13.    Is our present Bible accurate?

• Based on a comparison of the Masoretic text with the Dead Sea Scrolls: over 98% of our Bible is exactly the same in both, only less than 0.5% of the variants affecting sense of the passage, but most importantly, no doctrine hangs upon a debatable text.
• There are errors on the part of copyists (Example: the number of Solomon’s stalls for horses recorded differently in 1Ki 4:26 and 2Ch 9:25; age of King Ahaziah in 2Ki 8:26 and 2Ch 22:2; age of King Saul in 1Sa 13:1, see explanations in footnotes of NIV). But they are easily recognized.
• Conclusion: our present Bible is adequately accurate, for all practical purposes the very Word of God. This shows how God providentially preserve the true text of the Bible through history.

• Higher criticism: concerned with matters of date of origin, literary style, historicity, and authorship; applied to genuineness of the Bible; "destructive" criticism; started by academics who intended to discredit the Bible
• Lower criticism: attempt to reconstruct the original text that stands behind the various transmissions; applied to authenticity of the Bible; "constructive" criticism

• It is possibly a warning to biblical scholars not to esteem palaeographic, numeric (numerology) or other trivia over the essential message of the Bible.

14.    Is the Bible inerrant or without error?

• Lausanne Covenant Statement (1974, led by Billy Graham and John Stott): The Bible is without error in all that it affirms.

• the Bible is fully inerrant (no errors) in all it teaches or affirms, including history and science.

• the Bible is inerrant in its teachings on salvation while history and science may contain errors.

• it is not important to defend the inerrancy of marginal matters such as history and science.

15.    How should we reconcile difficulties and discrepancies in the Bible?

a. Abstract approach:

• aware of the difficulties in the Bible, but the fact of divine inspiration is so convincing that the difficulties cannot overthrow the inerrancy of the Bible; therefore it is not necessary to explain the difficulties.

• believe that all difficulties have logical solutions, therefore try to resolve all difficulties, sometimes even through the use of conjecture (guessing); some others may use the argument that the difficulties were errors of copyists and were not in the original manuscripts.

• try to resolve as many difficulties as possible, but leave unresolved difficulties in suspense.

• accept that there are difficulties that cannot be resolved and may actually be errors.

16.    What are the original languages of the Bible?

• Hebrew (22 alphabets, all consonants): a pictorial language suitable for biographical information
• Aramaic (language of the Syrians): in the following passages: Gen 10:22; 31:47; 2Ki 18:26; Ez 4:7-6:18; 7:12-26; Isa 36:11; Jer 10:11; Da 2:4-7:28 (see Da 2:4, Ez 4:7)

• Greek (24 alphabets, 8 vowels): an intellectual language suitable for expressing propositional truth such as the gospel; it was the universal language in the Near East, thus convenient for evangelism [some words in Aramaic which was the language Jesus used, see Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34; 1Co 16:22]

17.    What are the major translations of the Bible? Which ones are the best?

a. Methods of translating the Bible:

• Formal equivalence (FEq): translation that mimics the form of the original language both in words and sentence structure [Example: Gr. sarx in Ro 8:8-9 and Gal 2:20 both translated "flesh"]
• Dynamic equivalence (DEq): translation that tries to represent the original meaning by using its closest equivalent in contemporary usage [Example: translated "sinful nature" and "body"]
• Paraphrase (Par): translation that restates the message by using different words

• Greek translation of OT: Septuagint (LXX) by 70 Jewish scholars at Alexandria, Egypt (250 BC), used in many quotes in NT

• Latin translation OT & NT: Vulgate (AD 405) by Jerome

• Each translation has its own strengths and weaknesses. For all practical purpose, all the above translations are sufficiently accurate. If one is chosen for all purposes, NIV (English) and Today’s Chinese Version (TCV, Chinese) are good choices. However, because TCV is not commonly used, the traditional Kuoyu Bible is still a good compromise.