Author Archives: Taryn

About Taryn

Taryn is a mum of four, working through her Masters of Theology. She also has a Diploma of Biblical Studies (Biblical Studies), a Diploma of Arts (English Literature) and Bachelor of Theology and is a freelance writer and editor.

Creation vs Evolution: The Basics

Unless you have been living under a rock, you will be aware of the ever growing divide between the world of science, and faith – particularly in relation to the creation versus evolution debate.

Mainstream science believes that the earth is billions of years old and has come into existence through the process of evolution, popularised by Charles Darwin. Evolution also maintains that humans have evolved from single-cell organisms to their present state: homo sapiens.

Christianity adheres to the Biblical account of creation, described in Genesis. This view maintains that the universe was created in a seven day time period and a literal reading indicates that the earth may only be 6,000 to 10,000 years old. Genesis also describes humans as having been divinely created in the image of God himself.

It is at the cross section of these two views that we, as 21^st century people, find ourselves. The media has done a fantastic job of branding these two views as polar opposites, placing Christianity and science as two teams fighting within a cultural war. Recent studies indicate that most people now believe that their position on our origins is an ‘all-or-nothing’ issue. They must choose a side: Christian and creation, or non-Christian and evolution.

If this is the case, then how do we know which side we should be on? With children now being taught evolution in schools and being raised in a culture where we are encouraged to choose a side, we need to have a good understanding of this faith issue.

History of Evolution

The creation versus evolution debate is relatively recent, having began during the late 18^th century in Europe and North America. When new interpretations of geological evidence began to emerge, questions were raised about the age of the earth. This drove some early ideas about evolution, including Lamarckism, which describes the idea that a cell can pass on characteristics to its offspring. By the mid-19^th century, books were being written such as Robert Chambers’ “Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation” which began popularising the idea of the transmutation of species. This idea paved the way for Darwin’s theory of natural selection.

While on a voyage studying the wildlife, Charles Darwin observed the variation in the appearance of individual animals. This, he concluded, meant that with enough time, these variations in their physical appearance would look significantly different. The publication of his work “On the Origin of Species” in 1859 further popularised the theory of evolution and allowed the theory to become an entire field of study.

History of Creationism

By the early 19^th century, debate had begun to develop regarding the Bible and how this should be read and interpreted. Some theologians were arguing that a less literal approach should be taken, with the focus shifting to the theological concerns presented within the Biblical accounts. With the advent of new thinking on the age of the earth, religious thinkers sought to reconcile the two ways of thinking by developing ideas such as ‘gap-creationism’.

While most 19^th century scientists came to accept the theory of evolution, theologians were accepting it also, understanding it as a vehicle God had used to bring about the earth. In the 20^th century, several factors including the rise of Biblical literalism, Christian fundamentalism and the scepticism of the post-modern era led to a backlash against evolutionary ideas – parents soon began to voice concern over evolutionary teaching in schools and clergy became concerned that belief in evolution would invalidate the creation story described in the Bible.

Then 1960s saw the first major modern creationist book go to print. “The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and Its Scientific Implications” argued for a literal reading of creation week and suggested that humanity must have co-existed with dinosaurs. These views rose in popularity, particularly in Britain and were soon the foundation for the establishment of the Institute for Creation Research which aimed to promote creationism throughout the world.

The belief held within the scientific community that evolution explains the origins of life continues to be challenged by creationists today.

The Debate

Alongside the rise of the theory of evolution on the world stage in the 19^th century, was support, particularly from Christianity. The reverend Charles Kingsley of the Church of England, openly supported the theory of evolution and saw God as having worked through evolution in order to bring about the earth. Prominent botanist Asa Gray also produced an influential book explaining that religion and science were not mutually exclusive, and set forward his support for Darwin’s work. As the theory found more global support, the Catholic Church became accepting of Darwin’s ideas and more recently Pope Francis has even stated that both evolution and creation may be two halves of the same equation.

Though on some occasions faith and science have been able to see eye-to-eye, there are many points on which they have not. Creationists often feel that scientific theories are inadequate due to the processes and biases involved in developing them, while science claims that creationism is a pseudo-science, based on faith and lacking in solid evidence.

