[Disclaimer: I was doing research this morning and decided to try to collect my thoughts. This was the outcome. I want to note that I don't have the kind of extensive knowledge that I wish I did to accurately defend the Bible in every way.]
It’s a Thursday morning around 10:30, and I’m sitting in
history class being told the Bible is a big fat lie and I'm ignorant to believe it. What else is new?
Today’s “evidence”: The
Epic of Gilgamesh and the Code of
Hammurabi. Supposedly, these two
documents were written hundreds of years prior to the Bible and contain things
that the author of the Bible “stole,” namely, the story of the flood and the
laws of Deuteronomy, respectively. How
incriminating! Apparently Moses was
nothing more than a collector of ancient writings, who decided to fill in his
own story in between, that fame-hungry jerk…
Can we pause for a second?
In regards to the estimated age of the documents, I’d just like to take
a moment to point out the inaccuracy of carbon dating (honest scholars will tell you we’re talking about a
range of hundreds, even THOUSANDS of years).
Yes, the Epic and Code were inscribed on stone rather than
parchment like the Old Testament but to me that could demonstrate that earlier
parchments dating back farther didn’t survive…which also makes me think that those writing the
Bible were MUCH more advanced, but that’s purely speculation.
Here's the real issue: whether or not it’s true that those two documents are older,
we have no reason to believe that the Bible isn’t true or that it contains stories stolen from other documents and peoples.
Consider this scenario: The events of the ancient world transpire—biblical
events (ie; the fall of man, the flood, Israelites enslaved to Egypt, an escape
from Egypt, a massive drought). During
this time, people are developing methods of record keeping, namely with things
such as cave drawings and carving into stone tablets. Of course they would write about some of these
things that are happening, but it should be easy to assume that not all
writings would be nonfictional; there would be a large contingent containing polytheistic
myths (ie, the Epic of Gilgamesh). Now,
at the time God decided to have his inspired words written down, he did
so. That doesn’t mean the Bible copied
anyone or was simply the Wikipedia of the great ancient works of the
world. It means God does things his way,
his PERFECT way. Which shouldn’t be
news. To any of us.
I realize that if I were to build a very strong case for
this right now it would take a lot of research, which I don’t have time for at
the moment because this is only for my long-forgotten blog and I need to be writing an essay
on the cultural affects of the Code
in Mesopotamia instead ohhhdeearrr... but I digress.
Here’s what I do know.
The Bible is breathed out by God (2 Timothy 3:16), and thus is inerrant
and perfectly true. The longest chapter in the entire Bible is ABOUT how awesome the Bible is (Psalm 119)! I trust God, so I
trust his Word to me.
