Is The Bible Reliable?

The New Testament

We do not have the authors' handwritten original for any ancient book - historians look for the oldest manuscripts and try to compare as many early copies as possible to check for any changes. Julius Caesar's biographies are typical - there are 10 early copies and the earliest was made 900 CE, 1,000 years after Caesar wrote the original.

The New Testament has over 24,000 ancient copies, the earliest made around 250 years later.

No other ancient writing comes near to the New Testament for earliest manuscript evidence.

The Old Testament

The Old Testament was completed around 400 BCE and, until recently, the earliest copy dated from 900 CE - a gap of 1,300 years.

To guard against even the smallest mistake Jewish scribes followed very strict rules - if they made a mistake the scrolls would be burned or buried. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered they included portions of the Old Testament made around 125 BCE - over 1,000 years older. Were there any important differences? There were not. The Jewish scribes had done an amazing job.