The New Testament Has Been Faithfully Transmitted
 The Truth is in the New Testament Too
As Christians, we can be confident that the Old Testament is reliable. And as we turn to the New Testament, we can be even more confident in that we have the Word of God, faithfully transmitted down to us today.
How the Word Was Communicated
For almost twenty years after the ascension of Christ none of the books of the New Testament were even written and about sixty-five years elapsed before the last New Testament book was written. While Jesus was alive, there was no need to write down his words. The Word was WITNESSED in these incredible days, as men and women stood in awe of the Master, watching him and listening carefully to what he said and did.
And during the years that followed his ascension, the apostles were slow to write down what they had seen. Why? Well, a careful reading of the scriptures will reveal that they truly believed that Jesus would return before there was ever a need for scripture. They worked urgently to tell the world about Jesus, believing that he would return to judge the living and the dead within their lifetime. But as they aged and this failed to happen, they began to write down what they had seen so that the world would have a record. In the days of the Apostles, the Word was HEARD, as they preached to the world around them
Following the deaths of the apostles, the early believers and leaders took the apostolic writings and held them as sacred. They knew that the original witnesses had vanished from the scene and they wanted to retain a faithful record of the eye-witness accounts. From the earliest of times, these early Christians coveted the New Testament writings that were written from approximately 45AD (the Book of James) to 90AD (the Book of Revelation). In the days of the early church fathers, the Word was READ, as the sacred Gospels and letters were carefully cared for.
The Writings of the Apostles
The Apostles themselves testified to the inspiration of the New Testament. They considered their own writing to be inspired and authoritative scripture, and they called for these scriptures to be read by all believers.
Paul recognized that both the Old Testament writings and the New Testament writings were sacred and God-given. He considered both to be scripture. Look at what he writes to Timothy:
 1 Timothy 5:17-18
“The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, ‘Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,’ and ‘The worker deserves his wages.’”
In 1 Timothy 5:18 Paul quoted both Deuteronomy 25:4 and Luke 10:7 and referred to both passages as Scripture. It’s clear that the New Testament Gospels were already in place at the time of this writing, and it’s also clear that believers were reading these Gospels as scripture!
Peter also attested to Paul’s writings as Scripture in his own writings:
2 Peter 3:14-16
Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
In addition to this, it is clear that the New Testament letters were being read and circulated among the churches as authoritative revelation from God:
Colossians 4:16
After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.
1 Thessalonians 5:27
I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.
The Earliest Church
Early in the history of Christianity, LONG before the formation of the Roman Catholic Church, Christians in three distinct and separate parts of the world were collecting what they knew to be true scripture. The disciples of the Apostles mentioned the sacred writings in their own correspondence and documents. While these men certainly did recognize even more than they mention as canonical, they do at least identify specific New Testament writings as inspired:
 Clement of Rome (c. A.D. 95)
mentioned at least eight New Testament books in a letter
 Ignatius of Antioch (c. A.D. 115)
also acknowledged about seven books
 Polycarp, a disciple of John, (c. A.D. 108)
acknowledged fifteen letters
The Next Generation
Later church leaders began to collect the inspired books and treat them with the utmost respect. The collections began to accumulate on three separate continents, independent of each other. While some historical revisionists would like you to believe that the Roman Catholic Church conspired, controlled and created the canon of scripture in the middle of the fourth century (i.e. The Da Vinci Code), this is NOT what actually happened. The canon developed over time on three separate continents and was only later confirmed and recognized by Rome (hundreds of years later):
Irenaeus (in Asia Minor)
wrote in 185AD, acknowledging twenty-one books.
Origen (in Alexandria, Egypt)
acknowledge 21 of the NT books as clearly inspired but also recognized the others
Hippolytus (in Rome)
lived from 170 – 235AD and recognized twenty-two books. The problematic books at this time were Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, and 2 and 3 John.
Even more important was the witness of the Muratorian Canon (A.D. 170) from the area of Rome once again, which was a compilation of books recognized as canonical at that early date by the church. The Muratorian Canon included all the New Testament books except Hebrews, James, and one epistle of John.
 Eusebius (in Cæsarea, Palestine)
lived from 260 – 341AD, and acknowledged twenty-two books.
