John 17.17 - Jesus Loves Me…the Bible Tells Me So!
John 17.17 - Jesus Loves Me…the Bible Tells Me So!
There are 5,686 Greek manuscripts in existence today for the New Testament… thousands more than any other ancient writing. The internal consistency of the NT documents is about 99.5% textually pure. That is an amazing accuracy. In addition there are over 19,000 in copies in the Syriac, Latin, Coptic, and Aramaic languages. The total supporting New Testament manuscript base is over 24,000. The N.T. documents were all written before the close of the first century. As Jesus was crucified about 30 A.D., then the entire New Testament was completed within 70 years…there were plenty of people around when the N.T. documents were penned who could have contested the writings…But, there are absolutely no ancient documents contemporary with the first century that contest the New Testament texts.
| Author | Date Written | Earliest Copy | Approx. Time Span between original & copy | Number of Copies | Accuracy of Copies |
| Plato | 427-347 B.C. | 900 A.D. | 1200yrs | 7 | --------- |
| Julius Caesar | 100-44 B.C. | 900 A.D. | 1000yrs | 10 | --------- |
| Aristotle | 384-322 B.C. | 1100 A.D. | 1400yrs | 49 | --------- |
| Homer (IIiad) | 900 B.C. | 400 B.C. | 500yrs | 643 | 95% |
| New Testament | 1st Cent. A.D. (50-100 A.D) | 2nd Cent. A.D. (c 1300 A.D. fragment) | less than 100yrs | 5686 | 99.5% |
Source: Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry