Is the New Testament 99.5% textually accurate?

[plattbagarn]

What's even funnier is arguing for the book's inerrantness while admitting it's not 100% accurate.

[Metroid-rgpn]

Bart Ehrman said he doesn't like to deal with percentages because if you a 100 word statement, and one copy says "They like the following" and the other says, "They don't like the following", percentage-wise that's a small change, but meaning-wise it's a huge change.

[svezhiepyatki]

When that estimate pops up, I always want to ask "...accurate as compared to what? The autographs? Do we have those? The originals? What even is the original, and how would we know that we found one?"

[QuinnPrice]

You always provide helpful insights, Dan. Sadly during my evangelical years, I quoted many of the errors you cite. I didn't know better. Bible contradictions opened me up to scholarly criticism that helped me understand what the Bible is and isn't.

[NielMalan]

The word "manuscript" is used very carelessly. In modern use it means the work of an author before it's submitted for printing. When referring to ancient texts, it means a hand-written document. So when people claim that there are thousands of manuscripts, they conjure up an idea of piles of documents composed by ancient author. In reality, these are hand-written copies that were never subjected to any kind of quality control.

[lde-m]

Least the guy picked a good song though the irony is it is a song by the band Godsmack. Their lead singer, Sully, is Wiccan. 😅😅😅😅😅😅

[TheAntiburglar]

This seems to cut off at the end unfortunately, but I always love your videos! Tons of great info 😃

[jon]

Black hole 1 is the gap between the first writings and the earliest surviving manuscripts. Black hole 2 is the gap between the oral traditions and the first writings.

[aTron]

I took a couple Calvary Chapel associated seminary courses that were unfortunately taught by Geisler. I left evangelicalism since, but remember hiw everyone held him in such high regard, but in addition to his terrible and boring lectures (just reading from PowerPoint slides verbatim) it was easy to see how much of a faux intellect and scholar he was. His insights were no more informed than any other average conservative pastor who just works backwards from their conclusion that the bible is inerrant as a dogma. Don't get me started on his laughable approach to apologetics! It's crazy how so many see him as a legitimate scholar.

[pgbollwerk]

Outstanding work, as always sir. You are a shining beacon on a hill, if you’ll forgive the metaphor, for other religious folks to show how data should be more important than dogma.

[fepeerreview]

1:25 Wikipedia has a "list of new testament papyri" that covers the same ground as the excellent chart you posted. The ancient "manuscripts" of the first few centuries consist of little more than a few sentences to a few pages, and there are only a few dozen of them.

[_volder]

Well, that's it for Dan McClellan. He finally annoyed God enough to get smited while he was still talking.

[flowingafterglow]

For me, the biggest problem with the claim that "The New Testament is 99.5% textually accurate" is, so what if it is? I mean, so what if it were 100% textually accurate?

We have lots of versions of the Wizard of Oz in print these days. We also have the original first edition written by Baum. And? This has no bearing on whether any of it is true.

It all seems to be based on the assumption that the first edition is somehow more true. We wouldn't make that assumption for any other book. Whether it is true or not has to be based on how it correlates to reality.

[VulcanLogic]

I'd say that dating P52 to 125 CE is extremely generous, given the range of 125-175 on its dating. I'm annoyed by this because some apologists like to make the false claim that we have 6, 000 manuscripts from 125 CE. We don't, and I know you know their claim is false, but I'm always going to bring up the range when I discuss it because it more accurately shows how big that black hole is.

[theoutspokenhumanist]

Great as always but the last two videos seem to cut off at the end while Dan is still speaking. Is it me?

[integrationalpolytheism]

Well said, about the gap between the autographs and the earliest surviving manuscripts. That point may not be being acknowledged enough, generally.

[danielgibson]

Likely biblical interpolations:

“Matthew” 17:21
“Mark” 16:9-20
“Luke” 1-2, 3:23-38, 22:43-44
“John” 7:53-8:11, 21
1 Corinthians 11:2-16, 14:34-35
2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1, 9

That’s more than 40 verses. Also, that’s not counting the word choices used to render certain verses (“Mark” 1:41, Hebrews 2:9, etc.).

Likely New Testament forgeries:

the acts of the apostles
colossians
ephesians
2 thessalonians
1 timothy
2 timothy
titus
1 peter
2 peter

That’s a third of the New Testament.

[Boxerr]

The ongoing horrible record of my former professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, Norman Geisler. Shameful.

[chaiman]

Love the chart, any chance of getting a pdf of it?

[johncunningham]

The original Hebrew word that was translated into virgin is mistranslated from the word almah, which means young woman.
But the misogynistic male couldn't handle that so they accept the word virgin.