@obiwan
you clearly have not really studied what youre really saying in the above. i have done extensive self-study into the issue. there have been over 50,000 copies of the new testament alone found either in part or entirety. this number has continued to survive against all odds. shortly after the death of christ and for hundreds of years following, anyone even thought to be a christian was killed and any manuscripts found were destroyed on finding. the bible says that God's word will never pass away. the great thing is that out of 50k+ copies, the differences were extremely minute. bear in mind that the translations are more recent. the copies were primarily made in the same language and so translation doesnt become an issue until centuries later and even after heavy scrutiny, they still hold far more water to the "originals" than even homer's Illiad and any other work from around its same time that was NOT under such attack.
secondly, science and archaeology has continued to unearth and discover additional findings that continue to prove the Bible at its word. for example, the pool of siloam had 6 fountains. this pool was said to be a myth created by john and never really existed. within the last 40 years, this very pool has been discovered and appears exactly as it was described. cities that have long been lost are also being discovered. nearly every city in the Bible to date has been unearthed. EVEN NOAH's ARK in exact proportion resting in present day turkey according to the Bible's description of its resting place. satelite imaging has produced evidence of metals within the ark that fit the description of animal cages and the 3-layers described in the Bible.
youre right that if this were a normal document, that there would be plenty of falsifications, and yet, it is miraculously better preserved than any other work in the history of mankind.
to another point, yes, the Bible is a selective work. it does not tell the whole story and was never meant to. the Bible was written for the sole purpose to bring men to God through the blood of Jesus Christ. it was never meant for a scientific work and yet it still stands strong against the scientific world because of its unerring truth. the bible says at the end of the book of john that if everything jesus ever did were written down, the works of it would fill the world according to john (being a little exaggerated but to the point).
finally, concerning the truth of the old testament and its preservation, the OT was considered to have many differences compared to its assumed original. thats what made the dead sea scrolls such a major find. it was 1000 years older than any other copy of the OT ever found to date. within it (along with other works) was a copy or fragment of every book of the OT except 1 and what they found when they compared it to copies found around 1000 A.D. was astounding. they found that it was nearly 100% word-for-word! thats 1000 years of existance and hardly any change whatsoever. the changes that were made were so small, its not even worth calling an error because it neither changed the meaning of the text, one maybe two words were slightly different (in english similar to using the word beautiful for pretty...hardly a corruption), etc.
the reasons for this are simple 1) this work is, was and always will be held in such high regard that people dare not make one small error in its copying because it comes from the mouth of God. something that is viewed as that precious earns far more care. and 2) the work of God was behind it to preserve it.
the one area that i actually agree with you is that the Bible is corruptible, but only by corruptible men. this is what martin luther encountered during the reformation when man's law superceeded God's law. the same was true during the time of Christ when the word of God was substituted for with man's tradition. the words themselves never changed but how it was taught did. what is even more amazing is that even through all the satanic efforts, the word remains pure.
additionally, try reading the Bible. the jews are not villans in this Book. you should recall (if youve read it) that the first converts to chrisitianity were jewish. peter, john and the disciples were jews. jesus was a jew, the first areas of preaching was in jerusalem and judea where thousands converted to chrisitianity. it wasnt until after the first major persecution that the jews fled to gentile lands and spread the word there that gentiles began being converted. recall that peter suffered stiff opposition from the jewish believers when he took the word to the gentiles. the same non-villification of the romans is found as well. the NT in no way shows any group of men as villians over others, it simply tells the truth of how things were. what it does show, however, is that ALL men are enemies of God, jew and gentile alike and that the only way to God is through Jesus Christ.
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bet!