The Bible As History: Documents

There are more than 5,000 manuscripts of the New Testament in libraries and private holdings around the world; by latest census the actual count is around 5,400. These are partial or complete manuscripts of portions of the established New Testament Canon.

I had the chance to study some of these documents in the 1980’s, working as a visiting scholar at the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library which is located on the campus of St. John’s University. Deep within the basement of the library’s main building I spent many happy hours studying ancient illuminated manuscripts; my visiting scholarship is noted in the annual reports of the library during this period.

I was looking at texts and fragments of texts in many languages, laboriously copied by monks in caves and grottos, castles and monasteries. Some of these I examined by microfilm; priests from St. John’s were touring Europe during these years, photographing previously unseen documents from the earliest of times. (Monks hid these treasures from centuries of looters and spoilers, including the Nazis.) It is impossible to describe the beauty and majesty of these documents from so many historical eras, in so many languages, many of them decorated with intricate drawings, borders and pagination.

Archaeology is bringing us new treasures almost daily. More and more New Testament manuscripts are being discovered, some of them written on papyrus, an early version of paper. These papyri can be dated with high degrees of accuracy; among two examples are P52, which contains excerpts of John’s Gospel and is dated circa 100 AD, shortly after the time of Christ. Another lengthy papyrus, P46, contains 86 of the 104 leaves of Paul’s epistles, circa 200 AD or earlier; some scholars estimate late 1st century.

The four gospels of our New Testament Canon were in common use by the 100’s AD, mutually agreed as authoritative. Seven subsequent councils would eventually define, after much frank and open discussion, which books made the Canon and which did not, yet the four gospels were already established as authoritative.

Archaeology, historical study and literary criticism will never be able to confirm or affirm ‘faith in God’ as being valid. Such faith is a matter of personal choice, made in the heart of each believer. It is the same kind of faith that some of us exercise when we choose to believe that someone outside ourselves truly, deeply loves us.

Having said this, it takes no faith whatsoever to believe that there was a Jesus, that he lived, traveled, taught and died. The historical accounts are clearly substantiated and carefully documented. The surviving documents give us many witnesses, on the record, who state clearly their belief that Jesus performed miracles and that this same Jesus was resurrected by God’s power, appearing again to his followers, days after his very public and painful death. We can accept or reject these claims; either way they are part of history.

Ten of the eleven original followers of Christ were martyred for this stated belief: that Christ was both human and divine, that he healed and worked many miracles, that God raised him from death. After these ten, many others were also imprisoned, tortured and killed. The simple path “okay, maybe Jesus was just a nice teacher with good manners” was not chosen by these early believers; they died attesting to the truth of Christ’s power, authority, and victory.

We inherit their testimony, which can be validated with far more historical accuracy and consistency than say, the plays of William Shakespeare, a much more recent figure. We have thousands of pages of evidence; more are being discovered daily in the caves and hills and ruins of the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

We cannot pick up our Bibles as blunt instruments and hit others on the head: “Ah, you see, there is a God after all!” Nothing in the Bible proves that there is a God, that He loves us, or that He gave His only son to redeem us and reconcile us to Himself.

The Bible does not prove these things: it only states them for us. On the record, in so many voices and languages, dating from Old Testament prophets who were stoned and drowned, through New Testament apostles who were tortured and killed. On the record, written not only in various inks but also, figuratively, in blood.

For some of us, the poignant reality is that many deaths took place so that we could read, reason, understand and believe --- all in our own language. And for some of us, the even more poignant reality is that one death took place so that we might live.

"In his disciples’ presence Jesus performed many other miracles which are not written down in this book. But these have been written in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through your faith in him you may have life.”
--- St. John’s Gospel, Chapter 20, Verses 30 and 31