We do not have any of the original manuscripts of the bible.
The originals are lost.
We don't know when and we don't know by whom.
What we have are copies of copies, in some instances the copies
we have are 20th generation copies.
In today's world the integrity of the bible is in question.
People used to ask is it true?
But now they ask is that what the bible really said?
What I want to do now is give you reasons
for confidence in the scriptures.
So, do we still have the original manuscripts of the new testament?
In short no, we do not.
These original manuscripts, all written on fragile papyri,
the ancient world's paper.
Were handed over and over again to scribes who copied them,
all the way up until perhaps the end of the second century.
So many times that the papyri would have worn out.
Now this may sound alarming,
but it doesn't make the bible untrustworthy.
If we want to understand new testament reliability
there are four questions that we need to ask.
The first question to think about is...
"How many textual variants are there?"
Well there's about 140 000 words in the greek new testament.
and the best estimate today is that there's half a million texture variants,
or a little over 3 1/2 variants per word in the greek new testament.
Now these numbers seem astronomical
when considering these ancient manuscripts,
but let's talk about two key factors; quantity and time.
The reason that we have a lot of textual variants
is because we have a lot of manuscripts.
Consider other ancient authors,
the average classical greek writer has less than 15 copies of his works
still in existence.
and if you were to stack them up,
they would be no more than about four feet high.
Now the earliest copies of their works typically date more than
half a millennium, after they were written.
Consider now the new testament manuscripts the earliest manuscripts
are only decades, decades from the originals.
and if you were to stack every copy of every new testament manuscript
that we have on top of each other,
it would be more than a mile and a quarter high.
So if we're going to be skeptical about the new testament
and we were to apply that same skepticism
to other ancient greco-roman literature,
we would just be plunged right back into the dark ages.
What we really have, is an embarrassment of riches
when it comes to the new testament text.
Question two
"What kinds of variants are there?"
Of the 500 000 or so variants that we have, more than 99% of them
make no difference at all.
If a word is spelled incorrectly that counts as a variant but there were no dictionaries in the ancient world and words would be spelled in a variety of ways even by the same author many times word order also in greek is a matter of emphasis rather
than a matter of meaning like it is in english because greek's a highly inflected language so
you can change the word order without changing the meaning what we need to focus on are the one-fifth
of one percent textual variants that actually affect things this group is both meaningful and
viable that's what i mean by the one-fifth of one percent they affect the meaning
and they have a possibility of going back to the original for example in mark chapter nine jesus is
telling his disciples why they couldn't cast out a particular demon he says this kind can only come
out by prayer other manuscripts we've found finish the verse by adding the phrase and fasting this
variant has implications on christian practice but not on doctrine it's important but it's not that
important question three what theological beliefs depend on textually suspect passages
when examining the deity of christ we understand that the bible claims that jesus is god but dan
brown argues in the da vinci code that this belief originated from emperor constantine
at the council of nicaea in a.d 325. well let's look at the evidence the papyrus known as p-66
which is a manuscript of john's gospel and dated almost 150 years prior to the council of nicaea
clears this issue off the table with its affirmation of jesus deity in chapter 1.
in fact there's not a single manuscript in any language written at any time that denies
the deity of christ in john 1 1. well that's the deity of christ what about some other christian
beliefs what about his virgin birth what about the resurrection was jesus really raised from the dead
does the new testament actually affirm that and here's the thing i want to say that even though
some manuscripts may not affirm those doctrines in every single place we have no manuscript that has
any credibility to it that denies any essential christian belief and finally question four is the
bible that we have today what they wrote then in all particulars we don't know it's probably not
identical but in all essentials yes what we have today in all essentials is the very word of god
no essential christian belief is jeopardized by any viable variant