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Understanding God's word is of great importance to all who call on God's name. Study of the Bible is one of the primary ways that we learn to communicate with God.
The Bible stands alone in many ways. It is unique in:
popularity. Bible sales in North America: more than $500 million per year. The Bible is both the all-time and year-to-year best seller!
authorship. It was written over a period of 1600 years by 40 different authors from different backgrounds, yet reads as if written by one.
preservation. F. F. Bruce in Are New Testament Documents Reliable? compares New Testament manuscripts with other ancient texts:
Tabla 1.1. Comparación de manuscritos del Nuevo Testamento con otros textos antiguos.
Obra | Cuando fue escrita | Copia más antigua | Tiempo transcurrido | Número de Copias |
---|---|---|---|---|
Heródoto | 448-428 AC | 900 DC | 1300 años | 8 |
Tácito | 100 DC | 1100 DC | 1000 años | 20 |
Guerra de las Galias de César | 50-58 AC | 900 DC | 950 años | 10 |
Historia Romana de Livio | 59 AC - 17 DC | 900 DC | 900 años | 20 |
Nuevo Testamento | 40 DC - 100 DC | 130 DC manuscritos parciales, 350 DC manuscritos completos | 30 - 310 años | 5000 Griego y 10000 Latin |
Ten copies of Caesar's Gallic War exist, the earliest of which was copied 900 years after Caesar wrote the original, etc. For the New Testament we have full manuscripts dating to 350 A. D., papyri containing most of the New Testament from the 200s, and a fragment of John's gospel from 130 A. D. How many manuscripts do we have to compare to each other? 5,000 in Greek and 10,000 in Latin!
"En la veracidad y la plenitud de las evidencias en que se apoya, el texto del Nuevo Testamento está absolutamente inalcanzable por otros antiguos escritos en prosa". | ||
--Textual critic F. J. A. Hort, "The New Testament in the Original Greek", vol. 1 p561, Macmillan Co., quoted in Questions of Lifep. 25-26 |