One way to verify if a manuscript is authentic is to find the earliest handwritten copies, made before the invention of the printing press and compare them to the manuscripts we have today. There are many manuscripts that verify that we do have authentic copies of the Old and New Testaments. One example of this is the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. These were discovered between 1947 and 1956 and are the oldest group of Old Testament manuscripts ever found, according to CenturyOne.com. Fragments of every book of the Hebrew Old Testament were found, with the exception of the book of Esther.
The ancient documents are remarkably similar to the Bible we have today, with the only differences being simple spelling or grammatical differences. This is not the case with other ancient documents
Another way the Bible demonstrates its reliability is through prophesy that has already been proven to be true. Prophesy can be simply defined as telling what is going to happen before it happens. Old Testament prophets, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, prophesied many events that later came true. They could not have known about the events at the time. Some of their prophesies came true years after they had already died, but we can compare what happened with what they said and see that they in fact did tell the future. They told the future with such detail that the chances of a random event fulfilling the prophesy are astronomical.
We can also trust in what the Scriptures shows Jesus thought of the Old Testament. If we believe that Jesus is perfect and we read about Him quoting from Scriptures, then we can place our trust in Scriptures as well.
You can follow this link to read more about the Dead Sea Scrolls
This link contains quotes from ancient historians outside of Scripture, that reference Jesus Christ.
Clarifying Christianity
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