Setting: Roger and Lizzie, two upper crust English students, Scott, the Yank at Oxford, and Igor, his assistant.
Sign on Table: Oxford University Library, Manuscript Room
Opening: Roger and Lizzie at the table with stacks of newspaper pages in front of them. The pages are cut to about 12" x 18". They're examining them as they would examine old literary manuscripts.
Roger: Awfully lot of fog lately, wouldn't you say Lizzie; I mean even for this time of year.
Lizzie: Certainly seems to be, yes I'd tend to agree with you Roger. And it always seems to bother Grand mama so, especially now that she has the manor nearly all to herself since Uncle Edward passed away.
Roger: Yes, (pause) quite.
Lizzie: Fascinating reading, wouldn't you say Roger? The way the ancients wrote, with such clarity and depth. I should think that our modern world owes them quite a bit.
Roger: I'll say. Sophocles is my favorite. I've been particularly stimulated by Oedipus the King; one of his most famous works you know. And it's absolutely miraculous the way these manuscripts of his work have been preserved; especially considering that he was born in 495 B.C.
Lizzie: Yes, remember what Dr. Osgood had to say last Summer when we were at the "dig" in Greece; how we can be certain of the authenticity of Sophocles' work. There are 193 surviving manuscripts from antiquity. It's by making a comparison with these ancient manuscripts that we can be sure that what we're reading today, is what he actually wrote.
Roger: And as I recall, there are a good number of other manuscripts that still survive for other ancient authors. Caesar has 10, Aristotle has 49, Demosthenes has 200, and Homer is the most well documented of all with 643 surviving manuscripts.
Lizzie: Yes, I think this is a page from the Iliad; and it's remarkably well preserved. Have a look at this section Roger.
(Enter Scott, the Yank at Oxford, and his assistant, Igor. Igor walks dragging one foot sideways and is hunched over. Igor is carrying a large stack of manuscripts, much bigger than the stack that Roger and Lizzie are looking at.)
Igor: Look Master, over here, here's a table we can sit at. (They bump into things and cause a ruckus.)
Scott: Excuse me. Do you mind if we share this table with you.
Roger: Be my guest. (Lizzie nods approvingly.)
Scott: Okay Igor, let's start with Romans. Do we have a manuscript of Romans?
Igor: I'm looking Master. I'm Looking. Must be here somewhere. (He shuffles through the manuscripts.)
Roger: Romans, that's an odd sounding name for a manuscript.
Lizzie: I can't seem to place the name either.
Scott: It's from the New Testament. We're studying Biblical Archaeology.
Roger: The Bible! I can't believe that any intelligent person would study the Bible. It has no historical basis at all. What nonsense.
Lizzie: Really! It's just a silly myth for school children. Don't you know anything?
Roger: Must be one of those loony colonists. Spent your whole life at the village idiot's convention, did you?
Lizzie: Why would anyone study the Bible? A book like that, as old as it is, must have been changed hundreds of times as it's been copied by hand, over and over and over, and over again. And all of those different versions; they're all called "new" it seams. The New International American King of England Version and all the rest. Let's be serious for a moment. You're wasting your time.
Roger: Study the great philosophers like Plato and Socrates. Many of their contributions to analytic thought are still with us today. (He looks up and says philosophically) "All we are is dust in the wind."
Lizzie: Yes. "Like sands through the hourglass; so are the days of our lives."
Scott: Well, okay. Let's give this some thought.
Igor: Yes, let's do that.
Scott: You say you have how many manuscripts from Sophocles? A couple hundred or so. And some of the others? A few here and a few there. You were particularly proud of Homer having 643 as I recall. Do you know that the New Testament has 24,633 surviving manuscripts. 24,633.
Igor: Yes, lots of them.
Scott: There's more than 5000 Greek manuscripts. We have the Uncials, the Minuscules, the Lectionaries, and the Papyri texts. There are over 10,000 Latin Vulgate manuscripts. There's the Ethiopic, Slavic, Armenian, Syric Pashetta, Bohairic, Arabic, Old Latin, Anglo Saxon, Gothic, Sogdian, Old Syriac, Persian, and the Frankish texts too. And of course there's also the Dead Sea Scrolls for Old Testament verification.
Roger: Well yes, you seem to have a point there. The Bible does seem to have been well preserved.
Lizzie: Yes, but so what. A lot of things have been well preserved, like old bones and teeth. What does that prove?
Scott: Okay. Fair question. Now give me a chance to explain.
Igor: Yes, listen.
Scott: The first thing is this. When we read the Bible, we find that there are no mistakes anywhere in the whole set of Old and New Testament books. Nothing is out of place, and nothing contradicts itself.
Secondly, because we've got all these old manuscripts, we know that it's been accurately preserved over the years. What we have now, is what was originally written. We've got manuscripts of the New Testament that date back to the year 130 A.D. That was nearly 2000 years ago. (Or say the exact number of years slowly and emphatically.)
And here's the third thing. If there are no errors in it now, and there were no errors in it when it was written...
Roger: (interrupting) Yes, but everyone makes mistakes. History tells us that people make mistakes. If it was written by people, then surely there would be a mistake in there someplace.
Scott: That's precisely our point. Only God could "inspire" the authors, to write without error.
The Bible comes from God. That's why it's without error or contradiction. And we have all kinds of historical evidence that proves that the Bible hasn't been changed over the years. It's the same now as it was when it was written. When we read the Bible, we're actually reading God's thoughts.
Lizzie: (contemplatively) That certainly is something to think about.
Roger: I think I'll have to agree.