For Christians, the Bible is the Word of God, 100% written by man and 100% inspired by God. It is not a science textbook, nor is it strictly a book of history, though it does contain reliable historical accounts. It is a theological book that reveals God and his ways to us.
No Chance to Collaborate
The Bible was not written in one seating but by 40 authors over a span of 1,500 years so there was no opportunity to collaborate, yet there is a storyline running through it as depicted by N.T. Wright’s six-act salvation story:
Act I – Creation
Act II – The Fall
Act III – Israel
Act IV – Jesus
Act V – The Church
Act VI – New Creation
Fulfilment of Prophecies
The Bible also contains more than 300 hundred prophecies relating to the birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection and future return of Jesus Christ. All of these prophecies came about just as predicted.
Jesus could not have accidentally or deliberately fulfilled these prophecies simply because, for example, events like his birthplace and lineage, method of execution, soldiers casting lots for His garments, or being pierced in the side, are events beyond Jesus’ control.
“For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2Peter 1:21)
The illustration below gives a good explanation of God’s inspiration in the writing of the Bible.
Sir Christopher Wren, the greatest English architect of his time, built St Paul’s Cathedral. He started aged 44 in the year 1676, and for 35 years the cathedral was built under one architect. It was completed in 1711, when Wren was 79 years of age.
Sir Christopher Wren `built’ St Paul’s Cathedral. But actually, he didn’t lay a single stone. Other people put the stones in. Many different builders were involved. But there was one mind, one architect, one inspiration behind it. And so, it is with the Bible — many different writers, one architect, one inspiration behind it all: God himself.
Early Dating of the Originals
Most of the New Testament (NT) was written within 30-40 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, while most of the apostles and eye witnesses were still alive. They witnessed his power at work when he performed miracles and heard his teaching as he addressed the masses.
In contrast, the Pāli Canon – the Buddhist scriptures – was first written down roughly 400 years after the time of Buddha. As for the Hindu scriptures, they were transmitted orally for many centuries before being written down.
Reliability of the Manuscripts
| Author | Title of Work | Total Number of Copies | Time Gap From When Written |
| Herodotus | History | 8 | 1350 years |
| Thucydides | History | 8 | 1300 years |
| Livy | History of Rome | 1 | 1000 years |
| Tacitus | Annals | 20 | 1000 years |
| Julius Caesar | Gallic War | 10 | 900+ years |
| Homer | Iliad | 647 | 500 years |
| Various | NT | 5800 Greek alone | 100+ years |
| Sri Lanka | Pāli Canon | 785 | 700-900 years |
The NT manuscripts were being copied and passed down the generations. While the original writings no longer exist, archaeological discoveries have uncovered manuscript copies dating to within about 100 years of the originals. The relatively early dating of these manuscripts—combined with the sheer number of copies discovered – has no equal among other ancient writings.
This gives us the confidence that the contents of the NT did not evolve “through countless translations, additions, and revisions”. The large numbers of NT manuscripts found allows the contents to be cross-checked for accuracy and consistency. They are found to be accurate and reliable.
Reliability of External Sources
Some critics claim they cannot trust what the Bible says about Christ. However, accounts of His life are not limited to the Bible alone; references to Jesus can also be found in several writings outside the New Testament.
Jewish Religious Writings: the Jewish ‘Mishnah (law code) and ‘Talmud’ (commentaries on the law code) – both written after Jesus’ death – contain isolated and hostile references to Christ. He is recorded as one who practised magic (miracles he performed), led people astray (from Judaism), was hanged for heresy (crucified for claiming to be God) and whose disciples healed the sick in his name.
The Jewish Historian Josephus (born AD 37) wrote several books of Jewish history which contain references to many of the people, places and events referred to in the NT. In his ‘Antiquities’ he wrote specifically about Christ.
“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ.
And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”
Antiquities, Book 18, Chapter 3, para 3
The historian Cornelius Tacitus (born between AD 52-54) is often called the “greatest historian” of ancient Rome. He authored two large works – the Annals and the Histories.
The following portion describes Nero blaming the Christians for the great fire of Rome (AD 64). It reports:
“Therefore, to stop the rumour, Nero substituted as culprits and punished in the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class of men, loathed for their vices, whom the crowd styled Christians. Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilatus, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judea, the home of the disease, but in the capital itself, where all things horrible or shameful in the world collect and find a vogue.”
Tacitus’s Annals, Book 15, Chapter 44
From Tacitus’ work, we learn that Christ died by the death penalty during Emperor Tiberius’ reign (AD 14-37) and it was Pontius Pilatus, the procurator (AD 26-36), who sentenced Christ to death. Of particular significance is Tacitus’ remark that “the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more.”
What exactly was this “the pernicious superstition”? It was the belief in Christ’s resurrection! Tacitus, perhaps unintentionally, provides independent confirmation of a central conviction of the early church: that the one who had been crucified had indeed risen from the grave. The implications of this testimony are profound, as it shows that even a Roman historian acknowledged the enduring impact of the Christian claim.
Archaeology
Archaeology has also been able to confirm the claims of the Bible. Craig L. Blomberg records a number of archaeological finds that coincide with events recorded in the gospel according to John:
“Archaeologists have unearthed the five porticoes of the pool of Bethesda by the Sheep Gate (John 5:2), the pool of Siloam (9:1-7), Jacob’s well at Sychar (4:5), the ‘Pavement’ (Gabbatha) where Pilate tried Jesus (19:13), and Solomon’s porch in the temple precincts (10:22-23)…
Since then, discovery of an ossuary (bone-box) of a crucified man named Johanan from first-century Palestine confirms that nails were driven in his ankles, as in Christ’s; previously some skeptics thought that the Romans used only ropes to affix the legs of condemned men to their crosses.
And…in 1990, the burial grounds of Caiaphas, the Jewish high priest, and his family were uncovered in Jerusalem. These and numerous other details create a favourable impression of the Gospel’s trustworthiness in the areas in which they can be tested.”
Personally, when I visited Israel in 2017 with a group from church, we had the opportunity to visit Hezekiah’s tunnel. It was a water system built by King Hezekiah to divert water from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam inside Jerusalem. This was a defensive measure to secure the city’s water supply in preparation for a siege by the Assyrian army, led by Sennacherib, and is recorded in 2Kings 20:20 and 2 Chronicles 32:2-4.
The 533 metres tunnel was an engineering feat, as two teams of workers began from opposite ends and met in the middle, a fact confirmed by the discovery of the Siloam Inscription in the tunnel. Water still runs through the tunnel and now tourists can have the opportunity to walk in it if they are adventurous enough and don’t mind getting a bit wet.
If the Bible is fundamentally a theological book that reveals who God is and how he works in human history, then its reliability becomes crucial. Since God is the God of truth, we can trust that the accounts recorded in Scripture are not fabricated stories or mere myths, but trustworthy records of real events through which God has made Himself known.
The historical and factual reliability of the Bible, therefore, is not a separate issue from its spiritual message – it strengthens our confidence that what we read is indeed the true Word of God.
