NT Reliability

Last Night we watched the History Tour of The Truth Project. One of the coolest things in it was the piece showing that the New Testament Scriptures are the most historically reliable ancient writing that we have. A quick Google search will bring up lots of papers showing this in detail.

Here is part of how one site put it:

The New Testament is by far the most reliable ancient writing in existence today. There exist today over 24,000 copies (5,000 of them in the original Greek language) of the New Testament (either in whole or in part).¹ This should be compared with the fact that only 7 copies presently exist of Plato's Tetralogies.² Homer's Iliad is in second place behind the New Testament among ancient writings with just 643 copies.³

The earliest copy of Plato's Tetralogies is dated about 1,200 years after Plato supposedly wrote the original.⁴ Compare this with the earliest extant copy of the New Testament: the John Ryland's Papyri. It contains a portion of John 18. This fragment is dated at about 125AD, only 25 years after the original is thought to have been written.⁵....Again, Homer's Iliad takes second place among ancient writings, second only to the New Testament. The earliest copy of any portion of Homer's Iliad is dated about 500 years after the original writing.⁷

Cute Scripture Memorization

John Piper isn't quite as "cute" but this is good too:

My Pilgrimage

I was inspired just now by this video clip from John Piper to go on a spiritual pilgrimage to Romans 5:1-11. Way better than visiting Mecca or Kapilavastu, or anywhere else like that. What a trip! What a sacred place.

The Word On The Street

I think that the Internet reads my email because when I had a conversation about Bible Translations, it posted a link at the top to The Word On The Street Bible paraphrase by Rob Lacey. The website says, " This is not THE Bible (capital B) … but it might just get you reaching for one."

King James Version:
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Word on the Street:
Day one: Then God's voice booms out, "Lights!" and, from nowhere, light floods the skies and "night" is swept off the scene. God gives it the big thumbs up, calls it "day".