Can we trust the New Testament ? - The Way Apologetics

NT critic Bart Ehrman claims that the manuscripts we have today don’t represent the original writings, but in fact are error-ridden copies that cannot be trusted. The number of variations among these manuscripts even exceed the number of words in the NT in its original Greek language.

He suggests that there are about 400,000 variations in the manuscripts we have and about 138,200 words of the Greek NT; that means that for every word that exists there’s around 3 options for it! 

However, is that really an indication of the accuracy of the manuscripts? and what do the numbers really mean? 

To answer this question and determine the reliability of the NT manuscripts, we need to look at how historians assess any work of antiquity coming from the ancient world.

Historians generally assess any text by looking at three things: A) the number of manuscript copies that exist for the text; B) the time gap between the original text and its earliest surviving copy; and C) the significance of variations between the copies.  

Historians and textual critics have more confidence in the reconstruction of the original text when there are lots of copies, short time gaps, and insignificant variations.

If we are to compare the NT manuscripts with the manuscripts citing the work of well-known philosophers, authors or historians like Plato, Homer or Suetonius, whose works are thought to be reconstructed with high degree of accuracy, we’ll find that the NT manuscripts outnumber any of these works and have much earlier attestations than these works as well.

To put things into perspective, we have about 250 copies of Plato with the earliest manuscript found after about 1300 years of the original writing. However, for the NT we have over 5,800 manuscripts in the Greek language alone and around 20,000 manuscripts in other languages (e.g. Coptic, Latin, Syriac).

In fact, the textual critic, Dan Wallace states that “in comparison with the average ancient Greek author, the NT copies are well over a thousand times more plentiful”.

In addition, these manuscripts with all their translations are found to be cited extensively by the early church fathers during the early centuries of Christianity to the extent that Ehrman himself claims that these citations are so extensive that “if all the other sources of our knowledge of the text of NT were destroyed, they would be sufficient alone for the reconstruction of practically the entire NT.” 

Regarding the time gap between the earliest surviving manuscripts and the original manuscripts, we have two manuscripts, P52 and P66, which are dated around 35-40 years after the original manuscripts.

In the world of ancient literature, this is considered a blink of an eye. In fact, the average time between the writing of most works contemporaneous with the NT like the works of Pliny, Suetonius or Tacitus and their first copies is not less than a couple hundred years, so again no other work of antiquity comes close to the early attestation of the NT manuscripts.   

With regards to the textual variants among the manuscripts, yes there are about 400,000 variants in the NT manuscripts, yet the significance of them is what really matters. So let’s first define what a variant is. A variant is any difference between manuscripts. If a scribe spells “John” and another spells it “Johnn”, that’s a variant.

If two scribes use two different synonyms for the same word, that’s a variant. If two scribes write the same sentence with the same meaning but use a different word order, that counts as a variant. If a verse or a block of text is found in one copy but not in others, that’s also a variant. 

If we take a closer look at these 400,000 variants, we’ll find that 99% of them don’t impact the meaning of the text whatsoever. Most of them come from spelling and word order. The remaining 1% (only 4,000 variants) are meaningful but none of them affects one single doctrine of the Christian faith.

And in fact, considering the vast number of manuscripts that we have for the NT, it logically follows to have a big number of variants. So, the large number of variants is because the NT has more manuscripts than any other work of antiquity. 

In conclusion, based on the rich and early attestation of the NT, as well as the insignificant variations among its manuscripts, we can trust that the NT manuscripts are reliable. In fact, if we do not trust the NT manuscripts, we cannot trust any other work of antiquity. 

To judge the reliability of the biblical story, scholars apply the criteria of authenticity to the biblical accounts. The criteria of authenticity represent standards or tools by which the historical plausibility of an event is assessed. So let’s discuss 3 of these criteria and apply them to the biblical story 

(1) The criterion of multiple attestation: the criterion states that if an event or a story is recorded by multiple and independent sources, that boosts its likelihood to have occurred. Applying this to the biblical story, we have several non-Christian sources (Roman, Greek and Jewish) that affirm the following facts which are in congruence with the biblical story and therefore attest to the reliability of the story: 

1. Jesus Christ lived in the first century AD in Judea.  
2. He was believed to be a miracle worker. 
3. He was followed by several disciples believing He was the Messiah. 
4. He was accused of blasphemy by the Jewish leaders. 
5. He died on the cross under the reign of Pontius Pilate. 
6. His disciples claimed to have several encounters with Him after rising from death. 
7. His disciples evangelized and preached about His crucifixion, death and resurrection. 
8. Christians multiplied in numbers before the great fire of Rome.  
9. Christians used to meet regularly to worship Him. 

These facts, which are attested from many sources outside the NT, are in coherence with the NT story and hence, the biblical story as narrated in the NT fulfills this criterion of authenticity.  

(2) The criterion of Embarrassment: the criterion states that if an event or a story is embarrassing to its writer, then it is unlikely to be invented and this increases its likelihood of occurring. We have several passages in the NT that seem to be embarrassing to the disciples who are also the early founders of the church. For example, at the time when Jesus was arrested, His disciples ran away and abandoned Him. Also, the very first eyewitnesses to the empty tomb and Jesus’s resurrection were women and given the Jewish middle eastern context belittling women and their testimonies, if the story was made up by the disciples, women would have been the disciples’ very last option to witness the empty tomb and testify to the resurrection. 

Hence, the biblical story fulfills this criterion. 

(3) The criterion of contextual credibility (sociohistorical context): the criterion states that for a story to be authentic, it must contain elements that conform to and do not contradict with the socio historical context of that time. When we have a look at the NT, we find several elements that conform to the socio historical context of the story, for example a study was conducted on the distribution of personal names in the first century AD in Palestine reveals that the names mentioned in the NT manuscripts conform to the names used at that time in that region. Similarly, there are archaeological discoveries that are in alignment with the NT manuscripts. In addition to that, the gospel of Luke presents historical details that further add to the plausibility of the story in terms of its historical context. In chapter 3 verses 1-2, Luke writes “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness”. Such level of detail suggests that Luke was well aware of the Roman and Jewish historical context of his story. 

Hence, the biblical story fulfills this criterion. 

Based on these three criteria, we can reasonably trust the NT story.