Capernaum is a major headquarters for Christ and His ministry. We’ll spend a lot of time reading about Capernaum.

Galilee is where Jesus was raised.

We will study Samaria and Judea.

He was born in Bethlehem.

He spent His last days in Jerusalem.

There are four major topological areas in Israel/Palestine: the Coastal Plain, the Hill Country, the Mountain area, and the Jordan River Valley. So if Jesus wanted to travel from the Jordan River to Jerusalem, he had to walk roughly 20 miles over a 4,000 foot elevation. It’s about 175 miles from North to South. There is an average of 50 miles between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Remember that the Apocrypha (or hidden books) are not accepted as canon but they cover the time between the Testaments. They’ll give you details about Antiochus Epiphanes who put a statue of Zeus in the Temple, slaughtered a pig in the Temple, and persecuted the Jews. The people in Jerusalem heard that Antiochus Epiphanes had died in Egypt. Let me read just a little bit of it (from 2^nd Maccabees 5):

This occurred between the Old and New Testaments. This tells you a little about why the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Zealots were so interested in what occurred around 170 BC.

You can read the 14 books of the Apocrypha, also known as "secret or hidden books." It was part of the Septuagint and you will find them in Catholic Bibles (interspersed in older versions and in the middle in newer versions). As a result of the Protestant Reformation, the books were removed from the Protestant Bible. So when you look at your Protestant Bible (NIV, NASV, NRSV, etc.), you will not find those books.

The Vulgate (~AD 400) was primarily what was used until Wycliffe (1382), Tyndale (1525), the Geneva Bible, and the King James Bible. Many people study the King James Bible exclusively—that’s the only version for them. The people (Wycliffe, Tyndale, etc.) who tried to translate the Bible into English were ridiculed and persecuted by the Church. The "Church" at this time was the Roman Catholic Church but it was really a combination of the "state" and the "church." There was a lot of political weight behind the church and behind the government or state. The kings and popes both ruled the government and church at the same time. They didn’t make a move without the other.

At this time, there were a lot of political shenanigans going on—people misusing what God has given them. Now the early popes were great. I’ll defend them to the n^th degree. Pope Gregory (around AD 450) was great. But the Church and the office of the pope veered off from the original roots of the Christian religion. By the Middle Ages, there was an autocratic, dictatorial type of rule for the church and state.

So, when Wycliffe and Tyndale started to convert the Latin, Greek, or Hebrew versions of the Bible they were persecuted. In fact, when one of them died, their bones were dug up, burned, and thrown into a river. The Church did not want to recognize an English version of the Bible. Around 1606, King James commissioned some scholars to use all the sources they could find to create the English, King James Version. That’s why the KJV has hung around from 1611 to today. It was a very good translation of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Septuagint—it combined all of these.

Remember that I told you last week that you have to consider the source of the translation. The Vulgate used the Septuagint as well as the original Hebrew. The Latin version of AD 200 only used the Septuagint, which took the Hebrew, translated it into Greek, and then translated the Greek into Latin. What happens? You start to lose some things. That’s why you have so many versions today. Read the front/introduction to your Bible to see what sources were used.

With the New International Version (NIV), the people compiled all the various manuscripts to attempt to translate the original intent behind the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek wording.

In other words, Paul sat down and wrote letters through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And then somebody made a copy of that letter. No one has found any of the originals. They don’t exist. All we have are early copies, called "manuscripts." How valid are these manuscripts? We have the Unical, the Miniscule, the Lectionaries, etc. If you add it all up, we have about 20-25,000 copies/manuscripts/versions/translations of the Old and New Testaments.

Let’s look at an example: the Codex Sinaiticus. This manuscript was found at the foot of Mount Sinai in 1844. It’s an interesting and fabulous story. An archaeologist was visiting a monastery that had been built at the foot of Mount Sinai. The monks were building a fire and the archaeologist noticed they were using some papyrus leaves as kindling. Guess what it was. It was part of the Old Testament. He asked the monks, "Do you have any more of this stuff?" They said, "No." He left and returned five years later. "Did you find any more?" "No." He returned ten years later and one of the monks said, "Hey! We found a whole bunch of this papyrus. Do you really like it?" The archaeologist studied it and determined that it is a complete version of the Old and New Testament, dated to around AD 350. It’s in the British Museum right now.

So we have a source from AD 350 that tells us what the Old and New Testaments looked like.

Later versions of the Bible will tell you the sources of some of the information we have. The translators or scholars have two ways of looking at the Bible: critical text or majority text. The critical text view says, "We’re going to translate using the earliest known manuscript that we have." The majority text view says, "We’re going to translate based on what most manuscripts have." Do you see my point? You can use the critical text or the majority text. You will find scholars using both of them.

