1. Is The New Testament Reliable?
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2. If the New Testament is a document written by eyewitnesses of the life and teachings of Jesus, the accurate transmission of these documents over time is a real problem. How can we possible know that what we now call the New Testament is in fact what was originally written?
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3. TEXTUAL CRITICISM
To deal with the issue of recovering the original text of ancient writings a discipline called textual criticism was developed.
When a variation is found in a text the oldest are preferred, assuming the changes were added later for a textual clarification.
The shortest versions are preferred for the same reason.
Another technique is to prefer the reading of the majority of texts.
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In textual criticism known copies of a manuscript are compared to each other and certain techniques are used to determine which texts are the oldest. Thus potentially the most accurate.
There are a couple ways this is done.
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4. Scribes copied books in two ways
Scribes copied books in two ways. One was for each scribe to have an edition of the book they wished to copy, called an exemplar, sitting in front of them. They would then tediously copy word for word.
Another way was to have a lector read out loud from the exemplar to several scribes at the same time.
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The 2nd way would be a faster way of making copies but not as accurate. Words may sound alike but have different spellings. “to” and “too” and “two”
Because the books of the new testament were not considered part of scripture until the 4 century, the scribes probably didn’t treat what they were coping with as much reverence as when they copied the old testament. This may explain some of the variances we see in the earliest texts. Once the new testament was considered scripture in the 4th century then there would have been a lot more attention paid to it by the scribes. This also means that the variances we see probably all came from before the 4th century.
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5. TRANSMISSION
A common misconception about the New Testament is that it was transmitted like links in a chain. Kind of like the telephone game.
This is not how the New Testament writings were handed down.
When a church received a document from an Apostle, they shared the book by making a number of copies to send to other churches. The recipients also made multiple copies and sent them to other churches, and so on.
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SO EACH CHURCH WOULD PRODUCE MANY COPIES BEFORE THEY WOULD PASS THEM ON, THIS WOULD HAVE PREVENTED LESS VARIANTS THAN IF THEY ONLY PASSED ON ONE COPY.
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6. Colossians 4:16 And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.
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7. MANUSCRIPT AUTHORITY
The more manuscripts we have the more accurately the original text can be recovered.
In the case of the New Testament, if we limit ourselves to the original language manuscripts, we have over 5,300 copies, including fragments.
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Most of these manuscripts were found in monastery libraries around the Mediterranean, and more continue to be discovered.
The oldest complete N/T was found in a monastery in Sinai, Codex Sinaiticus, as it is called, dates to around AD 350.
Codex Vaticanus is dated to AD 325 to 350. it contains almost the whole N/T.
The Chester Beatty Papyrus dates to AD 180, it has the complete writings of Paul.
The Bodmer Papyrus dates to AD 150 to 200 and has most of John.
The oldest universally accepted fragment of the N/T was found in Egypt in 1920, it is from Johns Gospel and is dates AD 125, only 60 years or so from its original writing.
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8. How does this compare to other ancient manuscripts?
Homer’s Illiad probably has the next greatest manuscript authority next to the New Testament. Homer wrote the Illiad around 900 BC. The oldest copy we have is from 400 BC, a 500 year span from the original. The total number of manuscripts we have is 64. and they agree 95% of the time.
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9. Aristotle wrote between 384 and 322 BC
Aristotle wrote between 384 and 322 BC. The oldest copy we have is dated AD 1100, 1400 years later. The total number of original language manuscripts is 49 of any one book.
Plato wrote his Tetralogies between 427 and 347 BC. The earliest copy is from AD 900, 1,300 years later. We know of only 7 manuscripts.
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10. In addition to the original language manuscripts of the New Testament we have, we also have 8,000 Latin Vulgates.
We also have 9,000 earlier versions, that are translated into various languages like Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, and Nubian
Latin Vulgates was a common Latin version translated by Jerome in the 4th century.
We also have (as mentioned in a previous Power point) writings of the early church fathers. The whole New Testament can very nearly be reconstructed just from the quotations found in there letters.
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11. THOUSANDS OF ERRORS?
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12. When the original language manuscripts are compared with each other, we find there are around 200,000 variants in 10,000 different places.
Variances are, simply, disagreements between texts.
These variances can be divided between two categories: unintentional and intentional.
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THIS SOUNDS LIKE A LOT, BUT LETS LOOK AT THEM.
