QUESTION:  HASN’T THE Bible undergone corruption as it was translated hundreds of times through the centuries…?

ANSWER:  Yes, the Bible has been translated into hundreds of languages through the centuries.  But the actual text of the Bible has been accurately preserved.  How do we know?

First, there is the manuscript evidence.  Simply put, we have many more copies that go much farther back than any other ancient piece of literature.  Today several thousand partial and complete, ancient, handwritten manuscript copies of the Bible exist, some dating as far back as the third century BC.

For comparison, the next best piece of literature regarding manuscript evidence is Homer’s Illiad.  This has only 643 copies and these copies are dated 500 years after the original.  The Biblical manuscripts have allowed textual critics and scholars to verify that the Bible we have today is the same Bible the early church had.

A second evidence for the reliability of the Bible comes from the writings of the church fathers.  By church fathers I am referring to leaders in the early church within a few generations of the apostles of Christ.  In their commentaries on the Bible, their letters to one another, and their letters to other congregations, these men quoted the New Testament Scriptures more than 86,000 times.  Their quotations have allowed scholars to reconstruct 99.86 percent of the New Testament.  There are only 11 verses in the New Testament the “church fathers” apparently never cited.

The original text of the Bible has been accurately preserved.  Dave Early & David Wheeler, “Answering Common Questions Seekers Ask,” Evangelism Is… 273, 274

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”  Matthew 24.

Mike Benson