Biology often comes under significant scrutiny within the controversy between creationism and science. Within biology, human evolution is by far the most hotly debated topic as it is perceived to threaten the accounts of human creation found in the Biblical texts. Scientists argue that fossil records and DNA comparisons demonstrate the evolutionary process that the human race has undergone, having evolved from primates to humans. Creationists reject this idea, and argue that the theory of human evolution is largely based on assumptions. While science argues that all organisms (including humans) have common descent, Christianity proposes that God created different kinds (humans and different kinds of animals) at the same time, so not every organism can have a common ancestor.

Two other areas of frequent dispute are macroevolution and transitional fossils. Creationists readily accept microevolution (the idea that small evolutionary processes take place within kinds – dog breeds for instance) but reject the scientific idea of macroevolution which argues that evolution also happens on a grand scale. Creationists also reject the existence of transitional fossils, which scientists use as evidence in the case for evolution.

Geology is another prominent area of debate within the creation versus evolution debate. Creationism maintains the position that based on the Biblical chronologies, the world cannot be older than around 6,000 years, when God created it. Science claims that the age of the earth is closer to around 4.5 billion years – a point which is rejected by creationists on the grounds that the methodology used to come to these conclusions is flawed. Creationists argue that scientific processes such as radiometric dating are unreliable, and thus cannot be used to make conclusions about the age of the earth.

How Should We Handle This?

While Christianity and creationism have often been diametrically opposed to scientific claims about the origins of the earth and humanity, we must also recognize that the world of faith and science approach these ideas with very different ways of thinking, asking fundamentally different questions about our reality. We must allow space for both science and faith to take place within us, and not continue to reinforce the dichotomy that exists between the two.

Although some Christian leaders have come forward and posited views which either accept or reject claims from the scientific community, as Christians we must have an awareness that everything depends on our creative God – and our finite, human understandings may never be able to fully grasp how he went about his creative activity.

We must also acknowledge that while the accounts of Genesis describe the origins of our earth and of human life, it also contains writing that is beautiful, poetical and ultimately theological. While these texts may contain clues about the science behind God’s creative action, they are not designed to be a scientific manual. They are designed to provide us with a theological guide to understanding our creative God.

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Why Do We Not Live As Long As Methuselah?

Genesis 5 describes the oldest man to ever live:

“Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died.” (v27)

Though Methuselah did not have a starring role in the Old Testament, his life, and its length in particular, has been a subject of much interest for creationists and theologians. Nowadays, the name Methuselah has come to be associated with anything that is old.

Though Methuselah is only mentioned briefly in the Hebrew Bible, he came from a prominent line of Old Testament characters (Methuselah was the son of Enoch, the father of Lamech and the grandfather of Noah) and his final mention in Genesis 5 is of great significance, begging the question:

Why do we not live as long as Methuselah?

Some creationists argue that certain environmental and theological factors have affected our ability to age to this degree, including the introduction of sin into the original design, the elimination of the water vapor canopy over the earth. DNA and changes in lifestyle factors.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at each of these factors.

The Original Design

Anybody who has read the book of Genesis and taken notice of the genealogies it contains will have noticed a sharp shift that occurred after the flood, particularly in relation to lifespans. Creationists have long agonised over how to explain the discrepancies in lifespans in the pre- and post-flood ages but have failed to come up with any single argument to explain the difference.

Theologians, however, often argue that the solution lies back at the beginning, in the Garden of Eden.

According to Genesis, God created the first man and woman, perfect and without sin. The Garden of Eden where he placed them was abundant with everything they would need to live forever in their perfected state. Adam and Eve were commanded not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil:

“Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (v16)

In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve eat from the forbidden tree and humanity is changed forever. Access to the tree which was once able to sustain their lives permanently was forbidden:

^“Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”

From this point onward, the perfect creation had been radically altered. Sin and death had entered the world and changed the original design. Humanity was no longer able to live forever.

Genesis 5 tells us that Adam eventually went onto die, as God predicted:

“Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.” (v5)

The Great Deluge

In the time between Adam and Eve’s fall in the Garden of Eden and the great flood, lifespans continued to be long, though not eternal as they had been originally intended. However, after the flood, there is a progressive decline in the lifespans of the Old Testament characters, which raises questions about how the flood and the conditions of the earth after it took place, affected humanity’s claim to long life.

