10. The Archaeological Reliability and Historicity of the Bible

• Is the Bible truly a record of historical facts written by the inspiration of God, or is it simply an ancient religious text fabricated by human thoughts long ago?
• What basis do we have for trusting this ancient document called the Bible?
• Can the biblical record itself be considered reliable by objective standards?

10.1. Criteria for Determining the Authenticity of Historical Records

How can we determine the factuality and authenticity of an ancient document written over 2,000 years ago? More generally, what are the objective methods for determining the historicity and authenticity of ancient documents or historical records? For example, why do you believe that World War II actually occurred in 1939 even though you did not experience it yourself?

The reason is because there are numerous historical records and evidence remaining, and although not many, there are still surviving eyewitnesses of that war who directly experienced it.

Then, if historical records and testimonies are confirmed, can we accept all of these as facts? No, because historical records could be false, there is a possibility they were manipulated, and witnesses could also lie.

So what conditions are needed to rationally support the factuality and truthfulness of a historical record or testimony? In archaeology and historiography, the following conditions and criteria are applied. When you think about it, they are very common-sense.

• First is the time of recording. The shorter the time interval between when a historical event occurred and when that event was recorded, the higher the reliability. The closer the recording time is to the event, the lower the possibility of distortion due to memory of the actual event, and even if someone tried to manipulate it with impure motives, it would be difficult to avoid criticism from eyewitnesses who actually experienced that event.

• Second is the quantity of records or copies. There have always been people who intentionally distort facts with impure motives throughout history, and there still are today. However, the amount of documents making false claims is generally much less than the amount of documents describing facts. This is because since it is false, it receives much criticism and is difficult to survive for long, and because it is a minority claim, its vitality is weak. Also, it is natural that there are many documents recording historically important events or events that could become important issues.

• Third, the more records describing the same event, the higher the reliability of the data. Reliability is much higher when even factions with opposing positions on an event acknowledge it identically. For example, the Axis Powers and Allied Powers may have different positions on the responsibility for World War II. However, the fact that both sides discuss the responsibility for World War II means that at least World War II itself was an actual event that cannot be historically denied.

In other words, factors such as the time gap between the occurrence of an event and the date of recording, the amount of records and copies, and the existence of records reporting the same event are widely used in general as objective criteria for determining the authenticity of ancient documents or historical events.

10.2. Archaeological Reliability of the Bible

Then did the Bible pass all these tests? To tell you the conclusion first, it has been 'documentarily' proven that the Bible has passed all these stringent tests. Perfectly, to an unbelievable degree at that.

To confirm this, let's consider the Bible as an ancient document written over 2,000 years ago and verify it using the 'ancient document verification method', a way to investigate the objectivity and authenticity of historical documents. The ancient document verification method is a way to find out the accuracy compared to the original (the time closest to when the recorded event occurred) by comparing the copies we have with each other when the original does not exist.

According to this method, the more copies there are, the less time difference there is between when the copies were made from the original, and the fewer errors there are between copies, the higher the agreement between the copies and the original is recognized.

This is a widely used method in archaeology and is applied to most ancient documents or copies for which the original does not exist. The Old and New Testaments we currently have were made a whopping 4,000 or 2,000 years ago, so there are no originals remaining until now. Therefore, the ancient document verification method used by archaeologists is used as an objective way to find out the reliability of the Bible.

The accuracy and reliability of the Bible confirmed 'objectively' through the ancient document verification method is ultimately 'unbelievably' high. It perfectly satisfies all of the above conditions and has 'overwhelmingly' higher accuracy and reliability than any existing ancient document.

There are about 5,500 existing copies containing part or all of the New Testament, and about 18,000 translated copies, totaling about 25,000 copies remaining. Homer's Iliad is most commonly used as a good comparison to the New Testament.

The reason is because just as the New Testament was read, memorized, and inscribed by many people and copied down to later generations, Homer's Iliad has also been favored by many people and passed down to the present day. Also, there is a reason why the Iliad is archaeologically the most reliable ancient document in terms of the number of copies and accuracy, except for the Bible.

