Some people believe that the Bible cannot be believed since it has been translated into so many different languages, we do not know whether the copies of the Bible that we have are accurate, and we do not have access to the original manuscripts of the Bible. There are, in fact, a great many different versions of the Bible, and these translations are available in a great many different languages. In spite of this, the main meaning of what is said is quite similar in all of the different versions. There are no inconsistencies or variations in the teachings that are central to the Christian faith that can be found in any of the modern translations of the Bible.
We can evaluate the accuracy of the manuscripts by comparing the manuscripts of the Bible to the manuscripts of other works of literature. If we are attempting to be reasonable, we should not need a greater reading of the Bible than we do other literature; yet, the Bible will be able to withstand even more scrutiny than other literature will.
The chart below shows a list of ancient documents, the total number of original manuscripts that are known, and the amount of time that has passed since the oldest known manuscript was found and the document was written.
This chart was adapted from charts in Josh McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict.
After reviewing the chart that was just shown, which of the following documents do you feel is the most reliable in terms of being accurate and being the most similar to the original? The Iliad of Homer is not even close to being on par with the New Testament. When deciding whether or not the document is similar to the original, the amount of time that has passed is an extremely important factor. The greater the amount of time involved, the higher the probability of making a mistake. The earliest manuscript of the New Testament barely spans a period of 25 years, in contrast to the Iliad's duration of 500 years. It's also important to note that the 24,000 New Testament manuscripts are written in 15 different languages, and each has an exact translation of the text.
Regarding the correctness of the manuscripts, let's have a look at one more aspect. It is the idea that there are several versions of a text and that some of those versions have been corrupted. The Iliad and the New Testament are going to be compared. Comparatively, the New Testament contains approximately 20,000 textual line variants, whereas the Iliad only contains approximately 15,600 textual line variations. Taking into account the fact that the New Testament has over 23,000 more manuscripts than the Iliad does, it is safe to say the New Testament is pretty accurate.
In comparison, the New Testament only includes 40 lines of faulty text, whereas the Iliad has 764 lines of corrupt text throughout its entirety. Faulty text in ancient manuscripts is common. But regardless of human errors, we can absolutely trust the validity of the oldest ancient manuscript, the Bible.