The decline is depicted as rather rapid, describing Noah as one who lived to be 950 years old, with Abraham living only to 175. By the time of Moses, the expected lifespan is only 70-80 years old (similar to what we would expect today):

“Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures” (Psalm 90:10)

Interestingly, extra-biblical evidence also supports the decline of long life spans after the flood in Genesis. The Sumerian King List is an ancient surviving manuscript which describes a flood similar to what is depicted in the Hebrew Bible, as well as a list of kings who reigned before the flood took place. What is most interesting is that the Sumerian King List also portrays a significant decrease in lifespan following the flood.

The rapid decline in life years which appears to take place after the flood indicates that something about the world radically changed at the flood. We can assume that such a cataclysmic event would have changed the environment and living conditions substantially and possibly changed larger systems such as weather patterns. Crop fields and pastures were wiped out, as were trees and all animal life. Where, before the flood, the world had been a perfect creation which was fractured, now it was completely destroyed.

Diet

In addition to the environmental changes that took place at the flood, something else about humanity changed radically – Noah and his family were granted permission to eat meat. At the creation of Adam and Eve, the pair are given abundant access to all plant life for food, but after the flood, in a world now filled with nothing but scarcity, humanity is now able to start incorporating meat into their diet.
In his Commentaries on Genesis, Martin Luther attributed the long, pre-flood lifespans to the diet that was adhered to in the opening chapters of Genesis, stating that:

“…the general vigor and strength of limb which men had in paradise before the advent of sin, had passed away…. With reference to food, who cannot easily believe that one apple, in that primeval age, was more excellent and afforded a greater degree of nourishment than a thousand in our time? The roots, also, on which they fed, contained infinitely more fragrance, virtue and savor, than they possess now. All these conditions, but notably holiness and righteousness, the exercise of moderation, then the excellence of the fruit and the salubrity of the atmosphere – all these tended to produce longevity till the time came for the establishment of a new order by God which resulted in a decided reduction of the length of man’s life.”

At creation, humanity was appointed a vegetarian diet which would sustain them, but after the flood, meat was allowed to become a part of the human diet. Modern medicine is quite clear about the effects of meat eating on human health, so it stands to reason that in allowing meat eating, God may have intended on shortening the human lifespan, as Luther suggests.

Since we now cannot live beyond the age of around 120, the effects of moderate meat eating are probably negligible, but in an age where humans lived for several hundred years, the introduction of meat eating may have changed everything.

DNA

Since we know that Noah continued to live for another 350 years after the flood, some suggest that it’s unlikely that the post-flood environment was so hostile that it alone was the cause of lifespan decrease. Rather, they argue, it is more likely that other internal factors, such as DNA were responsible.
Modern science has found that DNA in our systems is constantly mutating and evolving. If Adam and Eve were created with perfect DNA, then it’s likely that the DNA become less and less perfect as it was passed down through each generation. We develop genetic mutations of our own, as well as inheriting some of the mutations from our parents, which we then pass down to our children. This creates a kind of snowballing effect for substandard DNA.

Since we know that the first humans were created perfect, we must assume that genetics associated with aging and lifespan were radically affected at the fall – in fact, we know that they were, since death did not exist before the fall.

Water Vapor Canopy

Though a lot of creationists no longer subscribe to the vapor canopy idea, some still insist that this theory is the cause for the dramatic change in lifespan.

Genesis 2 tells us that before the flood, it did not even rain:

“Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.” (5-6).

However, we know from earlier in Genesis, that God placed large amounts of water above the sky:

“And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so.”(v 6-7)

Since we know that it did not rain, we can conclude that this body of water was not simply a collection of rain clouds. This body of water was what creationists call the ‘water vapor canopy’ – a large body of water suspended above the sky.

When we come to the great flood in Genesis 7, we see God using this canopy of water to cause the deluge.

“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.” (11)

These ‘fountains of the great deep’ most likely refer to the water vapor canopy which is unleashed over the surface of the world for ‘forty days and forty nights’ (12). The fact that there is no mention of rain in the Bible until after the food reinforces this idea.

The argument put forward by creationists is that this body of water, while suspended in the air, would have been functioning as a filtration system for much of the harmful radiation that the earth is exposed to from space. Once this water had been released, our earth would have undergone many changes, including a decrease in the amount of oxygen we inhale, and an increase in the UVA and UVB rays that we are exposed to – two significant factors which scientists agree have an impact on health and lifespan.

So, Can We Live for 900 Years?

