Summary of Bible Reliability

July 31, 2024 version

 

Early New Testament Evidence

 

This summary is the result of my own tallying, going through every single verse, using Metzger, UBS, Barrett, ANF, Adamantius, and other sources. For this summary we are going to limit ourselves to what was written or preserved prior to 325 A.D., though there is a lot of corroborating evidence after then too. There were 74 Greek and 1 Coptic New Testament manuscripts prior to 325 A.D.. There were 91 or so Christian authors, writing about 5480 pages with 9272 New Testament quotes.

 

Percentage of verses quoted.

N.T. section / Category

Number of verses

Pre-Nicene Manuscripts

Pre-Nicene Writers

Combination of Manuscripts & Writers

Gospels

3799 verses

53 %

88 %

92 %

Paul

2033 verses

73 %

58 %

85 %

Gospels plus Paul

5812 verses

60 %

77 %

90 %

Rest of NT

2140 verses

48 %

32 %

62 %

Total New Testament

7652 verses

57 %

65 %

82 %

The entire New Testament 350 was quoted by Christian writers or in Bible manuscripts by 350 A.D.

 

The details are all in www.biblequery.org/Bible/BibleReliability/EarlyChristianNTQuotes.html (or .docx) for exactly which New Testament verses are in which manuscripts and early Church writings.

 

Early New Testament Reliability

 

From ancient Bible manuscripts and early church writings, we can be sure of about 97% of every word in the New Testament.

N.T. section / Category

Words in Greek

Greek Words in question

Uncer-tainty

Words with mean-ingful changes

Uncertainty of meaning

Gospels

65068

2158

3 %

1117

1.7 %

Paul

32408

740

2 %

182

0.6 %

Gospels plus Paul

97476

2898

3 %

1299

1.3 %

Rest of NT

40836

1046

3 %

403

1 %

Total N.T.

138312

3947

3 %

1702

1.2 %

 

You can see the breakdown by book at https://www.biblequery.org/ntmss.html  You can see the individual variants that comprise this number at www.biblequery.org/[bookname]%20Manuscripts.html replacing [bookname] with the book’s name.

 

Classifying Uncertainties

N.T. Uncertainty Classification

Uncertain words

Contribution to uncertainty

1-word uncertainties

1187

30 %

2-word uncertainties

289 * 2

15 %

3-word and 4-word uncertainties

(100 * 3) + (51 * 4)

8 % + 5 %

5-word and 6-word uncertainties

(39 * 5) + ( 17 * 6)

5 % + 3 %

7-word and 8-word uncertainties

(15 * 7) + (8 * 8)

3 % + 2 %

9-word and 10-word uncertainties

(10 * 9) + (10 * 10)

2 % + 3 %

order of Rom 16:25-27 & 1 Cor 14:34-35

89 words

2 %

John 7:53-8:11 & Mark 16:9-20

335 words

9 %

 

Other 11+ word uncertainties

29

14 %

Total uncertain words

3927

100 %

This is online at https://www.biblequery.org/ntmss.html

 

Early Old Testament Evidence

 

Early Christians generally quoted from the Greek version of the Old Testament called the Septuagint. I have not yet summarized who quoted which verses. But we have the Dead Sea Scrolls (all written before 68 A.D.) mostly in Hebrew, with a few Greek copies. Eleven caves preserved about 95,000 fragments, 40,000 in cave 4 alone or both Biblical and non-Biblical writings.

 

We also have a few other manuscripts of the Old Testament.

At Masada was found Mas1C containing Deuteronomy 33:17-21; 34:2-6

Nahal Hever has XHev/Se3 of Deuteronomy 9:5-6, 21-23

The Wadi Murabba’at site has Deuteronomy 10:1-3; 11:2-3; 12:25-26; 14:29; 15:1 or 2, called Mur 2.

O.T. section / Category

Copies/fragments

Earliest copy

Commentaries

The Law

97

250 B.C.

1

Parallel Torah

1

 ?

0

Prophets

77

225-175 B.C.

7 + possibly 1

Writings

26 or so

225-150 B.C.

1 + possibly 1

Total O.T. Dead Sea scrolls

205

250 B.C.

9 + possibly 2

Total non-Biblical Dead Sea scrolls

667

 

0

 

Chester Beatty IX-X (Septuagint Ezekiel, Dan, Esther) Third century

British Museum MS Oriental 7594 Sahidic Coptic Deuteronomy, Jonah, Acts Third/fourth century

Early Old Testament Reliability

 

This is for the Hebrew text prior to 70 A.D. at Qumran, Masada, Wadi Murabba’at, and Nahal Hever.

O.T. section / Category

Verses quoted

Total Verses

Percentage

The Law (Torah)

2601

5817

44.7 %

Prophets

3060

9290

32.9 %

Writings

1855

7902

23.5 %

Approx. Total O.T.

7516

23009

32.7 %

 

We also have the Septuagint (LXX) Greek translation of the Old Testament. For some parts like the Torah, the translation is fairly close. For other books the LXX is not as close and some books, such as Jeremah, seems to be an abridged version.

 

By 350 A.D. we have manuscripts with every verse of the Septuagint Old Testament quoted.

 

For Further Reading

 

https://biblequery.org/Bible/BibleReliability/ExistingNTManuscripts.html (and .docx)

https://biblequery.org/History/Archaeology/DeadSeaScrolls.html (and .docx)

https://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/manuscripts/greek_classics.htm

https://www.toughquestionsanswered.org/2012/12/11/how-do-other-ancient-texts-compare-to-the-new-testament/

https://truediscipleship.com/manuscript-evidence-for-the-superior-new-testament-reliability/

Comfort, Philip W. (editor). The Origin of the Bible. Tyndale House, 1992.

Martinez, Florentino Garcia. The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated : The Qumran Texts in English 2nd edition. Published by E.J. Brill and Eerdmans’, 1996.

VanderKam, James C. The Dead Sea Scrolls Today. Eerdmans’, 1994.

VanderKam, James and Peter Flint. Forward by Emanuel Tov. The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Harper San Francisco 2002.

Vermes, Geza. The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls In English. Penguin Books 1997. (633 pages)

 

by Steven Morrison Ph.D.