Short answer
Most are small, but that answer gives away the main point. It admits that men changed the Bible's text by hand, in every generation, for some 1,400 years. Some changes did touch doctrine (what Christians believe). The only verse that says the three are one is missing from the earliest copies. So are the end of Mark, where Christians read of the risen Jesus' appearances, and the story of the woman taken in adultery. We know this only because older copies survived. From the first hundred years after the books were written, only a few scraps survive. So no one can check what changed then. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew and Greek texts even date the Flood hundreds of years apart. Jesus said man lives "by every word" of God (﷾). The Law forbids adding to God's (﷾) word or taking from it. The Qur'an says God (﷾) Himself guards it.
Full explanation
The answer Christians give
Christian scholars reply that nearly all the differences are trivial. Examples are a name spelled two ways, words in a different order, or a dropped article (a small word like "the"). Others are a copyist's slip of the eye. Westcott and Hort, two scholars who edited the Greek New Testament in 1881, judged that real variation touched hardly a thousandth of the text. Bart Ehrman is a New Testament scholar who is not a defender of the text. He agrees that most differences are immaterial.
The classic statement of the defence. Leaving aside differences of spelling, the editors of the critical Greek text judge that the words still open to doubt make up about a sixtieth of the New Testament, that most of these are comparatively trivial, and that substantial variation can hardly amount to more than a thousandth part of the text.
Ehrman, who became a committed evangelical as a teenager and studied at Moody Bible Institute and Wheaton before his doctorate under Bruce Metzger at Princeton Theological Seminary, reports that more than 5,700 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament are known, besides about 10,000 in Latin. No two are exactly alike. Estimates of the differences among them run from 200,000 to 400,000 or more, so that there are more differences among the manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament. Most are immaterial slips such as spelling; some change the meaning of a passage. Most surviving copies are centuries later than the originals, and the earliest are few and mostly fragments.
What that answer admits
The defence is true as far as it goes, and it concedes the point that matters. Each difference is a place where a copyist changed what he copied. Most are small, but no one can now undo them all. The same hand-copying that made the small slips also carried changes that reached doctrine, as the next section shows.
Ehrman, who became a committed evangelical as a teenager and studied at Moody Bible Institute and Wheaton before his doctorate under Bruce Metzger at Princeton Theological Seminary, reports that more than 5,700 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament are known, besides about 10,000 in Latin. No two are exactly alike. Estimates of the differences among them run from 200,000 to 400,000 or more, so that there are more differences among the manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament. Most are immaterial slips such as spelling; some change the meaning of a passage. Most surviving copies are centuries later than the originals, and the earliest are few and mostly fragments.
Changes that reached doctrine
Three famous passages are missing from the earliest copies, and Christian scholars established all three. The first is 1 John 5:7, the only verse that states the Trinity (God (﷾) as three in one) outright. It is in no Greek manuscript before the late Middle Ages, except as a later margin note. The second is the last twelve verses of Mark, with what Christians tell of the risen Jesus' appearances. They are missing from the two oldest Greek Bibles that survive in large part, which end at verse 8. The third is the story of the woman taken in adultery. It is missing from the earliest copies of John. All three are still printed in many Bibles and read in church as God's (﷾) word.
“For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”
On 1 John 5:7-8, reports that the words about the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit are absent from every known Greek manuscript except eight late ones, four of which have them written in the margin as a later addition; that no Greek church father quotes them; and that every ancient translation except the Latin lacks them.
“And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid.”
On Mark 16:9-20, reports that the last twelve verses are absent from the two oldest Greek Bibles that survive in large part, Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, and from other early witnesses; that Eusebius and Jerome state the verses were missing from almost all the Greek copies known to them; that some manuscripts carry a different, shorter ending instead; and concludes that the Gospel as we have it from the earliest evidence ends at 16:8.
