Apologetics 3 NT RELIABLE
Matt 24:35
Illus: History of Declaration of Independance
( age of document, deterioration, copies, loss of ” fair copy ” presented to congress )
– ROUGH COPY of Declaration of Independance
– John Adams handwritten copy before June 28th, 1776 (Mass hist. Society)
– FAIR COPY After making alterations to his draft as suggested by Franklin and Adams, he recalled that “I then wrote a fair copy, reported it to the Committee, and from them, unaltered, to Congress. If Jefferson’s memories were correct, and he indeed wrote out a fair copy which was shown to the drafting committee and then submitted to Congress on June 28, this document has not been found
– FAIR COPY REVISEDThe revised “fair copy” sent to John Dunlap to have the first printed ” broadsides ” made.
– 200 BROADSIDES PRINTED ( 26 known to exist ) from Fair Copy ( lost).
– ENGROSSED COPY Next, it took two weeks for the Declaration to be “engrossed”—written on parchment in a clear hand. Most of the delegates signed on August 2, This is in Nat’l Archive.
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The Greek New Testament
Unlike scribal meticulousness of Old Testament
It’s evangelistic ! Church hurried to get the word out!
Illustration – the declaration is hurried to press:
On the 1989 find of the most recently discovered broadside:
The ink was still wet on this copy when it was folded,” Mr. Kiffer said. “The very first line — ‘In Congress, July 4, 1776’ — shows up in the bottom margin in reverse, as a faint offsetting or shadow printing, oune more proof of the urgency John Dunlap, the printer, and others felt in dispersing this document.”
In 1989, a Philadelphia man found an original Dunlap Broadside hidden in the back of a picture frame he bought at a flea market for $4. One of the few surviving copies from the official first printing of the Declaration, it was in excellent condition and sold for $8.1 million in 2000.
The New Testament:
Language – Greek
Daniel Wallace – manuscript photo website
PRIORITY – GET THE WORD OUT
OT SCROLL burned
NT worn out
My old bibles
1. # of copies
What happened when Declaration of Independence was approved?
Excited copies made and sent!
Greek New Testament manuscripts :
Uncials – 300+
Miniscules – 2800+
lectionaries – 2400
Other languages – Latin, /Syria Aramaic 19000
TOTAL MANUSCRIPT COPIES AND FRAGMENTS = 24,000 +
2. Separation of time between copies and originals
Other ancient documents ( number of known copies and distance of time from original to nearest copy ):
Homer 600 copies + – time……??.?
Aristotle 5 copies / 1400 yrs separation
Plato 7 copies / 1200 yrs speparation
Oldest of the 5000+ full Greek NT manuscript copies is
P52 dated to A.D. 118-132. (20-40 years after last living Apotle)