BEREAN BAPTIST BIBLE COLLEGE AND SAMINARY

“The Uniqueness and Reliability of the bible”

An Assignment

Submitted to

Dr. Sam Harry

In partial fulfilment of the requirement for the Course of Christian Apologetics

For the Degree of Master of Theology (Bible Exposition)

Due Date____________ Submitted Date______________

I declare that this assignment is my own work. I have not copied it from any person,
articles, books, website, or other source. Every idea or phrase that is not my own
has been duly acknowledged.

Signature: _____________________

By:

H. Rikhu Devote

# 6062

2022-2023
 Table of Contents

The Uniqueness and Reliability of the Bible

1. Introduction

2. The Uniqueness of the Bible

2.1. The Bible is Unique in its Teaching

2.2. The Bible is Unique in its Continuity

2.3. The Bible is Unique in its Durability and Distribution

2.4. The Bible is Unique in its Preservation

2.5. The Bible is Unique Because it is Inerrancy Word of God

2.5.1. Limited Inerrancy

2.5.2. Absolute Inerrancy

2.6. The Bible is Unique Because it is Inspired by God

2.7. The Bible is Unique by its Canonicity

2.7.1. The Canonicity of the Old Testament

2.7.2. The Canonicity of the New Testament

3. The Reliability of the Bible

3.1. The Approve of Archaeology

3.2. The Approve of Messianic Prophecies

3.3. The Approve of the Testimony of the Manuscripts

3.3.1. The Authenticity of the Old Testament

3.3.2. The Authenticity of the New Testament

3.4. The Approve of Historical Accuracy of the Bible

4. Conclusion

5. Bibliography
 The Uniqueness and Reliability of the Bible

1. Introduction

The topic of this paper is “the Uniqueness and Reliability of the Bible”. The
researcher divides this paper into two main sections. The first section will describe
the Uniqueness of the Bible, how the Bible is uniqueness in its teaching, how it is
uniqueness in its preservation. And, the section will describe the Reliability of the
Bible. The detail research will be described in the following.

2. The Uniqueness of the Bible

There is no doubt to believe the uniqueness of the Bible, it is unique because it is the
Word of God not the word of man. It is unique in its teaching; it is unique in its
preservation.

2.1. The Bible is Unique in its Teaching

A book that is unique in its origin should also be unique in its content and what it
teaches. The Bible qualifies on this point because it teaches what no other book
does. The Bible claims to teach the whole truth and nothing but the truth about God,
man, creation, sin, salvation, and any other subject it touches on.

2.2. The Bible is Unique in its Continuity

The Bible is a collection of 66 independent writings by 40 different authors who wrote

over a 1600-year period. It was written in three languages on three continents by
men of widely varying backgrounds on hundreds of topics.

2.3. The Bible is Unique in its Durability and Distribution

Against all odds, persecutions, and attacks of skeptics, the Bible has survived over
1700 years and is healthier than ever. Available to over 95% of the world's
population, it has been written in more than 2,000 languages. The Bible is far and
away the world’s best seller. “By 1932 it was computed that 1 billion copies of the
Bible had been punished. By the 1960’s it is estimated that over 2 billion were
published. Currently, a total of 3-4 billion is reasonable. No other book is even close.
Throughout the centuries, various enemies have tried to destroy the Bible (Diocletian
Edict, circa A.D. 300). Voltaire, the French philosopher and skeptic, predicted in the
18th century, that the Bible and Christianity would soon be obsolete. In 1828, fifty
years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society was using his press and his house to
publish Bibles.1 Jesus had predicted, “Heaven and earth will pass away but my
words will not pass away” (Mark. 13: 31). And the prophet Isaiah said “The grass
withered, the flower fadeth: but the of our God shall stand for ever” (Isaiah. 40: 8).

2.4. The Bible is Unique in its Preservation

The Bible has survived for several thousand years, even though kings and the
world’s mightiest powers and intellects have been trying to destroy it for centuries.
No book in history has been preserved like the Bible. Why wouldn’t it be, if God is
the author? He is going to take care of His Book. Nations have outlawed the Bible,
tried to destroy every copy, and killed people for translating and printing it. But God
says His Word will stand forever (Psalm 119:89; Isaiah 40:8). "Heaven and earth will
pass away, but My words will not pass away," Jesus declared (Matthew 24:35).
There is no destroying the Bible, because it is the eternal Word of God. 2

2.5. The Bible is Unique Because it is Inerrancy Word of God

It is obvious that belief in the inerrancy of the Scriptures is not an inductive

conclusion arrived at as a result of examining all the passages of the Bible. By its
very nature, such a conclusion would be only probable at best. Nor is the doctrine of
biblical inerrancy explicitly affirmed or taught in the Bible. Rather, it is a corollary of
the doctrine of full inspiration of the Bible.

