Kladcat (2012), Creative Commons

Have you heard that the Bible has mistakes? Have you noticed that the footnotes in your Bible give options for how certain verses could be translated? Do these discrepancies cast doubt on the Bible’s reliability?

Justin Holcomb, writing at The Gospel Coalition, deals with a few of these issues.

It’s common to see the argument that the Scriptures we have today aren’t the same as what was written by the apostles in the first century. Such arguments attempt to portray the Bible as unreliable and therefore irrelevant. As we will see, however, these challenges do not stand up to scrutiny.

Holcomb’s short article tackles a few thorny issues with clarity and insight. He explains plainly why we don’t need to be threatened by the existence of manuscript variants. And he shows how the New Testament far surpasses any other ancient document in the sheer number of manuscripts available to us.

There is no reason to allow questions of transmission to distract you from trusting God’s knowable word. Here is Holcomb’s conclusion:

Because of who God is, and because of what God has done to preserve his Word, we have confidence the events described in Scripture are accurate and historical. This is important because Christianity, unique among world religions, depends on historical events: particularly Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. As J. Gresham Machen writes, “Christianity is based upon an account of something that happened, and the Christian worker is primarily a witness.” Scripture tell us this account, revealing Christianity’s climax—its central, historical, and verifiable event: God’s gracious act of bringing salvation through the cross of Jesus Christ.

It’s a great article. Check it out!