Another criticism comes from the question of whether the copies we possess are credible. We do not possess the originals, so how can we be sure they are identical to them?

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The honest and initial answer is that we will never be completely certain, for there is no means at our disposal to reproduce the originals. But the same questions are not asked of other documents from around the same period, and these are accepted as credible, even though they are less in number and from fewer writers.

Lesser Authors Are Valid ?

There were several historians whose works are quite popular. Thucydides, who wrote History of the Peloponnesian War, lived from 460 BC to 400 BC. Virtually everything we know about the war comes from his history. Yet, the earliest copy of any manuscripts of Thucydides' work dates from around 900 AD, over 1,000 years later. The Roman historian Suetonius lived about AD 70 to 140 AD. But the earliest copy of his book, "The Twelve Caesars" is dated around AD 950, which is a full 800 years later. But these are held to be credible. Well if these are credible then the manuscripts we have for the Bible are more so.

Greater Evidence

The manuscript findings of Mark and Matthew. A fragment from the book of Mark found among the Qumran scrolls (fragment 7Q5) shows that it was written sometime before 68 AD. It is important to remember that Christ died in 33 AD, so this manuscript could only have been written, at the latest, within 35 years of His death; possibly earlier, and during that time the eyewitnesses to His life and death were still living!

Yet another significant find, is a fragment from the book of Matthew (chapt.26) called the "Magdalene Manuscript", this was carefully analysed by one by Dr. Carsten Thiede, and written up in his book “The Jesus Papyrus”. Using a sophisticated analysis of the handwriting of the fragment by employing a special state-of-the-art microscope, he differentiated between 20 separate micrometer layers of the papyrus, measuring the height and depth of the ink as well as the angle of the stylus used.

Following this Dr Thiede was able to then compare his findings with other papyri from around that period; most notably manuscripts found at Qumran (dated to 58 AD), another at Herculaneum (dated prior to 79 AD), one from the fortress of Masada (dated to between 73/74 AD), and finally a papyrus from the Egyptian town of Oxyrynchus.

The "Magdalene Manuscript" fragments matches all four, and is almost a twin to the papyrus found in Oxyrynchus, which bears the date of 65/66 AD. So Dr Thiede concluded “that these papyrus fragments of Matthew's Gospel were written no later than this date and probably earlier.”

This means that we either have a portion of the original gospel of Matthew, or an immediate copy that was written while Matthew and other eyewitnesses to the events were still alive. This would be the oldest manuscript portion of our New Testament in existence, and it is one that existed at the same time in the same place as the original writers.

There is another very important part to this find. And that is in what it says, for this fragment of Matthew 26 uses in its text holy names such as the diminutive "IS" for Jesus and "KE" for Kurie or Lord. This is highly significant, because it suggests that the godhead of Jesus was recognised centuries before it was accepted as official doctrine at the council of Nicea in 325 AD.

These dates alone completely eradicate the criticism that Peter, John, Mark, Matthew and other early disciples knew nothing about Christ's divinity, and that this concept was a later imposed in the second century (AD).

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