Apologetics 11: New Testament Transmission
With the New Testament we can’t argue for a reliable transmission on the basis of meticulous Hebrew scribes. More often, especially early on, the Christian scribes focused more on quantity than quality so they could get the word out as quickly as possible. However, the sheer number of manuscripts that survived and the relatively early date of several ensure that we can employ a range of strategies to recover the original text with 99.5% accuracy. In fact, when we compare the New Testament to other ancient literature it is almost embarrassing how much better it is than the others.
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Notes:

How To Determine Reliable Transmission

Two factors that need to be tested to prove reliability

number of copies
time span between extant copy and autograph


extant means the existing copy

autograph means what was originally written

A Wealth of Manuscripts

extant means currently in existence
Uncial manuscripts

all-capital Greek letters
306 manuscripts dating to as early as the third century (200’s ad)
Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus (both date to around ad350
about 250 years between the completion of the NT and the first full copies of it


Minuscule

Cursive writing emerged in ad 800
2,856 manuscripts


Lectionaries

Contain NT Scripture in the sequence that it was to be read in the early churches at appropriate times of the year
2,403 manuscripts


Total Greek Manuscripts = 306 + 2856 + 2403 = 5,565 currently
(according to Bruce Metzger)
Also there are ancient translations

Approximately 10,000 copies of the Latin Vulgate
9,300 copies in Ethiopic, Syriac, and Aramaic.


Grand Total = over 24,000 manuscripts
critical editions

NA28  \ all modern translations for the NT are based on one of these
UBS4 /
Stephanus[1] (KJV was translated from Stephanus) see footnote and next page

originated from Erasmus’ 1516 critical edition and complutensian polyglot of 1522
based on 20 to 25 mss, mostly medieval 8th c. or later


notable differences

Comma Johanneum
two later additions that still appear in our Bibles are Adulteress woman and long ending of Mark




resources

Bruce Metzger’s A Textual Commentary of the Greek New Testament
NET Bible


Translations

major strategies

formal equivalence (word for word)
dynamic equivalence (thought for thought)


translations using outdated Greek manuscripts

KJV, NKJV, YLT, ASV, Amplified


range of Bibles from most literal to least

NASB
HCSB
ESV
NRSV
NET
NAB
NJB
NIV
NCB
GNB
CEV
NLT
Living
Message





Time Between Autograph and Extant Manuscript

see chart on pp. 142-143 in Building Belief
The John Rylands papyri manuscript found in Egypt, which is a small portion of the Gospel of John, is dated from ad 117-138. This means that we have a manuscript within nearly 30 years of the autograph. (Only 30 years between Gospel of John and P52 – John Ryland’s Papyrus)

Variants between Manuscripts

If we

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