Manuscript Monday #1

Welcome to the first Manuscript Monday from Transformed Apologetics What is Manuscript Monday? Manuscript Monday is a weekly post that involves information related to the manuscripts of the biblical texts, both New Testament and Old Testament. So, what is this weeks Manuscript Monday?

Since it is the first Manuscript Monday, I thought it would be important to highlight the embarrassment of riches that biblical scholars have as far tangible ancient manuscripts go for the New Testament literature. As for a most recent count, we have in our possession 5,856 ancient Greek manuscripts and over 18,130 ancient Non-Greek manuscripts. This truly astounding! But this leads to two questions. Why is the number of New Testament manuscripts so astounding and more importantly, why does it matter? [1;2]

Firstly, the number of New Testament manuscripts in our possession today is astounding because it dwarfs the amount of manuscripts we have for other ancient works. Typically the amount of existing manuscripts for ancient works is in the double digits and maybe even the triple digits on rare occasions. For instance, second to the New Testament for existing manuscripts of an ancient work is Homer’s Iliad, of which we have only 643 existing manuscripts. This over 20,000 less manuscripts than that of what exist for the New Testament! That is truly astounding! [1]

This leads to the second question which ask why does the number of New Testament manuscripts matter? The immense number of existing New Testament manuscripts is important because it allows to gain a clear understanding of what the original texts said. With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other early manuscripts, scholars can accurately assemble the wording of the original New Testament texts. With an understanding of the original wording of the New Testament we can have confidence in the originality of the tenets of the Christian faith such as the divinity of Jesus as well as the purpose of His life, death, and resurrection. While this doesn’t prove that the tenets of the Christian faith are true, it does prove that these Christian doctrines were what the earliest Christians believed and that doctrines like the Jesus’ divinity weren’t fabricated centuries later. Therefore, with the abundance of New Testament manuscripts that allow us to assemble the original text we can know with great confidence that the earliest Christians believed that Jesus was the risen Messiah. [1;2]

Hope you enjoyed learning about the New Testament manuscripts and I hope you come back next Monday for more information!

References:

[1] https://seanmcdowell.org/blog/what-is-the-most-recent-manuscript-count-for-the-new-testament

[2] Reinventing Jesus by J. Ed Komoszewski, M. James Sawyer, and Daniel B. Wallace

[3] https://www.google.com/amp/s/biblearchaeologyreport.com/2019/02/15/the-earliest-new-testament-manuscripts/amp/