JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

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The Dating of the New Testament Manuscripts
Another issue which affects the transmission of copies of manuscripts is the date of their
writing. There is general consensus that the further removed in time copies are from their
originals, the less likely it is that they are authoritative because of errors such as additions and
deletions. It may be argued that the chance for copyist's errors are increased because of the vast
amount of New Testament manuscripts, but such a large number of manuscripts actually
increases proportionately the means of correcting such errors and recovering the original
wording.
By comparing the New Testament manuscripts with classical manuscripts we get a
perspective on this issue. Caesar's War Commentaries was written about 50 B. C., yet no
manuscripts were available for study before the 9th century. This is a time gap of more than 900
years. In fact, most of the Greek writings that have been accepted as historical have even greater
gaps averaging between 1000 to 1500 years, while Latin works have a slightly lesser time gap. It
is believed that the shortest span of any ancient writing is probably that of Virgil whose oldest
copy known was found about 300 years after his writing. Such a time gap in the dating of
ancient manuscripts is considered "brief."40
Many find the fact that there are no preserved copies of any classical work for several
hundred years after the date of original composition disconcerting. Yet hardly anyone brings
such works into question. These very people are often dumbfounded when they become aware of
the dating of the New Testament manuscripts. There is general agreement that the books of the
New Testament were written over a period of 50 years. The earliest book was probably written
around A.D. 47 or 48. Year A.D. 100 is a liberal estimate of the latest possible date for the
completion of all of the books of the New Testament. While the range of all other ancient
literature is between 300 to 1500 years, the John Rylands papyrus of the New Testament, which
is a fragment containing a few verses of the gospel of John, dates about A.D. 125. This is
astounding in that there are only 35 years between its writing and discovery. In all probability the
person who used this copy may have known, and even been taught by, the author—apostle
John.41
Other manuscripts such as the Bodmer and Chester Beatty papyri were found between
A.D. 176 to 250. These major works which contain major portions of the New Testament
represent copies then found within 100 to 150 years of their originals. The Codex Sinaiticus was
found in A.D. 350 and contains virtually all of the New Testament as well as Codex Vaticanus
from A.D. 325-350 which contains almost the entire Bible.42 Thus Sir Frederic Kenyon
comments:
"The net result of this discovery . . . is, in fact, to reduce the gap between the earlier
manuscripts and the traditional dates of the New Testament books so far that it
becomes negligible in any discussion of their authenticity. No other ancient book
has anything like such early and plentiful testimony to its text, and no unbiased
scholar would deny that the text that has come down to us is substantially sound."43