Chapter 1. Bedeutung des Wortes Gottes
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## Chapter 1. Bedeutung des Wortes Gottes

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.

## Ein Buch, das einzigartig ist

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. Vergleich der Schriften des Neuen Testamentes mit anderen alten Texten

Werk | Erstellungszeit | Erstausgabe | Zeitspanne | Anzahl von Kopien
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Herodot | 448-428 v.Chr.. | 900 n.Chr. | 1300 Jahre | 8
Tacitus | 100 n.Chr. | 1100 n.Chr. | 1000 Jahre | 20
Cäsars Gallischer Krieg | 50-58 v.Chr. | 900 n.Chr. | 950 Jahre | 10
Livius' Römische Geschichte | 59 v.Chr. - 17 n.Chr. | 900 n.Chr. | 900 Jahre | 20
Neues Testament | 40 n.Chr. - 100 n.Chr. | 130 n.Chr. Teile der Manuskripte. 350 n.Chr. alle Manuskripte | 30 - 310 Jahre | 5000 Grieschische & 10,000 Lateinische

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!

| "In der Wahrheit und Fülle der Beweise, auf der er aufbaut steht der Text des Neuen Testamentes absolut und unerreichbar alleine über den anderen alten Prosaschriften." |
| --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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