Discovery #3 – Accuracy
We have looked at the first two questions in our three part test for integrity in ancient literature. If you missed them, they are located here and here.
Our final question might be the most difficult one to understand: How accurate are the handwritten copies of ancient manuscripts?
To measure the accuracy of a document, one usually uses distortion rate. “Distortion rate measures the number of differences between manuscripts affecting the reader’s understanding of the meaning. Variation such as word order and spelling difference are ignored,” (Surprised by Faith Study and Discussion Guide, pg.26).
How accurately has the New Testament been copied?
The Distortion Rates of Three Important Ancient Documents
As you can see from the chart above, the New Testament has a distortion rate of 1/5 of 1%. That is a remarkable level of accuracy. But what does that mean? Are you saying that the Bible contains errors? Does this information fly in the face of the Christian doctrines of inerrancy and infallibility? The key is to consider the autographs (the original documents themselves).
“No autographs (originals) of any ancient literature have been found. The doctrine of biblical inerrancy and infallibility apply to the autographs.
Evidence reveals that the New Testament Gospels originated from the hands of eyewitnesses to Jesus, and were copied by scribes over the centuries up to the fifteenth century printing press, without any substantive changes in content.
No distortion of the New Testament text due to copying errors affects any doctrine of the Christian faith,” (SBF-SDG, pg.26).
99.8% of the New Testament we have today is not significantly different from what was written nearly 2,000 years ago! Read that statement again.
Of the .2% portion that is distorted, much of that is contained in the passages of Mark 16:9-20
and John 7:53-8:11. If you open a Bible to those passages, it is likely that those passages will have a footnote explaining that many early manuscripts do not contain those passages.
Having determined that the New Testament does possess a high level of integrity, we must now look to its content. The New Testament may be in essentially the same shape as it was 2,000 years ago, but what if it all is just a novel? Is there a way to measure the historical reliability of its content?
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[...] evidence we considered in chapter three (blog posts that can be found here, here, and here) gave us the confidence to know that the New Testament records we have today are essentially the [...]