2.5.1. Limited Inerrancy

This view limits the scope of inerrancy to such things as matters of faith and practice,
or to the message of salvation. For example, one might say: “The Bible is infallible,
but not inerrant. That is, there are historical and scientific errors in the Bible, but it
has found none on matters of faith and practice.” 3

2.5.2. Absolute Inerrancy

1
https://bible.org/article/bible-reliable
2
Tony Evans, Theology: You can Count On (Chicago: Moody Press, 2008), 1020.
3
Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology (Chicago: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999), 92.
This view teaches that “Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything
that is contrary to fact.” In general, a simple definition might be “that the Bible tells
the truth.” When there is an apparent error in the Bible, they claim that it is an error
of the manuscript, its translation, or our understanding. Absolute inerrancy is more
consistent with what the Bible teaches about itself that the Bible is perfect and
without fault.4

2.6. The Bible is Unique Because it is Inspired by God

Inspiration may be defined as the Holy Spirit’s superintending over the writers so that
while writing according to their own styles and personalities, the result was God’s
Word written: authoritative, trustworthy, and free from error in the original
autographs.5 According to Charles C. Ryrie: “Inspiration is God’s superintendence of
the human authors so that, using their own individual personalities, they composed
and recorded without error His revelation to man in the words of the original
autographs.6 There are several important elements that belong in a proper definition
of inspiration: (1) the divine element: God the Holy Spirit superintended the writers,
ensuring the accuracy of the writing; (2) the human element: human authors wrote
according to their individual styles and personalities; (3) the result of the divine
human authorship is the recording of God’s truth without error; (4) inspiration
extends to the selection of words by the writers; (5) inspiration relates to the original
manuscripts.

7. The Bible is Unique by its Canonicity

The Bible is unique and reliability in its canonicity. The English word “canon” comes
from a Hebrew and Greek word which means “measuring rod.” Later the word came
to refer to a “standard” or “list.” When used of Scripture, it refers to the official list of
books in the Bible. Therefore, the topic of “canonicity” refers to how the books of the
Bible were recognized as authoritative. We will look first at the Old Testament and
then the New Testament.

2.7.1. The Canonicity of the Old Testament

4
W. A. Grudem, Systematic theology: an introduction to biblical doctrine (Grand
Rapids: Inter-Varsity Press, .2004), 57.
5
Paul Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology (Chicago: Moody Press, 1989), 205.
6
Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology, 234
The books of the Old Testament were divinely inspired and authoritative the moment
they were written. There was human recognition of the writings; normally this was
immediate as the people recognized the writers as spokesmen from God. Finally,
there was a collection of the books into a canon. The specific tests to consider
canonicity may recognized. They are (1) Did the book indicate Divine authorship? (2)
Did it reflect God speaking through a mediator? (Ex. 20:1; Josh. 1:1; Isa. 2:1). (3)
Was the human author a spokesman of God? (4) Was he a prophet or did he have
the prophetic gift? (Deut. 31:24–26; 1 Sam. 10:25; Neh. 8:3). (5) Was the book
historically accurate? (6) Did it reflect a record of actual facts? (7) How was the book
received by the Jews?7

2.7.2. The Canonicity of the New Testament

The formation of the canon of the New Testament did not come about as a result of
an organized effort to produce such, but rather it seemed to have shaped itself as a
result of the obviously genuine character of the books. Several broad principles
aided in the determination of which books should be accepted as canonical.
Apostolicity was of primary importance. The author of a book had either to be an
apostle of Christ or to sustain such a relation to an apostle as to raise his book to the
level of the apostolic books. Another factor in determining the choice of a book was
its suitability to public reading. A third factor was its universality. Was the book
universally received throughout the Christian community? The contents of the book,
further, had to be of such a spiritual character as to entitle them to this rank. And
finally, the book had to give evidence of having been inspired by the Holy Spirit. 8

3. The Reliability of the Bible

The Bible is not only reliable, it is more reliable than any other comparable writings.
Reliability is a question of truthfulness and accurate copying. Writings that are
historically and factually correct and that have been faithfully preserved over time
would be considered reliable. As Christian, we believe the ultimate authority is the
Word of God. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit will lead us in all truth (John. 16:
13). It also affirms that God will preserve His Word, meaning His word will
supernaturally be kept pure (Psalms. 12: 6- 7).

