Listen to the sermon here http://sovereignchurch.org.au/sermons-archive/you-can-trust-the-new-testament/ and track along with the slides. If you come at the New Testament with doubts over its historical accuracy or the reliability of the manuscripts then maybe this will help you. You can trust the New Testament to tell you the truth about Jesus. Early Christians and the writers of the New Testament were neither part of an elaborate conspiracy or dumb; they were real people who saw and recorded what actually happened.

6. When did they write the books of the NT?

10. How many manuscripts are there?
That’s 2.6 million pages of writing… enough to stack a 1.6km high

11. # of Manuscript Copies
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0

12. * Not exhaustive location list

13. Dates of the earliest known manuscripts extant
Codex Alexandrinus
AD mid-400’s
Showing the end of 2 Peter
and start of 1 John

14. Dates of the earliest known manuscripts extant
Codex Vaticanus
AD 325 - 350
Showing the end of 2
Thessalonians and start of
Hebrews

15. Dates of the earliest known manuscripts extant
Bodmer Papyri 75
AD 200 or earlier
Showing end of Luke and
start of John

16. Dates of the earliest known manuscripts extant
Chester Beattie Library
(Dublin Castle)
AD 150 – 200
Showing the John 19:25-28

17. Dates of the earliest known manuscripts extant
St. John at Ryland’s Library
AD 117 - 138
Showing fragment P52 of
John’s Gospel 18:31-33
This papyrus plus others
were acquired in 1920’s
Egypt by Bernard Grenfell
from Oxford.

18. Dates of the earliest known manuscripts extant
Muratorian List
AD 150 - 200
Showing the last page of
the Canon Muratori, a Latin
list of New Testament
writings then regarded as
canonical (scripturally
authoritative).
It was named after its
discoverer, Lodovico
Antonio Muratori, an Italian
scholar from Milan who
published the manuscript in
1740.

19. Textual variants in the manuscripts
There are 400,000 variations in New
Testament copies:
• spelling differences,
• a skipped line,
• inverted words “Jesus Christ” becomes “Christ Jesus”
• synonyms,
• conjunction of words,
• placement of comma (textually meaningful, though
non-variable variants)
• variants that are both meaningful and viable

20. Textual variants in the manuscripts
• Doesn’t affect the inerrancy of Scripture because
this deals with copies, not the autographs.
• The main reason there are so many textual variants
is because there are so many manuscripts!
• However, even with all those variations there's
99.5% agreement of the texts.
• Only 40 lines out of 20,000 lines of the text are in
question.
• No core doctrines of the New Testament are in
question and its message is unchanged.

22. “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of
the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those
who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the
word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me
also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to
write an orderly account for you, most excellent
Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things
you have been taught.”
Luke 1:1-4

23. “That which was from the beginning, which we have
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked
upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of
life the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify
to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the
Father and was made manifest to us.”
1 John 1:1-3

24. “Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes
from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever
produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they
were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
2 Peter 1:20-21

25. “…the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for
salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed
out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of
God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
2 Tim 3:15-17

26. “as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these
matters. There are some things in them that are hard to
understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own
destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.”
2 Peter 3:16

27. “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”
John 17:17

28. “Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some
of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your
synagogues and persecute from town to town,”
Matt 23:34
And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been
trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a
house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is
old.”
Matt 13:52

29. • Fears and doubts about the trustworthiness of the
New Testament are unfounded.
• You can trust the New Testament for its:
– Historical accuracy … eyewitnesses
– Reliable + pure transmission down the centuries.
– Tells the truth about God.
• Read it for yourself and let it convince you.

32. Stay & Talk