Saturday, September 7, 2013

Did Constantine Write the Bible?

There is the allegation that Constantine wrote the Bible and created Christianity around 300 A.D.

This is problematic for at least two reasons:

  1. Almost the entire New Testament is quoted in the works of the Early Church Fathers.
  2. The New Testament has always been widely dispersed.  For example: When this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and you, for your part read my letter that is coming from Laodicea. (Col 4:16)
What this means is that the New Testament, and the Bible as a whole actually, was passed around and copied in a distributed, organic way.  From the 5800 New Testament manuscripts that we have in various languages and from various locations, we are able to reconstruct the original text with a high degree of confidence.

What we read in the Quran does not apply to the Bible:

 Surah Al Baqarah ch:2, v:79
"Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands and then say, "This is from Allah," to purchase with it a little price! Woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for that they earn (there by)."

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