[Faith-talk] The Illiad Vs. the New Testament

[Linda Mentink]

The Illiad vs the New Testament November 10, 2016

T
he
Illiad
  and
Odyssey
  are two of the most famous
  writings from ancient history. They were probably written by an 
ancient Greek named Homer, though it is not known exactly when he 
lived and nothing is known for sure about his life. The classical 
Greek authors believed in the historical Homer and thought that he 
lived sometime between 1100-850 BC. In the fourth century BC, Plato 
called Homer the "protos didaskalos" ("the first teacher") of Greece.


The oldest fragments of the
Illiad
  and
Odyssey
  date to the third century BC, at least 500 years after Homer. And 
the oldest entire manuscripts of Homer's writings are from the 10th 
and 11th centuries AD, at least 1,800 years later. There are 
different editions of the stories, and it is impossible to know what 
the originals said exactly.


This is in great contrast with the documentary evidence for the New Testament.


The last book of the New Testament was written in about AD 90. The 
earliest manuscript portions of New Testament books date to AD 
110-125, only a few years after the events.


Further, we have thousands of quotations from the New Testament books 
in the writings of preachers dating to AD 96 to AD 400. John Burgon 
collated 4,383 quotations from this period.

"These quotations are so extensive that the New Testament could 
virtually be reconstructed from them without the use of New Testament 
manuscripts" (J. Harold Greenlee,
Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism
).

The majority of these quotations represent the "traditional text" as 
opposed to the Alexandrian text, but that is a different issue.


Consider a few examples:

Clement of Rome
  (c. AD 96) was taught by some of the apostles. He was an elder in 
the church at Rome beginning in AD 88, only 30 years after Paul wrote 
his epistle to Rome. In his letter to Corinth, Clement quotes from 
the New Testament at least 150 times, from Romans, 1 Corinthians, 
Hebrews, and five other books.

Polycarp
  (c. AD 115) personally knew the apostle John and other believers 
who were eyewitnesses of Jesus' resurrection. In his letter to the 
Philippians, Polycarp quotes from the New Testament about 100 times. 
He quotes from Matthew, Luke, Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, 
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 
1 and 2 Timothy, 1 and 2 Peter, and 1 John.


Irenaeus
  (AD 130-202) heard Polycarp preach and relate accounts from his 
time with John and other first century Christians. In his extant 
writings, Irenaeus quotes from every book in the New Testament except 
Philemon and 3 John. He said the apostles taught that God is the 
author of both Testaments.

In his letter to Florinus, Irenaeus wrote the following: "I could 
tell you the place where the blessed Polycarp sat to preach the Word 
of God. It is yet present to my mind with what gravity he everywhere 
came in and went out; what was the sanctity of his deportment, the 
majesty of his countenance; and what were his holy exhortations to 
the people. I seem to hear him now relate how he conversed with John 
and many others who had seen Jesus Christ, the words he had heard 
from their mouths."

Thus we have the writings of men who knew the apostles and first 
century Christians personally and who quoted from the New Testament books.


This is irrefutable evidence that the New Testament existed then and 
that it was the same as the New Testament that we have today.

For further documentation see the chapter "The Bible's Nature" in
An Unshakeable Faith: An Apologetics Course
,
available from Way of Life Literature.