Content	New Testament	Iliad
Number of copies	24,643	643
Original recording date	AD 40-100	900 BC
Date of earliest copy	AD 125	400 BC
Time gap between original and earliest copy	25 years	500 years
Error between copies	0.5%	5%

Author (Book)	Date of Original	Earliest Copy
Aristotle (Poetics)	340 BC	AD 1100
Julius Caesar (Gallic Wars)	50 BC	AD 900
Herodotus (History)	435 BC	AD 900
Homer (Iliad)	900 BC	400 BC
Thucydides (History)	400 BC	AD 900
Plato (Teaetetus)	350 BC	AD 800
Old Testament	1400-400 BC	125 BC
New Testament	AD 75	AD 125

If we compare these two books according to the ancient document verification method and make a table, it would be as above. The copies of the New Testament are by far the oldest among ancient copies. For example, only 3 copies of the book by the historian Catullus exist, made 1,000 years after the original, and only 8 copies of Herodotus exist, recorded 1,300 years after the original.

As can be seen from the above table, the New Testament is about 40 times more reliable in terms of the number of copies, 20 times in terms of time difference, and the degree of error is about 10 times more reliable than the comparative ancient document, the Iliad.

The errors between copies mentioned here were mistakes that inevitably occurred in the process of people manually copying books one by one before the invention of the printing press. The vast majority of errors found in the Bible are known to be trivial errors such as simple spelling mistakes, typos, and articles or definite articles that do not affect the essential content at all.

This shows that the Bible is about 8,000 times more reliable than the Iliad. Therefore, the New Testament we currently have is the book that is closest to the original and records historical facts among any book that mankind has.

F. F. Bruce said,

There is much more evidence for the New Testament than for classical works, so its credibility cannot be doubted.

What about the Old Testament? The oldest translated copy of the Old Testament was long known to be the Masoretic Text from around AD 900, and many people doubted the accuracy of the Old Testament. This is because since there is a long time difference of about 1,300 years between 400 BC when the Old Testament was last recorded and AD 900, most scholars had doubts about the possibility of manipulation and the accuracy of the copies.

Moreover, the only Hebrew copy of the Old Testament was the Babylonian Codex from AD 1008, 1,400 years after the Old Testament was completed, so until then, biblical scholars used the clay tablets of Babylon or the papyri of Egypt as the only data.

However, in 1954, a Bedouin shepherd accidentally discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were produced around 125 BC, narrowing the gap with the original to 275 years. 500 books were composed from about 40,000 fragments of copies, of which 1/3 were the Old Testament, and the entire Old Testament was found except for a part of the Book of Esther.

Furthermore, when the Dead Sea Scrolls were compared with the Masoretic Text made 1,000 years apart, it was discovered that these two matched each other accurately.

In this way, it has been objectively proven that the Bible is overwhelmingly superior in accuracy among all existing ancient documents on Earth in terms of the number of copies, accuracy between copies, and the time gap between the original and the earliest copy (time gap between the earliest occurrence of the event and the copy), which are the criteria in the ancient document verification method. This is not something that 'theologians' insist on, but an 'archaeologically' proven fact.

10.3. The Historicity of Jesus

Then shall we compare the historical records about Jesus in Christianity with the documents about figures in other religions?

First, it is important to keep in mind that almost all ancient historical records go through a period of oral tradition. In other words, the teachings of a historical figure are passed down orally for a certain period of time and then recorded in documents at some point in later generations.

This is because records about a historical figure did not necessarily need to be recorded during their lifetime, and it took some time for them to be historically evaluated. Moreover, recording data was not as easy in ancient times as it is now, which was also an important reason.

Therefore, the shorter the period of oral transmission of historical events, the closer the content can be considered to be historical facts without being altered. Let's compare Jesus with ancient figures from this perspective.

The myth of Dangun, who founded a country in 2333 BC, went through at least 2,000-3,000 years of oral tradition until it was recorded in the Samguk Yusa by the monk Iryeon in AD 1281. Therefore, its historical reliability can be considered very low.

