A few years ago, I was in Russia speaking at a young leaders conference within an amazing church planting movement called the Russian Church. In the previous 20 years they had planted over 2000 churches. There was an incredible sense of joy and energy reverberating through all they are doing – yet within living memory, leaders had been in prison and even getting hold of a Bible was a real challenge. One of family told me of their memories of Bible smugglers coming from the West to help, and the feelings of elation at seeing 100s of Bibles unloaded and hidden in various places. The Communists used to try to persuade the children of Christian families that the Bible was filled with legends that only the most simple-minded people would be gullible enough to believe. My friend was pressurized and threatened with all kinds of persecution when he had been a teenager to try and get him to publicly renounce the Bible at school.
The idea that the Bible is full of legends is not confined to communist countries of the past, many of our friends and neighbors in the US assume that the Bible is primarily mythological rather than reliable.
Now of course when people ask us questions about the Bible, they are asking us about 66 books written over a period of 1600 years by more than 40 authors who were people from all kinds of different backgrounds – kings, diplomats, agricultural laborers, fishermen, and a tentmaker. The Bible was originally written in three languages – Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek and it was written on three continents – Asia, Africa, and Europe. The vast spread of the Bible’s social, geographical and cultural original contexts is then followed by a multiplication of these diversities as the manuscripts were copied and spread throughout the known world. So, when we talk about the Bible there are a huge number of ancient manuscripts to be examined so that the actual text we have translated into English is extremely well attested historically.
During the early Christian era, the writing material most commonly used was papyrus. This is a highly durable reed from the Nile Valley and it was glued together much like plywood is today, and then laid out to dry in the sun. However, it was relatively fragile and with multiple usage over generations could wear out and break. This means that the very earliest manuscripts of the New Testament that survive come to us in fragmentary form.
In September I had the privilege of teaching on a conference for Global Church leaders who were gathering in Egypt. We had the opportunity to visit St Catherine’s monastery on Mount Sinai and then climb “Moses Mountain” as it is known there and watch the sun rise together at the summit. We shared the Eucharist and prayed for the world in the 15 different languages represented in our group, in the place where it is believed the 10 commandments were given. St Catherine’s monastery is a place that has played a significant role in preserving the manuscripts of the Bible and the church. Until 1844 the monks of St Catherine’s preserved the earliest full copy of the New Testament in the Codex Sinaiticus. It now sits in the British Museum in London. But from the 300s AD the monks looked after it. Having a document such as this along with many fragments and other sources gives us confidence that there was not time for legend to accumulate, the New Testament is early, reliable, stable, and trustworthy. And the Greek monks of St Catherine’s have withstood all the political and religious upheaval of the region, worshipping daily with unchanged liturgy since the days of St Helena in the fourth century.
Faithfulness makes an impact for generations. Their steadfast and plodding commitment through the centuries makes a difference to any who ask whether the Bible can be trusted today. The faithfulness of those who resisted the pressures of communism in the 20th century matter today as the church continues to grow. As we face challenged and opposition in our contexts lets be encouraged to keep going with consistency, moral courage and confidence in the scriptures as God’s word for all time – including our time.
Dr Amy Orr-Ewing is Honorary Lecturer in Divinity at the University of Aberdeen and Distinguished Scholar at Wheaton College.
