The earliest surviving copies of the New Testament are very similar to what we now read in our Bibles and were probably made within a few decades after the original writings were completed. The earliest written copies we have date to around 1000 BC, but these are translations from Hebrew into Greek (the Septuagint). This is because the Old Testament was passed down by word of mouth for centuries before being written down. The original writings of the Old Testament have not survived outside the Bible. The following are some points relating to how we can be sure that our current translations are accurate renderings from those ancient manuscripts used by early Christians: The original writings of the Old Testament have not survived outside the Bible. The reason for these footnotes is that the original manuscripts have not survived (except for very few) but rather copies have been handed down to us over time. For example, if you pick up your Bible and open to Matthew 5:22-30 (the Sermon on the Mount) there will be a footnote telling you that some manuscripts include verses 15 through 20 or 21 through 28. Those who accept the New Testament as the Word of God believe that what they hold in their hands today is an accurate copy of the original documents written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul and others. Earliest Complete Gospel Manuscript Those who accept the New Testament as the Word of God believe that what they hold in their hands today is an accurate copy of the original documents written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul and others. Later, when Christians began to use parchment, they used it for writing their Bibles. The first copies of the New Testament were written on papyrus, which was made from the pith of a reed plant. The original New Testament manuscripts were written in Greek. The Bible was written in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Codex Vaticanus: This manuscript dates back to 325 CE it contains most of all four gospels as well as some other books of the Bible ( The Sinaitic Palimpsest: This is a damaged manuscript that dates back to 300 CE it contains parts of all four gospels The Chester Beatty Papyri: These papyri date back to around 200 CE and contain fragments from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John There are also other ancient manuscripts which contain portions of the New Testament and which predate these uncials by several hundred years. Some of these texts were written by hand, but most were printed by movable type and then collated into manuscripts. They were written on parchment (animal skin), papyrus (plant fiber), or paper. The most ancient of these copies can be traced back to around 350 CE, but their exact dates and places of origin are still unknown. They are also called majuscules because they are written in large lettering. The oldest copies of the New Testament are called the uncials, which means they were written in capital letters. The original New Testament manuscripts have been lost to history. They are known as manuscript evidence because these are physical proof that the NT was written by people and not invented by one person. There are approximately 4500 manuscripts, containing all or part of the New Testament text which were copied out by hand. The original New Testament was written in Greek but copies were immediately made in other languages because this was before the invention of the printing press.
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