The Greek New Testament evidence is over 5,898* Greek NT manuscripts. This is made up of 140+ papyri, 323 majuscules, 2,951 minuscules, and 2,484 lectionaries that have been cataloged. We also have over 9,284 versions and over 10,000 Latin manuscripts, not to mention an innumerable amount of church fathers’ quotations. This places the Greek New Testament in a class by itself because no other ancient document is close to this. However, there is even more. Again, there are 60 Greek papyri and five majuscules manuscripts that date to the second and third centuries C.E. Moreover, these early papyri manuscripts are from a region in Egypt that appreciated books as literature and were copied by semi-professional and professional scribes or highly skilled copyists. This region produced what are known as the most accurate and trusted manuscripts.
* While at present here in 2020, there are 5,898 manuscripts. There are 140 listed Papyrus manuscripts, 323 Majuscule manuscripts, 2,951 Minuscule manuscripts, and 2,484 Lectionary manuscripts, bringing the total cataloged manuscripts to 5,898 manuscripts. However, you cannot simply total the number of cataloged manuscripts because, for example, P11/14 are the same manuscript but with different catalog numbers. The same is true of P33/5, P4/64/67, P49/65, and P77/103. Now this alone would bring our 140 listed papyrus manuscripts down to 134. ‘Then, we turn to one example from our majuscule manuscripts where clear 0110, 0124, 0178, 0179, 0180, 0190, 0191, 0193, 0194, and 0202 are said to be part of 070. A minuscule manuscript was listed with five separate catalog numbers for 2306, which then have the letters a through e. Thus, we have the following GA numbers: 2306 for 2306a, and 2831- 2834 for 2306b-2306e.’ – (Hixon 2019, 53-4) The problem is much worse when we consider that there are 323 Majuscule manuscripts and then far worse still with a listed 2,951 Minuscule and 2,484 Lectionaries. Nevertheless, those who estimate a total of 5,300 (Jacob W. Peterson, Myths and Mistakes, p. 63) 5,500 manuscripts (Dr. Ed Gravely / ehrmanproject . com/), 5,800 manuscripts (Porter 2013, 23), it is still a truckload of evidence far and above the dismal number of ancient secular author books.
THE NEW TESTAMENT COMPARED TO CLASSICAL LITERATURE
Author / Work / Completed / Earliest MSS / Years Removed / # MSS
Homer / Iliad / 800 B.C.E. / 3rd century B.C.E. / 500/ 1,757
Herodotus / History / 480–425 B.C.E. / 10th cent. C.E. / 1,350 / 109
Sophocles / Plays / 496–406 B.C.E. / 3rd cent. B.C.E. / 100-200 / 193
Thucydides / History / 460–400 B.C.E. / 3rd cent. B.C.E. / 200 / 96
Plato / Tetralogies / 400 B.C.E. / 895 C.E. / 1,300 / 210
Demosthenes / Speeches / 300 B.C.E. / Fragments from 1st cent. B.C.E. / 200 / 340
Caesar / Gallic Wars / 51-46 B.C.E. / 9th cent. C.E. / 950 / 251
Livy / History of Rome / 59 B.C.E.–17 C.E. / 5th cent. C.E. / 400 / 150
Tacitus / Annals / 100 C.E. / 9th-11th cent. C.E. / 750–950 / 33
Pliny, the Elder / Natural History / 49–79 C.E. / 5th cent. C.E. fragment / 400 / 200
Eight Greek NT Authors / 27 Books / 50 – 98 C.E. / 110-150 C.E. / 12-52 / 5,898
What Do We Know About the Early Christian Copyists?
https://christianpublishinghou....se.co/2016/10/10/wha
