FWC School of Apologetics

An in-depth program that aims to equip believers to give answers for why they believe what they believe

Each class you take is worth one credit

Bronze Certificate in Biblical Apologetics - 5 Credits 

Silver Certificate in Biblical Apologetics - 10 Credits 

Gold Certificate in Biblical Apologetics - 15 Credits

Platinum Certificate in Biblical Apologetics - 20 Credits

Credits build up to certificates

Apologetics and the Bible:

The reliability of the Bible The historical resurrection of Jesus Christ

Early Church HistoryThe Biblical Canon

Certificates will be distributed (and those who’ve earned them will be recognized) at our annual

apologetic conference Classes related to the one you are taking today

We are also looking to train others to teach

A helpful way to look at the Old Testament’s textual history is to compare it to other documents of antiquity.

Old Testament Manuscript evidence

For most ancient documents, we have about a thousand year gap between the writing of the document and the

first available copy that archaeologists find.

For example, with a Roman historian called Tacitus, our first manuscript copy of his work comes from around 1100

A.D. and we have 20 total manuscript copies today. Interestingly, Tacitus actually wrote his works

around 100 A.D.

Most historians do not doubt that we have a really good idea what Tacitus actually wrote, even though we only

have about 20 total partial or complete manuscripts and the earliest manuscript comes about 1,000 years after the

original writing.

In comparison, our first manuscript copy of the Old Testament (dates from 250 B.C.) comes about 150 years

after the original book was written (i.e. probably Malachi about 400 B.C.). Also, we actually have over

10,000 Old Testament manuscripts!

First thing to note, our manuscripts are far closer to the original

Ancient texts were not preserved by Xerox copy machines unfortunately. Instead, as with the Old Testament, trained

Jewish scribes would copy portions of Scripture by hand on animal skins.

Around 100 B.C., these scribes began to use papyrus or paper to copy the Old Testament. When these Jews copied

various portions of the Bible, they took extreme care to ensure the precision of

their scribal copying. In fact, in some cases, if there was one error between a

copy and the original, the copy was to be burned.

Jesus on the Old Testament

Jesus affirmed the general authority of the OT

Matthew 4:4: ”But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that 

proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

He affirms the Doctrinal authority

Matthew 22:29“Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not 

knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.”

He affirms the imperishability

Matthew 5:18“For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass 

away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”

Historical reliability

Matthew 12:40“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and 

three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Dates that Old Testament books were written

Job--UnknownGenesis--1445-1405 B.C.Exodus --1445-1405 B.C.

Leviticus --1445-1405 B.C.Numbers--1445-1405 B.C.

Deut--1445-1405 B.C.Psalms--1410-450 B.C.

Joshua--1405-1385 B.C.Judges--ca. 1043 B.C.

Ruth--ca. 1030-1010 B.C.Song of Sol--971-965 B.C.

Proverbs--ca. 971-686 B.C.Ecclesiastes--940-931 B.C.

1 Samuel--931-722 B.C.2 Samuel--931-722 B.C.Obadiah--850-840 B.C.

Joel--835-796 B.C.Jonah--ca. 775 B.C.Amos--ca. 750 B.C.

Hosea--750-710 B.C.Micah--735-710 B.C.Isaiah--700-681 B.C.

Nahum--ca. 650 B.C.Zephaniah--635-625 B.C.Habakkuk--615-605 B.C.

Ezekiel--590-570 B.C.Lamentations--586 B.C.Jeremiah--586-570 B.C.1 Kings--561-538 B.C.2 Kings--561-538 B.C.Daniel 536-530 B.C.

Haggai--ca. 520 B.C.Zechariah--480-470 B.C.

Ezra--457-444 B.C.1 Chronicles--450-430 B.C.2 Chronicles--450-430 B.C.

Esther--450-331 B.C.Malachi--433-424 B.C.

Nehemiah--424-400 B.C.

While we do not have the exact date down on every book, we have a great idea of when books were written

The Protestant Christian Canon

Pentateuch - 5 booksGenesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,

DeuteronomyHistorical Books - 12 books

Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First Samuel, Second Samuel, First Kings, Second Kings, First

Chronicles, Second Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.

