Authority of Bible: How can we trust that the Bible is inerrant word of God? 2

MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE!
One thing that the New Testament excels monumentally over other ancient writings of its time is the overwhelming number of manuscripts copies and the surprisingly short time interval between the original writing and its oldest manuscript.
In answer to the question “Is the New Testament Historically Reliable?”
There are two factors that determine the accuracy of ancient texts.
1. NUMBER OF COPIES OF MANUSCRIPT IN EXISTENCE
2. THE TIME INTERVAL BETWEEN THE ORIGINAL WRITING AND ITS OLDEST MANUSCRIPT (COPY)

The more copies there are of the original writing the greater chance to compare between versions to weed through any errors and see if it is accurate to the original. As for the time interval, the shorter the time interval between the original and its oldest copy, the less chance of any information being distorted or forgotten.

The Bible has more manuscript evidence to support it than any ten pieces of classical literature combined. John Warwick Montgomery observes: “to doubt the evidence of New Testament is to allow all other classical antiquity to slip into obscurity, for no other textual document of the ancient period is as well attested bibliographically as the New Testament.”

Old Testament Manuscript Evidence:
Bernard Ramm states that the Jews kept tabs on every letter, syllable, word and paragraph. They had special classes of men (scribes/masorites) within their culture whose sole duty was to preserve and transmit these documents with perfect fidelity.

In the North American Review:
Although Shakespeare’s writings are merely 208 years old, they are far less accurate than the New Testament which has been around over 18 centuries. Except in a few dozen to 20 areas the text of every verse in NT is far more settled (deemed accurate in its wording, grammar, and placement). Any dispute they have is regarding the meaning and interpretation of the words and not upon content. In contrast, in every one of Shakespeare’s 37 plays there are around 100 readings still in dispute- a large portion of which affects the meaning of the script significantly.

There are over 5600 Greek manuscripts of NT. Over 10,000 in the Latin Vulgate, 9300 early versions. Close to 25,000 manuscript copies in existence.

No other ancient document has as many manuscript copies
Homer’s Iliad second to the New Testament has 643 manuscripts. In no other ancient literary work is the time difference between original writing and its oldest manuscript as short as that of NT. The original writing of the New Testament is dated around the latter part of first century. Oldest manuscripts are from 4^th century. That is 250-300 difference. This may seem like a lot, but compare this to that of the plays of Sophocles.

We believe we have seven of Sophocles plays intact. Yet the earliest manuscript copy upon which they are based was written 1400 years after the poet’s death. The oldest manuscript of most Classical Greek authors date 1000 years after the writers’ death. The New Testament manuscripts, however, is written within 300 years, and some as short as within a century of the original writings.

The following is a chart that shows the date of original writings for well known classical texts, the time gap between the oldest manuscripts, and how the New Testament figures in comparison.

AUTHOR	BOOK	DATE WRITTEN	EARLIEST COPIES	TIME GAP	NO. OF COPIES
Homer	Iliad	800 B.C.	c. 400 B.C.	c. 400 yrs.	643
Herodotus	History	480-425 B.C.	c. A.D. 900	c. 1,350 yrs.	8
Thucydides	History	460-400 B.C.	c. A.D. 900	c. 1,300 yrs.	8
Plato		400 B.C.	c. A.D. 900	c. 1,300 yrs.	7
Demosthenes		300 B.C.	c. A.D. 1100	c. 1,400 yrs.	200
Caesar	Gallic Wars	100-44 B.C.	c. A.D. 900	c. 1,000 yrs.	10
Livy	History of Rome	59 B.C.- A.D. 17	4th cent. (partial) mostly 10th cent.	c. 400 yrs. c.1000 yrs.	1 partial 19 copies
Tacitus	Annals	A.D. 100	c. A.D. 1100	c. 1,000 yrs.	20
Pliny Secundus	Natural History	A.D. 61-113	c. A.D. 850	c. 750 yrs.	7
New Testament		A.D. 50-100	c. 114 (fragment) c. 200 (books) c. 250 (most of N.T.) c. 325 (complete N.T.)	+50 yrs. 100 yrs. 150 yrs. 225 yrs.	5366

The books of the New Testament were written down not a century or more after the events described in them but during the lifetimes of those writers themselves. If the disciples had spread false reports or wrote things that were not accurate there would have been many eyewitnesses alive to have refuted their false evidence, and this not only from the faithful followers of Jesus but especially from those hostile to the Church who would have loved to catch some slight error so they could put a stop to the growth of the Church.