You haven't examined anything or have you? You just believe in what others already examined... So how does that make you different from me?
Essentially nothing. Again, you missed my point entirely. This is about consistency within your
own argument.
I think the impression many have, (And I sense this from you) is that because the Bible is old, it is altered and unreliable. These are common objections. Objections that have been answered since long before either of us were born. As a believer, I want to know that my faith isn't blind. I would like to know if the text, which I believe to be inspired by God, is reliable. When I began to investigate this for myself I was blown away at just how much this is really looked in to. The New Testament alone is considered to be 99.5% textually pure. The .5% is pretty much left to copying errors, such as spelling, repeating a word, omitting a letter or word. However, because of the vast number of available copies, (6,000 in Greek and 21,000 in other languages) these errors were easily spotted. So amongst 27,000 documents in different languages, on different countries and continents, there was a .5% textual variance. It's important to note that of these variances, none effect the doctrinal truth or the words and deeds recorded. This is just one of many techniques used.
If you recall, a number of years back, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Many of these were dated to before Christ, and they confirmed that the modern translations we have match the oldest documents. It was a huge discovery that pretty much slammed the door on many objections.
I've been blessed to have friends who read both ancient Greek and Hebrew. Also, many of the ancient texts are actually available to view on-line in photo.
http://www.biblepicturegallery.com/pict ... cripts.htm I also have a program that allows me to translate ancient Greek. Fortunately I have an English translation. Also, I know that the English translation I use is faithful to the earliest text. How? Because I've actually taken the time to investigate the translation of the Bible into English. The amazing thing about the Bible I use is it is translated from the oldest manuscripts. Groups such as the Wycliffe bible translation group translate from the earliest manuscripts.
http://www.wycliffe.org/ A transliteration is translated from a modern language into a more common dialect. The NLT is an example. So, the KJV, NASV and others are translated from the original language into English.
My point is that you are making accusations about the text, yet not holding yourself or your sources to the same standard. Your post would indicate too me that you are not familiar with the methods used to determine the historical realiabitlity of ancient literature. If you are interested, here is a link that deals with many of the common objections.
http://carm.org/bible All I would ask is that before you jump on a Christian discussion forum and start throwing out objections that you actually take the time to research for yourself. What happens a lot is that pro-atheist groups will put out any kind of information trying to discredit the reliability of the Bible. They know that the average joe is NOT going to investigate to see if their claims have real merit. I would hold those groups to the same standard. As you can imagine, we get this a lot. And more times than not, it is someone regurgitating arguments that they've picked up from some anti-Christian source.
The Bible is verified through some of the most exhaustive literary standards known to man. Josh McDowell has exhaustive research on the reliability of the biblical text. If you really want to sink your teeth into this, His book, "Evidence that demands a verdict," is one of the best. It is not easy reading, and is a text book format with a lot of academic speak. He was an atheist who set out to do research to disprove the Bible as superstitious myth.
-“The Bible treated allegorically becomes putty in the hands of the exegete.” John Walvoord
"I'm not saying scientists don't overstate their results. They do. And it's understandable, too...If you spend years working toward a certain goal and make no progress, of course you are going to spin your results in a positive light." Ivellious
