Unique in its Manuscript Evidence
The works of several ancient authors are preserved to us by the thinnest possible thread of transmision…. In contrast…the textual critic of the New Testament is embarrassed by the wealth of his material.
- Bruce Metzger, Princeton professor, one of the world's leading Biblical text critics
...be skeptical of the resultant text of the New Testament Books is to allow all of classical antiquity to slip into obscurity, for no documents of the ancient period are as well attested bibliographically as the New Testament.
- John Warwick Montgomery
Jews preserved it as no other manuscript has ever been preserved. With their massora (parva, magna, and finalis) they kept tabs on every letter, syllable, word and paragraph. They had special classes of men within their culture whose sole duty was to preserve and transmit these documents with practically perfect fidelity—scribes, lawyers, massoretes. Who ever counted the letters and syllables and words of Plato or Aristotle? Cicero or Seneca?
- Bernard Ramm speaking on the accuracy and number of biblical manuscripts
The Bible is unique among all ancient books in the sheer quantity of its historical attestation. Homer's Iliad, which ranks second to the Bible in number of existing historical manuscripts, has 643 copies, while the New Testament has over 24,000.
| AUTHOR
|
BOOK
|
DATE
WRITTEN
|
EARLIEST COPY
|
TIME GAP
|
NO. OF
COPIES
|
| Homer
|
Iliad
|
800 B.C.
|
c. 400 B.C.
|
c. 400 yrs.
|
643
|
| Herodotus
|
History
|
480—425 B.C.
|
c. A.D. 900
|
c. 1,350 yrs.
|
8
|
| Thucydides
|
History
|
460—400 B.C.
|
c. A.D. 900
|
c. 1,300 yrs.
|
8
|
| Plato
|
|
400 B.C.
|
c. A.D. 900
|
c. 1,300 yrs.
|
7
|
| Demosthenes
|
|
300 B.C.
|
c. A.D.1100
|
c. 1,400 yrs.
|
200
|
| Casear
|
Gallic wars
|
100—44 B.C.
|
c. A.D. 900
|
c. 1,000 yrs.
|
10
|
| Livy
|
History of Rome
|
59 B.C.—A.D. 17
|
4th cent. (partial)
mostly 10th cent.
|
c. 400 yrs.
c. 1,000 yrs
|
1 partial
19 copies
|
| Tacitus
|
Annals
|
A.D. 100
|
c. A.D. 1100
|
c. 1,000 yrs.
|
20
|
| Pliny Secundus
|
Natural History
|
A.D. 61—113
|
c. A.D. 850
|
c. 750 yrs.
|
7
|
| New Testament
|
|
A.D. 50—100
|
c. 114 (fragment)
c. 200 (books)
c. 250 (most of N.T)
c. 325 (complete N.T.)
|
+ 50 yrs.
100 yrs.
150 yrs.
225 yrs.
|
5366
|
Unique in its Unity and Continuity
Unique in its Influence of Western Civilization
Unique in its Availability
Unique in its Survival of Persecution
Unique in its Manuscript Evidence
Unique in its Fulfillment of its Prophecies
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