Jesus in History: Have the stories been changed?

Before the invention of printing all books were copied and re-copied by hand. Changes could creep in along the way. Have the Bible books been altered?

Cave at Quamran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. © Bibleplaces.com	Jar containing Dead Sea Scroll. © Bibleplaces.com
The account of the life of Jesus is in the New Testament of the Bible. There are many more early copies of the New Testament than any other ancient book in history - thousands of them! Comparing the oldest has shown some changes - but nothing of importance. The Old Testament of the Bible has also been copied without changes for many years. The Jews have very strict rules about how the Old Testament is copied, and the Dead Sea Scrolls (100 BCE) show these rules worked well for over 2,000 years. One of the oldest whole Bibles is the Codex Siniaticus which you can see in the British Museum.

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