Is the Bible Still the Word of God?

moses wrote: When I am talking about the Bible, I am talking about a book which included Old and new testaments and some which all of them were written by the apostles of Jesus Christ:

This still means nothing. If you would take a look at the link

http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Bible/Text/Canon/

You will see a list and dates of a trail of confusion. This confusion is based upon the fact that your own doctors have been chasing their tails for two thousand years trying to define a �bible�. 

The next link clearly demonstrates the confusion is �mass� confusion when you take the OT and NT into account with respect to the time before and after Islam.

http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Bible/Text/Canon/canonages.html

Keep in mind that it was not until the last few centuries that your faith has come closer to agreement to what makes up your holy book. Even now you have some who want nothing but the KJV as the official version of Gods word in English.

The New Testament Autographs 45- 95 A.D. The New Testament was written in Greek. The Pauline Epistles, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Luke, and the book of Acts are all dated from 45-63 A.D. The Gospel of John and the Revelation may have been written as late as 95 A.D.

A dating alone does not necessarily give us the conclusion your source is trying to imply. As an example, Galatians is dated about 50 CE. Wow! We have a letter from Paul that gets us to a time close to Jesus! Or do we. Christians love to brag and boast about MS dating, but usually much is left out and I also believe their theologians who know better mislead their flocks.

Galatians is dated to about 50 CE, the problem is that the earliest MS, P46, dates to 200 CE. That is 15 decades, 150 years, between the time the letter is dated, and an actual copy of the letter that remains. So we have a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a letter that Paul wrote. Keep in mind I am not addressing the theological issues, only the notion if a dated MS and what it means and does not mean. So when you open your bible and read Galatians, you are not actually reading what Paul wrote, you are reading a second century document that represents a transmission of copies that extend back 150 years earlier.

There was no method for transmission, there was no critical methodology for preserving Paul�s word in any accurate way, there is no way to reconstruct what the copy our MS came from looked like. The point is, no one can say, with any certainty, if Galatians is a word for word accurate representation of what Paul wrote. Christian literature is full of accounts of people falsifying accounts and writing in other people�s names. In fact, half of Paul�s work is now hotly contested as forgeries.

Manuscripts There are over 5,600 early Greek Manuscripts of the New Testament that are still in existence. The oldest manuscripts were written on papyrus and the later manuscripts were written on leather called parchment.

 

 

The problem with this claim is that the complete MSS do not get you any closer than 400 years to late second temple.

 

�         125 A.D. The New Testament manuscript which dates most closely to the original autograph was copied around 125 A.D, within 35 years of the original. It is designated "p 52" and contains a small portion of John 18. (The "p" stands for papyrus.)

 

P52 is not a NT MS, it is a fragment.

http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/greek/johnpap.html

 

You are still in the same position as with Galatians.

 

�         200 A.D. Bodmer p 66 a papyrus manuscript which contains a large part of the Gospel of John.

 

I would not say a large part, it is also segments, (John 1:1-6:11; 6:35-14:26, 29-30; 15:2-26; 16:2-4, 6-7; 16:10-20:20, 22-23; 20:25-21:9, 12, 17) and does not have the story of the adulteress. Now that is a bit strange.

 http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Bible/Text/Mss/P66.html

 

 

�         200 A.D. Chester Beatty Biblical papyrus p 46 contains the Pauline Epistles and Hebrews.

 

Incomplete, and we are still back to my example of Galatians.

 

 

 

�         225 A.D. Bodmer Papyrus p 75 contains the Gospels of Luke and John.

 

(Luke 3:18-22; 3:33 - 4:2; 4:34 - 5:10; 5:37 - 6:4; 6:10 - 7:32, 35-39, 41-43; 7:46 - 9:2; 9:4 - 17:15; 17:19 - 18:18; 22:4 - 24:53; John 1:1 - 11:45, 48-57; 12:3 - 13:1, 8-9; 14:8-29; 15:7-8.)

Interesting note: The manuscript does not include the pericope of the adulteress (7:53 - 8:11), making it the second earliest witness (next to P⁶⁶) not to include this spurious passage. (this is one of those mistakes that entered into �bible�).

 

Keep in mind that we are still at the problem as demonstrated with Galatians.

 

http://www.earlham.edu/~seidti/iam/tc_pap75.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

�         250-300 A.D. Chester Beatty Biblical papyrus p 45 contains portions of the four Gospels and Acts.

 

Here is an image.

 

http://www.bsw.org/project/biblica/bibl82/images/Carta.jpg

 

 

Again, we have another example of an incomplete copy copied from lost copies removed 140 years or so from their actual time. We are still at the Galatians example.

 

�         350 A.D. Codex Sinaiticus contains the entire New Testament and almost the entire Old Testament in Greek. It was discovered by a German scholar Tisendorf in 1856 at an Orthodox monastery at Mt. Sinai.

