Exploratory Essay

INTRODUCTION: As a nonbeliever, beginning a walk with God can be tough. Many time we are skeptical about his existence and many of the stories that are seen in the Bible. You might find yourself wondering how it is possible to believe in a book that seems to have so many outrageous stories. After all, why would David need to collect 200 Philistine foreskins and deliver them to King Saul in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage? Why is that necessary? It just seems cruel and unusual. As a believer, what am I supposed to learn from a story like this? Unfortunately, stories like this one get taken out of context from the Bible and are misinterpreted because people do not take the time to learn the whole story. This specific example is discussed

When looking at the Bible, there are some key terms that need to be remembered. Autographs, manuscripts and translations. These terms are relevant because of the numerous amounts of people and places that the Bible has been put together with. There is a difference in culture (language, people, materials, etc.) That makes a slight variation in the way The Bible has been handed down. Godandscience.org defines these terms as “Autographs: The original texts were written either by the author's own hand or by a scribe under their personal

No matter where it goes, where the stories have been conceived, or where they end up the stories always correlate. Answeringgenesis.org describes this as “The Bible is remarkably self-consistent, despite having been written by more than 40 different writers over a timespan of about 2,000 years. God’s moral law, man’s rebellion against God’s law, and God’s plan of salvation are the continuing themes throughout the pages of Scripture. This internal consistency is what we would expect if the Bible really is what it claims to be—God’s revelation. Moreover, the Bible is uniquely authentic among ancient literary works in terms of the number of ancient manuscripts found and the smallness of the timescale between when the work was first written and the oldest extant manuscript (thereby minimizing any possibility of alteration from the original).1 This indicates that the Bible has been accurately transmitted throughout the ages, far more so than other ancient documents. Few people would doubt that Plato really wrote the works ascribed to him, and yet the Bible is far more authenticated. Such textual criticism shows at least that the Bible (1) is unique in ancient literature and (2) has been accurately transmitted throughout the ages. What we have today is a good representation of the original. No one could consistently argue that the Bible’s authenticity is in doubt unless