7
Paul Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology, 219.
8
Henry C. Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology (Michigan: Grand Rapid,1949), 81.
 3.1. The Approve of the Archaeology

Archaeology has repeatedly confirmed the accuracy of Biblical places, events, and
people. Thousands of archaeological finds have corroborated the accounts of the
Bible, and such evidence quickly puts an end to allegations that the history recorded
in the Bible is suspect. It is important to remember that no archaeological finds have
ever disproved a single Biblical event, civilization, or individual. On the contrary,
there are numerous incidents where archaeology has upheld the facts recorded in
Scripture and disproved the skepticism of academics. For example, archaeological
finds in the 1920s confirmed the presence of cities much like Ur, described in
(Genesis. 11), which some skeptics doubted had existed so early. 9

3.2. The Approve of the Messianic Prophecies

Many religions have books that claim to be the truth, but only the Bible contains
verified prophecies. Fulfilled prophecy is solid evidence that God is the divine author
of the Bible. Isaiah says “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin
will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah. 7:
14). Centuries later, in Matthew 1: 18, 25 that Mary was indeed a virgin, yet she
delivered Jesus into this world. Not only was this child prophesied to be born from a
virgin, but He was to come from Bethlehem, according to Micah 5: 2. In Matthew 2:
1, this exact prophecy happened, Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The Crucifixion was
a major event in history. In John 19: 23- 24, a picture of how Jesus was crucified:
soldiers cast lots for His garments and pierced His hands. It is seen the same
language and detail prophesied in Psalms 22 many centuries before the historical
event.10

3.3. The Approve of the Testimony of the Manuscripts

The actual, original documents of the Bible writers no longer exist. However, many
manuscripts do exist. Manuscripts (MSS) are hand copies of an original. Critics have
often asserted that any book which has been transmitted by hand copying over
centuries of time must necessarily have lost its original message through human
error.

3.3.1. The Authenticity of Old Testament

9
https://reasonabletheology.org/reliability-bible-4-quick-thoughts
10
https://elevatingyourlife.org.com
The Jewish scribes who hand-copied the manuscripts were painstakingly careful to
avoid errors and used many crosschecking devices to maintain accuracy. For
example, the Masoretic (7th to 11th cent. A.D.) who edited and standardized the
Hebrew text, followed such guidelines as these: (i) Copied not sentences or even
words, but letter by letter. (ii) Counted the number of times that each letter of the
alphabet occurred in each book. (iii) If more than three discrepancies existed, they
destroyed the manuscript.

3.3.2. The Authenticity of New Testament

The New Testament was originally written in the Greek language between about 50
A.D. and 90 A.D. Two very significant factors in judging the reliability of ancient
works of literature are the number of manuscript copies of the original in existence
and the length of time that elapsed from the original work to the first available
manuscript. Obviously, the more the manuscripts and the smaller the time elapsed,
the more reliable the work.

One early fragment of a manuscript copy (from John's gospel) dates from 120 A.D.,
with about 50 other fragments dating from 150-200 years from the time of
composition. Two major manuscripts, Codex Vaticanus (325 A.D.) and Codex
Sinaiticus (350 A.D.) date within 250 years of composition. Otherwise, there are over
5,000 Greek manuscripts dated to within a few hundred years of the originals.

Besides this, the New Testament documents were also translated into several other
languages within a few centuries A.D. The number of copies of such versions is in
excess of 18,000. In addition to this, the New Testament could virtually be
reconstructed by the quotations given from it from early church fathers who lived
within 300 years after Christ. Origen (200-250 A.D.) quoted so extensively from the
New Testament that fully two thirds of it could be reconstructed from him alone. 11

3.4. The Approve of the Historical Accuracy of the Bible

The Bible describes events and places throughout thousands of years of history.
Many of these places and events are verified from Archaeology. Archaeology cannot
prove if the Bible is the inspired word of God, but it can show us if things found in the
Bible are true or false. By excavating Biblical sites, archaeologists have proven many

11
https://www.the-reliability-of-the-new&old-testament
facts claimed in the word of God. For example, many scholars began to doubt the
existence of Pontius Pilate throughout history. That all changed in 1961 when a
piece of limestone stone was discovered that had inscribed the name “Pontius
Pilate”. An Italian archaeologist, Dr. Antonio Frova, came across this discovery while
excavating an ancient Roman theatre in Caesarea, Israel. 12

4. Conclusion

There are more than these which are mentioned above to prove that the Bible is
unique and it is reliability. It is unique in its own teaching, durability, contribution, and
preservation. It is reliability, it can be proved by the archaeology evident, the
accuracy of the Old and New Testaments, and also by Historical accuracy of the
Bible.

Bibliography

12
14 https://www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/is-the-bible-reliable-the-evidence
.
Enns, Paul, The Moody Handbook of Theology. Chicago: Moody Press, 1989

Erickson, Millard J. Christian Theology. Michigan: Grand Rapid, 1985.

Grudem, W. A., Systematic theology: an introduction to biblical doctrine. Grand

Rapids: Inter-Varsity Press, .2004.

https://bible.org/article/bible-reliable

https://elevatingyourlife.org.com

https://reasonabletheology.org/reliability-bible-4-quick-thoughts

https://www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/is-the-bible-reliable-the-evidence

https://www.the-reliability-of-the-new&old-testament

https://www.vvcckent.org/s/Lesson-the-reliability-of-the-bible

Ryrie, Charles C., Basic Theology. Chicago: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999.

Tony Evans, Theology: You can Count On. Chicago: Moody Press, 2008.