Put simply, no. The Bible is very clear that the sin of humanity, both through Adam and Eve and through the pre-flood generations caused an unrepairable fracture in God’s creation. We will never be able to attain the long lifespans granted to those early generations because they were a result of God’s perfection which was ruptured in Eden. We also know that the earth underwent significant changes during the great flood, and we cannot repair it back to its original pre-flood state.

We also know that regardless of how long we get to live, death is always going to be the end result. Even if it were possible for us to live until we are 900 years old, we would never be able to eliminate death. It also pays to remember these words by the Psalmist, which point out that our lifespan has already been predetermined by God before we are even born, whether it be set for 100 days or 100 years.

“…all the days ordained for me were written in your book, before one of them came to be.” (139: 16)

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Locating the Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel is a story told in Genesis, which depicts the scattering of languages among humanity, by God. The story is meant to explain the origin of language variation present in the world today, and serves as yet another example of competition between humans and God (other stories include the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3).

For centuries, the story of the Tower of Babel has been paid much attention, particularly the location of the transcendent Tower which caused God to scatter humanity and confound the human language. But where is the Tower now?

Many have searched for the mystical tower mentioned in Genesis 11, and some have even found ancient sites which offer compelling evidence for the tower’s location. The accounts found in Genesis do not make any mention of the tower’s destruction, which encourages Biblical archaeologists to believe that the tower is either still in existence, or at least continued to survive for a while after the event took place. While the Biblical accounts do not give us specific information about the location of the tower, they do leave a few solid clues on which to start the investigation.

Shinar

The story of the Tower of Babel opens with an explicit clue as to where the tower once stood. Genesis 11 states;

“And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.” (v2)

Since this is the only clue that we have to the location of the tower, we must begin our search here…in Shinar. It was here, in Shinar, that the people began to rebel against God, and set out to construct a tower which would reach the heavens.

The location of Shinar is ambiguous. Wikipedia calls it the geographical location “of uncertain boundaries in Mesopotamia.” However, the name Shinar occurs eight times elsewhere in the Old Testament, and always appears to refer to the wider area of Babylonia. Some have even suggested that the location of Shinar in Babylonia is reinforced by the name of the tower ‘Babel’, which is a play on words for ‘Babylon’. Though the Biblical description of Shinar does not contain much detail, it seems likely that Shinar was within the territorial area of greater Babylonia.

Ziggurats

It is commonly believed, among Biblical scholars and archaeologists, that the Tower of Babel was a ziggurat.

A ziggurat is a well-known structure of the ancient world which was often built and dedicated to a God. The most notable of these is ‘Etemenanki’, which was constructed and consecrated by Nabopolssar, King of Babylonia, in the name of the Mesopotamian God ‘Marduk’. Etemenanki was over 300 feet high and was demolished under the reign of Alexander the Great. Historians agree that the descriptions given of the Tower of Babel closely match those to an early ziggurat. A few ziggurats are still in existence today, with the largest surviving one located in Western Iran, in what was once the ancient land of Elam.

Ziggurats usually had a square base with receding level. Because the Tower of Babel was designed to reach up to heaven, we must assume that the base would have been extremely large in order to sustain such a height. It is also interesting to note that the builders of Babel were not only looking to build the tower, but were constructing an entire city – a fact which is mentioned three times in the first verse of the story. Ziggurats in other parts of the world were never built in isolation – they were also accompanied by temples, shrines and other prominent religious and civic buildings. This means that when we are trying to locate the tower, we need to be looking for an entire city, or the remains of one, rather than a lone tower, which is often how the Tower of Babel has traditionally been depicted.

Some sources even indicate that the Tower of Babel was adjacent to the mystical Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Building Materials

Another clue to the location of the tower is the building materials, which the text refers to in detail.

The first half of Genesis 11:3 describes the Tower as being made out of burnt bricks, while the second half outlines that they had “brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.” Modern historians have confirmed that this description of the building materials is in keeping with what we know about ancient architecture in this area, particularly since bitumen was the usual mortar used in conjunction with kiln-fired bricks in the Mesopotamian area.

The choice to use kiln-baked bricks, and to explicitly describe the expensive building materials used is interesting. Firstly, the choice to use kiln-baked bricks indicates that the Tower was intended to last, since this material was known for its durability. Secondly, the explicit description of the expensive building materials lends further support to the theory that the tower was a ziggurat. The use of baked bricks was not underway until the mid-4^th century B.C. and even then, was only employed for luxurious buildings such as temples and ziggurats.

Where Is It?

