So many people today have swallowed the lie that the New Testament was written long after Christ and is a series of unreliable fables. Nothing could be further from the truth.
How many “copies” of books and fragments exist of ancient writings and when were they written?
Read the full article here
| Name | Number of years between original and earliest surviving manuscript | Number of existing manuscripts |
| Caesar’s Gallic Wars | 900 | 10 good ones |
| Tacitus’ Annals | 1,000 | 2 |
| Thucydides’ History | 1,300 | 8 |
| History of Herodotus | 1,300 | 8 |
| New Testament | 150-200 | 1 (entire book of John) |
| 250 | 1 (almost entire New Testament) | |
| Less than 300 | 2 (complete New Testament) | |
| Within first few centuries | Over 5,000 Greek fragments;
24,000 in other languages |
We have as many as eighteen New Testament manuscripts from the second century and one from the first. Altogether, more than 43% of all New Testament verses are found in these manuscripts. But the most interesting thing is the first-century fragment. Link
It was dated by one of the world’s leading paleographers. He said he was ‘certain’ that it was from the first century. If this is true, it would be the oldest fragment of the New Testament known to exist.
Not only this, but the first-century fragment is from Mark’sGospel. Before the discovery of this fragment, the oldest manuscript that had Mark in it was P45, from the early third century (c. AD 200–250). This new fragment would predate that by 100 to 150 years.
If even this one fragment agrees with the equivalent portion of the Gospel as we know it, that strongly suggests that the rest is accurate too.
It is as if God constantly does want to be too obvious, but gives us clues and evidence if we hunt for them.