📖 Utetezi wa Imani (Apologetiki) — Sehemu ya 5: Kuaminika kwa Maandiko📖 Apologetics — Unit 5: The Reliability of Scripture

Andiko: 2 Timotheo 3:16Text: 2 Timothy 3:16

Je, Tunaweza Kukiamini Kitabu Hiki?Can We Trust the Book?

Sasa tunageukia njia ya tatu ya ushahidi, yaani kuaminika kwa nyaraka zenyewe. Mwenye mashaka anatoa pingamizi linalosikika kuwa la kuangamiza mpaka utakapolichunguza. "Biblia yako," anasema, "imenakiliwa na kunakiliwa tena kwa miaka elfu mbili, imetafsiriwa na kutafsiriwa upya, imehaririwa na watawa na mabaraza yenye malengo yao wenyewe. Kufikia sasa ni kama mchezo wa kunong'onezana ujumbe — lolote Yesu alilosema mwanzoni, haiwezekani kabisa ukawa nalo leo." Ni shtaka linalosikika kuwa la haki, na waumini wengi wamenyamaza mbele yake. Lakini kwa kweli ni mojawapo ya mashtaka rahisi kabisa kujibu katika apologetiki yote, kwa sababu hapa ushahidi si suala la falsafa hata kidogo. Ni suala la kuhesabu, na matokeo ya kuhesabu hayakaribiani hata kidogo.We turn now to the third trail, the reliability of the documents. The skeptic raises an objection that sounds devastating until you examine it. "Your Bible," he says, "has been copied and recopied for two thousand years, translated and retranslated, edited by monks and councils with agendas of their own. By now it is a game of telephone — whatever Jesus said at the start, you cannot possibly have it now." It is a fair-sounding charge, and many a believer has gone quiet before it. But it happens to be one of the easiest charges in all of apologetics to answer, because here the evidence is not a matter of philosophy at all. It is a matter of counting, and the counting is not close.

Kipimo cha KibibliografiaThe Bibliographical Test

Wanahistoria wana kipimo cha kawaida kwa maandishi yoyote ya kale, nacho huuliza maswali mawili. Kwanza, ni nakala ngapi za andiko hilo zimebaki hadi leo? Kadiri nakala zinavyokuwa nyingi, ndivyo tunavyoweza kuzilinganisha zaidi na kugundua kosa lolote lililojipenyeza katika mojawapo. Pili, pengo kati ya andiko la asili na nakala yetu ya kwanza kabisa ni dogo kiasi gani? Kadiri pengo linavyokuwa fupi, ndivyo hekaya au uharibifu ulivyopata muda mchache wa kujipenyeza. Tumia kipimo hicho kwa maandishi maarufu ya ulimwengu wa kale. Vita vya Gali vya Kaisari vimebaki katika nakala chache tu, na ya kwanza kabisa ni takriban miaka mia tisa baada ya Kaisari kuandika. Iliad ya Homeri ina hali bora zaidi, ikiwa na nakala mia kadhaa. Hakuna msomi wa fasihi ya kale anayezitilia shaka kazi hizi, wala hakuna anayemwita Kaisari hekaya. Sasa tumia kipimo hicho hicho kwa Agano Jipya.Historians have a standard test for any ancient writing, and it asks two questions. First, how many copies of the document survive? The more copies, the more we can compare them and catch any error that crept into one. Second, how small is the gap between the original and our earliest copy? The shorter the gap, the less time legend or corruption had to creep in. Apply that test to the famous writings of the ancient world. Caesar's Gallic Wars survives in only a handful of copies, and the earliest is about nine hundred years after Caesar wrote. Homer's Iliad does better, with a few hundred copies. No classical scholar doubts these works, and no one calls Caesar a legend. Now apply the very same test to the New Testament.

