And as he was saying these things in his defense,
Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of
your mind; your great learning is driving you out of
your mind.” But Paul said, I am not out of my
mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking
true and rational words. For the king knows about
these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am
persuaded that none of these things has escaped
his notice, for this has not been done in a corner.
King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know
that you believe.” And Agrippa said to Paul, "In a
short time would you persuade me to be a
Christian?” (ESV)
Acts 26:24‐28
A synagogue roll must be written on the skins of clean
animals
These must be fastened together with strings taken from
clean animals
Every skin must contain a certain number of columns,
equal throughout the entire codex
The length of each column must not extend over less than
48 or more than 60 lines; and the breadth must consist of
thirty letters
The whole copy must be first‐lined; and if three words be
written without a line, it is worthless
The ink should be black, neither red, green, nor any other
color, and be prepared according to a definite recipe
An authentic copy must be the exemplar, from which the
transcriber ought not in the least deviate
No word or letter, not even a yod, must be written from
memory, the scribe not having looked at the codex before
him
Between every consonant the space of a hair or thread must
intervene
Between every new parashah, or section, the breadth of
nine consonants
Between every book, three lines
The fifth book of Moses must terminate exactly with a line;
but the rest need not do so
Besides this, the copyist must sit in full Jewish dress, wash
his whole body, not begin to write the name of God with a
pen newly dipped in ink, and should a king address him
while writing that name he must take no notice of him
‐ Talmudist Samuel Davidson
Author
Book
Date
Written
Earliest Copies
Time Gap
No. of
Copies
Homer
Iliad
800 B.C.
c. 400 B.C.
c. 400 yrs
643
Herodotus
History 480‐425
B.C.
c. A.D. 900
c. 1350 yrs
8
Plato
400 B.C.
c. A.D. 900
c. 1300 yrs
7
Demosthenes
300 B.C.
c. A.D. 1100
c. 1400 yrs
200
Caesar
Gallic
Wars
100‐44
B.C.
c. A.D. 900
c. 1000 yrs
200
Tacitus
Annals
A.D. 100
c. A.D. 1100
c. 1000 yrs
20
Pliny
Secundus
Natural A.D. 61‐
History 113
c. A.D. 850
c. 750 yrs
7
c. 114 fragment
c. 200 books
c. 250 (most NT)
c. 325 (full NT)
+50 yrs
100 yrs
150 yrs
225 yrs
5801
New
Testament
A.D. 50‐
100
“To be skeptical of the
resultant text of the New
Testament books is to
allow all of classical
antiquity to slip into
obscurity, for no
documents of the ancient
period are as well attested
bibliographically as the
New Testament.”
‐ John Warwick Montgomery
Contradictions?
“Historically it is quite
doubtful whether
Christ ever existed at
all, and if He did we do
not know anything
about Him.”
‐ Bertrand Russell
“Hence to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the
guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the
persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for
their enormities. Christus, the founder of the
name, was put to death by
Pontius Pilate, procurator of
Judea in the reign of Tiberius:
but the pernicious superstition,
repressed for a time, broke out
again, not only through Judea,
where the mischief originated,
but through the city of Rome
also.”
‐Tacitus (A.D. 55‐120)
“Thallus, in the third book of his
histories, explains away this
darkness as an eclipse of the sun
– unreasonably, as it seems to
me (unreasonably, of course,
because a solar eclipse could not
take place at the time of the full
moon and it was at the season of
the Paschal full moon
that Christ dies).”
‐ Julius Africanus (quoting
Thallus, A.D. 52)
“What advantage did the Jews gain from executing
their wise King? It was just after that that their
kingdom was abolished. God justly avenged these
three wise men: the Athenians died of hunger; the
Samians were overwhelmed by the sea; the Jews,
ruined and driven from their land, live in complete
dispersion. But Socrates did not die for good; he
lived on in the teachings of Plato. Pythagoras did not
die for good; he lived on in the statue of Hera. Nor
did the wise King die for good; He lived on in the
teaching which He had given.”
‐Mara Bar‐Serapion (A.D. 70)
“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man for
he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such
men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew
over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the
Gentiles. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the
principal men among us, had condemned him to
the cross, those that loved him at the first did not
forsake him. And the tribe of Christians so named
from him are not
extinct at this day.”
‐ Josephus (A.D. 37‐100)
“Historically it is quite
doubtful whether
Christ ever existed at
all, and if He did we do
not know anything
about Him.”