Is My Bible Authentic (New Testament)

 

While the Old Testament was passed down to us in a fairly ritualistic fashion, the New Testament, not so much.

The New Testament is a collection of 27 biographies, letters, and a book of prophecy written by about eight authors over nearly 50 years.  These documents were sent to individuals (Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1), to particular churches (Rom. 1:7) and to the church at large (Rev. 1:1-3).

When these letters and books arrived, some in the congregation would borrow them to make copies for themselves and friends.  This helped to spread the Gospel.  Occasionally, though, it led to discrepancies.  Let’s imagine I borrowed someone’s copy of the Gospel of Luke.  As I copied it, I might make some comments in the margin as certain passages impact me.  After all, it’s my personal copy, why not include notes?  Two problems arise, perhaps my friend who owns the manuscript I’m copying did the same thing.  I might see what he wrote and, thinking it Scripture, include it in the text as I copy it.  Then when I pass my copy on to another friend so she could copy it, she might well copy my friend’s notes and as well as mine.  Usually, the notes were recognized as such, but you can see how some manuscripts might be corrupted in this way.

In order to deal with this, we have textual critics who compare all the manuscripts with various priorities in mind (age, geographical area where it originated, etc.) in order to come to a complete text which they believe represents as precisely as possible the originals (autographs).  Because of this research, we believe we can reproduce the New Testament with better than 99% precision, and the portions in question are not doctrinal.  This is one reason why most modern translations are made from the oldest known manuscripts.  There is less time from the original writings to the known manuscript for error.

Besides this, even if we had no manuscripts of the New Testament at all (and we have over 24,000), we can reproduce nearly all of the New Testament from the writings of the early church fathers.

So, rest assured that the New Testament you hold in your hand on Sunday morning is the most accurately reproduced ancient document in history.  You can rely on it fully.

 

You can find an expanded version of this post including full text of passages cited in the menu.  This post is included under the item “Can I Trust My Bible”

Helpful books can be found under “Recommended Books” in the menu.