Discovery #3 – How Old are You Now?
Having discussed the number of NT manuscripts that have been discovered, we now move the the second question in our test of integrity: How early are the manuscripts?
What we are asking with that question can be paraphrased: “How many years have passed from the original writing to the date of the manuscript?” How can you measure the date of a manuscript?
“There are numerous ways to determine the date of a manuscript. A common indicator is the style of writing used by the copyist. There was a period of time where copying was done in all capital letters, another time when they used only small letters, and still other times when copying was done in a cursive style. A general date would be indicated by the style. The absence or degree of punctuation also indicates different time periods.
Another measurement is the writing material itself and how it was processed, whether animal skin such as vellum, or plant source like papyrus rolls and codices (pages as in a book). The technology of the development of writing materials is well known and provides another indicator of age. Further, the writing material can also be submitted to carbon-14 radiometric dating to determine the age.
Finally, artifacts like coins or ceramics that are often found with the manuscripts give an indication of the time period in which the manuscript may have been copied. The methods for determining the dates of ancient manuscripts are quite well-developed today and usually yield confident results,” (Surprised by Faith Study and Discussion Guide, pg.22).
How close do ancient manuscripts get to the estimated time of their original writing?
This chart shows the number of years between the original writing and the earliest discovered manuscript.
Once again, Julius Caesar is our indicator of the average number of years between the original writing and the earliest manuscript—900 years. Virgil, who coincidentally had the most manuscripts discovered (aside from the New Testament, of course!) also has the least number of years separating manuscript from original writing—about 300.
Where does the New Testament fall?
The New Testment has been added and is circled for reference.
There is a scant 15 year span of years separating the earliest discovered manuscript of a New Testament book from its original date of authorship. Why is this significant?
Consider Aristotle on the charts above. 1,450 years passed between the time when Aristotle wrote and the age of the first manuscript that has been discovered. During that time, copying occurred, errors were introduced into the text, and perhaps modifications or editing took place. For nearly 1,500 years, these changes were happening.
Now, consider the New Testament. 15 years passed between the time when it was written and the earliest manuscript. Which do you think will be more accurate, the one in which a millennium and a half passed, or the one in which a decade and a half passed?
When you couple the number of manuscripts with the early dates of many of those manuscripts, you come to the realization that the New Testament has been copied in an incredibly accurate way. How accurate? We’ll find that out on Monday.
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[...] 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. [...]
[...] 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 [...]