The Bible translation and copying process was not like playing a game of telephone when one person whispers the original message in the ear of the next person who does the same. First, the Bible books were originally orally taught or written down in the presence of others, or read by many people, and not done in secret like whispering in someone’s ear. If an oral teacher, translator or copier/scribe made a mistake, it was easily identified and corrected by the listeners, readers, or scribes of subsequent manuscripts. Second, the Bible has not been translated many times. The Bible books were only translated from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek texts one time into the subsequent and modern translations in various languages.
Although God could have preserved the original autographs, God did not do so in his wisdom for the following reasons. First, we would worship and make idols out of the original autographs. Second, it would be difficult to determine and verify which writings are the original autographs. Third, if one person or organization controlled the original autographs, then that person or organization could change the historical accounts and Christian doctrine without detection. Instead, the New Testament books were written at various times and places throughout the Roman Empire and were quickly copied and distributed throughout the Roman Empire soon after they were written. Therefore, it would be essentially impossible for one person or organization to change all of the manuscripts that were already copied and distributed. There are well over 5,000 complete or partial Greek New Testament manuscripts extant or in existence today. For an updated number and catalog of manuscripts, see the website of the Institute for New Testament Research, in Muenster, Germany at
There are thousands of manuscripts that have been compared to each other in the scholarly practice known as textual criticism. Any errors have been easily identified and corrected so that we can be confident that the Bible translations we have today are 99.5% accurate translations of the original autographs. Most of the manuscript errors are obvious spelling errors, pronouns verses specific names, etc. Current Bible translations honestly note and point out the few Bible verses that were not in the earliest manuscripts and or were possibly later additions. However, even if we eliminate all of those verses, they do not affect any Christian doctrine because said doctrines are stated in other verses of the Bible.
False. The New Testament books were accepted by the churches at the time they were written and received by the churches. It is true that it took some time for 7 of the New Testament books (Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, and Revelation) to be accepted because it took time for some of the churches in the Roman Empire to receive, review, consider, copy, and distribute the letters/books from other parts of the Roman Empire. From AD 35 to 100, all 27 books of the New Testament were written and copied, and began to be distributed among the churches. From AD 100 to 200, the Old Testament and New Testament books were widely recognized as Scripture. From AD 200 to 300, the New Testament books were collected into a single catalog of “recognized books.” From AD 300 to 400, The New Testament canon of books was fully settled and acknowledged.
The problem with Ehrman’s view of Matthew 27:26 is that there is no change/variant of Matthew 27:27, which states that the Roman soldiers took Jesus, stripped him, put a scarlet robe on him, crowned him with a crown of thorns, put a reed in his right hand, mocked him as King of the Jews, spit on him, struck him in the head with the reed, stripped him of the robe, and led him away to crucify him. In regard to the contention of Klassen and Funk that Judas’ betrayal of Jesus is an anti-Semitic fiction, the problem with this contention is that the New Testament writers and their copyists clearly preached that salvation through a Jewish Messiah was given first to the Jews and then to the rest of the world (Matthew 15:24; Romans 1:16). In addition, The Jerusalem council (Acts 10) clearly demonstrates both the inclusive nature of church and the initial Jewish Christian church and eventual Gentile inclusion into the early Christian church (Galations 2:11-14, 3:28). Finally, Jesus, the 12 apostles, and the apostle Paul were all Jewish. Hank Hanegraaff, Has God Spoken? Proof of the Bible’s Divine Inspiration, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2011), 13-15.
This objection relates to what is classically referred to as the “hiddenness of God.” Why doesn’t God communicate and show himself more clearly so that more people will believe in him? First, God wants to give you enough evidence to believe in God, but only if you will sincerely seek God “with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). As Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it (the spiritual door to a relationship with God) will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). Second, God has already made himself plain to you, because he made his invisible qualities of his eternal power and divine nature clearly perceivable in God’s creation of the world and life and has written his moral law on your conscience and heart. So you are without excuse. (Romans 1:19-20, 2:15). Third, God does not make his presence so clear that it overwhelms you and removes your ability freely resist God and “suppress the truth” about the existence of God. (Romans 1:18). In other words, God wants you to love him, but love can never be forced. God gives you enough information through the Bible to see that God is good and worthy of your trust and worship, but not so much information that will force you to worship God against your will. See Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg, The Miracles Answer Book (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019), 130-132.