Session 1: Lesson 5 - Are Bible texts and translations reliable?
In this lesson we ask whether we can trust the Bible.
As you come to this session, take a moment to pause, to breathe and ask God to be with you.
Watch
Read
Psalm 119.97–105
97Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. 98Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. 99I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. 100I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.101I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word.102I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me.103How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!104Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.105Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Review
The Dead Sea Scrolls, the first of which were discovered in 1947, confirm the reliability of the Old Testament.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient manuscripts that were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in caves on the northwestern shores of the Dead Sea. The parchment scrolls (a few are papyrus), written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, are approximately 2,000 years old. The vast majority of the scrolls survived as fragments – only a handful were found intact. However, scholars have managed to reconstruct from these fragments approximately 950 different manuscripts of various lengths.
Discover more about the Dead Sea Scrolls in this video:
Can you recall which languages the Bible was originally written in?
Old Testament
Ancient Hebrew
New Testament
Koine/Common Greek
There is a spectrum of good Bible versions available in the English language:
‘If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that drives the plough shall know more of the Scripture than thou does.’
Reflect
The Bible texts were copied, carefully preserved and accurately translated.
Lord, thank you for those who have carefully preserved and translated the Scriptures to make them available for me to read today.
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Next up:
Session 1: Lesson 6 - Why believe the Bible is God's book?
Up next
As we come to the end of this session we ask, could the Bible be more than a book?
The Dead Sea scrolls at Qumran | Bible Trek
In this episode, we visit the lowest point on earth, 1300 feet below sea level. Here the Essene community, who lived by the Dead Sea, carefully preserved and copied the Scriptures.
William Tyndale
Discover William Tyndale, translator of the English New Testament.
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