Atlanta Vampire Alliance [AVA]

[Merticus]

General Info on the Bible
The Bible consists of 66 books: 39 in the OT and 27 in the new.  The Bible took about 1600 years to write. It was written in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek) by about 40 authors and is internally consistent throughout.

Reliability of the Bible
The Bible is 98½ percent textually pure. Through all the copying of the Biblical manuscripts of the entire Bible, only 1½% has any question about it. Nothing in all of the ancient writings of the entire world approaches the accuracy of the biblical documents.
The 1½ percent that is in question does not affect doctrine. The areas of interest are called variants and they consist mainly in variations of wording and spelling.
The NT has over 5000 supporting Greek manuscripts existing today with another 20,000 manuscripts in other languages. Some of the manuscript evidence dates to within 100 years of the original writing. There is less than a 1% textual variation in the NT manuscripts.
Some of the supporting manuscripts of the NT are:
John Rylands MS written around 130 A.D., the oldest existing fragment of the gospel of John
Bodmer Papyrus II (150-200 A.D.)
Chester Beatty Papyri (200 A.D.), contains major portions of the NT
Codex Vaticanus (325-350 A.D.), contains nearly all the Bible.
Codex Sinaiticus (350 A.D.), contains almost all the NT and over half of the OT

Prophecies of the Bible
Odds of Jesus filling the prophecies: 
The odds of Jesus fulfilling 48 of the 61 major prophecies concerning Him are 1 in 10157; that is a one with 157 zeros behind it.  By comparison, the estimated number of electrons in the entire known universe is about 1079; that is a one with 79 zeros behind it.
Prophecies of the Bible

Virgin Birth Prophecy
Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."
Note:  the Jews who translated the Septuagint (Greek Translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) translated Isaiah 7:14 as the word virgin, not young maiden.
Matt. 1:18,25, "This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary...was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit... But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus."

Born in Bethlehem
Micah 5:2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."
Matt. 2:1, "After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem."

Preceded by a messenger
Isaiah 40:3, "A voice of one calling: 'In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.'"
Matt. 3:1-2, "In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.'"

Side Pierced
 Zech. 12:10, "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one mourns for an only son."
John 19:34, "Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water."

Crucifixion
Psalm 22:16-18, "a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing."
Luke 23:33, "When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals -- one on his right, the other on his left."
John 19:33, "But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs."
John 19:23-24, "When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes..they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it." This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, "They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing." So this is what the soldiers did."

Scientific Accuracies in the Bible
The spherical shape of the earth (Isaiah 40:22).
The earth is suspended in nothing (Job. 26:7).
The stars are innumerable (Gen. 15:5).
The existence of valleys in the seas (2 Sam. 22:16).
The existence of springs and fountains in the sea (Gen. 7:11; 8:2; Prov. 8:2.
The existence of water paths (ocean currents) in the seas (Psalm 8:.
The water cycle (Job. 26:8; 36:27-28; 37:16; 38:25-27; Ps. 135:7; Ecc. 1:6-7).
The fact that all living things reproduce after their own kind (Gen. 1:21; 6:19).
The nature of health, sanitation, and sickness (Gen. 17:9-14; Lev. 12-14).
The concept of entropy, that energy is running down (Psalm 102:26).  

Source: http://www.carm.org/cut/bible.htm

[Chercheur]

Merticus,

Your knowledge of the Bible is staggering. I was raised by very religious Southern Baptist parents and the Bible is about all my mom ever talks about.... but I've never heard most of the things you have posted here (although now I want to do some more research on a lot of them.) I have to know- how do you know so much about the Bible? Do you follow any particular religion?

[Merticus]

That particular information was cited so keep that in mind, however, I have studied Christianity from an apologetic (and even secular/pagan) angle for years along with lessor study of Hinduism and Islam from Emory Univ. As to my personal religious beliefs, they are pluralist to some degree but predominately Christian (non-denominational). I believe the core doctrine, ethical tenets, and stories of the Bible are of immeasurable value, but that the Church/man has perverted the Faith for their own benefit and transient social climate of the era.
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- Merticus

[nightchild]

Religioun got perverted & the faith is missing.
The church has been lying for years against there own followers for decades. There are older scriptures writtin in aramaic saying something completely diffirent. example dead sea scrolls bible code these books are interessting to read. the bible has been changed for over almost 2000 years but yet there is an older version.
nag hammadi, dead sea scorlls ring any bells the bibile code?
the hidden messages, gnosis.
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who dares not speak his free thoughts is a slave.Euripides