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13. UNINTENTIONAL VARIANCES
These are comprised of misspellings, interpolations of words or lines, or are orthographical in nature.
Each time a word is misspelled in a certain point in the text it is counted as a variant. For example, if a certain word in a certain verse had the same misspelled word in 537 copies, that would count for 537 errors.
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14. Orthographical variants refer to the way words are spelled differently in different places. The difference between “theatre” and “theater” is orthographical.
Both spellings are correct, but each is preferred in different places. These would be considered errors.
You can quickly see why there are 200,000 variants.
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15. INTENTIONAL VARIANCES
The other kinds of errors that are found in the New Testament are intentional errors.
They are deliberate changes to the text by the scribes. It was probably not the scribes intention, however, to corrupt the text.
They would sometimes try to correct what they saw as an error or to improve the text in some other way.
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16. EXAMPLE
Mark 1:1-3  The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, 3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare  the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”
ESV
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17. Mark 1:1-3 
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in the Prophets:       “ Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.” 3 “ The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘ Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.’”
NKJV
Note how in the ESV translation attributes the quote to “Isaiah”, while the NKJV attributes it to “the prophets”.
Apparently at some point a scribe recognized that the quote was not just from Isaiah 40:3 but also from Malachi 3:1 and so he sought to correct it. Whether Mark intentionally, for whatever reason, made the attribution to Isaiah only is unknown.
This dilemma does, however, illustrate another principle used in recovering the original writing: prefer the more difficult reading.
Between the 2 renderings of Mark 1:1-3, it is easier to explain the difference as a correction from “Isaiah” to “the Prophets” than to explain it as a corruption from “the Prophets” to “Isaiah”. The more difficult reading is “Isaiah”, therefore it is considered to have a higher probability of being the original.
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18. Regardless of the value of the techniques described, there are some parts of the New Testament where we are just not sure what the original said. About 400 words fall into this category and comprise about 40 verses. The content of these verses contain no basis for any essential doctrine of the Christian faith. As a result, scholars can recover 97 to 99 percent of the original content of the New Testament with certainty.
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19. It turns out, rather than being a disadvantage by not having the original writings, we find ourselves in a position of good fortune. If we had the originals, a critic of the writings would only need to call into question one document. Instead, a critic need to deal with over 5,300 documents that agree substantially 99.5% of the time.
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20. ARCHAEOLOGY
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21. Since the New Testament documents history, and events that happened to real people in real places at certain points in time, one way to test its reliability would be to compare its writings to archaeological finds. Do archaeological finds corroborate the New Testament or contradict it?
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22. With the rise of archaeology as a scientific field the reliability of the New Testament could be tested.
Archaeology has repeatedly and consistently confirmed the New Testament. Much information about the Mediterranean world at the time that was only in the New Testament has now been corroborated by archaeological finds. Title, names of local rulers, time periods, and landmarks that were once thought to be in error or even fictional are now considered to be fact
There has been to many discoveries in the field of archaeology for us to even go into this. There are many resources available that can go deeper on this subject. Just say that every time they find an archaeological find it show the accuracy of the bible to be perfect.
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23. NON-CHRISTIAN WRITINGS
In addition to archaeological finds there are a number of writings from non-christisan sources that have survived and corroborate the New Testament. Again there are to many of these to go thru them all but here is just a few.
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24. FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS (AD 37-100)
The most famous non-Christian sources is Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian in the employment of the Romans. In his writings are mentions of James (Jesus brother), John the Baptist, Herod the great, and many other people and events documented in the New Testament. Also he speaks of some of the great miracles that Jesus had done.
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25. CORNELIUS TACITUS (AD 55-117)
Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.
MENTIONS JESUS AND CHRISTIANITY IN A PASSAGE RECORDING NERO’S BURNING OF ROME.
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26. PLINY THE YOUNGER
I have asked them if they are Christians and if they admit it, I repeat the question a second time and a third time, with a warning of the punishment awaiting them. If they persist, I order them to be led away for execution; for, whatever the nature of there admission, I am convinced that their stubbornness and their unshakable obstinacy ought not to go unpunished…
PLINY THE YOUNGER WAS GOVERNOR OF BITHYNIA IN ASIA MINOR FROM AD 109 TO 111. HE WROTE TO THE EMPEROR TRAJAN EXPLAINING, AMONG OTHER THINGS, HOW HE HANDLED THE CHRISTIANS.
