Chapter 3: Were Jesus' Biographies Reliably Preserved?

2 issues:

were jesus' biographies reliably preserved?

no surviving original copies, but this is not unique to the bible.

what unique to the bible is:

1.unprecedented multiplicity of its copies (5,664 greek manuscripts, and lots of other translations)
- Tacitus' Annals of Imperial Rome ; only 2 manuscripts survived
- Josephus' Jewish Wars ; only 9 manuscripts survived
- Homer's Iliad ; 650 greek manuscripts

2. copies are agree with each other
errors did crept in, but:
- inconsequential variations (but greek is an inflected language) form
- spelling differences form
- no church doctrines are in jeopardy because of those errors

3. copies are scattered across different geographical areas

4. commenced within 100-150 years after the events (oldest copy of John written in 100-150, ....in egypt, far from ephesus)
- Tacitus' Annals of Imperial Rome ; written in 116, oldest copy written in 850.
- Josephus' Jewish Wars ; written in 1st century, oldest copy written in 4th century.
- Homer's Iliad ; written in 800 BC, oldest copy written in 2nd/3rd century.


whether equally accurate biographies have been suppressed by the church?

a.k.a. canon, 3 criteria:
1. apostolic authority
written by the apostles or followers of the apostles
2. rule of faith
should be congruent with normative basic christian tradition
3. continuous acceptance and usage by the church at large

greater part of NT is settled using criteria above within the first 2 centuries (4 gospels fall to this category), by congregations scattered over wide area.

canon is a list of authoritative books, instead of an authoritative list of books.
NT didn't derive their authority from being selected, each was already authoritative before canon.