But It Happened So Long Ago
Don Barkley —
“Don, you can’t really know what happened to Jesus really. We know He historically existed, but other than that, how do we really know? It happened so long ago.”
“I know. It seems natural to think that the farther away from an event we get, the less we know for sure what really happened, right?”
“Yeah, so we shouldn’t be too sure about Jesus, right? . . . because so much time has passed?”
“Well, let me give you another view on that, okay?”
“Okay.”
“While it seems that the more time passes, the less we know about Jesus . . . the reality is that the more time passes since the time of Jesus, the more we know, and with greater assurance. It seems counter-intuitive, doesn’t it?”
“Yes. You’re going to have to help me think that one through, Don.”
"Let me give you an example. The New Testament was written in Greek, and of course, over the centuries, manuscripts tend to get old, get destroyed, or get lost. In 1611 CE, King James I of Great Britain commissioned a new English translation of the Bible. We know that translation as the King James Bible. At that time, the scholars and translators had only 6 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament to work with. And these were copies made no earlier than 900 CE. Fast forward to the late 1800s. When a translation of the New Testament was made, say, in the late 1800s, there were more than 2,000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament available.”
“Why so many more?”
“The field of biblical archaeology was beginning to flourish in the late 19th century. More archaeological discoveries, more archaeologists, more universities teaching the subject, and so on. Oh, and what I didn’t say was that of these 2,000 plus manuscripts, some were older than the King James manuscripts by 500 years. And you know, today, there are over 6,000 New Testament manuscripts available. The earliest undisputed manuscript is a portion of the Gospel of John dating to the early 2nd century, a span of less than 50 years from the time it was penned by John, the disciple of Jesus. So, as time passes, we can be more confident about the authenticity of the Bible, not less.”
“That does seem different than what most people think. I always assumed that time was the enemy of the historian. But I guess it could be a friend.”
“That’s a good way of saying it. Let’s talk some time too about some of the recent archaeological discoveries related to the Bible. Just like we have more and older New Testament manuscripts, we also have more and more archaeological evidence as new discoveries continue to be made.”
“That will be great.”
Don Barkley is the Director of Staff Training at Search and over the last 40 years has led hundreds of discussions about God and life in homes, businesses, country clubs and colleges. With his wife Ann, Don enjoys visiting their kids and grandkids in all four time zones.
