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So let』s compare other ancient texts. You』ll see there in the manual various other historical texts. So, for example, you』ll see Herodotus and Thucydides were both written in the fifth century BC. The earliest copy that we have is AD 900, there's a 1300-year time lapse, and we have 8 copies of each.
Tacitus, there』s a thousand-year time gap, we have 20 copies. Caesar's Gallic War: 950 years, 9 to 10 copies. Livy's Roman History: 900-year gap, 20 copies. When it comes to the New Testament, the New Testament was written between 40 and 100 AD, we have
manuscript evidence as early as AD 130 and full manuscripts by AD 350. And we have 5,309 Greek manuscripts, 10,000 Latin and 9,300 others.
So one of the greatest textual critics ever, F. J. A. Hort, said this: `In the variety and fullness of the evidence on which it rests, the text of the New Testament stands absolutely and unapproachably alone amongst ancient prose writings』 — and no secular historian would disagree with that conclusion. |
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