# Is the Bible True? > Christians receive the Bible as God’s word. Its text is early and well copied, Jesus treated the Scriptures as fulfilled in him, and the crucifixion is a public event. That is not a laboratory proof that God exists. - Canonical: https://apologetics.wiki/christianity/is-the-bible-true - Religions: Christianity - Denominations: none - Beliefs: none - Tags: bible, reliability, atheism - Updated: 2026-10-10 - Author: [Paul Ambrose](https://apologetics.wiki/author/hi-its-paul) ([GitHub](https://github.com/hi-its-paul)) Christians receive the Bible as the word of God, and the books make historical claims a reader can check. The text of those books is old, copied, and compared. Jesus treats the law, the prophets, and the psalms as written about him. None of that is a laboratory proof that God exists. [Does God exist?](/god/does-god-exist) is that question. [Who Wrote the Bible?](/christianity/who-wrote-the-bible) is who held the pen. ## Key points - [2 Timothy 3:16](/bible/2-timothy/3/16) [(1)](#ref-1) says all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. That is the Christian claim about the books. It is not a photograph of the autographs. - Codex Sinaiticus, written in the middle of the fourth century, contains the earliest complete copy of the Christian New Testament. [(4)](#ref-4) - The Israel Antiquities Authority says the Qumran caves hold partial or complete copies of every book in the Hebrew Bible except Esther, many of them close to the later Masoretic text and more than a thousand years older than the medieval copies. [(5)](#ref-5) - The Israel Museum’s page on the Great Isaiah Scroll says the scroll generally conforms to the Masoretic text, in the same order of chapters, and that the textual variants are well over 2,600. [(6)](#ref-6) Both halves belong in the answer. - [Luke 24:44](/bible/luke/24/44) [(2)](#ref-2) has Jesus say the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms wrote of him. - [John 20:31](/bible/john/20/31) [(3)](#ref-3) says the Gospel was written so that the reader might believe. Belief is the aim. [Was Jesus a Real Person?](/christianity/did-jesus-exist) is the public crucifixion under Pilate, in Paul, the Gospels, Tacitus, and Josephus. ## Is the Holy Bible true? “True” covers two claims, and they should not be blended. One claim is theological: God inspired these books, so they are trustworthy for doctrine. [2 Timothy 3:16](/bible/2-timothy/3/16) says all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. [Who Wrote the Bible?](/christianity/who-wrote-the-bible) pairs that verse with the human writers. The other claim is historical: the books report people and events, and the copies we have are close to what was written. A parable is not a census. [Luke 15](/bible/luke/15) tells of a prodigal son in a story Jesus tells. [Luke 3:1](/bible/luke/3/1) dates John the Baptist by Tiberius, Pilate, and Herod. The Bible is a library. Poetry, law, letter, apocalypse, and narrative sit side by side. Reading a proverb as a lab report, or a passion narrative as a proverb, is a mistake about genre. The passion narrative presents itself as events. [The Resurrection of Jesus](/christianity/resurrection-of-jesus) stays on that narrative. Genesis is the book where Christians who share this confession still disagree. They confess that God created the heavens and the earth and made humans in his image. They do not agree on the age of the earth or the means. [Can Christians Believe in Evolution?](/moral-questions/evolution-and-creation) quotes that disagreement and does not add a verdict. A disagreement about the days is not a finding that the crucifixion narratives are poems. ## What the manuscripts show The Codex Sinaiticus project describes the book: [(4)](#ref-4) > Codex Sinaiticus, a manuscript of the Christian Bible written in the middle of the fourth century, contains the earliest complete copy of the Christian New Testament. A complete New Testament in the fourth century is not the first copy ever made. It is the earliest complete one this manuscript tradition can point to. Vaticanus is a similar fourth-century codex. They are copies. Scribes made them. Comparing copies is how variants are found. [Which Bible Translation Is Most Accurate?](/christianity/which-bible-translation-is-most-accurate) explains one of them: [Matthew 17:21](/bible/matthew/17/21) is in the King James Version and omitted in the critical Greek text this site prints, while [Mark 9:29](/bible/mark/9/29) keeps the fasting line. The oldest piece of a New Testament book often cited is P52, a fragment of John in Manchester. The library’s page says the first editor dated it to the first half of the second century, between 100 and 150, and that recent research points nearer to 200, with no convincing evidence of any earlier New Testament fragment. [Who Wrote the Gospel of John?](/christianity/who-wrote-the-gospel-of-john) uses