Poetical - 5 booksJob, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of

Solomon

Old Testament New Testament Historical Books - 5 booksMatthew, Mark, Luke, John,

ActsPauline Epistles - 13 booksRomans, 1 Corinthians, 2

Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians,

Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians. 1 Timothy, 2

Timothy, Titus, PhilemonNon-Pauline Epistles - 9

booksHebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2

Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, Revelation

Prophetical - 17 booksMajor Prophets - Isaiah, Jeremiah,

Lamentations, Ezekiel, DanielMinor Prophets - Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah,

Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi

The Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in eleven caves along the northwest shore of the Dead Sea between the years 1947 and 1956. The area is 13

miles east of Jerusalem and is 1300 feet below sea level.

The Scrolls can be divided into two categories—biblical and non-biblical. Fragments of every book of the Hebrew canon (Old Testament) have been

discovered except for the book of Esther.

There are now identified among the scrolls, 19 copies of the Book of Isaiah, 25 copies of

Deuteronomy and 30 copies of the Psalms.

In the Scrolls are found never before

seen psalms attributed to

King David and Joshua.

The Scrolls are for the most part, written in Hebrew, but there are many written in Aramaic.

The Scrolls appear to be the library of a Jewish sect. The library was hidden away in caves around the outbreak of the First Jewish Revolt (A.D. 66-70)

as the Roman army advanced against the rebel Jews.

The scrolls are most commonly made of animal skins, but also papyrus and one of copper. They are written with a carbon-based ink, from right to left,

using no punctuation except for an occasional paragraph indentation. In fact, in some cases, there

are not even spaces between the words.

Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls actually appeared for sale on June 1, 1954 in the Wall Street Journal. The advertisement read — "The Four Dead Sea Scrolls: Biblical manuscripts dating back to at least 200 BC

are for sale. This would be an ideal gift to an educational or religious institution by an individual

or group. Box F206."

There are 972 texts (scrolls) that were found

Dating of the Dead Sea ScrollsWhen the scrolls first were discovered in 1947, scholars

disputed their dates of composition. Scholars now generally agree that although some materials are earlier, the Qumran materials date primarily to the Hasmonean (152-63 B.C.) and early Roman periods (63 B.C.-A.D. 68).

Several strands of evidence corroborate these conclusions. First, archaeological evidence from the ruins of the

Qumran community supports these dates.

After six major seasons of excavations, archaeologists have identified three specific phases of occupation at the

ancient center of Qumran.

Coinage discovered in the first stratum dates from the reign of Antiochus VII Sidetes (138-129 B.C.). Such

artifacts also indicate that the architecture associated with the second occupational phase dates no later than the time of Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 B.C.).

Also reflected in the material remains of the site is the destruction of its buildings in the earthquake reported

by the first-century Jewish historian, Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, 15.5.2). Apparently, this

natural disaster occurred around 31 B.C. a position that prompted the occupants to abandon the site for

an indeterminate time.

Upon reoccupation of the area—the third phase—the buildings were repaired and rebuilt precisely on the

previous plan of the old communal complex.

The community flourished until the Romans, under the

military direction of Vespasian, occupied the site by force (see Cross, 1992, pp.

21-22). Such evidence is consistent with the second century B.C. to first-century

A.D. dates for the scrolls.

The second strand of evidence is that the generally accepted dates for the scrolls are corroborated by

palaeographical considerations. Palaeography is the study of ancient writing and, more specifically, the shape and

style of letters.

Characteristic of ancient languages, the manner in which Hebrew and Aramaic letters were written changed over a

period of time. The trained eye can determine, within certain boundaries, the time frame of a document based

upon the shape of its letters.

This is the method by which scholars determine the date of a text on palaeographical grounds.

According to this technique, the scripts at Qumran belong to three periods of palaeographical development: (1) a small group of biblical texts whose archaic style reflects

the period between about 250-150 B.C.; (2) a large cache of manuscripts, both biblical and non-biblical, that is

consistent with a writing style common to the Hasmonean period (c. 150-30 B.C.); and (3) a similarly large number of

texts that evinces a writing style characteristic of the Herodian period (30 B.C.-A.D. 70).

Finally, as an aside, the carbon-14 tests done on both the cloth in which certain scrolls were wrapped, and the scrolls

themselves, generally correspond to the palaeographic dates.

The Qumran scrolls similarly have substantiated the textual integrity and authenticity of the Book of

Daniel. Critical scholarship, as in the case of most all books of the Old Testament, has attempted to dismantle the authenticity of the book of Daniel. The message of the book of Daniel claims to have originated during the Babylonian exile, from the

first deportation of the Jews into captivity (606 B.C.; Daniel 1:1-2) to the ascension of the

Persian Empire (c. 536 B.C.; Daniel 10:1).

