4. How Can the Bible Be Reliable? How Can We Understand the Bible?

Show some yearbook pictures of leaders of The Journey and or the church.

It’s always fun to go back and look at old yearbooks. One of my favorite parts is seeing how the hairstyles have changed through the years, but really a yearbook is the preserving of significant events throughout the year. Yearbooks always show the homecoming king and queen. They talk about how the sports teams did. They describe the talent shows and other major campus events. If something really major happens, it usually makes the yearbook. By looking through a yearbook, a class can remember things about that year that they wouldn’t have otherwise remembered.

The Bible is kind of like that; it is the preservation of God’s significant acts throughout history.¹ God’s people decided that they were going to forget some really important things if they didn’t start writing them down. So throughout the generations, they collected the stories of their lives, the stories of their interactions with God.

There is the story of creation, the story of the flood, the story about how God chose Abraham and his descendants to be his special people. There is the story of the Exodus and of how the people entered the Promised Land. There is the story of David, the greatest homecoming king of all time. There is the story of the bad times that come when Israel turns away from God. There are the hints that a new day is dawning and, then, the story of that new age with the coming of Jesus. Then, there are the stories of the life of Jesus and his followers and the stories of how Christianity broke out of Judaism to include all people, the stories of the first missionaries and the first churches, and a concluding story about the cosmic struggle between good and evil.

The Bible is kind of like a yearbook that spans thousands of years. We weren’t there when the events happened, but we can look back on the stories recorded for us and get an idea of what God is like because we see what he was like then.

Before we get to questions of whether the Bible is reliable, we need to ask, What’s in the Bible?² First of all, the Bible is divided into two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. Testaments means covenant, which is kind of like a contract, except that a covenant is deeper and more meaningful.

Jesus is the dividing line between the two testaments. The Old Testament is about God’s relations with his people before Jesus came to earth. When Jesus came, he opened the way for a whole new kind of relationship with God, thus the New Testament or new covenant or contract.

The Old Testament was primarily written in Hebrew, and the New Testament is almost all Greek. That means that nothing in the Bible was originally written in English. Therefore, the older English translations do not have special spiritual significance over the newer ones. Jesus did not speak in King James English. He spoke in Greek and Aramaic.

Since there is nothing theologically special about the King James Version or any other version, the most important thing is to find a translation of the Bible that makes sense to you. For me, the New Living Translation, which is what Christ Community Church uses, seems to put the Bible into understandable terms pretty well. There are a lot of Bibles in this version here today, and if you don’t have a Bible that is easy for you to read, feel free to take one of these with you.

The Bible has a variety of human contributors. It was written roughly between 1300 BC and 100 AD. It’s authors come from all walks of life. Moses grew up in a royal court. Amos was a farmer. Isaiah was an advisor to several kings. Matthew was an accountant. Peter was a fisherman. Luke was a doctor. No wonder everyone can relate to it. The Bible’s authors and the Bible’s main characters span the range of social classes and life situations.

The Bible is full of relevant topics. It is true that some parts of the Bible can be really boring, but the interesting parts far out weigh the boring parts. The Bible has lots of real life issues. There are stories about sibling rivalry, parenting disagreements, happy and unhappy marriages, unrequited love, business transactions, the impact of war on a nation, unexpected attacks, depression, courtship, financial planning. Do any of these sound familiar? The Bible has the amazing ability to span the centuries and speak to our present day situation.

The Bible also tells us the truth about ourselves. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are.” When I read the Bible, I understand more about me. Through divine inspiration, the writers of the Bible have keen insight into what it means to be a human being. Time and time again, when we read the Bible, we will find our more of what is really going on inside us.

The Bible also reveals God’s plan for us. We have been reading Jeremiah 29:11, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the LORD. ‘They are plans for your good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’” When we read the Bible, we start to get an idea of what that plan is. Most of the time the Bible won’t tell you exactly where to live or work, but sometimes God can use the Bible to give some pretty strong hints.

When I was a senior in college, I was looking for a job. One of my friends told me about Cedar House, a boys’ home for teenagers. Initially, I wasn’t very interested, but at that time I was reading a lot of passages in the Bible about God’s concern for the poor and the orphans. Everyday when I read, it was like God was saying to me, “Do the boys’ home. Do the boys’ home.” By the time I actually went on the interview, I felt like it was just a formality. God had sent me; they had to hire me. I worked at Cedar House for three years, and God has used that time there and my interaction with those guys in ways I couldn’t have dreamed when my friend first told me about the job.

The last thing I want to say about what’s in the Bible is that it has an essentially unified message. There are different voices and different methods of getting the point across, but there is one main message: God wants an intimate friendship with all people. That’s what the Bible is all about. God wants a close, loving friendship with every human being.

Remember that testament means covenant and that the Bible is made up of two testaments or covenants. Another context in which the word covenant is used is in marriage. The State of Louisiana even has a special kind of marriage called “Covenant Marriage” that carries with it special rules about what it takes to dissolve the marriage. The Bible, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, is essentially God’s marriage proposal to humanity. The Bible is God’s unconventional love letter saying to all the world: I want to be with you for the rest of my life, forever.

