Of Parchments and Papyrus – 2 Timothy 4:13 / 2 John 12
“ERRORS”
We have pointed out that, according to the Institute for New Testament Textual Research in Germany, we have 5,487 manuscripts of the New Testament.
Clearly within those 5,487 manuscripts, there are going to be errors, mistakes. You might hear a skeptic say that there are 200,000 errors within those manuscripts but that’s disingenuous. That number is arrived at by assuming that if there is one mistake that is repeated 1,000 times, it is counted as 1,000 differences.
The reality is that there are only about 10,000 variants and the vast, vast majority of those are spelling differences or differences in word order, for example, “Jesus Christ” or “Christ Jesus.”
There are truthfully less than 40 significant differences within all those 5,487 manuscripts but none, none of those effect any doctrinal teaching of Christianity. Most of these major variants date from about the 2nd century. Now, it is important to note that when we have two or three differences, we can be sure that one of those differences is the original wording. We’re just not sure which one. So, we can be sure that we have 100% of the New Testament and we are sure about 99.8% of it.
To put it another way, out of the 7,947 verses in the New Testament, 4,999 have no differences among all the manuscripts. That means 62.9% of the New Testament have absolutely no differences among all those 5,487 manuscripts (Aland & Aland, 29)!
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Revelation 1:5 (NASV) – “and released us from our sins” or
(KJV) – “washed us from our sins in his own blood”
Again, the difference is nothing major.
Most of the “significant” variants can be found by observing the footnotes in your modern translations. These are small and ultimately not significant: Mark 16:9-20; John 5:3-4; 7:53-8:11; Acts 8:37; 1 John 5:7. Each variant has to be studied in its own context.
The overwhelming weight of the evidence shows that the text we have in our hands is the very same words, sentences, and thoughts that the apostles and prophets wrote down, guided by the Holy Spirit, to give us the mind of God in human language.
God has given us overwhelming evidence to accept and believe the New Testament is His final communication to us. Believe it. Live it. Teach it.
–Paul Holland
