There are 66 books in the Bible that were written by 40 different writers1 over a span of 1500 years2. There are no existing original manuscripts of the Old or New Testaments, but there are thousands of reproductions. So, how do we know they weren’t changed by Christian zealots?
I was first confronted with this idea several years ago. A friend commented on an article I posted, saying he had changed his mind about homosexuality being a sin because he learned that the word homosexuality was added to the Bible.
He said it with such confidence, I was taken aback. Then my critical thinking skills kicked in.
I realized Judaism had always condemned homosexuality. There are laws against the practice in Leviticus, and it was the reason God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. The New Testament teachings were consistent with that.
I also realized the primary source of my friend’s information needed to be checked. Who told him the word homosexuality was added? And are there other views on this matter?
In addition, my friend had a gay sibling. So he had an incentive to want homosexuality legitimized by his faith.
His claims weren’t adding up. It only took a few internet searches to find my friend’s information was only half-truth.
As we know, the English language changes over time, including the word we use to describe the act of homosexuality. So, yes, the word “homosexuality” was added to replace the outdated King James phrase, “those who defile themselves with mankind.”
Before King James, Wycliffe used the word “lechery.” In the sixteenth century, the Geneva Bible used the term “buggerers.”3 All of these are period-appropriate terms that mean homosexuality.
So just because a new more accurate word was used doesn’t mean the Bible was changed. If anything, adding a more precise English word makes our translations easier to understand.
I mention this example because Bible skeptics often bring up half-truths like this when debating the accuracy of scripture. But when you dig into each of them, the so-called “facts” fall apart.
Too Good to be True?
Another issue often brought up by Bible skeptics is the fulfillment of prophecy. Other ancient books contain so-called prophetic passages, but none have any proof of being fulfilled. Yet the Bible is full of proven prophecy that came to pass in remarkable detail. The life of Jesus alone fulfilled over 300 prophecies!4 (Read more about this in the chapter on Bible prophecy.)
Skeptics think this sounds a little too good to be true, so they pose this suggestion: What if the New Testament writers rewrote or added ancient prophetic passages to match the life of Christ and make it look like he fulfilled prophecy?
That was the belief of most secular humanist scholars until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. The Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient copies of the Old Testament. The manuscripts were discovered by nomads in a cave near the Dead Sea, and research revealed the scrolls were hidden there by Jews at the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., less than 40 years after Jesus’s time on earth.
This finding excited both religious and secular scholars alike. We could finally settle the debate about which parts of the Old Testament, if any, had been changed by Christians in the last 2,000 years.
After years of scrutiny, scholars concluded the Dead Sea scrolls were virtually exact copies of the Old Testament we have today.5 They found only a few minor discrepancies, like altered spellings and a handful of insignificant differences, but nothing that would create controversy or change the meaning of any passages.
As Jesus said, “I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17-18). The scriptures Jesus studied in the temple in Jerusalem are the same Old Testament scriptures we study today.
What about the New Testament
Okay, the Dead Sea scrolls proved the Old Testament is trustworthy, but what about the New Testament? Since there are no known original manuscripts of these ancient texts, how do we know they are accurate?
It may sound like a problem to have no original manuscripts, but this is normal for ancient writing. There are no original manuscripts of Plato, Homer, or Caesar, yet no one disputes their existence. Even the copies we do have are few and comparatively new. Notice how many years lapse between the originals and the copies:
Plato: Only 7 copies exist. The oldest copy was written 1300 years later than the original.
Aristotle: Only 5 copies exist. The oldest copy was written 1200 years later.
Caesar: Only 10 copies exist. The oldest copy was written 900 years later.6
Now compare these writers with the New Testament. The earliest manuscript we have comes from the book of John, which was written 117 years later than the original. We have copies of all four Gospels that date within 150 years of the original. And we have 5,686 copies of partial and complete ancient manuscripts.7
We also have over 36,000 quotations of scripture from early church fathers. According to Dr. Ron Rhodes, the president of Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministries, “There are enough quotations from the early church fathers alone that even if we did not have a single manuscript copy of the New Testament, scholars could still reconstruct over 99% of it from material written within 150-200 years of the time of Christ.”8
Secular scholars around the world have scrutinized the Bible in every way possible—they have cross examined locations, weather patterns, and astronomical alignments … They even cross-checked names of people in the Bible to see if they matched common names of the era! And yet, no one has discovered anything to disprove its authenticity.
What About the “Extra” Books?
For anyone with a Catholic background, you might notice the protestant Bible has less books. The missing books are a part of the Apocrypha, a collection of writings from the intertestamental period (the time between Malachi and Matthew).
These are books of history, culture, poetry, and wisdom, and they include fact and fantasy. Even though many of them are historical in nature, they are not considered the word of God.
As far back as ancient times, scholars like the historian Josephus, the Jewish Talmud, and the Council of Jamnia, made it clear the Apocrypha was not scripture. These books were meant for informational purposes only.
The writers of The Geneva Bible, the first Bible commentary, included these books in its binding, but specified the books of the Apocrypha are “not … to be read and expounded publicly in the Church …”9
Despite all that, Roman Catholics embraced the Apocrypha anyway and adopted it as scripture at the Council of Trent in 1546-1563. Some suggest the act of praying to the dead (in particularly to saints) was beneficial to Rome, and that’s why it was adopted.10
The Gnostic Gospels
The Apocrypha isn’t the only set of writings that have been mistaken for scripture. There are other ancient texts that are forgeries and fakes. The most deceptive are referred to as the Gnostic gospels. There are around 60 in total.
