The gospels have been transmitted accurately

What is the finest achievement for a scribe? To pass the degree exam… Copying!.

In the previous post, we saw that the gospels were written in the first century. In this post, we will see that their content reached us unchanged.

The original manuscripts were in Greek.

I can no longer stand hearing sceptics say that the gospels contain jokes! Dear sceptics, the gospels contain only real facts! You still haven’t understood that, during the translation from Aramaic to Greek, they had to… Remove all the jokes!

In the first century, there was no printing. Texts were written by hand, on papyrus or animal skins. At that time, Greek was the most widespread language. When people who spoke different languages ​​wanted to communicate with each other, they used Greek. For this reason, the evangelists decided to write in Greek. Their goal was to reach the Gentiles. Gentiles is the term used to identify foreigners by the Jews.

Original manuscripts are missing.

The case about the Gospels’ original manuscripts reminds me of when I was a child. One day at school some agitated classmates of mine were homesick. So everyone was quiet in the classroom. Then the teacher started making the roll call. Then she said “Ah! Now I understand why are you so quiet! Today we are missing…. The originals!”

Today we have about 5,800 New Testament manuscripts written in Greek. This large number of copies has been produced throughout history. Both copies and originals are equal to each other. Unfortunately, the originals have been lost for some reason: deterioration over time, or accidental destruction by wars, earthquakes and fires. Some were destroyed during the persecutions, together with the churches that were keeping them.

All this [persecution] has been fulfilled in our day, when we saw with our own eyes our houses or worship thrown down from their elevation, the sacred Scriptures of inspiration committed to flames in the midst of the markets.

Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 8::2:1

Circulation of the manuscripts

Once the original manuscripts of the New Testament were finished, every church had a copy of them. This reminds me of when at school… The nerd finished his class assignment.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:27, Paul asks the churches to read his letters to all the congregation. This means that the original manuscripts were shared among the churches. We know that the first Christians recognized the authority given by God to the apostles, obeyed their orders, and considered their writings sacred and inspired scriptures. Originals were kept in the churches and available for anyone for consultation. The scribes copied these texts and passed them to all the churches. In this way, many copies spread throughout the ancient world.

Slightly different manuscripts.

What do Covid and the New Testament manuscripts have in common? Variants!

Scribes copied manuscripts carefully, word for word. This process was very meticulous. Anyway, sometimes, they would misspell a few words. Although control and correction methods were in place, some errors passed unnoticed. As we are going to see, the margin of error was extremely low. In other scribes freely replaced some words with synonyms or paraphrases. That generated a slightly different content from manuscript to manuscript. This is what scholars call variants.

Textual criticism.

To know if you’re ready to tackle textual criticism, you need to ask yourself whether you’d rather read six thousand manuscripts in Greek and compare them word for word, or be at a family reunion, listening to your wife telling her childhood stories for the six thousandth time?

Since the originals are no longer available, we only have their copies. This is a very common problem with ancient texts. Textual criticism helps us understand with some certainty what the original words were. Copies are grouped into variants. By comparing these variants we go back to the original text, through a scientific process.

Textual criticism applied to the New Testament.

Greek copies of the New Testament are like TV news… They all say the same!

According to scholars Norman Geisler and William Nix, 99.5% of the New Testament is the same in all manuscripts. According to scholar Dr. Bruce Metzeger of Princeton Theological Seminary, the variations between the manuscripts do not compromise any theological doctrine. Even sceptic Bart Ehrman confirms the accuracy of the manuscripts.

Comparison with other ancient texts.

Speaking of textual criticism, if The New Testament were a Ferrari, Homer’s Iliad would be utilitarian, and Tacitus’ Annals would be… My grandma running!

Scholars have compared some famous ancient texts with the New Testament:

• The Annals of Tacitus.
• The Jewish War of Josephus.
• Homer’s Iliad.

For the New Testament, there are approximately 5,800 manuscripts in Greek. For the Annals, Only two manuscripts exist, and some books are lost. For the Jewish War, we have only 9 manuscripts. For the Iliad, we have around 650 of them.

The number of copies of the New Testament is therefore much greater. Let’s consider the distance of time between the oldest copy and the originals. For the New Testament originals were written before 70 and the oldest copies date back to the fourth century. However, some fragments are dated to the second century. We are therefore 70-300 years apart. The two manuscripts of the Annals are from the ninth and eleventh centuries; while the original was written in 116. We are therefore talking about 700 – 1000 years of difference. The earliest manuscripts of the Jewish War are from the fourth century; while the most recent are from the twelfth century. Josephus wrote the original in the first century. So there are 300 to 1100 years of distance. The Iliad was composed in 800 BC. Its oldest copies are from the first century. So, they are 800 years apart from the original. Also in this comparison, the copies of the New Testament have a much smaller distance from the others.

Jesus is not a legend.

According to a sceptic, Jesus did not say he was God. A Christian shows him proof of the historicity of the gospels. The sceptic replies that he would only believe it if Jesus himself told him, but, he continues, that this is not possible unless, one day, they invent a time machine. The Christian thinks about it for a while and responds. “Well! There is another way to meet Jesus in person, but when it happens… It will be too late for you!”.

We’ve previously seen evidence that the New Testament was written in the first century, when many eyewitnesses were still alive, and enemies of Christianity could disprove any false testimonies. Yet this did not happen because the original manuscripts contained the truth. Now we have seen that the information was conveyed accurately. In fact, original manuscripts were copied accurately. Thus this truth has come down to the present day. The sceptics’ idea of the gospels being altered over time until becoming legend, must be discarded.

Conclusion.

What do the New Testament and colds have in common? Both come from ancient times and have been… Carefully transmitted!

In the first century, some of Jesus’ apostles and some of their close collaborators wrote the New Testament. The papyri were written in Greek, the most widespread language at the time. The originals were distributed to each of the first congregations, read, considered as scripture, and accurately copied by scribes. The claims in the gospels were supported by eyewitnesses, and verifiable by opponents of Christianity themselves. Those texts were carefully copied and remained unchanged throughout the centuries. When scholars read second-century fragments, or the Codex Sinaiticus, or a medieval manuscript in Greek, they always find the same content. This accuracy leaves no room for the so-called embellishments mentioned by sceptics. Thousands of manuscripts were carefully copied, word for word, from the beginning. Thanks to these efforts and, above all, to the will of God, today his word, as well as salvation. it has reached us.

After reading the previous joke, sceptics replied that the New Testament was changed over time due to a conspiracy among the early Christians…And an alien!

According to that, the alien would also have brought to Earth… Colds!

Sceptics explain that this alien was, in fact, at the head of the Christian conspiracy. He’d have helped Jesus perform miracles supported by alien technology, used a time machine to place identical manuscripts in different eras, and also … Sneezed on them!

Thanks for your attention and remember your handkerchief!