Remember that they’re using the 20-25,000 manuscripts (sources). We’ve got the Codex Sinaiticus. There are two others that are complete: Codex Vaticanus (from ~AD 350, located now in the Vatican) and Codex Alexandrinus (from ~AD 400, located now in the British Museum). Codex Sinaiticus is complete. The others are almost complete—there are a couple of pages missing here and there. But that’s what they use as a source for translations.

Realize how close we are. The events in the Gospels occurred around AD 33-36. Three hundred years later, we have a complete record of the eyewitness accounts. Let me tell you—you can go out and try to find any secular book with a similar history and reliability. The closest one they’ve found is The Iliad and The Odyssey. The oldest copies they have of those only goes back to 800 AD. They can’t get within 800 years of the original. They know there are words and pages missing, so they fill in some blanks. That’s the closest a secular book can get to the ancient original.

The Bible has so many opportunities to be wrong and that’s what makes it so right. You have early, early copies of the Bible. You have 25,000 copies. What do I mean by 25,000? You have the original Greek and Hebrew and all the translations. There are 8-10,000 copies of the Latin Vulgate (going back to AD 400). If you were a scholar and wanted to verify some word or verse in the Bible, you could go online and see what the original, untranslated words were.

Recall the Diaspora: the Israelites were dispersed all over the world. Their children grew up learning many foreign languages: Ethiopian, Slavic, Armenian. The Old and New Testaments were translated into their languages. Why? So their children could read and understand. This was done between AD 400 and 700, adding to the volume and reliability of the Bible.

Do you see what you’re holding now?

If you want to know more about this, there is a section in Lee Strobel’s book, The Case for Christ. There’s a lot more in the book. Good stuff. When I first learned this, I was astounded. I asked, "Why didn’t someone tell me all this?" I thought we were just hanging on one little sliver of a copy somewhere and everyone was just guessing at the words. We’re not. We have 25,000 copies. When you’re reading this Word, no one can deny that these were the words written.

What it comes down to is the FAITH that what we’re reading is the original. Is what we read consistent throughout the Bible? Yes. There have been so many critics, skeptics, and scholars who have been through the Bible that we would all know it. There are no errors! By the way, does anybody know how many atheists show up at the Annual Atheist Conference? Go online and look at it…about 300. It’s interesting. There’s something that the world (or Satan) has told us, "You know, did God really say…" It’s the same thing Satan told Eve in the Garden. I think every one of us who are searching and seeking to know God’s Word have asked this. My hope is that you trust what you’re holding. Will you put your faith in it?

Some people may say, "I don’t see how someone could have lived 969 years. I don’t see how the Red Sea could have parted." The problem is not the Word. The problem is you. You don’t have faith in what you’re reading. Lee Strobel was an atheist. He set out to disprove the Bible and ended up accepting Christ.

At the end of last week, I told you about Eusebius, a voracious reader and prolific writer in AD 300. Eusebius was commissioned by Constantine, the first Roman Emperor to accept Christ and become a Christian. Constantine declared Christianity the state religion for Rome. This is phenomenal when you think about the influence of Rome during this time. He granted freedom of religion for everybody but stated that the state religion would be Christianity.

Do you see this? You are reading something that someone wrote about Jesus’ family. Do you see how close we can get? That’s what I want you to see—you can get so close. I could read more but Eusebius talks about which books of the New Testament he accepted and why. It’s fabulous reading.

Another book I recommend to you is Halley’s Bible Handbook. It’s an excellent, excellent resource. It has a lot of archaeology in it—many recent finds that support the Bible. Here’s a sample:

When we had the apostles, the 70 disciples, and the 3,000 who believed in the Lord, think about the fact that these people were different ages. "Billy" may have been 16 years old when he accepted Christ in AD 40. Then he got married, had children, and told others about Christ. So we’re talking about "church" people back then. They didn’t have a "church." They met in their homes. These are people accepting Christ and growing as a family.

My point is that there were other people who became Christians and wrote books. This is what I did not know. We’ve discussed the translations of the Bible into English but there are other writings, like Eusebius’, that you can read about what was going on in the early church. Many predate Eusebius—going back to AD 110. Do you think there was somebody alive in AD 110 who saw Christ? Could be. If not, there’s a child of someone who saw Christ.

Do you see what I’m saying? You could talk to someone whose parents had seen Christ. "Mom, Dad, did you ever see Christ?" "Well, yes we did one time." They’ll remember that and tell others.

You can read works from Clement of Rome, Mathetes, Polycarp, Ignatius, Barnabas, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and others. I want to read to you about Tertullian, from AD 160-220. He lived in Carthage while the original manuscripts were still in existence. People wrote books referring to the original manuscripts. Tertullian speaks of the scriptures as the "New Testament." So by AD 160-220, they were calling the New Testament, "the New Testament." In his writings, there are 1,800 quotations from the New Testament books.

