The Misunderstood
Book
Reliability of the New Testament
Advancing Native Missions P. O. Box 5303, Charlottesville, VA 22905 Phone: 540-456-7111 Email: victor@adnamis.org
1.
2.
How Do We Know About History?
a.
Documents, Eyewitness Testimony, Corroborating Evidence, Forensics
b.
Four Tests for Documents:

Bibliographical

________________ Evidence

________________ Evidence

________________________
The Bibliographical Test
a.
_________________ documents?
b.
Errors in the _____________________ (MSS)?
c.
The Bibliographic Test
1)
2)
3)
3.
__________ of manuscripts
a)
Other ancient works = a few to several hundred
b)
New Testament = 5800 Greek MSS, over 25,000 total MSS
____________ ________________for manuscripts
a)
Other ancient works = 800-1500 years
b)
New Testament = 25-200 years
Observation: “The New Testament is far and away the best-attested work
of Greek or Latin literature from the ancient world.” ~ Darrell Bock
The Internal Evidence Test
a.
____________________ Accounts?

Would the testimony of the New Testament witnesses stand up in a court of law?
1)
Ability Test
2)
Consistency Test
3)
Cover-Up Test
4)
Corroboration Test
5)
Adverse Witness Test
b.
_______________ Accounts?

Is there evidence that the New Testament record is early enough to be accurate?
c.
1)
Testimony of ____________ church leaders
2)
Manuscripts are very ______________
3)
______________ references indicate an early composition
4)
Modern textual scholars affirm early dating of texts
5)
The text of the NT was complete within _____________ years after the
crucifixion
Accurate Accounts?
There is external, extra-biblical sources that verify the accuracy of the NT texts.
4.
5.
The External Evidence Test
a.
______________________ Non-Christians: Much evidence regarding Jesus and
early Christianity
b.
The Church _______________
The Archaeological Test

“If the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their
authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt.”
~ F. F. Bruce