Substantiation of the Book of Daniel

This date has been rejected by secular scholars who date the book of Daniel to the second

century B.C. Specifically, they argue that the tales in chapters 1-6 as they appear in their present form can

be no earlier than c. 332 B.C..the four-kingdom outline, explicitly stated in chapter 2,

allegedly requires a date after the rise of the Grecian Empire (due to it’s prophetic nature). Further, secular

scholars argue that since there is no explicit reference to Antiochus Epiphanes IV (175-164 B.C.), a Seleucid king

clearly under prophetic consideration in chapter 11, a date in the late third or early second century B.C. is most likely

The reason for this conclusion on the part of secular scholars is the predictive nature of the book of Daniel, they

reject that God can reveal the future to his prophetic (or that he exists in the first place) and therefore cannot

accept the Biblical date

The Dead Sea Scrolls have lifted their voice in this controversy. Due to the amount of Daniel fragments found

in various caves near Qumran, it appears that this prophetic book was one of the most treasured

by that community. Perhaps the popularity of Daniel was due to the fact that the people of Qumran lived during the anxious period in which many of these prophecies actually

were being fulfilled.

Daniel was peculiarly safeguarded to the extent that we have at our disposal parts of all chapters of Daniel, except

chapters 9 and 12. One manuscript, published in November 1989, has been dated to the late second

century B.C… Two other major documents have been published since 1987, and contribute to scholarly analysis of Daniel. These recently released fragments have direct

bearing on the integrity and authenticity of the book of Daniel.

Once again, however, the findings at Qumran have confirmed the integrity of Daniel’s text.

You can view many dead sea scrolls in great detail online with translation at: dss.collections.imj.org

Isaiah Scroll

This is what you are able to do on this

website! Looking at each verse

individually. You can

check if a certain verse is in the dead

sea scrolls etc.

Temple Scroll

War scroll

Habakkuk commentary

Masoretic Text (MT)

Masoretic Text (MT) Prior to the discovery of the Qumran manuscripts, the

earliest extant Old Testament texts were those known as the Masoretic Text (MT), which dated from about A.D. 980.

The MT is the result of editorial work performed by Jewish scribes known as the Masoretes.

Critical scholars questioned the accuracy of the MT, which formed the basis of our English versions of the Old

Testament, since there was such a large chronological gap between it and the autographs.

Because of this uncertainty, scholars often “corrected” the text with considerable freedom. Qumran, however, has

provided remains of an early Masoretic edition predating the Christian era on which the traditional MT is based. A

comparison of the MT to this earlier text revealed the remarkable accuracy with which scribes

copied the sacred texts.

Interestingly, when scholars compared the MT of Isaiah to the Isaiah scroll of Qumran, the correspondence was

astounding. The texts from Qumran proved to be word-for-word identical to our standard Hebrew Bible in more than

95 percent of the text.

Septuagint Translation (LXX)

Compiled 285-270 BC. By 70 (72?) scholars at Alexandria

This is important prophetically

The Septuagint Translation is what was used by the writers of the

New Testament (they quoted it) so we can be confident that it is a

decent translation

A few other evidences for the Old Testament The Cylinder of Cyrus the Great. Second Chronicles

36:23 and Ezra 1 report that Cyrus the Great of Persia, after conquering Babylon, permitted Jews in the

Babylonian Captivity to return to their homeland. Isaiah had even prophesied this (Isa. 44:28). This

tolerant policy of the founder of the Persian Empire is borne out by the discovery of a nine-inch clay cylinder

found at Babylon from the time of its conquest, 539 BC, which reports Cyrus’s victory and his subsequent policy of permitting Babylonian captives to return to

their homes and even rebuild their temples.

The cuneiform on a hexagonal, 15-inch baked clay prism found at the Assyrian capital of Nineveh

describes Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah in 701 BC in which it claims that the Assyrian king shut

Hezekiah inside Jerusalem “like a caged bird.” Like the biblical record, however, it does not state that

he conquered Jerusalem, which the prism certainly would have done had this been the case.

We will touch on more things like this when we look at archeology

There is great manuscript evidence that supports the accuracy and reliability of the Old Testament

we have today!

Memory Verse

Matthew 5:18“For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means

pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”