Now, comparing these examples from secular manuscripts with biblical manuscripts we see something very important: The papyrus itself is dated to the end of the 2nd century, putting that exact manuscript that we have in our hands within only 130 years from Jesus and the Apostles. The Bodmer Papyrus is originally dated around the 70s AD, 40 years after Jesus and while some of the Apostles were still alive. Only 30 years after John and 90 years after Jesus is the actual copy we have today. The fragment itself is dated to around 120AD. The probability that this could be a copy of The Apostle John's original is plausible. This is only 60 years after Jesus walked the earth. Now, lets consider Biblical Manuscripts and their dating. In school, did you ever question the historical reliability of Plato and Julius Caesar? The oldest account of what Caesar said and did comes from Roman Historians in the 2nd century, 100 years after Caesar, BUT the oldest copy of their manuscripts are 900 years or later from the authors, AND only 12 total manuscripts exist. Let us also consider the manuscripts of Julius Caesar. It is volume one of two, the second of which has not been discovered. That is over a 1,200 year gap from author to current manuscript. THE oldest surviving manuscript is dated to around 895 AD. The Greek Philosopher Plato, for example, lived around 427 BC and lived to be about 80 years old. MANUSCRIPT AVAILABILITY = INCREASED RELIABILITYįirst, we need to understand the vastness of Biblical Manuscripts compared of other non biblical ancient documents. This article will discuss an overview of biblical manuscripts and textual criticism we will explain a brief overview of what Textual Criticism is, creation of source documents to recreate a document that closest resembles the original, what actual biblical manuscripts we currently have to study, and what source documents current bible translations depend on. Scholars gather, compile, translate, research and compare all discovered manuscripts and support texts to determine the original biblical texts. The Bible is a collection of ancient manuscripts of the original texts passed down through history.
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