Can We Trust the Bible?

The Word of God

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

Hebrews 4:12
Can the Bible be trusted — as history, and as the word of God? The question has two parts. First, the historical: are the texts we have a reliable transmission of what was written, and is what was written credible? Second, the theological: in what sense is Scripture inspired, and who has the authority to interpret it? Both questions matter, and I take them up in turn.
Beyond this question lie others, obviously: How should the Bible be interpreted? What is its purpose? Is it intended to be an encyclopedia of scientific and historical knowledge? Is the Bible inerrant? Infallible? How does it 'work'?
I invite your engagement with me on these questions. You may leave comments below, but please be sure to read our policy on commenting before doing so.

Atheist View

The skeptic's case against the Bible is familiar. It is a collection of Bronze- and Iron-Age documents, written and rewritten by many hands, copied with errors, riddled with contradictions, and shaped by councils with agendas. Its miracles are legends, its history is unreliable, and its morality is often abhorrent to modern conscience. Why, the skeptic asks, should anyone treat such a book as the word of God rather than as an anthology of ancient human religion?

Catholic View

On the historical side, the manuscript evidence for the New Testament is stronger, by orders of magnitude, than for any other ancient text. On the theological side, I will argue that Scripture cannot finally be separated from the Church that received, preserved, and canonized it — that “Bible alone” is neither the historic nor the coherent position it is often assumed to be.
This is why the Catholic answer to the skeptic is not “the Bible says so” but something deeper: the Church existed before the New Testament, wrote it, and under the guidance of the Spirit discerned which books belonged in it. The Scriptures are the Church's book, inspired and trustworthy, but rightly read within the living tradition and authority that gave them to us — not as a text left to every reader's private interpretation.

Summary