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View Full Version : Original Sources for Plato, Aristotle, Tacitus and Jesus



everstill
12-19-2010, 03:30 PM
We have 5000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament and they come within 100 to 150 years after the original.

We only have 7 manuscripts for the dialogs of Plato and the gap from the original composition is 1200 years.

For Aristotle we have only 5 extant manuscripts separated by 1000 years from the date of the composition.

For the Annals of Tacitus there is one manuscript and it is separated by 750 years from the original.

Yet no scholar would doubt the text of Plato, Aristotle or Tacitus as being totally corrupted and worthless.

The text we have for the New Testament is over 99% accuracy and there are no major doctrinal differences in the Greek manuscripts.

Sir Fredric Kenyon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_G._Kenyon) said in his book The Bible and Archeology, "The last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed."

If we are to deny the Scriptural text from any consideration then you would have to throw out all facts from ancient history about people, places and events. But what scholar takes that approach?

It seems to me only when it comes to the Bible some folks have a prejudice which exhibits a double standard.