more Mainstream Apologetics ...

Claim ID: BIB-IS12

Claim: Reliable Transmission of the New Testament

Summary: The veracity of the New Testament is established on the vast number of ancient manuscripts, the early dating of those manuscripts, and the low percentage of variations among those manuscripts. Through a systematic and exhaustive process known as biblical criticism, 99.8% of the lines of the original autographs were reconstructed.

Description: Scholars use the term autographs to describe original manuscripts of a work of literature - and the books of the Bible. We do not have any autographs - any original manuscript - of any book of the Bible. That may seem like a problem because if we do not have the originals, how can we be sure the copies have not been changed?

For comparison, we do not have any autograph of any work from antiquity. So, the Bible is no different from any other religious text or work from antiquity - they all come to us from copies, not originals. The problem of transmission is an issue for any information that comes to us from antiquity, secular or religious.

There are approximately 24,000 early copies or fragments of the New Testament from within the first few centuries after it was written! No other literature or work of history from the ancient world has as many copies– or as early copies – as the New Testament.

The veracity of the New Testament is established on the vast number of ancient manuscripts, the early dating of those manuscripts, and the low percentage of variations among those manuscripts. The fidelity of the New Testament can be seen in the many copies in existence, church father citations and low percentage of variants.

According to Ravi Zacharias,

"In real terms, the New Testament is easily the best attested ancient writing in terms of the sheer number of documents, the time span between the events and the document, and the variety of documents available to sustain or contradict it. There is nothing in ancient manuscript evidence to match such textual availability and integrity." [REF-ZAC01]

This claim is evidenced by the following facts:

• Rigorous Methods Produce High-Fidelity Results - The process by which the approximate 24,000 copies and fragments were examined was systematic and exhaustive. Numerous methodologies have been developed and refined over the past 400 years [BIB-EV02]. These methodologies, together with technology advances such as computers, carbon dating and others, have enabled biblical scholars to systematically and accurately reproduce the original autographs.
• Nearly all of the 20,000 Lines of the New Testament have been Reconstructed - Only 40 lines or 0.2% of the lines of the New Testament are in question. All remaining 19,960 lines have been accurately reconstructed [BIB-EV78].

These facts clearly demonstrate that the New Testament we have available today is a trustworthy reproduction of the original autographs. We can be assured that the words we read are the very words written by the original authors two thousand years ago.

Resources:

• Can Man Live Without God? (REF-ZAC01)