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100 Reasons to Believe New Testament History
8. The Number and Consistency of New Testament Manuscripts
No other ancient document has as much manuscript evidence substantiating it as does the New Testament. The current number of ancient New Testament manuscripts sits at 24,970 A. In second place comes Homer's Iliad at 643 manuscripts B.
Today, most scholars would agree that the copies of Pliny the Younger, or Herodotus' writings for example, are reasonably accurate. Note that The New Testament is not only supported by far more manuscripts than any other ancient source, but many papyrus manuscripts have been dated to within 200 years of their original composition C. Furthermore, The New Testament text was copied over a wide geographical area into many different languages. Despite this fact, these documents are almost identical in their content.
8. The Number and Consistency of New Testament Manuscripts - Notes and References
A. Josh McDowel, "The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict", Thomas Nelson, 1999, p. 34
B. "…the only other ancient text that can even try to compare to the MSS evidence for the New Testament (5,686 Greek) is Homer's Illiad, with a mere 643 copies." Norman Geisler and Peter Bocchino, "Unshakable Foundations", Bethany House, 2001,p. 257
"The quantity of New Testament material is almost embarrassing in comparison with other works of antiquity…Next to the New Testament, the greatest amount of manuscript testimony is of Homer's Illiad, which was the bible of the ancient Greeks. There are fewer than 650 Greek manuscripts of it today. Some are uite fragmentary. They come down to us from the second and third century A.D. and following. When you consider that Homer composed his epic about 800 B.C., you can see there's a very lengthy gap." Bruce M. Metzger, PH.D., as quoted in Lee Strobel, "The Case for Christ", Zondervan Publishing House, 1998, p. 60
C. "Eighty-eight undisputed papyri manuscripts have so far been found…The papyri witness to the text is invaluable because it comes from within the first 200 years after the New Testament was written." Norman Geisler, "Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics", Baker Books 1999, p533
"However, the New Testament has a fragment within one generation of its original composition. Whole books appear within 100 years of the original, most of the New Testament within 250 years from the date of its completion." Norman Geisler,and Peter Bocchino, "Unshakable Foundations", Bethany House, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2001, p.257
(The fragment referred to by Geisler as dating to within one generation from its original composition is the Rylands Fragment - a portion of John's Gospel found in Egypt dating to 117 - 138 A.D. This is thought by many to be the oldest extant New Testament manuscript fragment. However, Carsten Peter Thiede and Matthew D'Ancona set forth a convincing case for the Magdalen Papyri, a portion from Matthew's Gospel, as dating from within the first century. See: "Eyewitness to Jesus", Doubleday, 1996)