So where do we find this ancient kiln-baked brick ziggurat in Shinar? Because the Tower would probably now be nothing more than rubble, it is difficult to concisely pinpoint its location. However, given the durable material that Genesis 11 describes as having been used for the construction of the tower, and since the accounts in Genesis do not describe the tower coming under any type of destruction, there is a possibility that remnants of the Tower of Babel may well have survived until now.

Modern archaeologists claim that the remains of the Tower of Babel may still exist, in an area which was once occupied by ancient Babylon. The foundations of the tower still stand and the remaining embankments have been estimated to date back to the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar II who lived from 605-562 BC. Jewish historian Josephus claimed that Nebuchadnezzar was also responsible for the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Wherever the Tower lies, it is fair to assume that since God was so displeased with humanity’s efforts to construct it, he probably does not want humanity to find it, lest we once again pursue our efforts to ‘make a name for ourselves’.

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Before Creation: What Do We Know?

What was God doing before creation? Our limited human minds have great difficulty making sense of God’s existence before the world was created, but the Bible does give us some hints about what took place before creation week.

Trinity

The Biblical account provides limited information about what took place before the creation of the world, but what it does make clear is that while God was alone before he created the earth, he was still the Triune God that we have come to know through the New Testament. John tells us that:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” (1:1-3)

From this we know that Jesus existed with God from before the creation of the earth. In John, Jesus’ own words reveal the relationship that existed between the Father and the Son, before creation:

“And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” (17:5)

Colossians confirms this when it writes that Jesus was present at the creation of the world:

“For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him”

Titus also states that eternal life through Christ was “promised before the beginning of time.” (1:2)

Scripture also indicates that the Holy Spirit was present with God before creation. Genesis opens by telling us that:

“…the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

Before the creation of the world, God existed in three distinct persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God did not dwell alone before the beginning of time, but existed within his Trinitarian nature, completely satisfied by the perfection of himself. We know from passages such as Ephesians 1:4-5 that even before creation, the trinity had a redemptive plan for the human race:

“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will“

John also discloses the loving relationship of the trinity before creation, when Jesus appeals to his father,

“…you loved me before the creation of the world.”

The trinity dwelt in perfect community before creation, existing in perfect love and unity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Angels

While we know very little about what happened before the first day of creation, the Bible does tell us something about a major event which took place in heaven, before the creation of the earth – God created the angels.

Because scripture largely focuses on the history of the earth and humanity, we do not know exactly what day the angels were created but we know from Job that the angels were witnesses to the creation of the earth:

“…when I laid the foundation of the earth…the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy” (38:4-7)

This passage indicates that the creation of the angels must have preceded creation week. We also know that the amount created was large in number, making their creation a significant event. Passages such as Nehemiah 9:6 indicate that God created a multitude of angels before the creation of the earth and Hebrew states that the number of angels totals “thousands upon thousands” (12:22).

Time

God does not exist within time in the same way that we do. Because God is the creator of time, there was no space or time before creation. Time was not a reality, and had no meaning for the trinity. For this reason, there is no way to understand ‘what happened’ or ‘what God was doing’ before creation, as both the universe and time had not yet come into being. God has always existed, “from everlasting to everlasting,” (Psalm 90:2) so questions such as these are meaningless.

When we think of ‘before creation’, we do so in a way that resonates with us: with our understanding of time. However, time is a created entity, created on the first day of creation week. This means that time was meaningless before this, so we cannot ask questions of God’s existence in relation to time. God’s experience of time is very different to ours, so even if we could go back and see the existence of the triune God, or the existence of the angels prior to creation week, it would make little sense to us. Our experience of time is linear, so we see the time before creation as a set number of years. We try to picture ‘ before creation and imagine God sitting idly for a number of years. This is not an appropriate way to understand God’s activity before creation – God was not bound to time because it had not been brought about yet. God exists within timelessness, not within time.

God’s existence is also outside of the history of the universe, which is what we see in the Bible. History, for us, began at Genesis 1:1. Our finite minds cannot understand anything outside of our own history, but that’s exactly what God is – an existing person, outside the framework of history. Before this history began, there was simply eternity. There was no moment prior to the creation of the universe – time began at creation.

(To read more about God’s experience of time, read “Does God Exist Within Time?)