O.K. I’ve talked for a while about what’s in the Bible, but I know that most people have some pretty serious questions about the Bible. Now I want to give you a chance to express some of those. Break up into groups of two right where you are sitting, and tell each other what your biggest questions are regarding the Bible.

----- Wait about 2-3 minutes. --------

What were some of your questions?

----- Get responses from the participants.--------

The three biggest questions I came up with are: 1. Can we even believe in divine revelation, that the Bible is God’s Word? 2. How can the Bible be reliable if it has been copied so many times? 3. What about all of the supposed “errors” and “contradictions” in the Bible? I’m going to talk about these one by one.

Many people say, “Wouldn’t it be nice if God would talk to us? Wouldn’t it be nice if God would come down and give us a definitive statement?” Haven’t you felt like that at times? I know I have. Socrates, one of the wisest people who ever lived, said, “All the wisdom of this world is but a tiny raft upon which we must set sail when we leave this world. If only there was a firmer foundation on which to sail, perhaps some divine word.”³

Let’s consider the possibility of Divine revelation.⁴ Many people who believe in God struggle with the idea of divine revelation. What kind of God do they believe in? Is he mute? Is he not intelligent enough to employ basic communication skills?

The Bible demonstrates clearly that God is not mute. God has communicated with people through various means. God has spoken to people face to face, but he seems to prefer the indirect method. God has spoken to people through angels, dreams, prophets, a burning bush, and even a donkey.

The book of Hebrews begins like this, “Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. But now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son.” God finally came to us himself, in human skin, in Jesus. Perhaps the communication problem is not on God’s side.

Let me ask you. If God created this vast universe, why couldn’t he speak? If God crafted DNA, which is infinitely more efficient than our fastest computers, wouldn’t he be able to tell us what he wants us to know? Doesn’t it just make sense that the God of the entire universe could find a reliable way to talk with his people?

We talked about the Bible’s human contributors earlier. We also believe that there is a Divine contribution all along the Bible’s path. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is inspired by God” or, more literally, “All scripture is God-breathed.” God breathed his Spirit into the various authors when they were writing their part of the Bible, guiding them and helping them. God breathed his Spirit into his people when they collected the various books and when they finalized the contents of the Bible.

And God is still breathing his Holy Spirit into us and into the words of the Bible when we read it today. He makes the words come alive and applies them to us in new and fresh ways.

Next question: how can the Bible be reliable if it has been copied so many times? How do we know that what we have now is really what was written way back then? That is a really good question. It is kind of mind boggling to think of a document being preserved for thousands of years without computers or copy machines. I have a hard time taking down a phone number correctly. However, there are two main types of evidence that help me to have faith in the integrity of the Bible.

First of all, there is the precision of Hebrew scribes. They were meticulous when it came to copying the scriptures. Have you heard the term “Anal-retentive”? It refers to someone who pays attention to every little, tiny detail. The Hebrew scribes were extremely anal.

When they copied a page, they counted the words on the page. Then, they checked that with their original. Then, they counted the letters on the page and checked that. Then, they counted from the front and the back to find the middle word and the middle letter on the page, and checked that with their original. If any of those were wrong, they threw that page out and started over. When they were done with the whole book, they counted the letters and words in the whole book. Then, they started from the front and the back and counted to the middle word and the middle letter. If anything was wrong, they threw out the whole book and started over.

Why would they go to all of that work and all of that trouble? They weren’t just anal-retentive. They had a profound respect for the word of God. To change even one letter could not be tolerated.

Archeology has proven that their attention to detail paid off. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, we got a copy of the book of Isaiah that was 1,000 years older that the oldest copy we had before. The copies matched up almost word for word. That gives me great confidence in the Hebrew scripture.

The second type of evidence we have for the integrity of the Bible is the sheer volume of Greek copies. Here is a comparison between the New Testament and other ancient Greek literary works.

• HERODOTUS - written: 488-428BC - earliest copy: 900AD - # of ancient copies: 8.
• THUCYDIDES - written: 460-400BC - earliest copy: 900AD - # of ancient copies: 8.
• TACITUS - written: 100AD - earliest copy: 1100AD - # of ancient copies: 20.
• CAESAR'S GALLIC WAR - written: 58-50BC - earliest copy: 900AD - # of ancient copies: 9-10.
• LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY - written: 59BC-17AD - earliest copy: 900AD - # of ancient copies: 20.
• NEW TESTAMENT - written: 40-100AD - earliest copies: 130-350AD - # of ancient copies: 5,000 Greek, 10,000 Latin, 9,000 other languages.

Scholars don’t question whether what Tacitus wrote is actually what we have now. Twenty copies and a thousand year gap are good enough for them in that category.⁵ The people who copied the New Testament were not as meticulous as the people who copied the Old Testament, but we have thousands and thousands of copies of the texts to check their work, and except for some minor disagreements, they all match up. Furthermore, we have physical documents that date much closer to the actual time of writing than we do for any other literary work from that time period.

