Accuracy and Impact of the Bible: Piasa

The following is the first lesson in a historical and faithful study
beginning at 7:00 pm on Wednesday evenings.
at the church of Christ in Carthage, Missouri, south of the Ford dealership
PLEASE JOIN US!

Art Appreciation

Analyze this artistic portrayal of a 17th Century scene.  Check out the details.

• What do you notice?
• What do you think is happening?
• What does this piece make you wonder?
• What questions come to mind?

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Discoveries do not always present a complete picture of history.  This mural on a cliffside wall adjacent to the Mississippi River in Alton, Illinois, is one of those incomplete findings.  When combined with known history, ancient legends, and inference, a story begins to emerge.  What do you think?

The same is true when scientists discover a fragment of Scripture.  Only when combined with other known fragments and manuscripts do we get a complete picture of the accuracy and impact of the Bible that we read.  Each fragment, in combination, is further evidence that we have the Spirit-breathed Bible we are intended to have.

​The Big Questions

Our focus for this study hinges on answering these two big questions.  The goal is to get closer to the answers each week in our class.

​​How did we we get the Bible?
Is the Bible accurate and dependable?

Introductory, Guiding Questions

• From where did it originate?
• When was it written
• Who wrote it?
• How was it written?
• On what was it written?
• With what was it written?

• Where was it written?
• To whom was it written?

• Why was it written?
• What is its purpose?
• In what languages was it composed?
• How has it changed through the millennia?

So how important is it to you that the Bible can be proven true?  Do you believe there is irrefutable evidence to its validity?  Is proof something that strengthens your personal faith in the existence of God?

Should faith alone be enough to drive you to drive you to your knees?  Is "blind" faith a stronger kind of faith?  If so, then why did God provide so much evidence?

Our text - How We Got the Bible by Neil Lightfoot - is rife with discovery.  In chapter 11, we find all kinds of evidence for the accuracy of Scripture.  The chapter is leading us to the more complete discoveries made in March of 1948.  Then, in caves near the Dead Sea, scrolls were found, stored in containers.  Suddenly, more proof existed of the practice of Christianity in early centuries A.D.

We're on our way to finding those Dead Sea Scrolls in the next chapter.  For now, the author presents a small collection of preserved fragments located in a variety of places, preserved by nature, and studied by science.  The first are the many papyri located beneath the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.  These fragments, though not Scripture, set the stage for the preservation of fragile papyri that would be found later, and the processes developed and perfected for the preservation and reading of those documents could later be used more safely to read the important documents that make up portions of our Bible.

The second location discussed in our text is Fayum.  There, papyri used in the wrapping of some Egyptian mummies was also preserved in the darkness.  These highly realistic images have been adjusted through the use of artificial intelligence to provide us with even more realistic pictures of what real people actually looked like in that time period.

A third preservation includes actual Scripture fragments.  Located in the trash heaps of ancient Oxyrhynchus, these fragments were preserved in the sand and, along with other, extrabiblical, treasures give us more and more accurate knowledge of the ancient world.

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In some cases, destructive experimental practices were used on the library of scrolls in the Villa of the Papyri in the Herculaneum, Egyptian funerary art, and ancient trash heaps.  Might we consider that to be the Providence of God?  Were they intended to develop humanities skills for the safer study of more important Documents that would later be discovered?

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Herculaneum

Fayum

Oxyrhynchus

Like the image of the Piasa bird on the banks of a mighty river cannot be understood without putting it together with further documentation, the fragments, too, must be combined with other findings to complete the current canon of Scripture.

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Further discussion in this chapter refers to the Chester Beatty collection of papyri, the Bodmer collection, and other important fragments which reinforce the accuracy of the New Testament.

Chester Beatty Papyri

Bodmer Papyri

End of 1 Peter 5:12 and 2 Peter 1:1–5 on facing pages of Papyrus Bodmer VIII

new Testament Papyri

Application Question

​How important is it?

Is it important to you that the Bible comes from reliable sources, or is it just a collection of wise sayings and advice for living?  Many atheists agree that there is wisdom in the teachings of Jesus Christ, but they do not believe that Jesus is a Messiah, that He performed miracles, that He walked out of His own grave, or that He prepares a place where His faithful disciples will be rewarded for eternity.

We contend that the Bible and everything it contains is supported by:

• textual claims
• origins of the text
• extrabiblical history
• the faith of martyrs
• ​logic

• ​astronomy
• archeology
• geography
• geology
• astronomy

• biology

• history
• chemistry
• physics
• mathematics
• and more

​Go forward with us - or in this case, back to the beginning - as we continue our study next time.