From: af664@yfn.ysu.edu (Frank DeCenso, Jr.)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: VERIFYING CHRISTIANITY #1
Date: 26 Jan 93 15:48:24 GMT
Organization: Youngstown State/Youngstown Free-Net


In attempting to verify the claims of Christianity, one must first start
with the document(s) it's 'precepts' are contained in...the Bible.
 
Written over a 1500 year span.
written over 40 generations.
Written by 40 different authors from every walk of life.
Written in different places.
Written at different times (war, peace, etc.).
Written during different moods.
Written on three continents (Asia, Africa, Europe).
Written in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek).
Subject matter contains hundreds of controversial subjects.
Writing styles range from historical to poetic to doctrinal.
Yet from it's first book (Genesis) to it's last (Revelation), it is in
  COMPLETE harmony in it's major subject - God's redemption of man.
 
No other work can duplicate these variables. It is truly "UNIQUE".
Manuscript evidence is another important source of evidence in proving the
claims of the Bible.
 
Surving manuscripts of the New Testament :
 Greek
  Uncials............267
  Miniscules.........2764
  Lectionaries.......2143
  Papyri.............88
  Recent finds.......47
 Total extant Greek Manuscripts...5309
 
 Latin Vulgate.......10000 +
 Ethiopic............2000 +
 Slavic..............4101
 Armenian............2587
 Syriac Pashetta.....350 +
 Bohairic............100
 Arabic..............75
 Old Latin...........50
 Anglo Saxon.........7
 Gothic..............6
 Sogdian.............3
 Old Syriac..........2
 Persian.............2
 Frankish............1
 
TOTAL MANUSCRIPTS OF NEW TESTAMENT KNOWN TO BE IN EXISTANCE...24633
 
The second most widely attested work of antiquity is Homer's Illiad which
has a total of 643 surviving manuscripts.
 
Has anyone questioned the authenticity of Homer's Illiad lately?
It's also important to compare other writings of antiquity (which are
virtually never disputed) with the Bible.
 
AUTHOR                WHEN WRITTEN    EARLIEST COPY   TIME SPAN   # OF COPIES
 
Caesar (Gallic Wars)   100-44 BC       900 AD           1000 yrs.   10
Livy (Roman History)   59 BC-17 AD                                  35
Plato (Tetralogies)    427 BC-347 BC   900 AD           1200 yrs.   7
Tacitus (Annals)       100 AD          1100 AD          1000 yrs.   20
Tacitus (minor works)  100 AD          1000 AD          900 yrs.    1
Pliny (History)        61-113 AD       850 AD           750 yrs.    7
Thucydides (History)   460-400 BC      900 AD           1300 yrs.   8
Suetonius
   (De Vita Caesarum)  75-160 AD       950 AD           800 yrs.    8
Herodotus (History)    480-425 BC      900 AD           1300 yrs.   8
Horace                                                  900 yrs.
Sophocles              496-406 BC      1000 AD          1400 yrs.   193
Lucretius              55 or 53 BC                      1100 yrs.   2
Catullus               54 BC           1550 AD          1600 yrs.   3
Euripedes              480-406 BC      1100 AD          1500 yrs    9
Demosthenes            383-322 BC      1100 AD          1300 yrs.   200
Aristotle              384-322 BC      1100 AD          1400 yrs.   49
Aristophenes           450-385 BC      900 AD           1200 yrs    10
Homer (Illiad)         900 BC          400 BC           500 yrs.    643
 
NEW TESTAMENT          40-100 AD       125 AD           25 YRS.     24633
 
There can be no doubt that if authenticity of any work of antiquity needs to
be questioned, it certainly isn't the New Testament !
Any Classical Writing critics out there?
Dr. Simon Greenleaf, who was the Royall Professor of Law at Harvard Univ.,
wrote "A Treatise on the Law of Evidence", a three-volume work, considered
one of the greatest works on this subject in legal literature.
Using these rules of evidence, he researched the Resurrection of Jesus
Christ and came to the conclusion that according to the laws of legal 
evidence administered in courts of law, there is more evidence for the 
Resurrection of Jejesus than for just about any other event in history !
 
He recorded his findings in the book, "An Examination of the Testimony of
the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence Administered in the Courts
of Justice".
 The scientific method is related to measurement of phenomena and
experiment-ation or repeated observation.
The scientific method isn't appropriate for answering questions like,
"Did Jesus Christ rise from the dead?", "Was Lincoln shot in a theater?",
etc.
Historical events must be taken out of the realm of scientific proof and
put into the realm of legal proof.
This kind of proof is established on the basis of the evidence; when
there's no reasonable basis for doubting the decision.
It depends upon three types of testimony : oral testimony, written
testimony, and exhibits.

The Old Testament contains over 300 references to the Messiah that were
literally fulfilled in Jesus. The probability of one man fulfilling 48 of
the over 300 prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 157th power (10 with 157
zeroes).

Part of the Bibliographical test to substantiate a document's validity
is to see how widely it was accepted as well as quoted. Below is a chart
detailing quotations of the New Testament in others' writings prior to
the Council of Nicea (325 AD).
 
               Gospels  Acts   Pauline E.  General E.  Revelation  Total
Justin Martyr  268      10     43          6           3           330
                                                       (266
                                                        allusions)
Iranaeus       1038     194    499         23          65          1819
Clement        1017     44     1127        207         11          2406
Origen         9231     349    7778        399         165         17922
Tertullian      3822     502    2609        120         205         7258
Hippolytus     734      42     387         27          188         1378
Eusebius       3258     211    1592        88          27          5176
 
Totals         19368    1352   14035       870         664         36289
 
The New Testament was widely accepted and used as authentic as well as
factual by people who lived very near the time of the writers of the New
Testament !

-- 
Frank
....
"Forever, O LORD, your word is settled in heaven."  PSALM 119:89
"The entirety of Your word is truth."  PSALM 119:160