What about Buddhism? The life of Buddha, who lived in the 6th century BC, was mostly recorded in the 1st century AD. Buddha's teachings and life were orally transmitted by his disciples and recorded in writing at least 600 years after Buddha's death.

Muhammad, the founder of Islam, survived until AD 632, and the biography of Muhammad recording his life was written in AD 767. This means that his biography was not recorded in writing until about 135 years after his death.

What about Confucius' life? The only book about Confucius' life is Sima Qian's 'Confucius' Family', and Confucius' life was recorded about 400 years after his death. In relation to this, Professor Kim Yong-ok said, "Sima Qian's 'Confucius' Family' cannot be considered fact in any case." "It is too obvious that the life story of a person who lived 400 years ago, recorded in detail chronologically from birth to death, cannot be the fact itself in any case." Professor Kim Yong-ok emphasized that the records of Confucius' life have very low historical reliability.

What about Alexander the Great, who built the Hellenistic Empire? His life was written by Arrian and Plutarch about 400 years after his death. The Roman Emperor Tiberius, a contemporary of Jesus, recorded by Tacitus and Suetonius, was written about 80 years after his death. Also, the history of Emperor Tiberius recorded by Dio Cassius was written about 190 years after his death.

Then, when was the record about Jesus, an unknown youth from Israel who could not be compared to the Roman emperor at that time, written? The four Gospels were written between about 30 and 60 years after Jesus died and was resurrected. The Apostle Paul's teachings about Jesus were written between about 18 and 35 years after Jesus' death. Therefore, most of the New Testament records were completed in documents between about 18 and 60 years after Jesus' death.

In this way, the historical records about Jesus went through the shortest period of oral tradition, and this tells us that his records are the most outstanding historical records among the ancient documents of the East and West. In other words, it can be said that Jesus has the most certain historical reliability among the ancient figures who lived in this world.

Unlike other ancient figures, some of the records about Jesus were written when most of the more than 500 eyewitnesses who saw his death and resurrection were still alive (1 Corinthians 15). Therefore, if someone denies the historicity of Jesus, he must also deny the historical reliability of all other ancient figures.

Not believing in the historical existence or deeds of Jesus, who had a tremendous influence on Rome, Judea, Israel, and even all of medieval Europe and the whole world, is revealing 'historical ignorance'.

10.4. Phenomena Found if the Bible is False

If the Bible is a book that records historical events, and someone had the intention to manipulate or falsely record it, the following problems would arise:

• If the first recorders who witnessed the event falsely recorded it, the document would not likely be widely distributed or transmitted because it would be rejected by the many people who knew the truth at that time.
• If they try to manipulate it long after the event occurred to avoid the problem of manipulation at the time of the event, there would be a large time gap between the original and the copy.
• Since manipulation occurs, many inconsistencies or manipulations in the core content between copies would be found.

In other words, if there had been any attempt to manipulate or intentionally distort history, it would have been caught in at least one of these three tests. However, the Bible passed all these tests perfectly, which proves that from a documentary perspective, the possibility of the Bible being manipulated or distorting history is extremely low.

10.5. Reasonable Doubt

Many people claim that 'the Bible must have been manipulated or made up by someone' because there are many unbelievable stories in the Bible. However, the fatal problem is that, as we have just examined, there is no objective basis for such speculation.

You probably had these doubts as well. However, it was because you had no knowledge of how accurately and clearly the Bible was recorded and transmitted through this process. Now that you know this fact, you must accept the 'objective fact' that the Bible is 'clearly a historically believable document'.

If it has been confirmed that the Bible is an objectively reliable historical document, the next step would be to find out whether other historical documents or archaeologically revealed facts besides the Bible confirm or contradict the facts of the Bible.

If other documents or archaeological finds besides the Bible also support the Bible, the Bible should be considered not just a 'historically believable document' but a 'highly reliable document that records historical facts'. If the Bible passes even this stage, we would have to examine whether there are any historical inconsistencies in the content of the Bible itself and whether the many prophecies in the Bible have actually been fulfilled.

If it passes all these tests, you too will not be able to deny that the Bible is an 'honest historical truth'. Let's see if the Bible will pass all the remaining tests.