Because there are over 14,000 manuscript copies of the New Testament we can be absolutely confident of its accuracy. With this large number of manuscripts, comparing manuscripts easily reveals any place where a scribe has made an error or where there is a variation. There are approximately 150,000 variations in the manuscripts we have today. However, these variations represent only 10,000 places in the New Testament (if the same word was misspelled in 3,000 manuscripts, that is counted as 3,000 variations). Of these 10,000 places, all but 400 are questions of spelling in accord with accepted usage, grammatical construction, or order of words. Of the 400 remaining variations, only 50 are of any significance (such as two manuscripts leaving out Acts 2:37). But of these 50, not one alters even one article of faith which cannot be abundantly sustained by other undoubted passages.
Further, there are some manuscripts that date as early as 130 AD, very close to the completion of the New Testament. These manuscripts are nearly identical to those dating 900 years later, thus verifying the accuracy of the scribes.
Besides this, Jesus promised that His words would not pass away (Matthew 24:35).
Possibly related:
- Each Bible writer had a different style which proves that God gave each writer general thoughts, but they wrote in their own words.
- Every Bible I pick up reads differently. There are just so many ‘interpretations’ that I can’t believe we can trust any of it.
- How do I know that the Bible is from God and not the Koran or the Book Of Mormon?