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As we continue to prove or disprove whether we can trust the Bible, we have been using the same tests historians use for every historical document that has been discovered. The second aspect of the Bibliographical Test we will now look at deals with Numbers.
Numbers are extremely important. They are all around us. They help accountants understand a company’s finances, technicians program a computer, and whether your favorite team gets the W or L. Numbers also help historians and textual critics of ancient documents too. They are vital in providing us with answers to whether a document is trustworthy and accurate or faulty and corrupted.
Importance of Numbers
When testing the reliability of any document from antiquity it is vital to determine if a document is supported by manuscript evidence. A document that has a lot of manuscript support is able to confirm the accuracy of the document. If a document or book has very little manuscript evidence to support it, then its reliability and accuracy is rightly called into question.
If you have a lot of manuscripts, then you can compare and contrast them with each other in order to test the accuracy of what you are reading. So the question you need to ask is, “Are the numbers in your favor? ”
Manuscripts are copies of original documents
When testing the historicity of the New Testament, we need to always remember that the New Testament is not just one document, or book. Rather it is a collected library of independent writings, written by nine different authors, over the course of numerous years and spread out over hundreds of miles from one another.
Viewing the New Testament properly allows historians, and modern day readers, the ability to limit their search for truth to individual books of the New Testament and begin testing whether it is historically accurate or a collection of corrupted pieces of literature from antiquity that are full of contradictions and mythological elements.
So how does the New Testament rank amongst ancient documents that are generally accepted pieces of literature from antiquity, and even taught in the literary cannon?
New Testament Manuscripts
While it is true that we do not have the original writings of the New Testament, we do have an overwhelming amount of manuscripts that support our current New Testament. The reason why we have so many manuscripts is due in large part to the explosive expansion of the early church. In order to teach new followers of Christ from all over the known world, handwritten manuscripts were made and distributed to newly started churches and faith communities so these new followers could grow in their faith, learn more about Christ, and share their faith with others.
Skeptics would claim that this poses a problem for Christianity. Since we don’t have the original documents that the original authors wrote, then we can’t know if what our current New Testaments claim are true or grossly overstated myths.
Dr. Norman Geisler begs to differ saying that, “this is not a problem for us today, because like other pieces of literature from the ancient world we are able to reconstruct what the original document (the autograph) said. We are able to do this by contrasting and comparing the [surviving manuscripts] with each other.” (Geisler, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, p.225)
In regards to the New Testament, we are able to reconstruct the original autograph with amazing clarity and accuracy because manuscripts support us historically and textually, keeping us accurate.
we have an overwhelming amount of manuscripts that support our current Bible
According to the most recent evidence, there are nearly 5,800 New Testament manuscripts, written in the Greek language alone. If you add other New Testament manuscripts that were written in different languages like Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, Latin, Coptic, and others the total number of New Testament manuscript support would reach nearly 24,000 manuscripts.
This huge amount of manuscript support assists us today in delivering an accurate New Testament consistent to its literary and historical claims because we have so many different manuscripts to compare and contrast with each other. So instead of using the child’s game Telephone to write our modern-day Bible, we actually compare all the manuscript evidence we have with each other in an effort to be as accurate as possible concerning our modern day Bibles. In essence, we can say with confidence that the Bible we have today is indeed the Bible that was written by the original authors within a generation from the death and bodily resurrection of Jesus.
our Bibles are not written using the Telephone game, but rather using manuscript evidence
Currently, there is only one book in all of history that even attempts to come close to the staggering amount of New Testament manuscript support. Homer’s Illiad has 1,758 manuscripts that support the textual and historical accuracy of this ancient book. For the longest time the Illiad had only been supported by 643 manuscripts but there have been many “discoveries of larger numbers of Greek papyri of the Illiad (dating 300-150 B.C.).
Dr. Dan Wallace helps illustrate these massive differences in manuscript support for us, by saying that, “if you placed the manuscript copies of the average ancient author [like those listed below] it would form a pile four feet high. However, the New Testament manuscripts and translations would reach a mile high!” (emphasis mine)
The below chart will further illustrate how other works from antiquity match up to Homer’s Illiad and more importantly, the New Testament.
Manuscript Support
The table above shows several different authors, there most notable works, and when they originally wrote that work. Then the table shows the time-gap of that famous work, and finally how many manuscripts we have that support the authors work(s).
New Testament Accuracy
As you can see, when it comes to the New Testament, the numbers are simply on the Bible's side. No other work from antiquity even comes close to the amount of manuscript support the New Testament boasts. We can safely say that what we are reading today is in fact what the original authors wrote, under the direction and inspiration of God (2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pt. 1:20-21). God has persevered his Word with absolute precision!
when it comes to the NT the numbers are on the Bible's side
Conclusion
So far we have seen that the New Testament has passed two out of the three tests historians use to prove or disprove the historical reliability of any discovered document or book. Helping us answer the question, “Can We Trust The Bible?”
As the table above illustrates, we can see that no other document in history is supported as well as the New Testament and we have seen that no other book or document from antiquity has as small of a Time-Gap as the New Testament. (LINK) We have also seen that the New Testament was written extremely close to the actual events that they claim to be reporting, this assures us of the New Testament’s historical accuracy and reliability.
Even though the New Testament alone can make the above claims for itself, we still need to test the quality of the manuscripts that help support the New Testament. Stay tuned for the third and final Bibliographical Test: Quality Test.
Quoted Sources
Geisler, Norman L. and Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, Crossway Books, Illinois, 2004.
Dip Deeper
Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels by J. Warner Wallace Benefit of the Doubt by Greg Boyd Letters from a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles with His Father’s Questions About Christianity by Greg Boyd The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus by Lee Strobel The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Questions to Christianity by Lee Strobel
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