TerryWalstrom, You have made certain good arguments. You can fight on the
authenticity of the Bible in many different ways, as it was written in
antiquity or in ancient times where people did not possess the technologies to
record or preserve things the way we do now. This not only applies to the
Bible, but to all other documents from that era.
However, I feel differently about your assertion that the
Bible should not be believed because the original manuscript does not exist. Even
if the originals existed, people would have still questioned if they are
actually originals.
I personally feel that the words of the Bible are not
confined to the papyrus roll or the perishable material on which it was originally written. The original manuscript or the autograph was not meant to be a sacred object
of worship. Once the author wrote down the words in the manuscript, they were
copied by the copyists and others meticulously over the years, in the similar way we print
or take photocopies of original documents.
Since people in those days did not have any other way to
preserve the originals, they did all they could to make copies of all original
documents that they had. If you and I lived in that era, we would have done the
same to preserve personal documents, business transactions, financial
documents, etc.
Even in our day, original documents exist as a proof to
validate our dealings and transactions. For e.g. a marriage certificate, the
original constitution of the country, school and college certificates, etc.
However, our lives are not confined to these originals. Someone’s marriage doesn’t
get invalid if his original marriage certificate gets lost in a flood or
hurricane. Someone’s citizenship doesn’t get revoked simply if he loses his original identification
proofs in an accident. Neither does a person’s educational qualification get
revoked if he loses his originals while on transit. Would the theory of
evolution fail if the original documents of Charles Darwin get lost? No, because
they are not bound to those papers that were written. Similarly, the Bible doesn’t
get invalid simply because the originals have ceased to exist and we personally were not present to see the copyists doing their replication and
preservation. The constitution of a country, the laws, statutes, acts, etc. are
not confined to the original document on which they were drafted. The content
is important, not the paper on which it is written. If you lose the original
document, the constitution and the laws still apply.
The Bible
says that the word of God would be preserved, not the manuscript or the papyrus
scroll on which it was written. An audio testimony of an important witness for
a legal case is taken on a device and is then copied to other devices to ensure
its safety. The message is important and is to be preserved, and its validity does not depend on the medium in which it is recorded. The multiplicity of the manuscripts of the Bible available are enough for a person to believe it.