Mlima wa Hati za MkonoThe Mountain of Manuscripts

Kwa Agano Jipya tunazo zaidi ya hati za mkono elfu tano na mia nane katika Kigiriki cha asili, na maelfu mengi zaidi katika lugha nyingine za kale. Hakuna maandishi mengine ya zamani yanayokaribia idadi hiyo hata kidogo. Na pengo si miaka mia tisa; tunavyo vipande vilivyoandikwa ndani ya kizazi kimoja au viwili baada ya matukio, na vitabu kamili ndani ya karne kama mbili hivi. Kwa kweli, ushahidi ni mwingi kiasi kwamba hata kama kila hati ya Kigiriki ingepotea kwa namna fulani, Agano Jipya zima lingeweza kujengwa upya karibu lote kutokana na maelfu ya manukuu ambayo waandishi wa kanisa la kwanza waliyatawanya katika barua na mahubiri yao. Viweke viwili hivi kando kwa kando. Kwa Kaisari, nakala chache na pengo la miaka elfu moja, na ulimwengu unaamini bila kunung'unika. Kwa Agano Jipya, mlima wa nakala na pengo fupi kiasi kwamba watoto wa mashahidi wenyewe wangeweza kuzisoma, na ulimwengu unaliita lenye mashaka. Hitimisho la unyoofu liko wazi: kama tutalitupa Agano Jipya kuwa lisiloaminika, ni lazima tutupe pamoja nalo kila kitabu kingine cha historia ya kale, na kuyachoma maktaba yote. Agano Jipya si kitabu cha kale chenye ushahidi dhaifu kuliko vyote; ndicho chenye ushahidi imara kuliko vyote kwa mbali.Of the New Testament we possess more than five thousand eight hundred manuscripts in the original Greek, and many thousands more in other ancient languages. No other writing of antiquity comes within a thousand miles of that number. And the gap is not nine hundred years; we have fragments within a generation or two of the events, and complete books within a couple of centuries. Indeed, the evidence is so abundant that even if every Greek manuscript were somehow lost, the entire New Testament could be very nearly reconstructed from the thousands of quotations the early church writers scattered through their letters and sermons. Stand the two side by side. For Caesar, a handful of copies and a thousand-year gap, and the world believes it without a murmur. For the New Testament, a mountain of copies and a gap so short the eyewitnesses' own children could have read it, and the world calls it doubtful. The honest conclusion is plain: if we throw out the New Testament as unreliable, we must throw out every other book of ancient history along with it, and burn the libraries down. The New Testament is not the weakest-attested book of antiquity; it is by far the strongest.

Jibu kwa Mchezo wa Kunong'onezanaThe Telephone Game Answered

"Lakini kunakili huzaa makosa," asema mwenye mashaka, "na makosa huzaa makosa zaidi." Hapa hajaelewa kilichotokea. Kupokezana kwa Maandiko hakukuwa mtu mmoja akimnong'oneza mwingine katika mstari wa watu mia moja, ambapo ujumbe hubadilika polepole na hakuna anayeweza kuuhakiki. Kulikuwa zaidi kama nakala elfu moja zilizotolewa kutoka kwa andiko la asili na kutawanywa ulimwenguni kote, ili kosa la kalamu linapoonekana katika moja, zile nyingine mia tisa tisini na tisa zinalifichua mara moja. Kwa kuwa kuna hati nyingi hivi za kulinganisha, wasomi wanaweza kujenga upya maandishi ya asili kwa uhakika wa ajabu. Na vipi kuhusu tofauti kati ya nakala? Nyingi kabisa ni masuala ya tahajia na mpangilio wa maneno, aina ya mambo yasiyobadilisha maana kamwe. Hakuna fundisho hata moja la imani ya Kikristo linalobaki na shaka kwa sababu ya tofauti iliyotokana na mnakili. Ajabu si kwamba hati zinatofautiana hapa na pale; ajabu ni jinsi zinavyokubaliana kwa namna ya kushangaza."But copying breeds error," says the skeptic, "and error breeds more error." Here he misunderstands what happened. The transmission of Scripture was not one man whispering to one man down a line of a hundred, where the message drifts and no one can check it. It was more like a thousand photocopies made from the original and scattered across the world, so that when a slip of the pen appears in one, the other nine hundred and ninety-nine expose it instantly. With so many manuscripts to compare, the scholars can reconstruct the original text with extraordinary confidence. And what of the differences among the copies? The vast bulk of them are matters of spelling and word order, the kind of thing that never changes the sense. Not one teaching of the Christian faith hangs in doubt because of a copyist's variant. The wonder is not that the manuscripts differ here and there; the wonder is how astonishingly they agree.

