eljefe quoted:
Therefore, the oldest papyri containing most of the books of the New Testament were written at least 120 years after the originals were composed, and the oldest complete New Testament manuscript postdates the original autographs by at least 220 years.
Yes, considering how fragile those writing materials were that's quite amazing! Those of us you took two years of Latin in high school remember translating Caesar's Gallic Wars in our second year. Caesar wrote it about 40 B.C.E. and the oldest know copy is dated about 950 C.E. -- that's about 1000 years between the original and our oldest copy. During that 1000 years it was not "lost." People read and quoted from it all the time. But, because ancient writing materials were so fragile, we now have no copies of this 2000 year-old document that are much older that about 1000 years. What does that prove? It proves ancient writing material were fragile!
It does not prove someone forged Caesar's name to the document ... nor that it has been "tampered with" during the dark ages .. nor that our extant copies are corrupt ... nor that extant copies are unreliable. So, what?
eljefe further opined:
I have more confidence in the "apocrypha" not having been changed than our current cannon.
[email protected] opined:
Welcome to the world of John Dominic Crossan! (AKA La-La-Land) If you see him, tell Historical Jesus I said, "Yo, d00d." (Oops, I forgot. His carcass fell off the cross and was eaten by dogs, so he never was buried or resurrected, was he? Oh, well. Tell Crossan I said, "Jesus is L ORD !")
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