How old is the Bible?
The question of the Bible's age has two answers: one about dates and manuscripts, and one about a book that has outlasted every rival written near its own time. Commentators in this collection treat both — when the writing began, how long it took, and why a book this old is not a museum piece.
The oldest book in the world
Writers here place the Bible's beginnings roughly three and a half thousand years back, with its final pages closing nearly two thousand years ago.
A J PollockTo begin with, the Bible has the distinction of being the oldest book in the world. Books generally last a few years and then disappear, however popular they may have been. This is especially true of ancient books, with the one great exception of the Bible. The Bible's earliest writings date back some 3,500 years; its latest writings over 1,800 years. It contains sixty-six books, linked together in harmony in all their parts, one writer not contradicting another, though they were unknown to each other and their writings were produced in centuries widely apart.
Older than the classics
Set beside the famous names of the ancient world, the first five books of the Bible are not merely old but earlier than almost everything else that survives.
Walter ScottOf the writings, the first was the Pentateuch, completed fifteen centuries before Christ — that is, 700 years before Rome was founded, and about 1,000 years before the work of Herodotus, the first authentic history, was published — and centuries before Homer, the prince of Greek poets, flourished, or Hesiod, more ancient still, sang his verses. The Pentateuch and the book of Job are by far the oldest writings in existence… The first recorded date in Scripture is found in that highly important chronological chapter, Genesis 5:3. Neither science nor Scripture settles the age of this globe. All Scripture dates refer to human history.
Sixteen centuries in the making
The Bible is not one book with one date. Its writing ran across generations, countries and circumstances.
Walter ScottHere are sixty-six books, the work of forty to fifty writers, their composition covering a period of about 1,600 years, written on the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe, and in courts, deserts and dungeons; and under conditions of gladness, sorrow, poverty, pain and pressure.
That long span is exactly what makes the book's agreement so striking, and it points to an author behind the authors.
H H SnellIf a friend handed us a huge volume made up of sixty-six books, written by between thirty and forty people at different times over fifteen hundred years, and said, "In spite of all their differences there is a remarkable unity running through it," would we not be astonished? In fact there is no book like the Bible in this respect, nor could there be, unless everything it contains had been written under the guidance of one Mind, its communications throughout given by the one Spirit.
Estimates differ slightly between writers — some say 1,500 years and thirty to forty writers, others 1,600 years and forty to fifty.
A gap of four centuries inside it
The Bible's two halves are themselves separated by a long silence.
A J PollockJudged even on the surface, the Bible is easily the most remarkable book in the world. That it should consist of two distinct parts, separated from each other by about four centuries — the latest book of the Old Testament being written nearly five hundred years before the first book of the New Testament — is a striking feature no other book in the world shares.
Old text, accurate copies
Age raises an obvious worry: after so much copying, is the text we hold still the text that was written? A discovery in the Judean desert answered that.
Michael HardtEvidence for the accuracy of transmission abounds. Until 1947, the oldest known Old Testament manuscripts were from around AD 1000. Bible critics claimed these had to be very inaccurate because so many centuries had passed. The famous Qumran discovery in 1947 proved them wrong (the critics, not the manuscripts). The caves at Qumran held copies of every book of the Old Testament except Esther — from 100 to 200 years BC. Careful comparison showed these manuscripts were virtually identical to the ones already known from AD 1000.
Ancient, yet still first in the world's hands
Being the oldest has not made it a relic.
A J PollockBut the Bible is not out of date. Its first words were written in cuneiform characters on clay tablets by Moses, over 3,000 years ago. It is by far the oldest book in the world, and yet it is the world's best seller today — read, pondered, meditated on, taken in and practised by far more readers than any other book in the world.
Its survival is not simply good fortune. Attempts to destroy it are as old as the book itself, and they have all outlived their usefulness before it has.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe Word of God endures forever. It is, like God, eternal. How the Bibles have been burned, a thousand times over! In pagan Rome and papal Rome Satan has raged against the Bible. His Word lives on… Emperors and popes, philosophers and unbelievers who attacked the Bible are gone; the Bible is still with us.
Summary
- Oldest. Its earliest writings go back some 3,500 years and its last about 1,800 — no other ancient book has lasted like it.
- Earlier. The first five books were finished about fifteen centuries before Christ, well before Rome, Herodotus and Homer.
- Longest. Sixty-six books, forty or so writers, roughly 1,600 years, three continents — courts, deserts and dungeons.
- Unified. That span is the point: such agreement across so many centuries and hands means one Mind guided it.
- Living. Qumran showed the text was faithfully copied; burnings and critics have come and gone, and the oldest book is still the world's best seller.