Oh, the Bible is unique, it means different from all others – no like or equal. One area that it is superbly unique is in the area of its surviving manuscripts down through the years; all the hand copied manuscripts that have survived.
Let me show you a comparison with others. For example, Caesar and the Gallic wars, there’s only 10 manuscripts that’s survived; of Plato, 7 manuscripts; Thucydides, 8 manuscripts; Herodotus, the Greek historian, 8 manuscripts; of Tactitus, the Roman historian, 20 manuscripts survived; everything else has been lost.
Of Suetonius, 8 manuscripts; now Sophocles there’s 193; Demosthenes about 200; of Lucretius there’s 2; Aristotle’s poetics, only 49 manuscripts survived.
Do you know what it is for the New Testament? In my book The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict I document this. What they are, where they are and what they contain. We have 24,633 surviving manuscripts. Folks, there is no comparison in all of history! Of its survival, of its handwritten copies down through the years. You want to see how significant that is?
Do you know what the Number 2 book is in all history, in manuscript authority? It’s the Illiad by Homer. Now think of this, its number two. Of the New Testament there’s 24,633, the number two book in all history, the Illiad by Homer, there’s 643 manuscripts.
There is absolutely no comparison. But do you know what? You can burn every manuscript in the world. Destroy them all. Of every single Bible, Old Testament, New Testament, whatever. And within about 100 to 150 years from the time of Christ, from the second and third century church fathers, you could reconstruct all but 11 verses of the entire New Testament. Just from the writings of the early church fathers.
You say, “How could you do that?” Because when they wrote letters to the churches, they copied the Scriptures. When they would do sermons they would write Scriptures out in their notes and have over 36,000 quotations of just the Scriptures, the New Testament. And some quotation might be 2 or 3 chapters and taking those works you can reconstruct all but 11 verses of the entire New Testament.
Oh, the Bible is unique in its uniqueness of the survival of the number of manuscripts down through the years.
Now that doesn’t mean it’s true. But I think it does mean anyone seeking the truth would certainly consider a book that has this qualification.
Oh, the Bible is unique, it means different from all others – no like or equal. Another area that it is superbly unique is in the area of its surviving manuscripts down through the years; all the hand copied manuscripts that have survived.
Let me show you a comparison with others. For example, Caesar and the Gallic wars, there is only 10 manuscripts that have survived; of Plato, 7 manuscripts; Thucydides, 8 manuscripts; Herodotus, the Greek historian, 8 manuscripts; of Tacitus, the Roman historian, 20 manuscripts survived; everything else has been lost.
Of Suetonius, 8 manuscripts; now Sophocles there are 193; Demosthenes about 200; of Lucretius there are 2; of Aristotle’s poetics, only 49 manuscripts survived.
Do you know what it is for the New Testament? In my book The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict I document this. What they are, where they are, and what they contain. We have 24,633 surviving manuscripts. Folks, there is no comparison in all of history! The Bible is unique in its survival and its handwritten copies down through the years. You want to see how significant that is?
Do you know what the Number 2 book is in all history, in manuscript authority? It is The Iliad by Homer. Now think of this, its number two. The New Testament has 24,633, the number two book in all history, the Iliad by Homer, has 643 manuscripts.
There is absolutely no comparison. But do you know what? You can burn every manuscript in the world. Destroy them all. Of every single Bible, Old Testament, New Testament, whatever. And within about 100 to 150 years from the time of Christ, from the second and third century church fathers, you could reconstruct all but 11 verses of the entire New Testament. Just from the writings of the early church fathers.
You ask, “How can you do that?” Because when they wrote letters to the churches, they copied the Scriptures. When they would do sermons they would write Scriptures out in their notes: over 36,000 quotations of just the Scriptures, the New Testament. And some quotations might be 2 or 3 chapters. Taking those works you can reconstruct all but 11 verses of the entire New Testament.
Oh, the Bible is unique in its uniqueness of the survival of the number of manuscripts and external support documents down through the years.
Now that does not mean it is true. But I think it does mean anyone seeking the truth would certainly consider a book that has this qualification.
Summary: There are more surviving manuscripts of the New Testament, 24,633, than of any other literary work in history. Coming in second is the Iliad by Homer with 643 manuscripts. The early church fathers from the second and third centuries copied over 36,000 scripture passages when they wrote letters and sermons to the churches. From their writings we could reconstruct all but 11 verses from the New Testament.
Questions:
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