The first falsehood I want to tackle is the reliability of the Scripture, both the New and Old Testament. Broadly speaking, many people posit that the Bible we have now likely looked nothing like it did centuries ago. In addition, some think it’s foolish to believe such a text would actually hold truth that would be useful to us, If we hold all historical texts equal, then we must accept the Bible is as historical as almost anything in the ancient world. For example, if we wish to state what Aristotle  said, or that Julius Caesar ruled Rome, then we must also accept the historical accounts of the Bible.

We can say this so confidently because of the massive number of copies of the New and Old Testament. No other ancient text even comes close to the shear number of copies dating back throughout all the centuries. We have over 10,000 manuscripts of the Old Testament and, including early translations of the New Testament into Latin and other languages, over 24,000 manuscripts of the New Testaments or portions of the New Testaments. On top of this, the earliest manuscript we have is dated within 200 years of the original manuscript for the Old Testament and within a few decades for the New Testament. In  comparison, Caesar’s Gallic Wars, which historians agree happened, have only 10 manuscripts and the earliest text is 1,000 years after the original. Similarly, Tacitus, a Roman historian, widely validated by most historians; they have no doubt that we know what he said, but he wrote his book  around 100 AD and our earliest copy dated is approximately 1100 AD. There are roughly 20 copies today.

Some may argue that some of these manuscripts are fragments, sometimes only a few verses. That’s true, but each one confirms that the other documents we have.  The errors  are mostly word choice or spelling error. For example, some copies of the New Testament in the same passage might say “Jesus Christ” or “Christ Jesus”, or if we were reading a word, one copy might say “jsut” and another might say “just”. Do either of those examples change the meaning of the text? No, not at all. There are precious few actual differences, and none of them impact the agreed upon doctrines of the Christian church. On top of that, by sheer number of copies, even with errors, we are able to reconstruct what the original said. Even if a sentence here or there had difference, or even blatant errors, because there are such an incredible number of copies, we can see where the errors are by comparing all the copies together.

There are several  Old Testament manuscripts that are vital in understanding the reliability of the Bible.. First are the Dead Sea Scrolls. All the scrolls found match what we know today, and we found 1,050 scrolls in the collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls. They are all dated to 250 BC as the latest date. These early copies match the copies dated much later. Other examples are the Samaritan Pentateuch dated to the 3^rd century BC, and the Nash Papyrus which is dated to somewhere between the 1^st  and 2^nd  century BC. We also have the Septuagint, which Alexander the Great commissioned. This is a Greek translation of the Old Testament, and even translations play an important role proving the reliability of what  the Old Testament has always stated/claimed.

Another argument states that people make errors when copying, so the Bible cannot be what was originally written by Moses or the other authors. The scribes who copied the New and Old Testaments were also notoriously meticulous. Especially the Old Testament, which required the scribe to not make almost any errors or the entire scroll had to be redone, and the errored copy had to be burned and buried. As an example, “the document became invalid if two letters touched each other”¹, or “if as many as three pages required corrections, the entire manuscript had to be redone.”¹

Using this information with children varies depending upon the age of the child and what spurred the conversation. Below are some sample conversations. Next week I’ll go into a bit more depth on some interesting specifics from the New and Old Testament’s reliability from outside the Bible.

Young Child (4-6yrs)
Parent: Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something really important. Can you sit with me for a minute?
Child: Yeah, what is it?
Parent:. Do you know how we have the Bible?
Child: hmmm, didn’t God give it to us?
Parent: Yes, God helped all the authors of the Bible write it down, and more importantly, God helped keep the Bible safe throughout time we have the same word they had thousands of years ago. Isn’t that amazing?
Child: Yeah! That’s a long time!
Parent: It is, and we have many copies throughout the years that show us the Bible has never changed either. We have something called the Dead Sea Scrolls that show us the Old Testament looked almost identical to what we have now, and those scrolls were written over two thousand years ago! God made sure that the people who copied the Bible were very, very careful. Do you want to know more?
Child: Not right now.
Parent: Alright. If you have any questions, I want to answer them.
Child: Okay. Can I go play now?
Parent: Yes, have fun!

