Is the Bible Reliable?

Compare the New Testament to the Iliad by Homer

24,000 manuscript copies of portions of New Testament, more than any other ancient book. The Iliad is second with only 630 surviving manuscripts.
The earliest portions of New Testament were written within 30 years of the events. The Iliad was written after a gap of 500 years.
The New Testament has about 20,000 lines, with only 40 lines in question (0.5%). The Iliad has about 15,600 lines with 764 lines in question (5%).
- A careful study of the few questioned passages in the New Testament reveals that none of them affect a single doctrine of Scripture.
If we question the accuracy of the New Testament, we must question the accuracy of every other ancient book.

Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest complete Hebrew manuscripts were dated 900 AD.
In the Dead Sea Scrolls was a complete text of the book of Isaiah, dated approximately 125 B.C., over one thousand years older.
Comparing the two, there is only one word (3 letters) in question after 1000 years.
Even though the Old Testament texts were copied by hand for hundreds of years, they have survived with almost complete accuracy.

They wrote as eyewitnesses or from first-hand information.
(See Luke 1:1-3; II Peter 1:16; I John 1:3; Acts 2:22, and others).
The people they were preaching to, both enemies and friends, also were witnesses and knew they were telling the truth.
Many other ancient historians, both Christian and non-Christian, agree with the writings of the New Testament. If the disciples had been writing inaccuracies, many people would have been quick to discredit them.

These notes were extracted from Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell, published by Here's Life Publishers, Inc., San Bernadino, CA.