The Manuscript Evidence
THE MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE
Has the absence of the original manuscripts hurt the trustworthiness of our Bible? I do not believe so.
Illustration of a Tape Measure. Dr. Laird Harris gives the following illustration:
Suppose we wish to measure the length of a certain pencil. With a tape measure we measure it 6 ½ inches. A more carefully made office ruler indicates 6 9/16 inches. Checking it with an engineer's scale, we find it to be slightly more than 6.58 inches. Careful measurement with a steel scale under laboratory conditions reveals it to be 6.577 inches. Not satisfied still, we send the pencil to Washington where master gauges indicate a length of 6.5774 inches. The master gauges themselves are checked against the standard United States yard marked on a platinum bar preserved in Washington. Now, suppose that we should read in the newspapers that a clever criminal had run off with the platinum bar and melted it down for the precious metal. As a matter of fact, this once happened to Britain's standard yard! What difference would this make to us? Very little. None of us has ever seen the platinum bar. Many of us perhaps never realized it existed. Yet we blithely use tape measures, rulers, scales, and similar measuring devices. These approximate measures derive their value from their being dependent on more accurate gauges. But even the approximate has tremendous value - if it has had a true standard behind it." (1971:88-89).
Many people object that we have never seen the original manuscripts of the Bible. That is true. I have never seen a copy of the epistle to the Galatians that contained the handwritten signature of the Apostle Paul. But other people have. In 200 A.D. Tertullian said that the original writings of the apostles still existed in the churches which those apostles had started. Those original manuscripts could be examined in his day.
We have manuscripts dating back to Tertullian's day and portions which are even earlier. These copies were able to be checked against the originals.
Comparison to Writings of Antiquity.
How does this compare to other writings of antiquity that have come down to us? The following chart points out the comparison between the Bible versus other ancient writings. [1]
[1] Adapted from Matt Slick: Christian Apologetics and Resource Ministry: CARM.org.
Author|Date Written|Earliest Copy|Time between Original & Copy|Number of Copies|
Pliny|61-113 A.D.|850 A.D.|750 Years|7|
Plato|427-347 B.C.|900 A.D.|1200 Years|7|
Demosthenes|4th Cent B.C.|1100 A.D.|800 Years|8|
Herodotus|480-425 B.C.|900 A.D.|1400 Years|8|
Suetonius|75-160 A.D.|950 A.D.|800 Years|8|
Thucydides|460-400 B.C.|900 A.D.|1300 Years|8|
Euripides|480-406 B.C.|1100 A.D.|1300 Years|9|
Julius Caesar|100-44 B.C.|900 A.D.|1000 Years|10|
Tacitus|100 A.D.|1100 A.D.|1000 Years|20|
Aristotle|384-322 B.C.|1100 A.D.|1400 Years|49|
Homer's Illiad|900 B.C.|400 B.C.|500 Years|643|
New Testament|1st Century A.D.|2nd Century A.D.|Less than 100 Years|5600|
None of these other writings are ever questioned, yet most of them have fewer than 50 extant manuscripts and many have less than 10. On the other hand, the Bible has literally thousands of ancient manuscripts from which we can conduct our investigations in our search for the true text. In addition to this, there are thousands of quotations of the Bible from the early church fathers. Likewise, we have over 2000 lectionaries - written Bible lessons which quoted the verses which were to be read during the worship service. This simplifies the job of the textual critic. If he reads a certain phrase in 5,994 manuscripts and finds an alternate reading in only 6 manuscripts, it becomes much easier to determine the true text. Therefore, we can conclude that the Scriptures which we have are trustworthy.