The Bible as Historically Accurate

There is just to much on this subject for this blog to do this subject justice, however I will give a brief overview. For more information I encourage all readers to read Josh McDowell's "The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict."

The following is copied from a comment on my last entry:

As for accuracy of the record there are numerous books which confirm the
historicity of the Bible. Among these sources are Josephus and Philo. Not to
mention that process of copying the Bible was done so meticulously and
preciously. The Dead Sea Scrolls are proof of this. To date we have numerous
manuscripts for the bible, more than any book written in history. Here is a
listing of manuscripts of the biblical texts we possess:
New Testament:
Uncials 307
Minuscules 2,860
Lectionaries 2,410
Papri 109
In Other Languages: Latin Vulgate 10,000 +
Ethiopic 2,000 +
Slavic 4,101
Armenian 2,587
Syriac Pashetta 350 +
Bohairic 100
Arabic 75
Old Latin 50
Anglo Saxon 7
Gothic 6
Sogdian 3
Old Syriac 2
Persian 2
Frankish 1
Total – 24,970+

Old Testament: (I do not have to totals for most of these)
Dead Sea Scrolls 223
Manuscripts of various books
Septuagint
Hexapla
Aramaic Targums
Mishnah
Midrash
Masoretic Text

Interesting to note that Archeology often uses the bible for digs and every
time a dig is done they find the exact place they were looking for. This too
proves that the Bible is historically accurate.

There is no other book in the world of significant age that can boast about how close it is to it's autographs (Orignal writing). Even the fact that we have the Dead Sea scrolls shows how accurate the scriptures have been preserved. There is no other writing that can claim as solidly accurate like the Bible can.

The note on archeologies use of the Bible is also a highly important for the accuracy of the Bible. Everytime the Bible has been used for a historic dig archeologists have found the places described in the Bible.

A couple of books which also would help to understand this topic more are Lee Stobel's Case for Christ and Case for Faith. Stobel points out through his books that the Bible also holds up to the Journalists testing for accuracy of a source.

Another point is that there are several sources outside of the Bible which confirm what the Bible claims. Roman archives atest to Jesus and His crucificion. Historians Josephus and Philo confirm the turth of both Old and New Testaments. Historical writings of nations who have encountered the nation of Israel. The Ebla tablets even confirm the Genesis account of Creation and the flood including acutual names recorded in Genesis.

With all the evidence, both Biblical and secular, it is simple to see that the Bible is trustworthy because of historical accuracy.