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27. They also declared that the sum total of their quilt or error amounted to no more than this: that they had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately among themselves in honor of Christ as if to a god, and also to bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal purpose, but to abstain from theft, robbery, and adultery….
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28. This made me decide it was all the more necessary to extract the truth by torture of two slave-women, whom they call deaconesses. I found nothing but a degenerate sort of cult carried to extravagant lengths.
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29. LUCIAN OF SAMOSATA
"Christian’s still worship the man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult into the world…the poor wretches have convinced themselves, first and foremost, that they are going to be immortal and live for all time, in consequence of which they despise death and even willingly give themselves into custody; most of them. Furthermore, their first lawgiver persuaded them that they are all brothers of one another after they have transgressed once, for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshipping that crucified sophist himself and living under his laws. Therefore they despise all things indiscriminately and consider them common property, receiving such doctrines traditionally without any definite evidence.
SECOND CENTURY GREEK SATIRIST LUCIAN WROTE:
satire
1 : a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn
2 : trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly
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30. FROM THESE 4 NON-CHRISTIAN’S WE SEE:
Jesus was a real person who lived in Palestine during the time of Tiberius and Pontius Pilate.
He had a reputation for working wonders and teaching radical doctrine.
He was worshiped as God.
His followers met on a certain day and exhibited extreme devotion, even to the point of torture and welcoming death.
They cared for each other and held a high ethical standard.
All of these written by neutral parties corroborate the New Testament. There are many more like these.
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31. IS THE NEW TESTAMENT THE INSPIRED WORD OF GOD?
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32. The word inspiration literally means “God-breathed
The word inspiration literally means “God-breathed.” It does not mean divine dictation where each author became a robot mechanically recording the words of God. Rather, God used the personalities, experiences, and talents of each writer to reveal Himself. It is because man is sinful and prone to error that God superintended the writing of Scripture.
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33. But a claim to be an inspired Word of God is not unique to the New Testament. The Quran, for example, is among other books that also make this claim. However, the content of the books that claim inspiration cannot be reconciled with each other; they are incompatible. Either one of them is the inspired Word of God or all of them are uninspired.
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To test the new testament to see if it is inspired we must first determine is it a reliable historic document, since it purports to be.
Some religious documents don’t make these kind of claims. Archaeology and non-Christian writings attest to the historical elements of the new testament, verifying the times, names, and titles of people who were once thought to be fictional.
Also the vast manuscript authority, as described above, gives us a good reason to believe we know the original text with remarkable certainty. Also, the chain of evidence and tradition that traces the new testament back to eyewitness accounts is very strong. In fact, it is unparalleled in ancient literature.
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34. JESUS
Jesus claimed that He was God incarnate, the Word made flesh. If it can be shown that Jesus made this claim, He surely must have also provided a way to authenticate the claim.
This authentication came in the form of the resurrection, which He Himself predicted. If these claims can be proven then we must take what Jesus said about the Old and New Testament seriously.
Jesus spoke about Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, Jonah, and the prophets as real people in history. He spoke of miracles as acts of God that really happened. He spoke of prophecies as genuine.
Thus if it can be shown that the N/T is real history accurately preserved by eyewitnesses, handed down to us in a way in which we can have a good degree of certainty of the original writings, and that there is a good reason to believe the resurrection took place, then we must take the words and beliefs of Jesus seriously.
Because Jesus considered the O/T to be the authoritative Word of God, we have good reason to accept it as well.
Jesus also said after His resurrection that God the Father would send the Holy Spirit to teach them and bring to remembrance all that Jesus had taught. This happened on the day of Pentecost as recorded in the book of Acts. Eventually the Apostles wrote down these things in letters that we have today.
We will examine these claims in later bible studies.
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35. Infallibility is a by-product of inspiration.
If it can be shown that Jesus claimed to be God, and if it can be shown to be reasonable to believe the resurrection is a historical event, then we have a good reason to believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God. And if the Bible is inspired, then it is reasonable to believe that it also infallible.
Infallibility is a by-product of inspiration.
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The whole idea of inspiration is that God insured the writings of the authors to contain certain accounts that convey the truth accurately.
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36. CONCLUSION
The New Testament commands a manuscript authority that far outstrips any other ancient writing and allows us to have a very high degree of certainty of the original text.
The claim of inspiration that the New Testament makes is not an idle boast. It is a claim that can be investigated. Thus, it is no ordinary work of men, but the infallible, ever-reliable Word of God spoken through instruments of His choosing.
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