This was one of the main things I need to know and study before I really followed Jesus. Was what was written about him written by people that knew him? Do we have the same copies of it as the earliest Christians? Was anything ever added to fabricate or embellish what Christ did? The answer to all these are no and I'll show you why.

Let's start with the copies and translations we have. For the NT itself we have over 5000 copies with the earliest fragment being from a small fragment from John’s Gospel, dated to the first half of the second century(125AD). But we have new fragments and one more than likely from the 1st century. Newly found manuscripts has as many as eighteen New Testament manuscripts from the second century and one from the first. Altogether, more than 43% of all New Testament verses are found in these manuscripts. But the most interesting thing is the first-century fragment which would be the earliest once dated.

Compare the 5,686 Greek manuscripts in existence today for the NT and when we compare the number of New Testament manuscripts to other ancient writings, we find that the New Testament manuscripts far outweigh the others in quantity. For example Ceasar died in 44BC and the earliest writing we have of him is from 900AD. That's almost 1000 years. Another example is Plato, he died in 347BC. The earliest writings we have on him come 1200 years later. Now the writings on Jesus, he died about 33AD. All scholars agree all the NT was written by 100AD. The latest Gospel being John written between 80-94AD and the earliest Mark written in the 50s. Pauls letters written I n 50 AD, but the creed in 1st Corinthians goes back to when he meet Peter which is told in Acts, so that creed that he got from them already had to be circulating, that creed dates probably 3-5 years after Jesus' death. Much to soon for a legend to form about him. Their were witnesses and enemies still alive.

Scholars agree the entire New Testament was completed within 70 years. This is important because it means there were plenty of people around when the New Testament documents were penned--people who could have contested the writings. In other words, those who wrote the documents knew that if they were inaccurate, plenty of people would have pointed it out. But, we have absolutely no ancient documents contemporary with the First Century that contest the New Testament texts.

If the critics of the Bible dismiss the New Testament as reliable information, then they must also dismiss the reliability of the writings of Plato, Aristotle, Caesar, Homer, and many more.

If anybody has any questions on Jesus' crucifixion, burial or Resurrection plz let me know.

Amen brother.

another "we can't prove it isn't, so it must be" threads...

share that doob.....