Has the Bible been accurately reproduced over time?
New Testament Analysis
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” Matt. 24:35
The short answer is a resounding YES. The first time I studied this topic, I was shocked at the numbers involved. Let’s take a look.
We are trying to determine how accurately a modern copy of the New Testament represents the original manuscripts, not whether it is divinely inspired or true. That is a topic for another day.
Textual Criticism is a method used to evaluate any ancient text. Two key metrics in the analysis are 1) how many hand written copies exist and 2) how close in time to the original manuscript were they written. From Wikipedia:
Textual criticism has been practiced for over two thousand years. Early textual critics were concerned with preserving the works of antiquity, and later with medieval and early modern manuscript writings. Many ancient works, such as the Bible and the Greek tragedies, survive in hundreds of copies, and the relationship of each copy to the original may be unclear, though the question of whether the Bible has ever had only one original has been discussed.
The textual critic’s task, therefore, is to sort through the variants and establish a “critical text” that is intended to best approximate the original and, at the same time, to explain the relation of extant witnesses to the reconstructed original. In establishing the critical text, the textual critic considers both “external” evidence (the age, provenance, and affiliation of each witness) and “internal” or “physical” considerations (what the author and scribes, or printers, were likely to have done).
The following table illustrates that the New Testament has more than eight times the number of “original language” manuscript copies as the second closest ancient manuscript rival, Homer, at 643 copies. Additionally, the time gap for the earliest New Testament copies is between 50 – 225 years depending on the copy. The second closest is Homer at 400 years.
| Author | Writings | Date Written | Earliest Copies | Time Gap | Number of Copies |
| Caesar | Gallic Wars | 100 – 44 B.C. | c. 900 A.D. | c. 1000 years | 10 |
| Demosthenes | 300 B.C. | c. 1100 A.D. | c. 1400 years | 200 | |
| Josephus | The Jewish War | 37 – 100 A.D. | c. 900 A.D. | c. 800 years | 9 |
| Homer | Iliad | 800 B.C. | c. 400 B.C. | c. 400 years | 643 |
| Herodotus | The Histories of Herodotus | 480 – 425 B.C. | c. 900 A.D. | c. 1350 years | 8 |
| Livy | History of Rome | 59 B.C. – 17 A.D. | c. 300 A.D. (partial) c. 900 A.D. (mostly) |
c. 300 years c. 900 years |
1 partial 19 copies |
| Plato | Dialogues | 400 B.C. | c. 900 A.D. | c. 1300 years | 7 |
| Pliny the Elder | Natural History | 23 – 79 A.D. | c. 850 A.D. | c. 800 years | 7 |
| Tacitus | Annals of Imperial Rome | 55 – 118 A.D. | c. 1100 A.D. | c. 1000 years | 20 |
| Thycydides | History of the Peloponnesian War | 460 –400 B.C. | c. 900 A.D. | c. 1300 years | 8 |
| The New Testament | Matthew to Revelation | 50 – 100 A.D. | c. 114 A.D. (fragments) c. 200 A.D. (books) c. 250 A.D. (most of N.T.) c. 325 A.D. (complete N.T.) |
c. +50 years c. 100 years c. 150 years c. 225 years |
5,366 Greek copies 10,000 Latin copies 9,300 others |
Conclusion: It is clear that there are a substantial number of Greek and Latin manuscripts that can be cross checked to validate the accuracy of modern copies and translations of the New Testament. To dismiss modern copies of the New Testament as flawed and inaccurate is to also dismiss all other modern copies of ancient manuscripts.
What is your source for that table? I have never seen any source that suggested that there were any where near that many fragments within the first fifty years. In fact, I know of no widely accepted source that puts the title higher than one.
Vinny
31 Mar 08 at 8:40 pm
Vinny,
Thank you for you comment.
My source is Josh McDowell, The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict. I also cross checked against a few other websites. The table indicates “circa” 50 years, meaning exact date is unknown but the 114 fragments date from about 50 years AD not within 50 years AD. The main point I’m trying make is the incredible number of early copies of the New Testament that are available today far exceed the closest rival giving substantial credibility to the fidelity of modern copies of the New Testament to the original manuscript.
Mark Duck
31 Mar 08 at 9:52 pm
I read the original Evidence that Demands a Verdict, but that was thirty years ago so I really don’t remember it all that well. Here is a link that contains what I think are generally accepted dates for New Testament papyrii. http://www-user.uni-bremen.de/~wie/texte/Papyri-list.html
I am not an expert on the subject, but from what I have read, I think this is drawn for sources that are used in both liberal and evangelical seminaries. I think p.52 is dated the earliest at around 125 A.D. After that, there are only a couple of fragments dated prior to 200 A.D, which puts the vast majority of the fragments more than 100 years after they were written.
Vinny
1 Apr 08 at 4:06 pm
Vinny,
Thanks for the link – looks like a wealth of information on the topic. OK – let me get it right this time – after all, it’s a table I posted. The table indicates that, of the known fragments, the earliest copy dates about 114 A.D. This means the time “gap” between the original manuscript and the fragment copy is about 50 years. I’ve updated the table with A.D. after the year to clarify the data. This is not much different than your data suggests. I will stick with the numbers published by Josh McDowell as I trust he and his staff have researched this topic much more thoroughly than I have time to. The “New Evidence” book was published in 1999 – a major refresh of the data from the 1972 “Evidence” book.
Again, the main point here is that the new testament is clearly the most thoroughly preserved document among ancient documents.
Mark Duck
2 Apr 08 at 7:54 pm
Fair enough.
Vinny
3 Apr 08 at 11:54 am
[...] This may be shocking to the uninformed, but it turns out that the New Testament has more than eight times the number of “original language” manuscript copies as the second closest ancient manuscript rival, Homer, at 643 copies. Additionally, the time gap for the earliest New Testament copies is between 50 – 225 years depending on the copy. The second closest is Homer at 400 years. Click here for more detail. [...]
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