The DaVinci Myth vs. The Gospel Truth - Online Christian Library

ERRORS IN THE DA VINCI CODE
Gallic Wars; we have ten known manuscript copies.
Plato’s Tetralogies? There are seven known manuscript
copies in existence. The New Testament, however, is in a
league of its own with more than 5,000 manuscript
copies in the original Greek alone.
Outside the Bible, the best attested writings of antiquity
are the writings of the Greek author Homer, with
647 total manuscripts in existence. Dr. N. T. Wright, former
Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey, remarks,
“The New Testament documents are very reliable. We
have better manuscript evidence for the New Testament
than for any other ancient book.” 36
Furthermore, when one compares the time span
between the author’s date of completion and the earliest
known manuscript in existence, the historical support
for the New Testament is overwhelming. Caesar wrote
his Gallic Wars some time before his death in 44 B.C., yet
the earliest copy in existence is dated 900 A.D.—that is a
gap of one thousand years. Plato wrote his Tetralogies
some time before 347 B.C., yet the earliest manuscript
copy is dated around 900 A.D., a time gap of 1,200 years.
Contrast this to the New Testament … which was completed
no later than 100 A.D., but the earliest known
manuscript containing most of the New Testament is
dated about 350 A.D. This means that the time gap for
the New Testament is only about 250 years, and there are
manuscript fragments even earlier than that.
Dr. Sam Lamerson of Knox Theological Seminary
observes, “It seems to me that if you throw out the reliability
of the New Testament documents, one must
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