“So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
On the story of the woman taken in adultery (John 7:53-8:11), reports that it is absent from the early papyri (P66 and P75), from Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus and other early witnesses, and that the manuscripts which do carry it place it in different spots: after John 7:52, after John 7:36, at the end of John, or after Luke 21:38. Concludes that it was no part of the original Gospel of John.
| Passage | What it says | The evidence |
|---|---|---|
| 1 John 5:7 | “the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one”. It is the only verse that says the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost are one. | In no Greek manuscript before the late Middle Ages, except as a later note in the margin. |
| Mark 16:9-20, the last twelve verses | The risen Jesus' appearances | Missing from the two oldest Greek Bibles that survive in large part. They end at verse 8. |
| John 7:53-8:11 | The woman taken in adultery: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” | Missing from the earliest copies of John. Later copies put it in different places, some in Luke. |
Christian scholars established all three. Yet all three are still printed in many Bibles and read in church as God's (﷾) word.
The years no one can check
These three are known only because older manuscripts survived to be compared with later ones. For roughly the first hundred years after the books were written, almost nothing survives. There are only a few small fragments. The earliest is a scrap of John about the size of a credit card. That is when the text was newest and most easily changed. No copy from that time survives to show what was done to it then.
Ehrman, who became a committed evangelical as a teenager and studied at Moody Bible Institute and Wheaton before his doctorate under Bruce Metzger at Princeton Theological Seminary, reports that more than 5,700 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament are known, besides about 10,000 in Latin. No two are exactly alike. Estimates of the differences among them run from 200,000 to 400,000 or more, so that there are more differences among the manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament. Most are immaterial slips such as spelling; some change the meaning of a passage. Most surviving copies are centuries later than the originals, and the earliest are few and mostly fragments.
A scrap of papyrus about the size of a credit card, with a few words of John 18:31-33 on one side and 18:37-38 on the other. It is usually counted the oldest surviving piece of the New Testament. Its first editor, in 1935, dated it to the first half of the second century; some papyrologists now argue that a date later in the second century, or around 200, cannot be ruled out.
The Old Testament's differences are not all small
The Hebrew Bible shows the same thing. The Samaritan Torah (the Samaritans' own copy of the first five books) differs from the Jewish Hebrew text in about 6,000 places. The Septuagint is the old Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures. Its Jeremiah is about a seventh shorter than the Hebrew, with its chapters in a different order. The ages of the fathers in Genesis 5 and 11 also differ between the Hebrew, Greek and Samaritan texts. In the Hebrew, Adam is 130 when Seth is born. In the Greek, he is 230. So the three texts date the Flood hundreds of years apart. And at 1 Samuel 13:1 the Hebrew has lost Saul's age. The King James Version reshapes the verse. The Jewish translation of 1917 leaves a blank.
The standard handbook on the text of the Hebrew Bible. The oldest complete Hebrew Bible that survives is the medieval Leningrad Codex (1008-1009 CE). The Scrolls show the scriptures circulating in several different text forms around the turn of the era. The Samaritan Pentateuch differs from the Jewish Masoretic text in about 6,000 places; the Greek Septuagint's Jeremiah is shorter than the Hebrew by about one-seventh and orders its chapters differently, and its Job is about a sixth shorter. The ages in the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 differ between the three texts, so their chronologies of the Flood and the creation differ by centuries.
Compares Genesis 1-11 in the Hebrew (Masoretic), Samaritan and Greek (Septuagint) texts. The ages of the fathers in the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 differ systematically between the three, and Hendel argues the differences come from deliberate revisions of the chronology by scribes.
“And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:”
In the Greek Septuagint, Adam is two hundred and thirty years old when Seth is born, not one hundred and thirty as in the Hebrew. The Greek gives a hundred more years before the son's birth to five other fathers before the Flood as well.
“Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel,”
“Saul was a—years old when he began to reign; and two years he reigned over Israel.”
Every word, says the Bible
Jesus answered Satan with words from the Law of Moses. Man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God (﷾). The same Law forbids adding to God's (﷾) word or taking anything from it. By that standard, a copyist's words placed in God's (﷾) book are no small matter.
“But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
“And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.”
“Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.”
