This text was published in The Stream (September 13, 2022) and is republished with permission.
Can we belief the authenticity of the New Testomony scriptures? Belief is foundational within the acceptance of scripture. There’s an fascinating lesson to be taught from a really fashionable system of belief: cash. Even Bitcoin, imagine it or not.
An Alternate of Belief
We’ll begin with old school acquainted cash. Why is a twenty greenback invoice value $20? It’s only a small sheet of paper, in spite of everything. The reply is belief. We belief the piece of paper has worth as a result of its value is backed by america authorities.
We additionally belief that Walmart will give us $20 value of Doritos if we give them a twenty greenback invoice. The cashier would possibly take a look at us humorous, however there’s an trade of belief no matter that.
The cryptocurrency Bitcoin doesn’t have any authorities backing it, however individuals nonetheless use it to purchase and promote. They wouldn’t try this until they’d good motive to belief it. Right here’s the place we discover the fascinating parallel with the New Testomony Scriptures. Bitcoin and the Bible each set up belief in related methods.
A Bit About Bitcoin
Bitcoin remains to be new, so I’ll clarify the way it works. It’s a digital type of foreign money. Belief in Bitcoin worth is maintained by laptop software program referred to as blockchain. Think about a lot of quick encrypted laptop program blocks linked collectively. Since a lot of hyperlinks are linked collectively, the lengthy program is known as a sequence — a blockchain.
You entry your Bitcoin by a password that opens up your account and yours solely. Watch out with that password! Californian Stefan Thomas forgot his, and it price him $220 million {dollars}.
So why ought to we belief Bitcoin? Why can’t some hacker are available and add a couple of hyperlinks saying they personal the coin after they don’t? The reply is the Bitcoin ledger. Many customers hold copies of the entire hyperlinks within the blockchain in a single ledger. They proceed to replace this ledger as an increasing number of Bitcoins are created and traded.
The variety of copies being stored of that ledger is difficult to estimate, however some estimate it’s in the tens to hundreds of thousands. Each up-to-date copy is identical at any time limit.
Right here’s the place the belief is available in. Nobody particular person could make an unauthorized change within the Bitcoin blockchain with out each ledger proprietor figuring out about it. Those that keep ledgers personal Bitcoin. They’ve an curiosity in guarding Bitcoin’s fame.
Patrolling the Ledger — A Placing Parallel
Bitcoin will be trusted as a result of there are millions of devoted Bitcoin homeowners patrolling the ledger to ensure its integrity. The piggybank is effectively guarded. As a result of it may be trusted, even within the absence of any central controlling authority, blockchains have been utilized in a myriad of different functions together with smart contracts, non-fungible tokens and peer-to-peer transactions.
It’s very modern, and it’s additionally very technical, so what does it must do with the authenticity of scripture? It turns on the market’s a putting parallel between the historic document of scripture and the blockchain ledger. There exists an (unencrypted) blockchain of historic proof for scripture that establishes its integrity and is subsequent to unattainable to hack. Wikipedia provides a superb abstract:
The New Testomony has been preserved in additional manuscripts than every other historic work of literature, with over 5,800 full or fragmented Greek manuscripts catalogued, 10,000 Latin manuscripts and 9,300 manuscripts in numerous different historic languages together with Syriac, Slavic, Gothic, Ethiopic, Coptic and Armenian. The dates of those manuscripts vary from c. 125 … to the introduction of printing in Germany within the fifteenth century.
This huge variety of historic paperwork corresponds to a blockchain ledger. Its hundreds and hundreds of hyperlinks can lead us to belief within the authenticity of scripture, as a result of identical to Bitcoin’s blockchain, new fragments couldn’t be simply added, and none could possibly be altered or eliminated. It will by no means have made it previous of the scrutiny of historians and others guarding the integrity of those information.
The Integrity of New Testomony Content material
Minor variations within the document are of little consequence. The overwhelming majority are on the order of variations in spelling. Others get ironed out by biblical students who like arguing about such issues.
Other differences are noted in most Bibles so everyone can see them. Many Bible translations, for example, have a footnote in the latter part of Mark 16 stating that it’s not found in all ancient manuscripts. Overall, though, there is a remarkably high consistency of scripture content in the historical record.
The result is that we have a solid record of the life and teachings of the Savior, Jesus Christ, and His early followers. The integrity of New Testament content is untarnished. The message comes through with crystal clarity. It’s not the only way we know Scripture is trustworthy, but it’s an important one.
Blockchain can be trusted due to widespread ledger duplication and watchful eyes. The authenticity and accuracy of scripture can likewise be trusted because of widespread manuscript duplication and watchful eyes.
