Updated American Standard Version
Giving Bible readers what God said not what translators think God meant
In both the Hebrew Old Testament Scriptures and the Greek New Testament, copyists have exercised great care in copying their manuscripts. However, we would be remiss if we did not say that some copyists were inexperienced or took certain liberties with the text that they were copying.
Christian apologetics is important because it provides evidence and rational arguments for the truth of the Christian faith. This can help to strengthen the faith of believers, and can also be used to persuade non-believers to consider the claims of Christianity. Additionally, apologetics can help to defend the faith against objections and criticisms. It can also help to foster deeper understanding and appreciation of the faith for both believers and non-believers alike.
When you open your Bible today, can you be confident that the words you are reading are, in fact, the very corresponding English words that were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, James, and Jude nearly 2,000 years ago? Confident, you say? Just how confident are you? Are you confident because of what you know or what you hear?
For the conservative Evangelical Christian, one of their foundational doctrines is “The Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs.”
The date and authenticity of the Acts of the Apostles is crucial to the historicity of early Christianity and, thus, to apologetics in general.
Modern objections to the Book of Daniel were started by German scholars who were prejudiced against the supernatural. Daniel foretells events that have occurred in history. Therefore, argue these scholars, the alleged predictions must have been written after the events.
Why are there only these 66 books in the Bible? Because God is the ultimate author of the Bible, and He inspired only these 66. All Scripture is breathed out of the mouth of God (Mt 4:4; 2 Tm 3:16). What the human authors wrote did not originate with them but with God, who moved upon them (2 Sm 23:2; 1 Pt 1:20–21).
In creating men and women, God had something different in mind than He did for the other creatures. The latter are spoken of as having been created “according to their kinds” (Gen 1:25). Humans, however, are described as being made in the image and likeness of God (1:26–27).
What is a modern reader of the Old Testament to do with a book that teaches animal sacrifice, male circumcision, strange dietary codes, and festivals based on an agricultural cycle? Its contents appear to be so ancient and so removed from our day that some dismiss it as “primitive religion.”
There is a widespread belief among both professional scholars and laymen that the Bible now used by Christians is significantly altered from the historical documents upon which it was based. This, they say, is because of the Church’s agenda to make Jesus a divine figure. What is the truth?