Chapter 1. Importância da Palavra de Deus
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## Chapter 1. Importância da Palavra de Deus

Understanding God's word is of great importance to all who call on God's name. Study of the Bible is one of the primary ways that we learn to communicate with God.

## Um Livro que é Único

The Bible stands alone in many ways. It is unique in:

- popularity. Bible sales in North America: more than $500 million per year. The Bible is both the the all-time and year-to-year best seller!

- authorship. It was written over a period of 1600 years by 40 different authors from different backgrounds, yet reads as if written by one.

- preservation. F. F. Bruce in Are New Testament Documents Reliable? compares New Testament manuscripts with other ancient texts:

Table 1.1. Comparação dos manuscritos do Novo Testamento com outros textos antigos.

Texto | Quando foi Escrito | Cópia mais recente | Diferença de Tempo | Número de Cópias
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Herodotus | 448-428 A.C. | 900 D.C. | 1300 anos | 8
Tacitus | 100 D.C. | 1100 D.C. | 1000 anos | 20
Caesar's Gallic War | 50-58 A.C. | 900 D.C. | 950 anos | 10
Livy's História Romana | 59 A.C. - 17 D.C. | 900 D.C. | 900 anos | 20
Novo Testamento | 40 D.C. - 100 D.C. | 130 D.C Manuscritos parciais - 350 D.C. Manuscritos completos | 30 - 310 anos | 5000 em Grego & 10.000 em Latim

Ten copies of Caesar's Gallic War exist, the earliest of which was copied 900 years after Caesar wrote the original, etc. For the New Testament we have full manuscripts dating to 350 A. D., papyri containing most of the New Testament from the 200s, and a fragment of John's gospel from 130 A. D. How many manuscripts do we have to compare to each other? 5,000 in Greek and 10,000 in Latin!

| "Na verdade e plenitude das evidências e contexto, o Novo Testamento está em absoluta e inalcançável posição dentre outras escrituras antigas." |
| --Textual critic F. J. A. Hort, "The New Testament in the Original Greek", vol. 1 p561, Macmillan Co., quoted in Questions of Life p. 25-26

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