The Book God (﷾) promised to guard
The Qur'an says God (﷾) sent it down and will guard it from corruption. It also invites the reader to test it. A book from anyone but God (﷾), it says, would contain much discrepancy. Many companions knew it by heart, so it never rested on copies alone. Anas ibn Malik, a companion, was asked who had collected the Qur'an in the Prophet's (ﷺ) lifetime. He named four, all of whom were from the Ansar (the Muslims native to Medina). Scribes such as Zayd ibn Thabit wrote the revelation down for him.
“We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption).”
“Do they not consider the Qur'an (with care)? Had it been from other Than Allah, they would surely have found therein Much discrepancy.”
Anas ibn Malik, asked who had collected the Qur'an in the Prophet's (ﷺ) lifetime, named four men, all of the Ansar: Ubayy ibn Ka'b, Mu'adh ibn Jabal, Zayd ibn Thabit and Abu Zayd.
Zayd ibn Thabit reports that after many who knew the Qur'an by heart were killed at Yamama, Abu Bakr asked him to gather the Qur'an into one volume, reminding him that he used to write down the revelation for the Messenger of Allah. Zayd collected it from written pieces and from the memories of men, and the finished copy passed from Abu Bakr to Umar and then to Hafsa.
The Christian reply, and the answer
The New Testament in the Original Greek: Introduction (1882)
The classic statement of the defence. Leaving aside differences of spelling, the editors of the critical Greek text judge that the words still open to doubt make up about a sixtieth of the New Testament, that most of these are comparatively trivial, and that substantial variation can hardly amount to more than a thousandth part of the text.
Cited for
Christians say only a tiny share of the text is in real doubt, and draw from this that no doctrine is affected.
The response
Christians answer that the Trinity and the resurrection are taught elsewhere, so nothing depends on these passages. But the passages show that copyists wrote doctrine into the text. A scribe put the words "these three are one" into 1 John, and someone gave Mark an ending he did not write. The defence counts only the changes that can still be seen. Changes made in the first hundred years cannot be checked against any copy from that time.
Where it lands — Copyists did write doctrine into the text, and the earliest period cannot be checked, so "no doctrine affected" is not shown.
Perspectives
Mainstream Christian
Nearly all the differences are spelling, word order and slips. The rest can be sorted out by comparing the many copies, and no teaching of the faith rests on a doubtful reading.
Most differences among the manuscripts are trivial slips of spelling and word order.
Rebuttal
Granted, most differences are small slips. But the question is not how many are small. It is whether any reached doctrine, and 1 John 5:7 and the ending of Mark did.
Westcott and Hort judged that substantial variation touches hardly a thousandth of the text. Christians conclude that no doctrine depends on a doubtful reading.
Rebuttal
Granted, Christians find the Trinity and the resurrection taught in other verses too. But the thousandth counts only the changes that can still be seen. Changes from the first hundred years cannot be checked, and the Law forbids men to add to God's (﷾) word or take from it.
The Islamic perspective
The defence admits that men changed the text as they copied it. The changes include the Trinity verse and the resurrection appearances in Mark. The Qur'an, sent to the Prophet (ﷺ), is the Book God (﷾) promised to guard Himself.
Hundreds of thousands of differences show that copyists changed the text as they copied it.
Three passages are missing from the earliest copies. They are the only verse stating the Trinity outright, the last twelve verses of Mark and the adulteress story.
Only a few small fragments survive from the first hundred years after the books were written. So the text of that period cannot be checked against manuscripts of its own time.
In the Old Testament, the Samaritan Torah differs from the Jewish text in about 6,000 places. The Greek Jeremiah is about a seventh shorter than the Hebrew. The three texts also date the Flood hundreds of years apart.
Jesus and the Law say man lives by every word of God (﷾). And the Law forbids adding to it or taking from it.
The Qur'an states that God (﷾) Himself guards it from corruption.
The Qur'an was written down in the Prophet's (ﷺ) lifetime by scribes known by name, such as Zayd ibn Thabit.