Why Trust the Bible?
WHY TRUST THE BIBLE? Dr Amy Orr-Ewing
Article written for TWFTW event April 2025 - produced here with permission
I will never forget the early-morning experience of getting off a train in the middle of China at four am and making my way to a rendezvous with three Chinese church leaders. Our team were delivering bags filled with Bibles, which were to be distributed among the churches further north. Each bible was going to a church leader with over 1000 members. When our Chinese friends unzipped the bags and looked inside, tears flowed down their cheeks. Those books were so precious to them that they were even prepared to risk imprisonment and persecution in order to get hold of them.
WHAT IS THE BIBLE? A divine - human collaboration in which God reveals himself to human authors, and inspires them so that what is written is accurate and then carefully preserved – including historical accounts. On a human level it is a fascinating book – historically, psychologically and in literary terms. This can be verified and fact checked; time and time again the Bible stands up to the scrutiny thrown at it. But it is far more than that – Christians believe that this book is God’s word. “All Scripture is God-breathed”.
When we read the Bible we have an opportunity to hear from God. No wonder it’s so contested; it’s powerful. When we talk about the Bible, what do we actually mean? It is worth observing that the Bible is not just one book written or compiled by one person; it is a collection of sixty-six books which are divided into two sections. There are 39 books in the first, largest part, the Old Testament, and 27 in the New Testament. The Bible was written over a period of 1,600 years by more than 40 authors. These people came from all kinds of different backgrounds: kings, diplomats, poor people, fishermen, tentmakers. The Bible was originally written in three languages – Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, and on three continents – Asia, Africa and Europe. The vast spread of the Bible’s social, geographical and cultural original contexts is therefore followed by a multiplication of these diversities as the manuscripts were copied and spread throughout the known world. This means that there are a vast number of ancient manuscripts to be examined, and the text of the Bible is extremely well-attested.
The integrity of any ancient writing is determined by multiple factors, one of which is the number of documented manuscripts, or fragments of manuscripts, which still exist. It may be helpful to look at an example from the ancient world to get a sense of how the New Testament fares in the landscape of the preservation of classical literature. For example, there are well over 200 witnesses of the ancient manuscripts of Plato’s Tetraologies, the earliest fragments of which are from the 3rd century BC. These can be studied and compared in order to determine the accuracy and quality of the transmission of his writings throughout the years. This text is respected and read in the present day.
When it comes to the Bible, there are over 5,100 handwritten manuscripts in the Greek language in support of the New Testament alone that help us determine the accuracy of its text. The earliest fragments are from the 2nd century. The New Testament fares well alongside classical literature preserved in a manuscript tradition.
This is an area of study that is constantly being updated when discoveries of documents are made. But in the context of manuscript studies of the ancient world the Bible is by far the best attested. The care with which the manuscript tradition of the Bible has been scrupulously preserved and studied is reflected in the attitude of translators of the Bible. In our various Bible translations, where there are variations in the manuscripts, the translators put these in the margins and footnotes for all to see. The Bible is an ancient text and the existence of some variations, including spelling, word order (by far the majority of the variations) and even a couple of passages such as the longer ending to Mark’s gospel which the earliest manuscripts do not have, all point towards the integrity of the text, not away from it. There has not been a later controlling top-down agency editing or controlling the text of the New Testament.
The work of Bible translation has never been more important than it is today. Afterall, nothing is more defining for all of life than to ask the question: ‘Has God spoken and can we know that truth?’ As people from every culture and language ask this deep and universal question, like the prophet Jeremiah, may they and we hear God’s gracious response to us: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know’ (Jeremiah 33:3).
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Dr Amy Orr-Ewing is an author, speaker and theologian who addresses the deep questions of our day with meaningful answers found uniquely in the Christian faith. She is the author of a number of books including Where is God in All the Suffering? and Why Trust the Bible? Over the last 25 years, Amy has spoken internationally as a public advocate for the Christian faith, including public lectures, open forums on university campuses, TV and radio, and addressing politicians in Westminster. She previously served as President of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics and is now Honorary Lecturer at the School of Divinity, University of Aberdeen. www.amyorr-ewing.com