As a Pastor I have heard this many times, over and over again. People ridiculing the "accuracy" especially regarding the New Testament. They constantly say: have you seen that a recent study of ancient manuscripts has shown there is "documented proof" that there are over 200,000 errors. As a matter of fact people can say anything they want and others who have not read the Bible or have never even known anything about God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit, will say these things. You see people can say anything they want and as we have seen, fact-checkers are usually wrong or are liars and they try to make a point to confirm their beliefs! Or they try to push their narratives. They think that if they say it over and over again it will be true. Or if they scream it at you they will think they are right. Do you know that the phrase "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" IS NOT IN THE BIBLE? How many times have you heard that phrase said? It is not biblical.
The truth of the matter is that there is overwhelming evidence in support of the accuracy and reliability of the text of the New Testament. Did you know that as a fact there are over 14,000 copies of the New Testament available to study in the form of Greek manuscripts and ancient translations?
For a fact these handwritten copies of full and partial portions of the New Testament date back to the first century. And in addition, there are over 36,000 quotations by the early church fathers (from the second to fourth centuries). Did you know that there are enough quotes to reconstruct the entire New Testament minus only 11 verses?
"200,000 errors?” This is how the ancient New Testament manuscripts are often referred to in academic circles and liberal seminaries. These, however, are not actually errors but variations, the vast majority of which are strictly grammatical. For example: just like the spelling of colour in the British grammar but color in the English grammar. Same word but different spelling.
I have read that they are spread out in over 5,000 manuscripts, so that a variation spelling in one letter of one word in one verse in 2,000 manuscripts is counted as 2,000 errors. In reality, only about one in sixty of these variants has any significance—leaving the text 98.33 percent pure and accurate.
Only 400 of these variations changed the meaning of the passage, and only 50 were of any significance. More importantly, NOT ONE affected the meaning of faith or Christian duty that was not abundantly sustained by other undoubted passages.
When a wise man has a controversy with a foolish man, The foolish man either rages or laughs, and there is no rest. —Proverbs 29:9
Professing to be wise, they became fools —Romans 1:22
As is true with any historical work, not every single detail in the Bible can be directly confirmed. Because as one friend of mine said years ago used, unless you were there you cannot even be a witness in a court of law. Most of those who criticize the reliability and accuracy of the Bible are basically saying that they do not want to believe its truth. As other pieces of history have confirmed those things that occurred in Bible times (Josephus who wrote history of the times and Tacitus both confirm things said in the Bible and they never became Christians!) The Bible cannot be called unreliable simply because it contains parts which cannot be confirmed or have not yet been confirmed. What’s reasonable is to expect it to be accurate where it can be checked. This is the main test of reliability, and here the Bible has a stellar track record. Not only have many of its historical details been confirmed, through archeology and writers who were alive at the time, but many of those who confirmed that there was a Jesus and The Way (the name of the first Christians in the Bible) and certain portions that were once in doubt have all now been verified.
Another area of contention has to do with the capitalization of pronouns referring to our Lord and Jesus. All of my upbringing has taught me that these are proper pronouns and as such must be capitalized, but often I see them printed in lower case. Why?
Well, when we check this out, the original manuscripts were written without distinguishing between upper and lower case. In fact, to save valuable parchment space, there was no punctuation at all, which has caused some problems when translating it into English. Today, many people capitalize the personal pronouns referring to Jesus and God simply to give honor to whom honor is due (Romans 13:7), but it is by choice, not by law or rules of grammar.
I hope this information helps you along your spiritual journey.
The truth of the matter is that there is overwhelming evidence in support of the accuracy and reliability of the text of the New Testament. Did you know that as a fact there are over 14,000 copies of the New Testament available to study in the form of Greek manuscripts and ancient translations?
For a fact these handwritten copies of full and partial portions of the New Testament date back to the first century. And in addition, there are over 36,000 quotations by the early church fathers (from the second to fourth centuries). Did you know that there are enough quotes to reconstruct the entire New Testament minus only 11 verses?
"200,000 errors?” This is how the ancient New Testament manuscripts are often referred to in academic circles and liberal seminaries. These, however, are not actually errors but variations, the vast majority of which are strictly grammatical. For example: just like the spelling of colour in the British grammar but color in the English grammar. Same word but different spelling.
I have read that they are spread out in over 5,000 manuscripts, so that a variation spelling in one letter of one word in one verse in 2,000 manuscripts is counted as 2,000 errors. In reality, only about one in sixty of these variants has any significance—leaving the text 98.33 percent pure and accurate.
Only 400 of these variations changed the meaning of the passage, and only 50 were of any significance. More importantly, NOT ONE affected the meaning of faith or Christian duty that was not abundantly sustained by other undoubted passages.
When a wise man has a controversy with a foolish man, The foolish man either rages or laughs, and there is no rest. —Proverbs 29:9
Professing to be wise, they became fools —Romans 1:22
As is true with any historical work, not every single detail in the Bible can be directly confirmed. Because as one friend of mine said years ago used, unless you were there you cannot even be a witness in a court of law. Most of those who criticize the reliability and accuracy of the Bible are basically saying that they do not want to believe its truth. As other pieces of history have confirmed those things that occurred in Bible times (Josephus who wrote history of the times and Tacitus both confirm things said in the Bible and they never became Christians!) The Bible cannot be called unreliable simply because it contains parts which cannot be confirmed or have not yet been confirmed. What’s reasonable is to expect it to be accurate where it can be checked. This is the main test of reliability, and here the Bible has a stellar track record. Not only have many of its historical details been confirmed, through archeology and writers who were alive at the time, but many of those who confirmed that there was a Jesus and The Way (the name of the first Christians in the Bible) and certain portions that were once in doubt have all now been verified.
Another area of contention has to do with the capitalization of pronouns referring to our Lord and Jesus. All of my upbringing has taught me that these are proper pronouns and as such must be capitalized, but often I see them printed in lower case. Why?
Well, when we check this out, the original manuscripts were written without distinguishing between upper and lower case. In fact, to save valuable parchment space, there was no punctuation at all, which has caused some problems when translating it into English. Today, many people capitalize the personal pronouns referring to Jesus and God simply to give honor to whom honor is due (Romans 13:7), but it is by choice, not by law or rules of grammar.
I hope this information helps you along your spiritual journey.
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