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Is The Bible True? 8 Compelling Pieces of Evidence

The Bible

In order to understand the Bible and whether or not we can regard it as reliable, we must first understand something about the nature of the Bible. The Bible is not a book, so much as a collection of many books. The collection was authored by a number of different writers and editors over a period of over 1000 years before it was compiled into the single book that we now know as ‘the Bible’.

Though God did not physically write the Bible, Christians believe that the Bible is God’s word – inspired by God, written through everyday people to record the events of the Old and New Testament and to reveal himself to humanity.

The Bible is controversial today for several reasons. Firstly, it is filled with miraculous events which modern people find hard to accept as true events. Events such as the parting of the Red Sea, the splitting of the rock and Jesus walking on water are difficult for people to swallow, particularly in an age where anything that appears to supersede the natural world is dismissed or rejected. Secondly, the Bible makes very bold, existential claims about the world. It claims that God exists, that he reveals himself through his creation and through his son Jesus who is the saviour of the world and all of humanity. These things have often led people to doubt the authenticity, and relevance of the Bible in the 21^st century.

One of the issues that sceptics have is that Christians often quote the Bible, in trying to build their case for the Bible’s validity. This can be problematic because those who question the Bible do not view it as reliable, and thus, an appropriate source. A better approach is to present sceptics with mixed evidence, both from within, and outside of the Bible. This will exhibit the Bible for what it is – a reliable, accurate record which has been transmitted down through history and shaped into a canon that reveals God to the world.

The following is a list of eight compelling cases for the accuracy and reliability of the Bible.

Manuscript Evidence

“There is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament.”

– F. F. Bruce

Compared to other manuscripts and pieces of ancient literature, the amount of Biblical manuscripts in existence is phenomenal. The number of ancient Biblical manuscripts in existence far exceeds that of classics such as Plato, Socrates or Aristotle, and the accuracy of the transmission between manuscripts serves to prove just how extraordinary this piece of literature is.

The most famous Old Testament example of manuscript evidence is that of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were found in the caves of Qumran, Palestine in the 1940s. At the time of their discovery, there had been 2,000 years since the last penned pieces of the Old Testament and the finding of the manuscripts, yet, the match between the Hebrew Bible that we use today and the ones found in the caves is uncanny.

When it comes to the New Testament, more than 20,000 manuscripts are in existence, making the New Testament the most reliable document in antiquity. The second most available text from antiquity is Homer’s Illiad, of which just over 600 copies exist.

Sceptics will often claim that the Bible has been changed throughout history, and lacks the original, intended message of the authors but the physical evidence against this notion, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, is quite compelling. While the manuscripts do contain minor variants, they do not impact on the substance or the significance of key Old or New Testament beliefs and claims. It is also clear from the sheer number of manuscript copies that closely match the Bible in its current form, that the Bible has been preserved without any additions or major alterations.

The manuscript evidence reinforces the fact that the Bible has indeed, stood the test of time.

Archaeological Evidence

Time after time, modern archaeological discoveries have confirmed the historical and cultural accuracy of the Bible and its records.

Over 25,000 Biblically relevant archaeological sites have now been excavated, all of which have served as an amazing testimony to the legitimacy of the Biblical record. The historical reality of civilisation such as the Hittites, the Edomites and the Horites have all been confirmed through archaeological findings, as have many kings and kingdoms mentioned within the Old Testament. The Hittites, referenced throughout the Old Testament as a group of people living within the Canaanites, were thought to be nothing more than a Biblical legend, until their royal archives were unearthed in Turkey in 1906. Sceptics also believed that Solomon’s tremendous wealth, as described in 1 Kings was thought to be exaggerated, and embellished for literary reasons, but recovered records show that wealth in antiquity peaked around the time of Solomon.

No other piece of ancient literature has been as confirmed by archaeological studies as much as the Bible, and discoveries of this nature continue to demonstrate the credibility of the Bible.

Eyewitness Accounts

What makes the Bible unique from other ancient texts is also the nature of its authors – many of whom were eyewitnesses to the events described. We know from the New Testament and other historical writings that Christians were strongly victimised and oppressed for their beliefs, particularly by the Roman government. Some of the Biblical eyewitnesses went on to be persecuted and even executed for their commitment to the Christian message, begging the question….would a person die to protect texts that were not true? John Calvin wrote that:

“It is no moderate approbation of Scripture that it has been sealed by the blood of so many witnesses, especially when we reflect that they died to render testimony to the faith …with a firm and constant, yet sober, zeal toward God.”

