Sceptics use the time gap between the original writing of the New Testament and the age of the manuscript copies as reason enough to dismiss the authenticity and accuracy of what we have today. The oldest copies of the New Testament are dated as being written in the 2nd century. Let’s look at why the New Testament should be trusted as truthful and reliable.
Some historical information about the New Testament
The 27 New Testament books that cover the events of 100 years were written between 50-100 AD by 8 writers. Most of them were eyewitnesses to all the events they wrote about and all are well-known historical individuals. All the writers were from different backgrounds and wrote from various places and times and, despite that, the main theme of their writings is the same.
The copies of the New Testament manuscripts, which date back before the 5th century, were written on papyrus, notorious for its fragility. The papyrus documents tended to crumble over time compared to later manuscripts written on parchment.
But still, losing something doesn’t mean that it never existed.
Even if the oldest manuscript for these books is a fragment, it’s still important and precious. Its content matches the content in our 21st-century Bibles, which is strong evidence of its authenticity.
Comparison to other ancient manuscripts
Let’s look at some interesting statistics when comparing the ancient manuscripts of Plato and Homer to those of the New Testament (NT).
Firstly, the number of manuscript copies is directly related to the level of confidence we can have about the original text.
Secondly, the ages of these manuscripts. Understand that the closer the copies are dated to the original, the better—less opportunity for data loss.
* The earliest copy from the NT scripts is a fragment [“P52”] of John’s Gospel written in 85 AD.
** The rest have copies mostly from the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries, written less than 500 years after the original.
Conclusion
After comparing the manuscripts with the above criteria, the gaps for the NT are shorter than those of other famous ancient writers, which is significant. The fact that there’s an age difference between the original NT manuscripts and their surviving copies is not unusual for ancient writings.
For more articles dealing with the reliability of the Bible Scriptures, follow the link below:
Category: Bible Reliability
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