Ramsay UdongoniRamsay in the Dirt

Acha nikueleze habari ya mtu aliyeazimu kuizika Biblia na mwishowe akaishia kuiamini. Sir William Ramsay alikuwa mwanaakiolojia hodari aliyefunzwa katika shule ya kiuhakiki ya Kijerumani, iliyofundisha kwa kujiamini sana kwamba kitabu cha Matendo ya Mitume kilikuwa hadithi ya kutunga iliyoandikwa muda mrefu baada ya matukio na mtu asiyejua lolote kuhusu karne ya kwanza. Ramsay aliliamini hilo, akasafiri kwa meli hadi Asia Ndogo na sepeto lake na ramani zake ili kulithibitisha — kuonyesha kwamba jiografia ya Luka ilikuwa na makosa, desturi zake zilibuniwa, na vyeo vyake vya kisiasa havikuwezekana. Lakini udongo haukukubaliana na nadharia yake. Kila mahali alipochimba, Luka alionekana kuwa sahihi. Mipaka ilikuwa pale Luka aliposema. Desturi za mahali zililingana. Hata vyeo vya kisiasa vigeni vilivyobadilikabadilika — mahali hasa ambapo mghushi aliyeandika baadaye angekosea bila shaka — vilikuwa sahihi kabisa kwa muongo ule ule hasa ambao Luka aliueleza. Ramsay, akiwa mtu mnyoofu, aliufuata ushahidi kinyume na matakwa yake mwenyewe, na hatimaye akamwita Luka mwanahistoria wa daraja la kwanza na akakiamini kitabu alichokuja kukiharibu. Alijifunza kile ambacho kila mwenye mashaka mnyoofu hujifunza: kwamba mara nyingi ukweli hupatikana kwa kushuka chini udongoni.Let me tell you about a man who set out to bury the Bible and ended by trusting it. Sir William Ramsay was a brilliant archaeologist trained in the German critical school, which taught with great confidence that the book of Acts was a fiction written long after the events by someone who knew nothing of the first century. Ramsay believed it, and he sailed to Asia Minor with his spade and his maps to prove it — to show that Luke's geography was wrong, his customs invented, his political titles impossible. But the dirt would not cooperate with his theory. Everywhere he dug, Luke turned out to be right. The borders were where Luke said. The local customs matched. Even the strange, shifting political titles — the very places where a forger writing later would surely have blundered — were exactly correct for the exact decade Luke described. Ramsay, an honest man, followed the evidence against his own wishes, and he came at last to call Luke a historian of the first rank and to trust the book he had come to destroy. He learned what every honest skeptic learns: that truth is often found by getting down into the dirt.

Greenleaf MahakamaniGreenleaf in the Court

Sasa acha nikueleze habari ya mwanasheria mmoja. Simon Greenleaf alikuwa Profesa wa Sheria wa kiti cha Royall katika Chuo Kikuu cha Harvard na mmoja wa wataalamu wakubwa wa sheria ambao Amerika imewahi kuwatoa; aliandika kitabu kilichokuwa kiwango cha kawaida cha zama zake kuhusu jinsi ushuhuda unavyopaswa kupimwa katika mahakama. Mwenye mashaka mmoja alimpa changamoto ya kutumia kanuni zake mwenyewe za ushahidi kwa Injili nne — kuwaweka wainjilisti katika kizimba cha mashahidi na kuwahoji kama angemhoji shahidi yeyote. Greenleaf aliikubali changamoto hiyo huku pengine akitarajia kuwafichua. Alichunguza jinsi walivyolingana, tabia yao, mazingira waliyotoa ushuhuda wao, na kama walikuwa na chochote cha kupata kwa kusema uongo. Na bingwa huyo wa ushahidi alifikia hukumu iliyomshangaza: kwamba kama ushuhuda wa Mathayo, Marko, Luka na Yohana ungewasilishwa katika mahakama yoyote ya haki, baraza la wazee wa mahakama lingelazimishwa na kanuni za ushahidi kuukubali kuwa kweli. Imani, alihitimisha, si kuiacha akili. Ni hukumu ambayo hakimu mwenye haki hutoa anapokuwa amewapima mashahidi.Now let me tell you about a lawyer. Simon Greenleaf was the Royall Professor of Law at Harvard and one of the great legal minds America has produced; he wrote the standard work of his age on how testimony is to be weighed in a court of law. A skeptic challenged him to apply his own rules of evidence to the four Gospels — to put the evangelists in the witness box and cross-examine them as he would any witness. Greenleaf took up the challenge expecting, perhaps, to expose them. He examined their consistency, their character, the circumstances under which they testified, and whether they had anything to gain by lying. And the master of evidence reached a verdict that surprised him: that if the testimony of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were presented in any honest court of law, a jury would be compelled by the rules of evidence to accept it as true. Faith, he concluded, is not the abandonment of reason. It is the verdict a fair-minded judge returns when he has weighed the witnesses.

