Authenticity of the Bible (Taken from 'The Bridge')
by Simon Zohhadi on Thursday, 22 December 2011 at 11:31 ·
According to Richard Dawkins the Bible is 'a chaotically cobbled together anthology of disjointed documents, composed, revised, translated, distorted and 'improved' by hundreds of anonymous authors'.
One way to assess the likely reliability of the Biblical manuscripts is to compare them to other accepted historical documents. Take, for example, our modern copies of Plato's writings. These are reckoned to be authentic but are based on seven ancient manuscripts, written 1200 years after Plato. On the other hand, our modern copies of the Bible are based on many thousands of documents, some written as early as 80 years after the events that they describe.
In the light of this kind of evidence Sir Frederick Kenyon, former director of the British Museum, stated that 'both the authenticity and the general integrity of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.'
One way to assess the likely reliability of the Biblical manuscripts is to compare them to other accepted historical documents. Take, for example, our modern copies of Plato's writings. These are reckoned to be authentic but are based on seven ancient manuscripts, written 1200 years after Plato. On the other hand, our modern copies of the Bible are based on many thousands of documents, some written as early as 80 years after the events that they describe.
In the light of this kind of evidence Sir Frederick Kenyon, former director of the British Museum, stated that 'both the authenticity and the general integrity of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.'
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