How credible is the Bible?

Answer 1

It depends on just what you expect it to show you. If you're looking for an history book or a science text it may disappoint you.

If you are looking for a book of teachings about and from the God of the Christian faith .... it is quite credible in that setting.

If you're searching for a book of literal meaning .... you may be disappointed.

If you're looking for a larger meaning from the lessons and stories in the book ..... it is very good for that.

Kev

Answer 2

Not very. I have been studying the history of the Bible. One thing that is clear is that the Bible authors borrowed heavily from surrounding religions. Yahweh, the god of the Old Testament has been traced back to the Canaanite religion through the Ugaritic texts. The flood story has been lifted directly from the same source. It help if you know what some of the underlying words are in the Bible as well. In the Canaanite pantheon the chief deity that presides over the Great Assembly is El. El appears through much of the Old Testament but gets translated merely as God. There is an interesting passage in Deuteronomy 32:8:

"When the Most High El gave the nations their heritage, when He divided mankind, He fixed the territories of the peoples according to the number of the sons of El; But Yahweh's share was his people, Jacob was his inherited possession" (ASV of 1901)

El and Yahweh are clearly two different deities. How can Yahweh inherit from himself? Most people don't realize this because most translators hide it behind the generic term God. This practice that happens throughout the Bible is another good reason to question it's reliability.

Zoroastrianism, the first monotheistic religion, also had strong influence on both Judaism and Christianity. Besides monotheism, Zoroastrianism is also the first religion to introduce ideas like opposing forces of good and evil, a resurrection, salvation, and an afterlife.

The New Testament also contradicts the Old Testament on many levels, which doesn't bode too well for the Bible's reliability.

Answer 3

General info on the Bible

1. The Bible consists of 66 books: 39 in the OT and 27 in the new. The Bible took about 1600 years to write. It was written in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek) by about 40 authors and is internally consistent throughout.

Reliability of the Bible

1. The Bible is 98½ percent textually pure. Through all the copying of the Biblical manuscripts of the entire Bible, only 1½% has any question about it. Nothing in all of the ancient writings of the entire world approaches the accuracy of the biblical documents.
2. The 1½ percent that is in question does not affect doctrine. The areas of interest are called variants and they consist mainly in variations of wording and spelling.
3. The NT has over 5000 supporting Greek manuscripts existing today with another 20,000 manuscripts in other languages. Some of the manuscript evidence dates to within 100 years of the original writing. There is less than a 1% textual variation in the NT manuscripts.
4. Some of the supporting manuscripts of the NT are:
1. John Rylands MS written around 130 A.D., the oldest existing fragment of the gospel of John
2. Bodmer Papyrus II (150-200 A.D.)
3. Chester Beatty Papyri (200 A.D.), contains major portions of the NT
4. Codex Vaticanus (325-350 A.D.), contains nearly all the Bible.
5. Codex Sinaiticus (350 A.D.), contains almost all the NT and over half of the OT

When were the gospels written?

1. None of the gospels mention the destruction of the Jewish temple in 70 A.D. This is significant because Jesus had prophesied its destruction when He said, "As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down," (Luke 21:5, see also Matt. 24:1; Mark 13:1). If they were written after the 70AD destruction don't you think they would have included the event?
2. Matthew: The various dates most widely held as possible writing dates of the Gospel are between A.D. 40 - 140. But Ignatius died around 115 A.D. and he quoted Matthew. Therefore Matthew had to be written before he died. Nevertheless, it is generally believed that Matthew was written before A.D. 70 and as early as A.D. 50.
3. Mark: Mark (the disciple of Peter received his information from Peter) is said to be the earliest gospel with an authorship of between A.D. 55 to A.D. 70.
4. Luke: Luke was written before the book of Acts and Acts does not mention "Nero's persecution of the Christians in A.D. 64 or the deaths of James (A.D. 62), Paul (A.D. 64), and Peter (A.D. 65)."8 Therefore, we can conclude that Luke was written before A.D. 62.
5. John: The John Rylands papyrus fragment 52 of John's gospel dated in the year 125-135 contains portions of John 18, verses 31-33,37-38. This fragment was found in Egypt. It is the last of the gospels and appears to have been written in the 80's to 90's.
1. An important note is the lack of mention of the destruction of the Jewish temple in 70 A.D. But this is understandable since John was not focusing on historical events and was most probably written 20 or so years after the destruction of the Temple. John focused on the theological aspect of the person of Christ and listed His miracles and words that affirmed Christ's deity.

Scientific Accuracies in the Bible

1. The spherical shape of the earth (Isaiah 40:22).
2. The earth is suspended in nothing (Job. 26:7).
3. The stars are innumerable (Gen. 15:5).
4. The existence of valleys in the seas (2 Sam. 22:16).
5. The existence of springs and fountains in the sea (Gen. 7:11; 8:2; Prov. 8:28).
6. The existence of water paths (ocean currents) in the seas (Psalm 8:8).
7. The water cycle (Job. 26:8; 36:27-28; 37:16; 38:25-27; Ps. 135:7; Ecc. 1:6-7).
8. The fact that all living things reproduce after their own kind (Gen. 1:21; 6:19).
9. The nature of health, sanitation, and sickness (Gen. 17:9-14; Lev. 12-14).
10. The concept of entropy, that energy is running down (Psalm 102:26).

Answer 4

As in believable? Depends on where you're at personally.

As for accurate ... absolutely ... it was written by 40 different authors over a period of 1500 years with complete unity in theme and purpose and is still the #1 best seller in the world. No other book in history can make this claim so there must be something to it.

Answer 5

Anout as credible as a coloring book.

Answer 6

As credible as Alice in Wonderland.

Answer 7

Take a crap and look for signs of Divine Interpretation. Any unusually green spots will do...plug that into a random trigonometric function, and convert the numbers into letters. There you go: the Bible.

Answer 8

Not very it is repeatedly scientifically and historically inaccurate, repeatedly contradicts its self, the true author or time of writing isn't known, any edits aren't known it has been repeatedly mistranslated, and it's content was decided upon by a comity of roman pagans as a means to control the growing christian population. Say no to jesus

Answer 9

it is not credible the lord of the ring is credible

Answer 10

As a spiritual guide?
100%
As a history lesson?
Pretty fair.
As a science text?
Not!

Why should God teach you how to create a universe and people it with your own life forms, anyhow? Even if the world would hold all the books needed, can you imagine the chaos we'd have if suddenly scientists were creating their own universes??
FREEOWWW!!!!!!