A legend or myth is:
1. A very old story or set of stories from ancient times, or the stories, not always true, that people tell about a famous event or person. 2. An ancient story or set of stories explaining in a literary way the early history of a group of people. 3. A commonly believed but false idea.
A truth is:
1. The real facts about a situation, event or person. |
In the first century
For centuries men have tried to put suspicion upon the Bible. A man named Marcion at the end of the 1st century made one of the first attempts against the Bible. He couldn't believe that the God described in the Old Testament was the same as the one in the New Testament. So he decided to cut out of the text all the parts he did not like so that it would reflect his personal beliefs on God. That led him to trial in Rome where he was confounded by a man named Justin, one of the early fathers of the church. His actions led the church to investigate and defend as truth all that is written in the Bible.
In 150 AD, another man named Montan pretended that the Spirit of God had spoken to him and that his prophecies should also be added to the Bible. That led the church to decide which texts should or should not be part of the Bible.
There are 3 standards for New Testament books to be part of the Bible:
1. The author must be either an apostle or a contemporary of Jesus. Someone who was close to them. 2. The teaching of the text must be in accordance with the teaching of all the texts already in the Bible. 3. The text must have been accepted and well known by the Christians of the 1st Century.
|
In the 20th Century...
Fifty years ago the text of the Bible was again put to trial. People where saying that the Bible had changed over the years. That it had been compiled and rewritten by church people. Or even that some parts of the Bible had been written hundreds of years after the events.
The debate was raging until the year 1946 when a shepherd boy made one of the most important discoveries in biblical archaeology. In a rock cavern, he discovered jars full of scrolls and parchments. There were about 900 manuscripts that had belonged to a secret community of Qumran. This community of people had lived along the Dead Sea during Jesus' time. In these jars was a copy of all the Old Testament books except the book of Esther dated from the year -200 BC. These 2200-year-old manuscripts proved that today's Bible text was precisely the same as the one found in the jars. The Bible text had not changed in all those years!
In recent years, many other discoveries have permitted to prove that the New Testament books are also very reliable. Late discoveries have proven once again that what is written in the Bible really happened and that it was written either by people who had witnessed it with their own eyes or by writers such as Luke who had collected the testimonies of these witnesses.
Many people today are still devoted to study and defend the Bible text. The work they are doing is called textual critic. They gather the manuscripts found by archaeology and study the texts to find out when it was written, who is the author, to who was it addressed, etc. By studying and comparing the more than 6000 Greek manuscripts available, they can find out which ones are the oldest and closest to the original writings of the apostles. At present, it has been proven that ALL New Testament books where originally written before 80 AD.
Conclusion
The Bible is not just a very old book of stories from ancient times that people would invent and tell around the camp fire.
The Bible speaks about real facts, real events, real people. What is written in the Bible really happened the way it is said.
That is why it is the Truth.
TG
