Page 11 of 12: Early Copies of the New Testament

The Bible was given by God and written down by Jews and Christians. It was written down over a long span of time, from approximately 1400 B.C. to about 90 A.D.. All agree that the Bible was written before the Qur'an. However, many people might be unaware that we still have very early copies of the Bible in museums today.

The John Rylands manuscript, which is a fragment of the Gospel of John was written about 117-138 A.D.., and a fragment from Luke (p6) is 100 A.D. The Bodmer II papyrii contain most of the John, and it is dated from about 125-175 A.D. The Chester Beatty Papyrii (p45), copied down around 100-150 A.D., contains most of the New Testament. After this, there are over 10,000 additional Greek manuscripts that are useful to crosscheck each other for any copying mistakes. In addition to this, there are 14,000 other manuscripts into Syriac, Ethiopian, Latin, and other languages.

We also have the witness of the early Christians. Early writers referred to a great many verses in the New Testament. For more information on the accuracy and reliability of the New Testament, read The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? by F.F. Bruce.