00:00:02 The Bible is a book of facts.
00:00:05 It’s about real people, real events,
00:00:08 real history in real places.
00:00:10 In the Hebrew Scriptures,
00:00:12 there are at least 53 people
00:00:15 confirmed archaeologically.
00:00:17 One example is Pharaoh Shishak of Egypt.
00:00:21 The Bible mentions his invasion of Judah,
00:00:24 specifically dating it
00:00:26 “in the fifth year of [Judean] King Rehoboam.”
00:00:30 For a long time,
00:00:32 the only record of that invasion
00:00:35 was the one found in the Bible.
00:00:37 Then a relief on the wall of a temple at Karnak, Egypt,
00:00:41 was discovered, depicting
00:00:43 Shishak with captives.
00:00:46 It also records names of conquered Israelite towns,
00:00:50 many of which have been identified with Biblical sites.
00:00:54 It also mentions the “Field of Abram,”
00:00:58 the earliest reference in Egyptian records
00:01:01 to the Biblical patriarch Abraham.
00:01:05 This strengthens our confidence and faith
00:01:08 in the Bible as God’s Word.
00:01:12 The Bible was written on perishable materials,
00:01:14 such as papyrus and parchment.
00:01:18 While no originals are known to exist today,
00:01:20 the number of ancient copies available now
00:01:23 is staggering: some 11,000 Hebrew and Greek manuscripts,
00:01:28 more than for any other ancient piece of literature.
00:01:33 By comparing the earliest, most authoritative manuscripts,
00:01:37 scholars can identify inaccuracies
00:01:41 and mistakes that have crept in.
00:01:44 But the vast majority of differences
00:01:46 do not change the meaning at all.
00:01:49 One example is found at Luke 4:17,
00:01:51 which says that Jesus “opened the scroll” of Isaiah.
00:01:56 But some manuscripts say
00:01:58 that he “unrolled the scroll.”
00:02:01 But isn’t the meaning the same?
00:02:05 God’s message has even survived changes in language.
00:02:09 Writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures quoted the Hebrew Scriptures,
00:02:14 but often from the Greek Septuagint translation.
00:02:17 At times, they paraphrased such quotations,
00:02:20 using slightly different wording.
00:02:22 But the message remained the same.
00:02:25 And most of Jesus’ words,
00:02:27 likely spoken in first-century Hebrew,
00:02:29 were recorded in Greek.
00:02:32 Still, his message is clear.
00:02:35 Today, at least parts of God’s Word
00:02:38 can be read in more than 3,000 languages.
00:02:42 The Bible’s survival reveals
00:02:44 a puzzling paradox:
00:02:46 Throughout history,
00:02:47 people were willing to die to preserve the Bible
00:02:50 and make it available to everyone.
00:02:53 Others were willing to kill
00:02:55 to prevent access to it and wipe it out of existence.
00:02:58 Why?
00:03:00 It’s the book’s content.
00:03:02 God’s Word “is alive and exerts power.”
00:03:06 It changes people’s lives
00:03:08 in ways that some welcome
00:03:10 but others resist—violently at times.
00:03:14 For example, responding to Roman Emperor Diocletian’s edict
00:03:19 in 303 C.E.
00:03:21 “to destroy the sacred Scriptures by fire,”
00:03:24 Felix, a bishop of Thibiuca, reportedly said,
00:03:28 “It is better for me to be burned than the sacred Scriptures.”
00:03:32 He paid with his life.
00:03:35 Efforts to destroy God’s message for mankind continue today,
00:03:40 “but the word of our God endures forever.”