The precision of the Hebrew scribes and the sheer volume of Greek copies work together to give us a high degree of certainty that what we have in the Bible is what the original authors wrote.

But, what about all of the “errors” and “contradictions” in the Bible? It would take too long for me to discuss every single claim of an error or contradiction in the Bible. Instead, let me state a basic principle that usually solves the problem. Context is critical. We must understand the passage in the context in which it is written.

Here is a funny example of a verse out of context. My grandfather, who is a retired minister, loves to quote 2 Kings 19:35 from the King James Version, “and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.” When one reads the context around this little snippet, it is obvious the people who died are not the same people who woke up. The pronouns are just confusing.

In a similar way, most of the supposed errors and contradictions in the Bible simply dissolve when we understand the context in which they were written.

If you still have doubts about the integrity of the Bible, the best idea is to read it for yourself. See if it seems consistent to you. Don’t take someone else’s word for it. They might be biased. Check it out for yourself. Go straight to the source. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

The final question we need to address is “How Can We Understand the Bible?” The first answer to this question is basic. Spend time reading the Bible. Read a little every day. Read one story or section, and take your time with it.

This is not like cramming down a bologna sandwich and a bag of chips on a ten-minute lunch break. This is like enjoying a piece of turtle fudge cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, one bite at a time, slowly savoring every component. The thick creamy cheesecake. The rich, gooey, crunchy turtle topping. Collecting the graham cracker crust crumbs scattered around the plate. It’s not a race. It’s a sensory experience.

If you’re reading a story about Jesus healing a woman, try to really get a feel for what was happening. You’ve got to ask questions of the text. How did she get his attention? What was going through her mind? How did her voice sound? What were the people around her thinking? What emotions did Jesus experience as he responded? What did his voice sound like? What expression was on his face? How did she feel when he healed her?

For some passages, you may need a little extra help understanding the context. A simple commentary (which is kind of like Cliff Notes for the Bible) or a study Bible can unlock meaning that has been confused by the passing of 2000 years.

We are giving everyone a copy of a simple book entitled, How to Study the Bible by Jack Kuhatschek. He explains a three-step process to understanding the Bible. First, we journey back in time to understand the setting of the passage we are reading. Second, we try to understand what the passage meant to its original audience. Third, we travel back to our time, recognizing the differences and similarities between the original setting and ours, and we try to understand what this passage means today in our context for us.⁶

Understanding the Bible is like reading a bike. You can’t learn how by watching someone else. You’ve got to do it for yourself. I recognize that working with a Bible may be new to some of us, so I’m going to take a few minutes to walk through how you can find a particular passage in the Bible.

First, if you don’t know what you’re looking for exactly, don’t give up. Many Bibles have a few tools to help you. Mine has a topical index at the front. It lists different issues that we might want to look up. Under “F” are “faith, family, fear” etc. Under each of those headings are several verses that talk about those issues.

Some Bibles also have what’s called a “concordance.” A concordance is helpful if you can remember some of the words of a particular verse, but don’t know where it is located. You can just look up the word, and it will tell you some verses that have that word in it.

Verses are usually listed like this, “John 13:1.” [Write that on the board or display it on PowerPoint.] That is kind of like the address for the verse. It tells you the book, which is kind of like a “unit” in a textbook, the chapter, and the verse.

Open to the Table of Contents, in the front. I love the Table of Contents. Some of the books of the Bible are really small, and I have a hard time finding them. The Table of Contents lists the books in order and alphabetically.

We’re going to look up John. John is probably the best place to start reading the Bible. It tells the story of Jesus life from the perspective of one of his closest friends. Find John in the Table of Contents and turn there now.

You’ll notice that chapters are marked with big numbers and verses with smaller superscript numbers. We’re going to look at Chapter 13, verse 1. Has everyone found that verse? O.K. That’s your journaling exercise. Read verses 1-13. Then, go through the four steps we talked about.

Let me give you a little bit of help with the traveling back in time part. Jesus lived in the first century A.D. There were no cars. Everyone walked almost everywhere they went. The streets were dirty and dusty, and everyone wore sandals. To top it off, the donkeys, horses, and oxen shared the same streets and “left their marks” everywhere they went. By the end of the day, everyone’s feet were pretty dirty. By tradition, the lowest slave in the household got the unlucky job of washing everyone’s feet before dinnertime. That ought to get the ball rolling enough for you.

Journaling: Practice hearing from the Bible. Read John 13:1-13. Then answer these questions.

1. Journey back in time. What is the cultural context of the passage?

2. What did it mean then? What did it mean to the writer and first readers?

3. Return to the present. What are the similarities and differences between

that time and ours? How does it apply to me? What might God want to say to me through this?

1 This entire yearbook metaphor comes from Jim Thomas, Coffeehouse Theology, (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2000), 69-70.

2 Most of this section is from Thomas, 71-74.

3 Thomas, 79.

4 This section is from Thomas, 70-71.

5 Chart and information are from F.F. Bruce Are the New Testament Documents Reliable? quoted in Gumble, 25-26.

6 Kuhatschek, (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity, 1985), 6-30.