The word gnostic comes from the Greek word gnosis, which means “to know.” The Gnostics were early heretics who worshipped knowledge through enlightenment (probably gained through mind-altering drugs).
The Gnostics dismissed the Old Testament as the product of a lesser god, and they believed the physcial world was evil and the body was a prison that the soul must be freed from.
They lived about 200 years after Christ and wrote fraudulent stories about him, claiming Jesus wasn’t a real physical man and that Simon the Cyrene was crucified in his place.
Their writings also contain the origin of the supposed love affair between Jesus and Mary Magdalene made popular by the book The Davinci Code by Dan Brown.
Muhammed was largely influenced by Gnosticism and mirrored many of the beliefs in Islam. Postmodernism is also a product of gnostic beliefs, particularly as it pertains to the search for truth and the elevation of knowledge.11
So how do we know the books are false? Again, the answer is easier than it seems.
First, the early church fathers, like Polycarp, Justin Martyr, and Tertullian, rejected these writings.12
Second, none of these books were written by people who knew Jesus. They were written 150-200 years after his time on earth. That would be like a person in high school today claiming to have personal knowledge about The Great Depression. Not even their grandparents (or possibly great-grandparents) would have lived through it!
Third, most secular and biblical scholars today agree the Gnostic writings are forgeries. Their content doesn’t hold up to basic scrutiny when examined. According to Brian Edwards, contributing author of How Do We Know the Bible is True, Volume 2, “From the earliest records, there is not a shred of evidence that any other gospel was even a remote contender for a place in the canon of the New Testament.”13
Twisting the Word
This same gnostic spirit plagues many churches today. This type of heresy doesn’t completely deny the Bible, but it creates a perverted version. As 2 Timothy 3:5 says, it has “the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.”
Creating a false gospel is one of Satan’s most effective tactics. The devil knows God’s word better than we do, and he’s been twisting it since the beginning. We see several examples of Satan using this trick in the Bible.
The first took place in the Garden of Eden. God told Adam and Eve they could eat of any tree in the garden except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And if they did, they would surely die (Genesis 2:16-17).
Satan approached Eve and said, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’? … You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:1, 4-5).
Well, the devil was sort of right, wasn’t he? Adam and Eve ate the fruit, and they didn’t immediately die. He was also right about something else—they were like God in one way—they knew the difference between good and evil.
Of course, Satan failed to tell the couple their disobedience came with a curse—their bodies would be mortal; their work would be painful and hard; the world would fill with sickness and toil, and worst of all, they would be spiritually dead.
Satan also twisted scripture when he tempted Jesus. After Jesus suffered 40 days and nights without food in the harsh middle-eastern wilderness, they engaged in a battle using God’s word (Matthew 4:1-11).
Satan said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
But Jesus rebutted with scripture. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Then Satan replied with scripture again: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
And Jesus answered with more scripture: “It is said, you shall not put the Lord to the test.”
Finally, Satan promised to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth in exchange for worship.
But Jesus replied with scripture again, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
Stories like these show how the devil can twist and construe scripture to communicate the message that suits his desired outcomes. This same spirit is what created forgeries like the Gnostic gospels, Islam, and the postmodern philosophies that are so prominent today.
The Bible is Trustworthy
There have been many attempts by both secular humanists and Satan himself to cast doubt on the truthfulness of God’s word, and yet, it continues to outshine all the skeptics. Both secular and Chrisitan scholars alike can easily see the difference between forgeries and the original writings. And any questions about changes to the original Old Testament have finally been put to rest, thanks to the discover of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
I hope this chapter has calmed any questions you’ve had about possible changes or rewrites in scripture. But this is only the beginning of understanding the veracity and importance of the Bible as a whole. There is much more to come.
In the next chapter we’ll discuss the purpose of the Old Testament and why we still need to study it today as part of our Christian faith.
End Notes:
- Got Questions (2025, January 10). Who Were the Authors of the Books of the Bible? Got Questions. https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-authors.html
- Got Questions (2022, January 4). How Long did it Take to Write the Bible? Got Questions. https://www.gotquestions.org/write-the-Bible.html
- Luke Wayne, (2016, September 15). Did modern translators add homosexuals to Paul’s list of sinful people? Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM). https://www.carm.org/homosexuality-secular-movements/did-modern-translators-add-homosexuals-to-pauls-list-of-sinful-people/
- Ken Ham and Bodie Hodge, How Do We Know the Bible is True, Volume 2 (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2012), 54-55.
- Eric Metaxas, Is Atheism Dead? (Washington, DC: Salem Books, 2021), 156.
- Eric Metaxas, Is Atheism Dead? (Washington, DC: Salem Books, 2021), 180-181.
- Ken Ham and Bodie Hodge, How Do We Know the Bible is True, Volume 2 (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2012), 276.
- Ken Ham and Bodie Hodge, How Do We Know the Bible is True, Volume 2 (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2012), 268.
- Ken Ham and Bodie Hodge, How Do We Know the Bible is True, Volume 2 (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2012), 245-246.
- Ken Ham and Bodie Hodge, How Do We Know the Bible is True, Volume 2 (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2012), 248.
- Ken Ham and Bodie Hodge, How Do We Know the Bible is True, Volume 2 (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2012), 252-263.
- Paul Pavao. (2025, March 22). The Muratorian Canon. Christian History for Everyman. https://www.christian-history.org/muratorian-canon.html
- Ken Ham and Bodie Hodge, How Do We Know the Bible is True, Volume 2 (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2012), 263.