Since we have none of the original writings of the Scriptures (autograph), how can we be sure that some errors have not crept in through the copying of the manuscripts through the ages. The answer lies in the miracle of what is called “Textural Criticism.”
“Through the centuries, the practitioners of textual criticism, a precise science, have discovered, preserved, catalogued, evaluated, and published an amazing array of biblical manuscripts from both the Old and New Testaments. In fact, the number of existing biblical manuscripts dramatically outdistances the existing fragments of any other ancient literature. By comparing text with text, the textual critic can confidently determine what the original prophetic/apostolic, inspired writing contained.”[1]
Furthermore, before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, the oldest manuscript we had of the Old Testament was dated 900 AD. The Dead Sea Scrolls go back to 200 BC, and contains all the books of the Old Testament, except Esther. Textual critics compared the manuscript dated 900 AD with the Dead Sea Scrolls dated 1100 years earlier, only a few slight variants were discovered, none of which changed the meaning of any passage. Though the Old Testament had been translated and copied through the centuries, the latest version was essentially as the earlier ones (manuscripts dated 900 AD almost the same as the Dead Sea Scrolls dated 200 BC).
“The New Testament findings are even more decisive because a much larger amount of material is available for study; there are over 5,000 Greek New Testament manuscripts that range from the whole testament to scraps of papyri which contain as little as part of one verse. A few existing fragments date back to within 25-50 years of the original writing. New Testament textual scholars have generally concluded that 1) 99.99 percent of the original writings have been reclaimed, and 20 of the remaining one hundredth of one percent, there are no variants substantially affecting any Christian doctrine.
With this wealth of biblical manuscripts in the original languages and with the disciplined activity of textual critics to establish with almost perfect accuracy the content of the autographs, any errors which have been introduced and/or perpetuated by the thousands of translations over the centuries can be identified and corrected by comparing the translation or copy with the reassembled original. By this providential means, God has made good His promise to preserve the Scriptures. We can rest assured that there are translations available today which indeed are worthy of the title, The Word of God.
God intended His Word to abide forever (preservation). Therefore His written, propositional, self disclosure (revelation) was protected from error in its original writing (inspiration) and collected in 66 books of the Old and New Testaments (canonicity).
Through the centuries, tens of thousands of copies and thousands of translations have been made (transmission) which did introduce some error. Because there is an abundance of existing ancient Old Testament and New Testament manuscripts, however, the exacting science of textual criticism has been able to reclaim the content of the original writings (revelation and inspiration) to the extreme degree of 99.99 percent, with the remaining one hundredth of one percent having no effect on its content (preservation).
The sacred book which we read, study, obey, and preach deserves to unreservedly be called The Bible or “The Book without peer,” since its author is God and it bears the qualities of total truth and complete trustworthiness, as also characterizes its divine source
[1] John MacArthur, p. xx