 Athanasius (in Alexandria, Eqypt)
wrote in 367AD and cited the twenty-seven books of the New Testament as being the only true books.
We Could Reconstruct It All
The early church fathers also wrote prolifically in their own effort to nurture and edify the local churches. Their writings still exist today! Imagine a scenario in which all our Bibles were removed from us. Imagine a regime coming in and taking away all our scriptures. Not only the ones that we have today, but imagine this regime taking away all the ancient transcripts, manuscripts, fragments and ancient remnants. Imagine that ALL of these pieces of New Testament scripture and documentation were destroyed and removed forever. What would we do as Christians?
Well, if all we had were the writings of the early church fathers, we could actually examine their own letters and reassemble our scriptures from the places where the church fathers quoted the New Testament in their own writings. The early Church fathers so revered the New Testament writings that they quoted them early and often. We could take their quotes and reassemble the New Testament with the exception of 11 verses!! Sir David Dalrymple (1726 – 1792) was a Scottish judge and historian who wrote three volumes on early Christian Church history called, “Remains of Christian Antiquity”. Dalrymple was an expert in the writings of the early church fathers. After careful examination of the writings of these fathers he wrote, “...as I possessed all the existing works of the Fathers of the second and third centuries, I commenced to search, and up to this time I have found the entire New Testament, except eleven verses.” The New Testament was written VERY early and accepted as scripture by the early fathers of the Church.
Church Councils
The Church Councils formed hundreds of years later not to inflict their version of scripture on the rest of the world, but to sort out the truth that had been passed down from the time of Jesus from the growing distortions that were beginning to appear around the world. All kinds of heresies were cropping up, and the church recognized these distortions as false and dangerous. Many modern fictional writers point to some of the heretical literature from the third and fourth century as if this stuff was as true as the scriptures (the Da Vinci Code is a good example) but the early church recognized the heresy immediately. What were they to do? Well, they simply met and confirmed the longstanding lists of books that had been handed down by the first witnesses, rejecting those books that they knew to be false.
The Council of Laodicea
In 363 AD they stated that only the Old Testament and the twenty-seven books of the New Testament were to be read in the churches.
The Council of Hippo
In 393AD they recognized the twenty-seven books
The Council of Carthage
In 397AD they affirmed that only those canonical books were to be read in the churches.
Authentic Scripture
From the earliest of believers, hundreds of year before the councils, Christians tested the scriptures to make sure their growing collection was authentic and accurate. By the time of the councils, a universal standard was accepted by orthodox Christians who wanted to determine which writings were the Word of God, and which were not. There were two areas of concern:
Was it authenticated by God? (The issue of “Inspiration”).
Did the book give internal evidence of inspiration, of being God breathed? Was it of proper spiritual character? Did it edify the church? Was it doctrinally accurate?
Was in authenticated by the witnesses? (The issue of “Testimony”)
Was the author an apostle or did he have the endorsement of an apostle? (Mark wrote the gospel of Mark, but he did so under Peter’s endorsement. Luke, as a close associate of the Apostle Paul, wrote under the endorsement of his authority). Was there universal acceptance? (On the whole, was the book accepted by the church at large)?
Incredibly Sufficient
Once we know HOW the New Testament was collected and formed, we have to move to the issue of its transmission. Can we trust that we have now what they had then? Well, it’s important to remember that the early Christians were Jews, and as such, they understood how to treat important scriptural writings. For that reason, tedious copying and maintenance efforts were always maintained on the writings that they considered foundational, life-saving and God-breathed, and we know that the earliest Christians were in possession of the New Testament and considered it to be Scripture!
There are now more than 5,300 known Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. Add over 10,000 Latin Vulgate and at least 9,300 other early versions (MSS) and we have more than 24,000 manuscript copies of portions of the New Testament. This means that no other document of antiquity even begins to approach such numbers and attestation. But are all these copies in strict agreement? No they are not, and we have to be very honest about that. But how do they differ, and do these variances in early copies indicate that error has crept into our New Testament Scriptures? The evidence clearly indicates that our scriptures are incredibly accurate. We, as Christians, believe that the original writings of the New Testament were God-Inspired, and without error. Period. We also believe that the copies we now have are God-inspired without significant error. We do not believe that these later copies are error free, but we believe they contain no errors of any significance at all. They are incredibly accurate and more than sufficient for us to understand everything that God wants us to know.