Elementary: (1-4^th grade)
Child: Mommy, my teacher told me something. Can you help me?
Parent: Of course. What is it?
Child: My teacher said that the Bible was written a long time ago, and we can’t know what the first writers wrote, because it was so long ago. She said that it’s silly to trust a book that’s we don’t even know is accurate. Is that true?
Parent: Ah, do you know what? Your teacher is wrong about this. She probably doesn’t even know the truth.
Child: But she said that they copied hundreds of times and told it to each other like stories! She said it’s like when we play telephone.
Parent: I know, but sometimes people forget about what that really means. Let me ask you, you memorized Psalm 23 for Sunday school last week. Could you recite that for me right now?
Child: *recites Psalm 23 perfectly fine*
Parent: See? Is that like the game of telephone? That’s how people shared it. They memorized it and spent their entire lives, every single day, saying it over and over again, because it was their job. If you never went more than a day without saying Psalm 23, you’d never forget it.
Child: Really? It’s like when I memorize Bible verses and I can say them for a long time?
Parent: Yes, but the Bible wasn’t just shared by people with talking. It was written down very close to when it happened, and we know that when we look at history.
Child: Really? But what about copying? When I try to write down what the teacher says, it’s not exactly what she said…and I make mistakes all the time.
Parent: That’s true, but do you think the people copying it were in school learning how to write?
Child: Well, no. They would have been adults.
Parent: That’s right. And this would have been their job! All day long the only thing they did was look at the current passage and write it down, letter for letter. Did you know if they made any mistake they had to throw out everything they had written and start over?
Child: Really?
Parent: Yes! And multiple people would read over a finished copy to be sure it was correct, so the mistakes are really small.
Child: Really?
Parent: Yes, and did you know that we have more copies than any other ancient document? That means even with mistakes, we can tell even more clearly what it said originally.
Child: We have more?
Parent: Yes! We have over 10,000 copies of the Old Testament and over 24,000 copies of the New Testament. That’s a huge number, isn’t it?
Child: It is. Do we really have that many?
Parent: Yes, and you know something even more important? In history, we have more copies of the Bible than proof that Socrates, Aristotle, Julius Caesar even existed! For some of these people, we might have 600 copies, and others we might only have 10! If your teacher wants to doubt that the Bible has been accurately copied, then she needs to not trust anything at all in history. We have a mountain of evidence for the Bible, and small little piles for everything else.
Child: Really? That’s really what we have?
Parent: It is. Do you have any other questions?
Child: No, that makes me feel a bit better.

Junior High: (5^th-7^th grade, or older if applicable)
Child: Hey, Mom, I had a few questions I’ve been thinking about. I watched some videos some of my friends shared, and it’s been making me think.
Parent: Of course. I always have time to answer your questions. What can I help with?
Child: Well, the Bible was written a long time ago, like 2,000 years or more. How can we even know it’s what they had all those years ago? I mean, sometimes I can barely write down by hand the correct phone number or street address, how could they be so accurate? Or what about when they told stuff orally? Wouldn’t that just be like telephone when I was little?
Parent: Those are good questions. The truth is if we can’t trust the Bible, we can’t trust anything in history. I think you’ve heard about something that’s happened in ancient history, like the Gallic Wars by Caesar, right?
Child: Yeah, I’ve heard about that.
Parent: Well, we have about 10 copies that those wars happened. Seems pretty reasonable to think it happened right?
Child: I guess so, but that’s not very many.
Parent: Yeah, but you know what? The first copy we have is 1,000 years after it happened! Do you still trust it?
Child: Maybe. That’s a long time. What if they got it wrong?
Parent: Exactly. But you know something about the Bible? For the Old Testament, we have over 10,000 copies, and the New Testament we have even more. We have over 24,000 copies! So, if we want to believe that the Gallic Wars happened, shouldn’t we also give the same benefit of the doubt to the Bible?
Child: I didn’t know we had that many copies! That’s not even close to similar. But what about the copying? Couldn’t they have made mistake?
Parent: That’s true, they could have, but something you have to remember is a difference of time. Now adays, we don’t really care if we mess up writing down phone numbers or addresses, and with telephone, how many times was there a kid in the group that purposely changed the phase just to be funny?
Child: Hmm. That’s true. And it’s whispered, so it’s hard to hear.
Parent: That’s right. This was the only way they could share things. It was really important to the people of that time. So, if they shared it orally, they practiced day after day and if they made a mistake, everyone knew it and corrected them. It’s more similar to if your reciting a Bible passage to me or your Sunday school teacher. We tell you the minute you miss a word, don’t we?
Child: Yeah, I have to say it exact or I don’t get credit.
Parent: Yep, and when they did write it down, they did the same thing. The Jews especially had a lot of rules around copying, and many of the New Testament Christians practiced the same thing because it made sense. If there were many errors, they just tossed it out. Also, think about this, if someone changed their copy purposely, like in telephone, do you think everyone else would see? For instance, if the original Bible said something like Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, and someone added that later, what do you think everyone would do? Remember, they would have had other copies. They would have copies themselves.
Child: Well, I bet they’d say something. They might even destroy the copy that changed stuff because they would know what it said because of the other copies.
Parent: That’s exactly right. Do you have any other questions?
Child: Yes!
*Continue as long as your child wishes to discuss this. If you child asks something you don’t know, go look it up and show your child how you find the truth*

If you wish some more resources on the topic, the following are some websites, videos, and books that you can look into:

Has the Old Testament been corrupted? A question raised by skeptics. (carm.org)

Process of copying the Old Testament by Jewish Scribes (scottmanning.com) ¹

The Institute for Creation Research (icr.org)

Is the earliest copy of the Old Testament later than that of the New? (carm.org)

Manuscript Evidence for the Bible: An Outline – Faith Facts

Ten Minute Bible Hour

            – (230) No Originals? The Bible Is a Copy. – YouTube

            – (231) 400,000 Errors In the New Testament? How Did That Happen? – YouTube

            – (230) What Are the Dead Sea Scrolls? – YouTube

            – (230) What’s In the Dead Sea Scrolls? – YouTube

            – (230) Why Are the Dead Sea Scrolls So Important? – YouTube