[It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, it is the glory of kings to search it out.]
Proverbs 25:2
The Old Testament written between about (1900-1500 B.C.) to about (600-200 B.C.) contains all the evidence the disciples used to point to Jesus Christ as the savior of the world. Hidden in prophetic Shadows, types, Parables, allegories, Christophanies, or whatever you may call it. The name "Jesus" is not found in the Old Testament, and yet it has 350+ prophetic facts that Jesus fulfilled in the manner and time prophesied. I believe this all can be understood if one seeks and finds, and God wants us to find it and grow in faith just like he wants all people to find the kingdom of God.
The Old Testament is a book of 39 books written by 30 or more authors over hundreds of years, how then is it that they were all talking about the same thing? or at least the same themes and strikingly parallel timelines to the Life of our savior? Did they get together to make a money hungry cult? maybe if they had a time machine, but that doesn't even stand up as a poor argument, that is, if we have evidence of when they were written, which I won't be too proud to admit is something that is a challenging and changing science, but with the overwhelming amount of handwritten evidences of both the Old and New Testaments of the bible I don't think we have to worry.
Consider this: how is it that the bible: 66 books written over a period of about 1600 years by 40 different authors wrote about the same thing and have it all tied together through 100% accurate prophesies?
I will insert a quote from my English Standard Version Study Bible:
"At present there are over 3000 Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament, A manuscript comes from the words manual and scripture and it means they were written by hand. There are 8000 manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate which was originally published in 382 AD and is the Latin translation of the bible, more than 1500 manuscripts of the Septuagint, which is also called the Greek Old Testament, translated from the Hebrew by the legendary 70 Jews as early as the 3rd century BC. This is quoted a number of times in the New Testament. Today there are more than 65 copies of the Syriac Peshitta. Syriac is a language likely in the 2nd century AD that translated the Old Testament from Hebrew and the New Testament from the Greek.
"With the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls in A.D. 1947, scholars found themselves in a better position than ever before to evaluate whether Old Testament texts are reliable."
"As for the New Testament, it suffers from an embarrassment of riches when it comes to comparison with any other remaining manuscript of ancient Greek or Latin Literature. More than 5700 Greek NT manuscripts are still in existence, ranging in date from the early 2nd century. It is true that few of the favorite passages are completely authentic but this is not the whole picture, Christians can in fact, have a very high degree of confidence that what they have in their hands today is the Word of God. To date, over a million quotations from church fathers have been cataloged. The New Testament has well over 1000 times as many manuscripts as the works of the average classical Greek or Latin author."
What does all this mean?
Well it means there is more evidence for the history of belief in Christianity than for Shakespeare's "Hamlet", but it does not mean these stories were not allegorical and full of contradictions. One must ask themselves if widespread delusion has been normal.
for more info see the following page:
https://bible.org/article/how-accurate-bible
To Christians:
"The New Testament can be regarded as 99.5 percent pure, and the correct readings for the remaining 0.5 percent can often be ascertained with a fair degree of probability by the practice of textual criticism."
To the Mythologists:
"The gospels have upwards of 100 000 variations in possible meanings. Johns gospel is only 8% parallel to the other gospels. Josephus and Eusebius have been proven forgeries. The Old Testament was a living document, able to be edited and changed as astral myths evolved.
Thanks for reading
Kevin Maxwell
July 4th 2017
(Updated July 28th 2019)
The Old Testament is a book of 39 books written by 30 or more authors over hundreds of years, how then is it that they were all talking about the same thing? or at least the same themes and strikingly parallel timelines to the Life of our savior? Did they get together to make a money hungry cult? maybe if they had a time machine, but that doesn't even stand up as a poor argument, that is, if we have evidence of when they were written, which I won't be too proud to admit is something that is a challenging and changing science, but with the overwhelming amount of handwritten evidences of both the Old and New Testaments of the bible I don't think we have to worry.
Consider this: how is it that the bible: 66 books written over a period of about 1600 years by 40 different authors wrote about the same thing and have it all tied together through 100% accurate prophesies?
I will insert a quote from my English Standard Version Study Bible:
"At present there are over 3000 Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament, A manuscript comes from the words manual and scripture and it means they were written by hand. There are 8000 manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate which was originally published in 382 AD and is the Latin translation of the bible, more than 1500 manuscripts of the Septuagint, which is also called the Greek Old Testament, translated from the Hebrew by the legendary 70 Jews as early as the 3rd century BC. This is quoted a number of times in the New Testament. Today there are more than 65 copies of the Syriac Peshitta. Syriac is a language likely in the 2nd century AD that translated the Old Testament from Hebrew and the New Testament from the Greek.
"With the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls in A.D. 1947, scholars found themselves in a better position than ever before to evaluate whether Old Testament texts are reliable."
"As for the New Testament, it suffers from an embarrassment of riches when it comes to comparison with any other remaining manuscript of ancient Greek or Latin Literature. More than 5700 Greek NT manuscripts are still in existence, ranging in date from the early 2nd century. It is true that few of the favorite passages are completely authentic but this is not the whole picture, Christians can in fact, have a very high degree of confidence that what they have in their hands today is the Word of God. To date, over a million quotations from church fathers have been cataloged. The New Testament has well over 1000 times as many manuscripts as the works of the average classical Greek or Latin author."
What does all this mean?
Well it means there is more evidence for the history of belief in Christianity than for Shakespeare's "Hamlet", but it does not mean these stories were not allegorical and full of contradictions. One must ask themselves if widespread delusion has been normal.
for more info see the following page:
https://bible.org/article/how-accurate-bible
To Christians:
"The New Testament can be regarded as 99.5 percent pure, and the correct readings for the remaining 0.5 percent can often be ascertained with a fair degree of probability by the practice of textual criticism."
To the Mythologists:
"The gospels have upwards of 100 000 variations in possible meanings. Johns gospel is only 8% parallel to the other gospels. Josephus and Eusebius have been proven forgeries. The Old Testament was a living document, able to be edited and changed as astral myths evolved.
Thanks for reading
Kevin Maxwell
July 4th 2017
(Updated July 28th 2019)