Posted By admin on August 28, 2009

Manuscript Bible

How can we tell how old the manuscripts of the Bible are?

Please, if you're going to say "we can't" or something that's not helpful/pertinent, I would appreciate it if you didn't.

I was just wondering...I was reading how carbon dating and the like are not as reliable as they seem in dating the earth. So, Christians, are these the same methods used to date the bible? If so, isn't that a bit contradictory? (I'm not trying to argue or anything, I just couldnt find any answers online in order to explain this to someone. I trust the bible, but I just want to know how we date it)

By the "Born On" date on the label, just like Budweisers. Seriously, by eyewitness accounts. One of the accomplishments of the Roman Catholic Church was to assemble the manuscripts, make copies upon copies (as of the 4th centuries copies were made on parchment by papal decree so that they would not deteriorate like papyrus). These manuscripts were kept in ancient catacombs away from harsh environments; rumor is many original documents are within the Vatican Secret Archives (yes, that is what they are called), but no one without Apostolic Power will ever get close to them (power passed from Christ to St. Peter and down through the Apostles and Popes via the Holy Spirit). There is no need to carbon date something that has direct witness experience accounts. Carbon dating is used for items that there is no written record or recordable experience of. We also have the work of St. Jerome. Search on that one. He collected original texts in every known language and every nation and learned those languages so he could make an accurate translation of The Bible. He's the man when it comes to that. It is called The Vulgate, and it put the Bible into the common language of the Roman Empire, which spanned from England to the Near East and from Germany to Africa. Latin was known everywhere because of the famous Roman invention, the Roman Code of Law, which is how the empire was administered. We still use a similar system of laws today.

Category: Antiques
Tags: bible, books, history, manuscript bible, manuscript bible study, manuscripts, religion