Question
I wanted to know what evidence is there to prove that revelations reveled by God in earlier times were not protected by those nations to whom the revelations were sent? And what use will be there of punishing those who did not protect or took care of God’s word because He reveled new revelations for the mankind as is claimed? Who searched at first time that the books are no longer the same? As for me I believe that those revelations are still the same as they were. Why do I say this? Because the bible gives the accurate history of mankind. Bible provides practical counsel to unwise even today which is beneficial for every man on the earth. Some examples are as under.
If you read first book Genesis you will come to know that why the mankind is suffering.
If you read the book of Isaiah you will come to know that how bad the Israelite nation was. And it is still the same there is no change.in the chapter 1 verses 1, 2 and 3 are read as……
1 The vision of Isaiah the son of A´moz that he versioned concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzzi´ah, Jo´tham, A´haz [and] Hezeki´ah, kings of Judah:
2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for Jehovah himself has spoken: “Sons I have brought up and raised, but they themselves have revolted against me. 3 A bull well knows its buyer, and the ass the manger of its owner; Israel itself has not known, my own people have not behaved understandingly.”
And these verses are being read even today there is no change you can compare these verses with old books.
The bible does not say to steel, or to kill a neighbor, or to commit adultery, or to be greedy, or to offer a fake sacrifice. You will come know if read from Deuteronomy 17 verse 1
1 “You must not sacrifice to Jehovah your God a bull or a sheep in which there proves to be a defect, anything bad; because it is a thing detestable to Jehovah your God.
In the book of Prophet Solomon it is written in chapter 12:19:
It is the lip of truth that will be firmly established forever, but the tongue of falsehood will be only as long as a moment.
These are the few examples but you can further inquire about with a positive mind. Ask for Gods guidance and pray from Him.
Answer
Thanks for your question.
You have provided two reasons as evidences that the Bible is not corrupted.
Your two reasons are:
1. The bible gives the accurate history of mankind.
2. The bible provides practical counsel to unwise even today which is beneficial for every man on the earth.
I would like to invite your careful attention to the issue under discussion, that is, whether a text we know today as the Bible is the same text that was revealed or promised by God to the Prophets of Bani Israel.
Even if the bible gives the accurate history of mankind (a claim that I think not many historians will agree to) this will not be a proof that the text of the current Bible is exactly what was revealed to the Prophets of Bani Israel. Is it not possible to have an ancient text that (in opinion of some people) provides an accurate account of the history but still is not the same as it was originally?
Same argument goes for your second reason.
When we want to consider whether a text is in its original format or not our primary tool should be studying the way that the text has been transferred to us.
Now when I look at my version of the Bible (New International Version, 1988, England) I find the following on page 11 under ABOUT THE BIBLE:
“The Bible is a collection of 66 separate books and letters, written over a period of some 1,500 years culminating approximately 100 years after Christ’s death and resurrection. There were many different writers, who lived and wrote in different countries. They came from different walks of life and different social positions.”
I hope you appreciate that the above does not really give an unbiased reader a very promising picture about the reliability of the current version of the Bible. A book is written over 1500 years, only after 100 years has passed from the time of Christ by people who lived in different places. As far as I see, this is a typical process by which an original text usually gets corrupted.
All the above is apart from the fact that the current Bible is not in its original language which then raises the question of accuracy of translations.
As you probably know there have been many studies about the history of the Bible and its transmission. For example, you can have a look at The Cambridge History of the Bible by C. F. Evans or The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration” by Bruce M. Metzger. There are also some interesting information about this in Encyclopedia Britannica, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church and the Peakes Commentary on the Bible.
Some interesting quotes from some of the above sources with more details can be found in a writing by Mr. Moiz Amjad. You can find this here: http://www.monthly-renaissance.com/issue/content.aspx?id=742
At the end, I need to clarify something here, and that is, when we say the Bible is corrupted we do not mean that every word of the Bible has been changed. We simply mean that we cannot consider the Bible to be 100% divine. There is no doubt that overall, even the current version of the Bible is a wonderful guide to the human kind and an inspiring book worth of reading and studying.
Answered by: Farhad Shafti
Date: 2015-03-18