 

http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Bible/Text/Mss/sinai.html

 

Saying it was complete would not be the complete truth. The contents are of interest: (It has both the Old and New Testaments. The New Testament contains Four Gospels, Acts, Catholic Epistles and Pauline Epistles (including Hebrews), Apocalypse, the Epistle of Barnabas and Shepherd of Hermas.)

So is it reasonable to say that the holy spirit has not yet inspired Christians after 300 years to know what a cannon is and is not? Something else of interest:

 

�Matthew 16:2 f. is omitted, Mark ends at 16:8, Luke 22:43 f. was marked as spurious by the first corrector, but these signs were canceled by the third corrector. John 5:4 and the Pericope de adultera are omitted. The doxology of Romans comes after 16:23 verse 24 being omitted. Hebrews follow immediately after II Thessalonians.�

It looks like the holy spirit is having some trouble guiding the faithful. And there is that story of the adulteress again. So after 300 years your scholars do not know if the story actually happened or not. I find it interesting that if we look at the evidences your source puts up, it really creates more problems for your claim.

�         350 A.D. Codex Vaticanus: {B} is an almost complete New Testament. It was cataloged as being in the Vatican Library since 1475

 

http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Bible/Text/Mss/vatican.html

 

 

A 4^th century book. Not only is the adulteress story still omitted, but you are no closer to proving your claim for a continuity going back to Jesus.

 

�The kingdom of God will be taken from you (Jews) and be given to a nation producing its fruits.� (Matthew 21:43) Rebuilt temple destroyed in 70C.E. (Matthew 23:37, 38)
 

�God is not partial, but in every nation the man that fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.��Acts 10:34, 35.

�God has granted repentance for the purpose of life to people of the nations also.�� (Acts 11:18)

Acts 2:17-18

يَقُولُ اللهُ: وَيَكُونُ فِي الأَيَّامِ الأَخِيرَةِ أَنِّي أَسْكُبُ مِنْ رُوحِي عَلَى كُلِّ بَشَرٍ، فَيَتَنَبَّأُ بَنُوكُمْ وَبَنَاتُكُمْ، وَيَرَى شَبَابُكُمْ رُؤًى وَيَحْلُمُ شُيُوخُكُمْ أَحْلاَمًا.

17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

وَعَلَى عَبِيدِي أَيْضًا وَإِمَائِي أَسْكُبُ مِنْ رُوحِي فِي تِلْكَ الأَيَّامِ فَيَتَنَبَّأُونَ.

18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy

Acts 2:1-21

2 Now while the day of the [festival of] Pentecost was in progress they were all together at the same place, ² and suddenly there occurred from heaven a noise just like that of a rushing stiff breeze, and it filled the whole house in which they were sitting. ³ And tongues as if of fire became visible to them and were distributed about, and one sat upon each one of them, ⁴ and they all became filled with holy spirit and started to speak with different tongues, just as the spirit was granting them to make utterance.

⁵ As it was, there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, reverent men, from every nation of those under heaven. ⁶ So, when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. ⁷ Indeed, they were astonished and began to wonder and say: �See here, all these who are speaking are Gal�i�le�ans, are they not? ⁸ And yet how is it we are hearing, each one of us, his own language in which we were born? ⁹ Par�thi�ans and Medes and E�lam�ites, and the inhabitants of Mes�o�po�ta�mi�a, and Ju�de�a and Cap�pa�do�ci�a, Pon�tus and the [district of] Asia, ¹⁰ and Phryg�i�a and Pam�phyl�i�a, Egypt and the parts of Lib�y�a, which is toward Cy�re�ne, and sojourners from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, ¹¹ Cre�tans and Arabians, we hear them speaking in our tongues about the magnificent things of God.� ¹² Yes, they were all astonished and were in perplexity, saying one to another: �What does this thing purport to be?� ¹³ However, different ones mocked at them and began to say: �They are full of sweet wine.�

¹⁴ But Peter stood up with the eleven and raised his voice and made this utterance to them: �Men of Ju�de�a and all YOU inhabitants of Jerusalem, let this be known to YOU and give ear to my sayings. ¹⁵ These [people] are, in fact, not drunk, as YOU suppose, for it is the third hour of the day. ¹⁶ On the contrary, this is what was said through the prophet Joel, ¹⁷ ��And in the last days,� God says, �I shall pour out some of my spirit upon every sort of flesh, and YOUR sons and YOUR daughters will prophesy and YOUR young men will see visions and YOUR old men will dream dreams; ¹⁸ and even upon my men slaves and upon my women slaves I will pour out some of my spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. ¹⁹ And I will give portents in heaven above and signs on earth below, blood and fire and smoke mist; ²⁰ the sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and illustrious day of Jehovah arrives. ²¹ And everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved.��