Is the Bible History?

The 27 books of the New Testament were written between 40 and 100 AD. Few serious historians doubt this, nor is there much argument that what we read in our modem New Testaments is the same as what was originally written (except for some very minor variations).

There are several reasons for this confidence.

1. The sheer number of early manuscripts

Although there are no copies of the original manuscripts, we now have more than 24,000 early manuscript copies or portions of the New Testament. Around 5,300 of these are in Greek, and the remainder are early translations into other languages (such as Latin). By analysing this vast amount of manuscript evidence, it is possible to establish with a great deal of certainty a version of the text very close to the original.

2. The closeness in time to the original

Not only do we have a great many manuscripts, but a number of them are quite close me to the original. The earliest manuscript portions date from 125 AD (although recently discovered ‘Jesus papyri’ may date from around 70 AD); existing copies which contain much or all of the New Testament date from around 200 AD.

If this gap sounds like quite a period of time, it is worth making a comparison with other ancient documents, such as Homer’s Iliad, or the works of Plato, Caesar or Sophocles. These ancient works, the authenticity of which no modem scholar would question, do not even come close to the New Testament in either the number of manuscripts or closeness in time to the original—as the following graph shows.

Sir Frederick Kenyon, former director and principal librarian of the British Museum puts it like this:

The interval then between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and general integrity of books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.
F. Kenyon, The Bible and Archaeology, Harper and Row, New York, 1940, p. 28

Reproduced with Permission from
John Dickson “Simply Christianity” (Matthias Media and John Dickson 2001)