| If those doing the copying were making changes as they saw fit, we would
have ended up with about 1000 or more vastly different gospels. You see,
the copying was done by many different people in many different places
independently of one another. Unless they'd somehow conspired among each
other to make the same changes, their changes would have been different.
Instead, even though there are many different translations of the Bible,
the Bibles are generally in unison about the events and the spirit of what
is said. Researchers actually managed to take 2 groups that had been isolated
from each other for over 1000 years, copying and re-copying their own Bibles.
The end results of each of their gospels DID contain some differences, but
only in 8 letters, and absolutely no differences in the gist of what was
being said. Those doing the copying took great care to preserve the integrity
of what was being said. They knew that to change God's word to suit their
own purposes would have been pointless and cruel. Besides, we have located
portions of 1st century copies of the gospels, and when comparing them to
later copies, they are well over 99% consistent in what they say. The less
than 1% of inconsistencies are nothing more than minor spelling variations,
the reversing of two words without affecting the meaning (i.e. 'Christ Jesus'
as opposed to 'Jesus Christ'), or unimportant words missing. All existing
copies are 100% consistent in all facts and doctrine. |