Here’s a common statement you might hear made about the bible: “There is little evidence that the Bible is accurate.”
Possible response: Actually, there is more evidence for the accuracy of The Bible that for any other text in human history.
The two most important factors in proving the accuracy of an ancient manuscript are:
1) The number of years between the originally written manuscript and the one’s we have (the less the better).
2) The number of early manuscripts (the more the better).
Below is a chart showing the textual validity of some of the most respected ancient writings.
If you will compare the accuracy of the New Testament with the second most validated ancient writing in history (The Iliad by Homer) you see that:
1) The earliest copies we have of the Iliad were copied 500 years after the original, while the earliest copies of the New Testament were copied only 25 years after the original.
2) There are 643 early copies of Iliad compared to more than 24,000 early copies of The New Testament
The accuracy of The New Testament is overwhelmingly the most validated piece of literature in human history!
But say it nice…
