The Bible
Hasn't the Bible been changed over the centuries?
Short answer
No. We have thousands of ancient manuscripts, some within a century or two of the originals. Comparing them lets scholars reconstruct the original text with great confidence. Most differences are spelling or word order, and none of them changes a core Christian belief.
In simple words: We have thousands of very old copies of the Bible. When we compare them, they say the same thing, so we know it has not been changed.
Response
This objection often pictures a long game of "telephone," with one copy made from another until the message is garbled. That is not how the New Testament was passed down. Copies spread quickly across many regions at once, so later copies can be checked against earlier ones from different places.
We now have more than 5,000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, plus thousands more in early translations, and many quotations in early Christian writers. Some fragments date to the 2nd century. By comparison, most classical works survive in a handful of copies made many centuries after the author lived.
Yes, the manuscripts contain differences, called variants. The great majority are spelling, word order, or obvious slips of the pen. The few meaningful variants are well known and printed in the footnotes of most modern Bibles (for example, Mark 16:9-20 and John 7:53-8:11). None of them overturns any central belief of the Christian faith.
The Old Testament shows the same care. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, they included copies of Isaiah about 1,000 years older than the previous earliest manuscripts. The text was remarkably consistent.
Key evidence
- More than 5,000 Greek New Testament manuscripts exist, far more than for any other ancient work.
- P52, a fragment of John 18, is often dated to the 2nd century. P46 contains most of Paul's letters and is dated around AD 200.
- Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus (4th century) contain nearly the whole New Testament.
- The Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran (c. 125 BC) closely matches the medieval Masoretic text.
- Modern Bible translations note significant variants in footnotes. Nothing is hidden.
Bible passages
- Isaiah 40:8 "The word of our God endures forever."
- 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Scripture as God-breathed and useful.
- Matthew 24:35 Jesus: "My words will never pass away."
Quotes
“There is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament.”
F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?
Discussion questions
- Have you ever noticed the footnotes in your Bible about manuscripts? What do they tell you?
- Why would copying in many places at once make the text easier to check?
- What is the difference between the Bible being translated and being changed?