All of the New Testament writers lived in the same generation of Jesus, and three of the writers were likely His apostles – Matthew, John and Peter. A strong case can also be made that these writers wrote the books that make up the New Testament prior to the destruction of the temple in AD 70. One portion of The Gospel of Matthew is dated to around 50 AD – 17 years after Christ’s crucifixion. This small interval between the actual events and the written accounts of them make the content within them more likely to be reliable than if there was a large interval between the two. The first account of the Buddha’s life did not get penned till 700 years after his death! The fact that these manuscripts, read by those living only 17 years after Jesus ministry do not differ from the Biblical material that we have today – 2,000 years later, reinforces the reliability of the Biblical texts.

It is also, certainly worth noting that the New Testament circulated during the lifetime of thousands of people who were alive at the time of Jesus’ ministry. If a book began circulating today that claimed that a man was the Son of God, and went onto describe a serious of miraculous events that took place – when in fact they didn’t – people would soon refute the book and correct the story. Interestingly, nobody in the generation in which the New Testament was circulating ever claimed the texts to be anything other than truth, indicating that they probably were.

Extra-Biblical Evidence

Sources outside of the Bible also confirm the events which are described in the Bible. Prominent Jewish historian Josephus confirmed the life of Jesus as well as the events surrounding his crucifixion under the Roman government and Roman historian P. Cornelius Tacitus, also referred to Jesus in his writings. The fact that the Bible finds support among secular historians such as Cornelius lends further backing to the idea that the Bible is an authentic, valid piece of literature and thus, should be treated as such.

Consistency

Though the Bible is made up of 66 books written over a long span of time, it consists of just one Metanarrative: one overarching story of God’s plan for redemption and salvation. While some modern books are compiled by multiple authors and editors, they do not achieve one single, unifying theme like the Bible does – this can only be accomplished when the book is underwritten by a single divine author.

The internal consistency and coherence that exists with the Bible is unique in that it represents a single theology, revealed and described through the framework of human history.

Jesus

One of the most compelling arguments for the truth and validity of the Bible, is that of Jesus Christ himself. Jesus is evidence for the Bible’s validity, for two distinct reasons:

Firstly, the four Gospels in the New Testament – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – all present an accurate, coherent record of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and in all four of the gospels, Jesus can be seen as regarding the Old Testament as holy and authoritative. For this reason, Jesus himself forms the sixth piece of compelling evidence that the Bible is true. Jesus said that “Scripture cannot be broken” and used it as a source of authority in his teachings. Jesus also confirmed historical characters from the Old Testament, including Jonah, Noah and Adam and Eve.

All of this amounts to one point: If we take the New Testament to be proof of Jesus and accept that He was God’s son, that he lived, was crucified and rose again on the third day, then we must accept the Old Testament – because Jesus did.

Secondly, Jesus very existence proclaims the reliability of the Bible. Of all the prophecies which are contained in the Old Testament, over 300 point to the ‘anointed one’. In light of what we know about Jesus birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection, we can include the reality of Jesus as evidence for the Old Testament. These 300 + prophecies were written hundreds of years before Jesus was born, yet, in being born, he fulfilled them all.

Scientific Consistence

Much of the Biblical material is consistent with modern scientific discoveries, despite being written long before our modern understanding of the world.

Here are some examples:

The Bible refers to the immeasurable number of stars in the heavens (Genesis 22:17, Jeremiah 33:22). We know that scientists today do not know the amount of stars in the sky, as only around 3,000 are visible to the naked eye.
Job described the earth’s suspension in space (26:7)
Psalms describes the hydrologic cycle of the earth and evaporation (135:7), as does Jeremiah (10:13) and Job (36:27-29)
Hebrews 11:3 describes invisible atoms, stating that “things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
Modern medicine now knows that blood clotting in newborn babies reaches a climax on the eight day after they are born, before tapering off again. The Bible consistently instructs parents to circumcise their babies on the eight day after birth.

Endurance and Influence

Lastly, the most compelling piece of evidence that the Bible is true is the longevity of the book, and the impact that it has had on the world since its inception. For thousands of years, scholars, clergy and laymen have come to the Bible of their own accord – freely and without coercion. The Bible has influenced the legal system, ethics, art, music, literature, the calendar, money and marriage.

No other book in has ever had the impact on world history that the Bible has prompted.

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