eyewtinesses accounts

The Bible records eyewitness accounts to the death of Jesus and the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. Of course the actual physical resurrection occurrence was not witnessed at the very moment as Jesus was in a tomb when it happened. The standard procedure of following the evidence would suffice it to say it happened if the appearances are legitimate.

1 Corinthians 15:3-7 is the earliest account of the resurrection appearances. There are eyewitnesses alive at the time who can deny Paul’s reporting of the event. They do not. There are Jewish writers at the time who can refute the eyewitnesses during their lifetime. They do not. There is no denial. But, how accurate is the Bible?

Compare the New Testament to other ancient writings. In the Bible days there were, of course, no printing presses. Books were passed down orally from one generation to the next. If something were extremely important, it would painstakingly be written down on stone, animal hide, or papyrus. Obviously the earlier it was copied, the more accurate it would be. So how does the Bible compare to other ancient writings?

We all have heard of the writings of Aristotle and his teacher, Plato. Chances are somewhere in high school or college you were introduced to these philosophers. Much of modern thought can be traced partially to these two men’s teaching.

Well let’s compare how many ancient pieces of manuscript we have today that are from Plato or Aristotle, and how many manuscript pieces are there from the New Testament. Then let’s compare how close the age of the manuscript piece is to the actual time of the person. These are two tests that archeologists use to measure the authenticity of texts.

Source Copies Time from actual event Plato 7 excerpts 1200 years after
Aristotle 49 excerpts 1400 years after
New Testament 24,633 excerpts 25 years after first excerpt

Also, within 350 years after the whole New Testament is available!

Now, philosophers don’t seem to question the accuracy of Plato or Aristotle, but the same people may question the accuracy of scripture. There is no ancient document that even comes close to the historical accuracy of the Bible! The evidence compelling.