The Telegram Comparison
The transmission and copy variance of the earliest documents should NOT cause us any concern, because we have an incredibly large number of early documents and fragments to compare to one another. And the more comparison, the less error! Let me explain. Let’s say you get a telegram in the mail and it says:
“YDU WON THE $5000.00 GRAND PRIZE!”
Well, it’s pretty obvious that there is a grammatical copy error in the telegram. But do you understand what the telegram says? Would you still go to claim your prize? Of course, the small error does not change the meaning of the text. You still know what it says! Now, let’s say that the sender catches his error and tries to send you another corrected telegram:
“YOU WON THA $5000.00 GRAND PRIZE!”
Well, now he’s corrected the first error but included a different error. By simply comparing the two telegrams, you can clearly remove ALL error from the message. You understand that the first ‘D’ was supposed to be an ‘O’ and the later ‘A’ was supposed to be an ‘E’. If this guy sent you ten more telegrams and each contained a single error, it could be argued that all the telegrams are in error, but you know that you would have no doubt about what he was trying to tell you. Our New Testament scriptures are similar to this, but contain far, far less percentage error than this simple telegram!
Herodotus Verses God
So many people have called the New Testament into question based on it’s antiquity and the presence of inconsequential copiest deviation, yet these same people would quickly accept all other ancient histories as true when they are far less verifiable. The Greek researcher and storyteller Herodotus of Halicarnassus (fifth century BCE) is considered to be the world's first historian. In “The Histories”, he describes the expansion of the Achaemenid empire under its kings Cyrus the Great, Cambyses and Darius I the Great, culminating in king Xerxes' expedition in 480 BCE against the Greeks, which met with disaster in the naval engagement at Salamis and the battles at Plataea and Mycale. Secular historians believe that Herodotus' book also contains a reliable description of the people that the Persians conquered. Yet the work of Herodotus is not nearly as well documented as the work of the New Testament writers!
Our earliest copy of “The Histories” was written in 480 to 425BC, yet our earliest copy dates at 900AD. That is a 1,350 year gap! The earliest New Testament fragments date to within 25 t0 50 years of the writing and our earliest complete manuscript of the New Testament dates to within 300 years of the writing. There are only 8 ancient copies of “The Histories” to compare to one another, while there are over 24,000 ancient copies of the New Testament to compare to one another to sort out the minor copiest errors. When doing this type of comparison with “The Histories” we find that there are an incredible number of lines of writing that contradict each other and come into doubt, so many in fact, that the entire document is reconstructed with what has been described as 0% certainty (in which comparable lines match). The New Testament, on the other hand, has only 40 lines in question (none of which concern the doctrines of the Christian Faith), resulting in what has been termed a 99.5% certainty. The New Testament Writings are extremely well attested.
Bible Honesty
But in addition to all of this, the New Testament, as it is delivered to us today, is incredibly honest in its presentation, far more honest than any other ancient text. If you were to open the pages of the New Testament in your NIV Bible, for example, and read any given chapter of the text, you will see that it is well footnoted and marked in those areas where ancient manuscripts disagree. The differences are clearly listed and all the variable translations are footnoted for your honest comparison.
I challenge you to take a close look at these footnotes and see if they variances make any difference to the meaning of the text. While there are many variances in the early manuscripts, they are incredibly minor and the NEVER deal with the doctrines of the historic Christian Faith.
What the World Thinks and What We Know
Non-believers are convinced that our New Testament Scriptures cannot be trusted, but they’ve come to this conclusion without examining the evidence. As Christians, we KNOW that we have the most reliable and attested of ancient documents. You can trust that, if nothing else, we have today what the ancients had to begin with. Jesus knew that his life would be recorded and transmitted to the world that followed him. He also knew that these texts would be more than good writings. They would contain the truth of God. Listen to his prayer for us:
John 17:13-18
'I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
Jesus wants us to see the New Testament writings for what they are: the truth of God, written to a lost and dying world.
The Love Letter
God’s Word to us is His Love Letter. A single message of Grace and redemption from the Father who created it. His plan for our lives. His hope for our future. His free gift of Salvation and His desire to bring us home.
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