In other words, what I’m telling you is that there were other books written that referenced or used text from the originals. We can study those books, not just the translations. They would quote John 8:32, for example; realize that chapter and verse numbers were not added until the 1500s. What does this mean? We have many more sources for comparing and ensuring the translations we use are correct. And these sources are not included in the "25,000 manuscripts." There is a ton of information out there about the Bible that you’re holding.

Let me read this from Tertullian’s work called Against Heretics,

Do you know what Tertullian was saying? He says, "Go to the church at Antioch and you will see the chair that Peter (or Paul or one of the apostles) sat in." See how close these writings are to the original events? You can read real things that were happening at the time—not just the Bible. The Bible is God’s Word and that’s what we’ll study and apply to our lives. But to support that and get a bigger picture, you can read these other things.

Continuing,

He’s talking about all the places the originals were written.

These are the places where the original books were written. Do you see the wide disparity of locations? They were written over 50 years in many different places and yet by AD160-220, these books and letters had been copied and sent to other churches throughout Turkey, Greece, and Italy. All these different churches got copies of what you’re holding in the New Testament.

Finally, in AD 397, at the Council of Carthage, the New Testament was formalized. It wasn’t that they said, "Which books are we going to accept into the New Testament?" It was the churches saying, "We recognize these 27 books as the inspired Word of God. We approve and condone it."

In other words, it’s like all of you were scattered throughout America and I sent letters to each one of you. You read them, copied some of them, and sent some of them to each other. When we all came back together, all of you would have picked the same 27 and discarded everything else. That’s what happened. You can read about it. Do you understand? Is that not amazing!? But that’s what happened—scattered all about, copied, sent all over the place, and then compiled and agreed upon unanimously. Now that’s God at work!

Do you see why this is so important? Is this not unbelievable!? There’s all this information out there that you can read.

What was the first book written in the New Testament? Galatians, not the Gospels, not Matthew. Matthew was written later. What was the second book written? James. Third? 1^st & 2^nd Thessalonians. You might want to reference this as we get into the books.

For example, when we study Galatians, if you knew that it was the first book Paul wrote, what would he be writing about? He’s saying, "Who has taken you from your original faith?" Would that not be the first thing to happen? People start drifting away from their original concept and acceptance of Christ and they begin adding things to it. That’s what the Book of Galatians is about.

James is second but I want to talk about 1^st & 2^nd Thessalonians. Does anybody know what the major emphasis is in 1^st & 2^nd Thessalonians? The second coming of Christ. Christ died around AD 33-36. That’s what we believe. The life expectancy back then was only 42 to 45. Let’s say you were 30 years old in AD 51 and your uncle (who had accepted Christ) died. These people heard Christ say when He ascended, "I’ll be back." Now his uncle died and he’s saying, "Wait a minute. Christ didn’t come back yet. What’s going to happen?" So Paul wrote 1^st & 2^nd Thessalonians. We’ll read it. He addresses, "Here’s what’s going to happen: Some of you may have relatives who’ve already died. Jesus said He’s coming back. So here’s what’s going on."

If you know (roughly) the order in which the books were written, do you see why it helps you understand the content and purpose of the books? It will mean something to you.

What was the first gospel written? Mark, not Matthew. There is a way to determine how much material is unique among the gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called "synoptic gospels," meaning "seeing through the same eye." John is not a synoptic gospel. He looks at things spiritually, as in John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The other gospels focus more on the life of Christ.

For example, does everyone have "Luke’s Purpose in Writing?" Which book does it occur in?" Luke, but not in Matthew, Mark, or John. Makes sense. What about "God became a human being?" Which book? John. Does it occur anywhere else? No. Let’s find the first one that occurs in all four gospels. "Jesus Preaches in Galilee." You could read that episode in all four gospels and you’ll know exactly where to find it. This makes it quick and easy to find anything in any gospel.

Mark was the first gospel written. It is believed that Matthew and Luke heavily used Mark’s book to write their books. They did throw in their own, unique material. But a lot of the stories and verbiage in Matthew and Luke are very similar to Mark. John, of course, wrote about the spiritual view.

This gets better and better, doesn’t it? Isn’t all of this amazing!? Are you not amazed at what you have in your hands and didn’t even know it?

One last thing. Turn to Mark 16. This is what happens when we get later and later versions of the Bible. People start calling it like it is, "You know, we found this majority text. We found that critical text. We’ve compared these 1,336 texts to that text and here’s what we’ve found." This is why the later versions give you more information.