The Greek New Testament Compared with other Secular Documents
extually, we are able to restore over 99.8 percent of the original autographs from all the writings of the New Testament. There is no justifiable basis to doubt the integrity and accuracy of the New Testament writers. The New Testament passes the secular, bibliographical tests receiving the highest mark of any ancient literature. The great Greek scholar A.T. Robertson said that the real concern is only with a thousandth part of the entire text. According to Robertson, this would make the New Testament 99.9% free of significant variants.
John Ankerberg and John Weldon note “For everything else in life, we must base our decisions on degrees of probability. One hundred percent certainty is not available for anything in life, including life itself, so it can hardly be argued that a 99 percent degree of probability for inerrancy is irrelevant. People buy houses, drive cars, and get married taking much higher degrees of risk than this.” There is more proof for a greater reliability for the writing of the scriptures to be accurate than anything else in life.
Now let us scrutinize the authenticity of the New Testament with the same degree of bibliographical tests that the world uses for its great manuscripts. There are approximately 16 well-known classical authors, for example, Plutarch, I Tacitus, Sentonius, Polybius, Thucydides, Xenophon, etc. The earliest copies date from the range of 750 to 1600 years after the original manuscript was first penned. The total number of copies is usually less than ten, and our knowledge of these works depends on a few manuscripts. When we compare this to the amount of manuscripts there are for the New Testament, there is no contest. The abundance of manuscript evidence far surpasses any other in ancient literature. For instance:
The New Testament is the most highly documented book from the ancient world. J. Harold Greenlee states the available manuscripts of the NT is overwhelmingly greater than those of any work of ancient literature…and the earliest extant manuscripts are written much closer to the date of the original writings, (Introduction to the New Testament textual criticism p.25).
Dr. F. F. Bruce, states of the New Testament: “There is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament.” Professor Bruce further comments, “The evidence for our New Testament writings is ever so much greater than the evidence for many writings of classical writers, the authenticity of which no one dreams of questioning. And if the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt.”
Frederick Kenyon points out that the Bible has the most reliable manuscripts in the world when compared with any other ancient book. “Scholars are satisfied that they possess substantially the true text of the principal Greek and Roman writers whose works have come down to us, of Sophocles, of Thucydides, of Cicero, of Virgil; yet our knowledge of their writing depends on a mere handful of manuscripts, whereas the manuscripts of the New Testament are counted by hundreds, and even thousands.”
In Frederick Kenyon’s book, The Bible and Archaeology, he states, “The interval, then, between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt, that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written, has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.” (Sir Fredric Kenyon, The Bible and Archaeology, 1940, 288).[1]
[1] http://www.letusreason.org/Apolo22.htm
John Ankerberg and John Weldon note “For everything else in life, we must base our decisions on degrees of probability. One hundred percent certainty is not available for anything in life, including life itself, so it can hardly be argued that a 99 percent degree of probability for inerrancy is irrelevant. People buy houses, drive cars, and get married taking much higher degrees of risk than this.” There is more proof for a greater reliability for the writing of the scriptures to be accurate than anything else in life.
Now let us scrutinize the authenticity of the New Testament with the same degree of bibliographical tests that the world uses for its great manuscripts. There are approximately 16 well-known classical authors, for example, Plutarch, I Tacitus, Sentonius, Polybius, Thucydides, Xenophon, etc. The earliest copies date from the range of 750 to 1600 years after the original manuscript was first penned. The total number of copies is usually less than ten, and our knowledge of these works depends on a few manuscripts. When we compare this to the amount of manuscripts there are for the New Testament, there is no contest. The abundance of manuscript evidence far surpasses any other in ancient literature. For instance:
- Aristophanes, 451-383BC, there are 10 copies from 900AD, a span of 1,300 years.
- Sophocles, a playwright, wrote Oedipus trilogy 496-406BC, his earliest copy is 1000 AD, a time span of 1,400 years and there are 193 copies.
- 9-10 good copies of Caesar's gallic Wars originally written anywhere from 100-44BC.
- 7 copies of Plato dated around 1000 years after its original authorship of about 427-327BC.
- 20 copies of Livy's Roman History, dated about 1,200 years after it was originally written in 59BC-17AD
- 2 copies of Tacitus' Annals written in 100 AD; copies we have are from 1,000 years after,
- 8 copies of Thucydides' History originally written in 460-400 BC; copies we have are from 1,300 years after.
- 9 copies from Euripedes originally written in 480-406 BC; copies are from 1500 years after.
- 5 copies Aristotle originally written in 384-322 BC; copies we have are from 1,400 years after.
- The most documented secular work from the ancient world is Homers Illiad -- surviving on 643 manuscript copies.
The New Testament is the most highly documented book from the ancient world. J. Harold Greenlee states the available manuscripts of the NT is overwhelmingly greater than those of any work of ancient literature…and the earliest extant manuscripts are written much closer to the date of the original writings, (Introduction to the New Testament textual criticism p.25).
Dr. F. F. Bruce, states of the New Testament: “There is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament.” Professor Bruce further comments, “The evidence for our New Testament writings is ever so much greater than the evidence for many writings of classical writers, the authenticity of which no one dreams of questioning. And if the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt.”
Frederick Kenyon points out that the Bible has the most reliable manuscripts in the world when compared with any other ancient book. “Scholars are satisfied that they possess substantially the true text of the principal Greek and Roman writers whose works have come down to us, of Sophocles, of Thucydides, of Cicero, of Virgil; yet our knowledge of their writing depends on a mere handful of manuscripts, whereas the manuscripts of the New Testament are counted by hundreds, and even thousands.”
In Frederick Kenyon’s book, The Bible and Archaeology, he states, “The interval, then, between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt, that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written, has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.” (Sir Fredric Kenyon, The Bible and Archaeology, 1940, 288).[1]
[1] http://www.letusreason.org/Apolo22.htm