How Do I Know the Bible Hasn’t Been Changed?

1) What About Scribal Mistakes?

As you are probably aware, ancient people did not share the luxuries we have in modern times, of being able to photograph, photocopy, or save their writings into a computer. Paper and parchment eventually wear out, so in order to share them with others, and to ensure that a document would be preserved for future generations, they had to make copies by hand before the original became too worn to use.

Naturally, copies made by hand sometimes contain mistakes, because the scribes were human. Often these mistakes were caught and corrected, but not always. With ancient manuscripts where only a few copies were made these mistakes might be a problem, however the Bible is exceptionally unique in that many thousands of copies were made of the original manuscripts. With the Bible, we are able to identify and correct the scribal mistakes because there are so many copies to compare for differences. 1


2) What About Deliberate Alterations?

The existence of thousands of scribal copies make it impossible for someone to have made changes without being discovered, because the changes would be obviously and significantly different from the other copies.


3) What About Books that Were Rejected from the Official Canon?

There are 66 books in the Christian Bible, the list of which was finalized around 397 AD. There are other books that were rejected by the canonization process for various reasons, including what were believed to be false authorship and heretical teachings. 2

Some skeptics today criticize the 4th century Church for deciding which Bible books should be approved as scripture and which should not, however these complaints are ridiculous. It is far more appropriate for an informed council from the 4th century to make this decision than uninformed skeptics from the 20th century. We have recently seen new introduction of false gospels such as Thomas and Judas, which were both rejected as heresy from the beginning 2 3. Without canonization, these gospels might be appended to the Bible and lead unsuspecting new Christians astray.

"Because of the introduction of heretical doctrine, and because those who lived with Jesus and those that knew them personally were growing old and dying, Church leaders recognized the need to create a list of writings that would preserve the accounts and teachings as they were accepted and taught by the Apostles." 2

The canonization process used a set of rules that stand up to even the highest scrutiny:

Canonization Rules for Old and New Testament Scripture

• Rule 1: Jesus is the ultimate determination of truth (1CR 3:11). His acceptance of existing scripture by its use, and His teachings in agreement with scripture to come after His ascension are the basis for the Christian faith and the Christian Bible. These were authenticated by the apostles who had first hand knowledge of Jesus’s teachings and the scriptures He endorsed.
  
• Rule 2: The scripture was true to its origin. In other words the scripture did not profess to have been written by someone who could not have written it, or at a time when it could not have been written.
  
• Rule 3: If there was any doubt about the scripture’s authentication it was excluded. This was done under the sound pretense that it was better to not use a teaching even if it was good, than to risk the teaching being wrong.
  
• Rule 4: When a scripture was excluded, the entire book was excluded, not just the portions that were in doubt.
  

Additional Rules for New Testament Scripture

• Rule 5: The book was written by an actual Apostle, not some later Christian who had no first hand knowledge of Christ.
  
• Rule 6: The book was consistent with, agreed with, and did not conflict with any previously accepted scripture in any way.
  
• Rule 7: There was a verifiable history of the book being accepted and circulated by Christians since the earliest days of the Church, demonstrating the authenticity of its origin.
  

Although it is certainly possible that the canonizing process of the Christian Bible rejected some scriptures that would have been harmless to include, that was not the issue. What was at issue was preventing fraudulent documents from becoming scripture or a basis for doctrine, and these rules assured the 100% success of this. The rules reject all doctrine except the doctrine of Jesus Himself, and this is what validates the Christian Bible.

4) Have any Books of the Bible Been Lost?

It is a known fact that there are books missing from the Canonized Bible. Some books were rejected by the canonization process because they could not be authenticated. Others have been lost or destroyed.

• 1KI 11:41 refers to the book of the acts of Solomon, of which no known copy exists.
  
• 2CH 9:29 refers to the book of Nathan the prophet, of which no known copy exists.
  
• 2CH 12:15 refers to the book of Shemaiah the prophet, of which no known copy exists.
  
• The completeness of the book of Jeremiah is questionable since the discovery of the Dead See Scrolls revealed two different versions of the book. Although the common passages between each version matches the other, one version contains more chapters than the other, and neither contains the prophesy referred to by MT 27:9, suggesting that portions are still missing. Even Jeremiah himself referred to the destruction of some of his own writings in JER 36:32.
  
• JUD 1:14-15 refers to the book of Enoch, of which no complete copy exists, however different portions of this book have been discovered in both Hebrew and Greek translations, including among the dead sea scrolls 4.
  

It is unfortunate that we don’t have these books available to refer to, however their absence does not invalidate the books that we do have, nor the Canonization process.


James :)