both dates. A scrap of [John 18](/bible/john/18) is evidence the Gospel was being copied. It is not a signature. ## What the Dead Sea Scrolls show The Israel Antiquities Authority’s introduction to the Scrolls says: [(5)](#ref-5) > Among the Scrolls are partial or complete copies of every book in the Hebrew Bible (except the book of Esther). The same page says many biblical manuscripts closely resemble the Masoretic text, the standard Hebrew Bible of the later first millennium, and that this is remarkable because the Qumran scrolls are more than a thousand years older than previously identified biblical manuscripts. It also says some manuscripts differ in language, spelling, additions, and deletions, and that a closed canon emerged later. The Library of Congress exhibit dates scrolls from the third century B.C.E. to 68 C.E. The Great Isaiah Scroll is the copy people mean when they ask whether Isaiah changed. The Israel Museum’s page says the scroll generally conforms to the Masoretic text, with all sixty-six chapters in the same order, and that the number of textual variants is well over 2,600. [(6)](#ref-6) Conformity and a large variant count are both on that page. Variants of spelling and wording are what a thousand years of copying produces. They are not a second Isaiah. [Was the Bible corrupted?](/islam/was-the-bible-corrupted) is the claim that the earlier books were altered beyond use. The Isaiah scroll is one of the comparisons that claim has to face: a Hebrew Isaiah from before the turn of the era, recognizably the book, and not a spotless printout of a medieval edition. Scroll dates are dates of copies. Which line of the Bible was composed first is not settled by which copy happened to survive in a cave. [Who Wrote Genesis in the Bible?](/christianity/who-wrote-genesis) is the composition question for the Torah. This page does not name a “oldest verse” the caves have not labeled. ## What Jesus did with the Scriptures [Luke 24:44](/bible/luke/24/44) has the risen Jesus say that everything written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled concerning him. He treats that collection as already written and as about himself. [John 5:46](/bible/john/5/46) says Moses wrote of him. The fulfilment claim is not a scoreboard this page can invent, with a count of predictions and a percentage. [What Does Messiah Mean?](/christianity/what-does-messiah-mean) is the office those writings name. [The deity of Christ](/christianity/deity-of-christ) is who the Gospels say he is. [John 20:31](/bible/john/20/31) is candid about purpose. These things are written so that the reader might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, they might have life through his name. A religious purpose explains why the books were kept. [Was Jesus a Real Person?](/christianity/did-jesus-exist) argues that the purpose does not erase the crucifixion under Pilate, which Paul, the Gospels, Tacitus, and Josephus all place in Judaea. [The Resurrection of Jesus](/christianity/resurrection-of-jesus) is the further claim that he rose. A reader can grant the death and dispute the rising. The books ask for both. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is the Bible fiction because believers wrote it? The writers want the reader to believe. [John 20:31](/bible/john/20/31) says so. Tacitus and Josephus are not evangelists, and [Was Jesus a Real Person?](/christianity/did-jesus-exist) quotes them on the execution and on James the brother of Jesus. A motive is part of the story of why a book exists. It is not a switch that turns a public execution into a novel. ### What is the oldest part of the Bible? The Dead Sea Scrolls are among the oldest Hebrew copies, not the autographs. The Israel Antiquities Authority dates Qumran biblical manuscripts from the third century B.C.E. into the first century of the common era, before the temple fell in 70. Composition is a different timeline. [Who Wrote Genesis in the Bible?](/christianity/who-wrote-genesis) takes the Torah. [Who Wrote the Gospel of John?](/christianity/who-wrote-the-gospel-of-john) takes the Gospel whose oldest fragment is P52. ### Does a missing verse mean the Bible is false? [Matthew 17:21](/bible/matthew/17/21) is the example. The King James Version has “prayer and fasting.” The critical Greek text omits the sentence and keeps a Textus Receptus form of it on the page. [Mark 9:29](/bible/mark/9/29) has the fasting line in the American Standard Version as well. A copy that lacks a sentence is a textual fact. [Which Bible Translation Is Most Accurate?](/christianity/which-bible-translation-is-most-accurate) explains it. The Isaiah scroll’s 2,600 variants are the same kind of fact in Hebrew. They are why the pages show the words, not why the books are a blank. ### If God is not real, can the Bible still be history? The historical claims would still be claims