Mlio wa UkweliThe Ring of Truth

Kuna alama moja zaidi ya unyoofu katika nyaraka hizi, na ukiisha kuiona huwezi kuacha kuiona. Waghushi hujisifu wenyewe na kuwasifu mashujaa wao; mashahidi wanyoofu husema kweli hata inapowagharimu. Sasa tazama Injili. Wanafunzi — wale wale walioandika vitabu hivi au waliokuwa nyuma yake — wanaonekana kuwa wazito wa kuelewa, waoga, na wagomvi. Petro anamkana Bwana wake kwa kulaani. Wote wanakimbia msalabani. Na Kristo aliyefufuka anamtokea nani kwanza? Si mitume, si wanaume, bali wanawake — ambao ushuhuda wao, katika utamaduni ule, haukukubaliwa hata mahakamani. Hakuna mbunifu anayejenga dini ili kuuvutia ulimwengu wa kale ambaye angeiandika habari hiyo kwa namna hiyo. Waliiandika hivyo kwa sababu moja: kwa sababu ndivyo ilivyotokea. Maelezo yale yale yanayowaaibisha waandishi ndiyo alama za vidole za ukweli.There is one more mark of honesty in these documents, and once you see it you cannot unsee it. Forgers flatter themselves and their heroes; honest witnesses tell the truth even when it costs them. Now look at the Gospels. The disciples — the very men who wrote or stood behind these books — come off looking slow, cowardly, and quarrelsome. Peter denies his Lord with curses. They all run away at the cross. And who does the risen Christ appear to first? Not to the apostles, not to the men, but to women — whose testimony, in that culture, was not even accepted in a court. No inventor building a religion to impress the ancient world would have written the story that way. They wrote it that way for one reason: because that is how it happened. The very details that embarrass the writers are the fingerprints of the truth.

Kanisa Halikukitunga KitabuThe Church Did Not Make the Book

Neno moja kuhusu jinsi tulivyopata kanoni, yaani orodha ya vitabu tunavyoviita Maandiko. Wakati mwingine husemwa kwamba kanisa liliiumba Biblia, likipigia kura vitabu kuviingiza na kuviondoa kama lilivyopenda. Huo ni mpangilio wa kinyume. Kanisa halikuiumba kanoni; liliitambua. Mungu alitoa Neno lake, na kanisa, kadiri muda ulivyopita, lilipokea kile kilichokuwa na alama za pumzi ya Mungu mwenyewe na kuweka kando kile kisichokuwa nazo. Kama Paulo asemavyo, "Kila andiko, lenye pumzi ya Mungu" — yaani, kihalisi, limepuliziwa na Mungu — na Petro anaongeza kwamba watu watakatifu wa zamani "walinena yaliyotoka kwa Mungu, wakiongozwa na Roho Mtakatifu." Neno ni la kiungu katika asili yake na la kibinadamu katika uandishi wake, mfano ule ule wa Mungu-na-mwanadamu tunaouona katika kufanyika mwili kwenyewe: kweli ya Mungu ikibebwa kikamilifu kupitia kalamu za wanadamu.A word about how we got the canon, the list of books we call Scripture. It is sometimes said that the church created the Bible, voting books in and out as it pleased. That is backward. The church did not create the canon; it recognized it. God gave His Word, and the church, over time, received what bore the marks of God's own breathing and set aside what did not. As Paul says, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God" — literally, God-breathed — and Peter adds that holy men of old "spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." The Word is divine in its origin and human in its writing, the same God-and-man pattern we find in the incarnation itself: God's truth carried perfectly through the pens of men.

Kitabu Kinachowapita Waliokibeba KaburiniThe Book That Outlasts Its Pallbearers

Kwa hiyo nyaraka zinasimama, na zinasimama juu ya msingi ambao hakuna kitabu kingine cha kale kinachoweza kuudai. Watu wamekizika kitabu hiki mara mia — wamekichoma, wamekipiga marufuku, wamekidhihaki, wametangaza kwamba kimekufa na kucheza juu ya kaburi lake — na kila mara kaburi halikuweza kukishikilia. "Mbingu na nchi zitapita," alisema Yule kinayemtangaza, "lakini maneno yangu hayatapita kamwe." Hata hivyo kumbuka tena kile ambacho kuaminika kunaweza na kisichoweza kufanya. Kuthibitisha kwamba nyaraka zinaaminika ni kuthibitisha kwamba Mashahidi wanastahili kuaminiwa; ni kulifikisha baraza la mahakama ukingoni mwa hukumu yake. Lakini shahidi anayeaminika bado anaomba kuaminiwa. Kuaminika kwa Maandiko kunatufikisha mlangoni. Kama tutaingia na kumwamini Yule ambaye kila ukurasa unamshuhudia — hilo ndilo swali ambalo bado linasubiri upande ule mwingine.So the documents stand, and they stand on ground no other ancient book can claim. Men have buried this book a hundred times — burned it, banned it, mocked it, pronounced it dead and dancing on its grave — and every time, the grave would not hold it. "Heaven and earth will pass away," said the One it proclaims, "but My words will by no means pass away." Yet remember once more what reliability can and cannot do. To prove the documents trustworthy is to establish that the Witnesses are credible; it is to bring the jury to the brink of its verdict. But a credible witness still asks to be believed. The reliability of Scripture carries us to the door. Whether we will walk through it and trust the One to whom every page bears witness — that is the question still waiting on the other side.

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