are collections of New Testament books, others are individual books, and others just a few verses. The earliest manuscript contains John 18:31-33 on one side and John 18:37-38 on the other and has been dated between AD 100-150. More recently, some new fragments have come to light, one of which is a fragment of Mark’s gospel which has been dated to 1st century AD. There are also more than 1 million quotations of the New Testament by the early church fathers.
Why the New Testament is original
New Testament researchers have cobbled together the New Testament text because there are no full copies of the entire book until the Codex Sinaiticus, which dates to approximately AD 350. During this process, they went over all 16,000+ manuscripts that were available. At first, this may sound a little like “what did the person really say” in a game of Chinese Whispers. However, due to the enormous volume of manuscripts that have been copied over many centuries and in various languages by various scribes, it is not at all like that. In fact, according to New Testament academics, there is a 99.5% chance that the text we have today is authentic! I suggest reading this interview if you want to learn more about this.
Conclusion: the Bible is original
Thus, there’s really no basis for people who say the Bible has been distorted to make such a claim. Rather, read your Bible with assurance that the words you are reading are authentic. God’s Word is still applicable to us today.
