1. The Bible is the Word of God: Internal Evidence: Can we Trust our Bible?
What is our Bible?
66 separate books or letters…
Written over 1500 years…
By about 40 different men...
From different backgrounds…
In different places…
In different languages.

2. The Bible is the Word of God: Internal Evidence: Can we Trust our Bible?
What is our Bible?
A collection of separate writings – we can trace the “canon” of the Bible back to the 3rd or 4th century.
The oldest surviving complete text of the New Testament is the Codex Sinaiticus (mid-4th century).
The oldest fragments…

3. John 1:1-6:11,35-14:26; fragment of 14:29-21:9
The Bible is the Word of God: Internal Evidence: Can we Trust our Bible?
What is our Bible?
Manuscript
Contents
Original Date
MSS Date
Time Span
p52 (John Rylands)
John 18:31-33,37-38
96 A.D.
125 A.D.
29 yrs
P46 (Chester Beatty)
Rom. 5:17-6:3,5-14; 8:15-25, 27-35; 10:1-11,22,24-33,35; 16:1-23, 25-27; Heb.; 1 & 2 Cor., Eph., Gal., Phil., Col.; 1 Thess. 1:1,9-10; 2:1-3; 5:5-9, 23-28
50's-70's
200 A.D.
Approx. 150 yrs
P66 (Bodmer)
John 1:1-6:11,35-14:26; fragment of 14:29-21:9
70's
Approx. 130 yrs
P67
Matt. 3:9,15; 5:20-22, 25-28

4. The Bible is the Word of God: Internal Evidence: Can we Trust our Bible?
What is our Bible?
5686 Greek manu. for the N.T.
Better preserved, more numerous than any other ancient writing.
99.5% textually pure
19000 copies in Syriac, Coptic, Latin, Aramaic
Over mss. for the N.T.
Original N.T. documents finished in 70 years (w/in the 1st Century)

5. The Bible is the Word of God: Internal Evidence: Can we Trust our Bible?
What is our Bible?
Author
Orig. Date
Mss Date
Time Span
# Copies
Accuracy
Pliny
A.D.
850 A.D.
750 yrs 7
----
Plato
B.C.
900 A.D.
1200 yrs
Demosthenes
4th Cent. B.C.
1100 A.D.
800 yrs 8
Herodotus
B.C.
1300 yrs
Suetonius
A.D.
950 A.D.
Thucydides
B.C.
Euripides
B.C. 9
Aristophanes
B.C.
1200 10
Caesar
B.C.
1000
Livy
59 BC-AD 17
??? 20
Tacitus
circa 100 A.D.
1000 yrs
Aristotle
B.C.
1400 49
Sophocles
B.C.
1000 A.D.
1400 yrs
193
Homer (Iliad)
900 B.C.
400 B.C.
500 yrs
643
95%

6. The Bible is the Word of God: Internal Evidence: Can we Trust our Bible?
What is our Bible?
Author
Orig. Date
Mss Date
Time Span
# Copies
Accuracy
8-9 New Testament
Writers
1st Cent. A.D. ( A.D.)
2nd – 3rd Cent. A.D.
less than 100 years
5600
99.5%

7. Late 15th – Early 16th Cent. A.D.
The Bible is the Word of God: Internal Evidence: Can we Trust our Bible?
What is our Bible?
Author
Orig. Date
Mss Date
Time Span
# Copies
Accuracy
Canterbury Tales
Late 14th Cent. A.D.
Late 15th – Early 16th Cent. A.D.
~100 years 83
No complete version
major & minor variations
no def. order
no idea if completed

8. The Bible is the Word of God: Internal Evidence
Can we depend on the Bible:
1. To prove itself from its “nature”?
2. To support its own conclusions?
This is not cyclical reasoning, but a matter of consistency. If the Bible is from God, it must always be consistent all the time!