about people and copies. Inspiration would drop. [Does God exist?](/god/does-god-exist) is the existence question. [Who Wrote the Bible?](/christianity/who-wrote-the-bible) says the human authors remain either way. Muslims raise a different objection, that the text was changed after it was true. [Was the Bible corrupted?](/islam/was-the-bible-corrupted) quotes the Qur’an there. ## Keep reading - [Who Wrote the Bible?](/christianity/who-wrote-the-bible) - [Who Wrote Genesis in the Bible?](/christianity/who-wrote-genesis) - [Who Wrote Matthew, Mark, and Luke?](/christianity/who-wrote-the-gospels) - [Was Jesus a Real Person?](/christianity/did-jesus-exist) - [The Resurrection of Jesus](/christianity/resurrection-of-jesus) - [Which Bible Translation Is Most Accurate?](/christianity/which-bible-translation-is-most-accurate) - [Was the Bible corrupted?](/islam/was-the-bible-corrupted) - [Does God exist?](/god/does-god-exist) - [Can Christians Believe in Evolution?](/moral-questions/evolution-and-creation) - [How Was the Bible Canon Decided, and What Is the Apocrypha?](/christianity/what-is-the-apocrypha) ## Passages quoted on this page ### 2 Timothy 3:16 King James Version. > All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: ### Luke 24:44 King James Version. > And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. ### John 20:31 King James Version. > But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. ### Luke 3:1 King James Version. > Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, ### Matthew 17:21 King James Version. > Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. ### Mark 9:29 King James Version. > And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. ### John 5:46 King James Version. > For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. ## Sources Numbered to match the HTML References list. Item 1 is `#ref-1` under `#references`. Scripture links to the King James Version on this site. 1. [Second Letter to Timothy, 3:16](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/2-timothy/3/16). King James Version 2. [Gospel of Luke, 24:44](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/luke/24/44). King James Version 3. [Gospel of John, 20:31](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/john/20/31). King James Version 4. [Codex Sinaiticus, About the manuscript](https://codexsinaiticus.org/en/codex/) (The Codex Sinaiticus project’s description of the manuscript.) 5. [Dead Sea Scrolls, introduction, Biblical manuscripts](https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/learn-about-the-scrolls/introduction) (Israel Antiquities Authority introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls.) 6. [The Great Isaiah Scroll, 1QIsaa](http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah) (Israel Museum description of the Great Isaiah Scroll. This page paraphrases that description and does not add a second full quotation of lines already stored for other articles.) 7. [Greek Papyrus 457, P52](https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/MS-GREEK-P-00457/1) (University of Manchester, John Rylands Library. The page gives both a first-editor date in the first half of the second century and a recent date nearer to 200.) ## See also - [Who Wrote Genesis in the Bible?](https://apologetics.wiki/christianity/who-wrote-genesis) — Jesus and the books themselves name Moses as the writer of the law, Genesis through Deuteronomy. The documentary hypothesis reads those books as later sources woven together. - [Who Wrote the Bible?](https://apologetics.wiki/christianity/who-wrote-the-bible) — God is the Bible’s author, and named people wrote its books. Moses, the prophets, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul are the writers the books and the early church name. - [Does the Bible Contradict Itself?](https://apologetics.wiki/christianity/does-the-bible-contradict-itself) — Some Bible passages look as if they cannot both be true. Judas, the census numbers, and Matthew’s naming of Jeremy are real differences in the text. A contradiction is two claims that cannot both be true in the same way. - [How Was the Bible Canon Decided, and What Is the Apocrypha?](https://apologetics.wiki/christianity/what-is-the-apocrypha) — Trent receives the longer Old Testament and anathematizes refusal. Westminster says the books called Apocrypha are no part of the canon. The Catechism says the Church discerned the list by Tradition. - [What Bible Do Catholics Use?](https://apologetics.wiki/christianity/what-bible-do-catholics-use) — The Catechism’s canon has 46 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books. Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and the books of Maccabees are in that Old Testament. ## History [View history on GitHub](https://github.com/Apologetics-Wiki/apologetics-wiki/commits/main/src/content/articles/is-the-bible-true.md)