บทที่ 1. Importance of God's Word

สารบัญ

A Book that is Unique
A Book that God Breathed
A Book that Works
ทรงเป็นหนังสือที่ปลดปล่อย
A Book that Wars
Exhortations
Appendix: "Once for All"
Supplement: Bible Reading Programs

Understanding God's word is of great importance to all who call on God's name. Study of the Bible is one of the primary ways that we learn to communicate with God.

A Book that is Unique

The Bible stands alone in many ways. It is unique in:

  • popularity. Bible sales in North America: more than $500 million per year. The Bible is both the all-time and year-to-year best seller!

  • authorship. It was written over a period of 1600 years by 40 different authors from different backgrounds, yet reads as if written by one.

  • preservation. F. F. Bruce in Are New Testament Documents Reliable? compares New Testament manuscripts with other ancient texts:

ตาราง 1.1. Comparison of New Testament manuscripts with other ancient texts.

การงานWhen WrittenEarliest CopyTime LapseNumber of Copies
เฮโรโดตัส448-428 ปีก่อนคริสต์กาล (B.C.)ค.ศ. 9001300 ปี8
ท่าซีตัสค.ศ. 100ค.ศ. 11001000 ปี20
Caesar's Gallic War50-58 ปีก่อนคริสต์กาล (B.C.)ค.ศ. 900950 ปี10
Livy's Roman History59 ปีก่อนคริสต์กาล (B.C.) - ค.ศ. 17ค.ศ. 900900 ปี20
พันธสัญญาใหม่ค.ศ. 40 - ค.ศ. 100130 A.D. Partial manuscripts 350 A.D. Full manuscripts30 - 310 ปี5000 Greek & 10,000 Latin

Ten copies of Caesar's Gallic War exist, the earliest of which was copied 900 years after Caesar wrote the original, etc. For the New Testament we have full manuscripts dating to 350 A. D., papyri containing most of the New Testament from the 200s, and a fragment of John's gospel from 130 A. D. How many manuscripts do we have to compare to each other? 5,000 in Greek and 10,000 in Latin!

 

"In the verity and fullness of the evidence on which it rests, the text of the New Testament stands absolutely and unapproachably alone among other ancient prose writings."

 
 --Textual critic F. J. A. Hort, "The New Testament in the Original Greek", vol. 1 p561, Macmillan Co., quoted in Questions of Lifep. 25-26