Today, we have 5,487 manuscripts of the New Testament (acc. to Institute for NT Textual Research in Germany, Aland & Aland, 74). To put that into perspective, there are only 643 copies of Homer’s Iliad, the most famous book of ancient Greece! We have only 10 copies of Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars and the oldest copy is 1,000 years after it was originally written (between 50-58 B. C.)! The history written by Herodotus (480-425 B. C.) is in manuscripts that date 1,300 years after he wrote them!
In contrast, the New Testament was finally written about 95 A. D. The very earliest piece of manuscript dates within 50 years of that date and we have quite a few manuscripts that date within the first 250 years.
To be more specific, we have 75 manuscripts that are papyrus; the oldest dates to within 50 years of the NT and it contains most of the NT. We have about 250 parchment manuscripts that date within 200-300 years of the NT. In fact, our best Greek manuscripts of the NT are parchments. These parchments are written in all capital letters. Then we have 2500 manuscripts that are written in a stylized, cursive writing called minuscules. These date to about 700 years after the NT.
When scholars put all these 5,487 manuscripts side by side, there are obvious differences. But here are the type of differences we find in these manuscripts:
1. Differences in spelling.
2. Words that are inverted in their order: “Jesus Christ” versus “Christ Jesus,” for example.
3. Differences in similar sounding letters: for example, in the Greek language, there is one letter difference between the words “you” and “us.” So, there are a few times where that is a difference.
4. Sometimes there are differences that were intentional:
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a. Some scribes made changes to make the grammar smoother.
b. Sometimes, scribes would change a word to make it sound more educated.
c. Sometimes, words would be changed to use simpler words.
d. Sometimes scribes would try to harmonize the Gospel accounts or Paul’s letters.
e. Scholars have found that it was far more common to add material to the text, trying to make it easier to understand, than it was to take away from the text. That’s why if you compare the old KJV to the newer NIV, for example, you’ll see that the NIV frequently leaves out material from the KJV. Part of that reason is because old manuscripts were discovered between the translation of the KJV and the NIV and these do not have some additions that were added over the years.
The main reason I have presented this material is to emphasize to us that, regardless of which translation we use, we can know that we have the word of God as it was intended to be left to us through His inspired apostles. Every Bible student should have more than one translation so that comparisons can be made.
God has overseen the preservation of his word. We have abundant evidence that the word we have is the word that left the pen of the inspired writers. We can trust it. We need to obey it.
–Paul Holland
