The New Testament writings as we have them today are trustworthy in their historical reports. Evaluated against other ancient writings, those found in the New Testament prove to be far superior in this regard. In fact, it could be reasonably declared that if the trustworthiness of the New Testament documents is in question, then every literary work from antiquity must also be questioned, even doubted. The integrity and historicity of the New Testament can be demonstrated in several ways.

            First, the copies of the original New Testament writings that we possess today are themselves extremely accurate to the originals. Because of the sheer volume of manuscript copies in possession today, the text of the New Testament can be reconstructed with 99.9% accuracy. There are nearly 6000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament alone. No other ancient writing can compete with this vast number of manuscript copies. In comparison, the Iliad, which ranks second to the New Testament in this category has only about 650 manuscript copies and can be reconstructed with 95% accuracy. The variants that exist in the modern text of the New Testament are virtually all negligible, having to do with grammar or spelling, and not a single doctrine of the New Testament is effected by them.

            The fidelity of our modern copies of the New Testament is also supported through its heavy use by the early Church Fathers. It has been estimated that even if no manuscripts of the New Testament existed today, all but eleven verses could be reconstructed simply by referencing quotes from the New Testament made by these Church Fathers.

            It is not just the number of copies that is so impressive but the time gap between the originals and the first extant copies of them. Once again, there is simply no comparison from any other ancient writing. Our earliest copies of the New Testament date from twenty-five to 150 years from the originals. For reference, the earliest extant copies of the Iliad are about 500 years from the original.

            Next, the historicity of the New Testament is established by the quality of its authors. Many of those who wrote were eye-witnesses to the events that they describe and/or exposit. For example, Matthew, John, Peter, James, and Jude all witnessed parts of the life of Christ, hearing his own words, watching the miracles happen before their eyes, and experiencing much of his ministry with him. The other writers, Luke, Mark, the writer of Hebrews, and Paul were close companions with those who were eye-witnesses to the ministry, death, and resurrection of Christ. Also, all of the writers of Scripture lived at the same time as Christ and wrote within a generation after his ascension, with the exception of John who may have written in the late 80s or early 90s of the first century. The weight of this last fact should not be underestimated; because the records of the events concerning Christ and the church were being written and published shortly after the events occurred, if there was false information included in them, then there would have been many individuals living at the time who could have recognized such errors or embellishments and "blew the whistle," as it were, on these writings and their corresponding authors.

            In addition to this, the writings themselves are clearly honest reports of actual events and lack any signs of embellishment or mythologizing. The writers were painfully truthful, recording events and words as they happened even if the information was embarrassing to them. For example, the gospels contain many instances of overt ignorance, unbelief, and mistakes on the part of the disciples. They also contain very hard sayings of Jesus. The writers never try to harmonize discrepancies found between their gospels. They also include information that would never have been included in any contrivance made by first century Jews, such as the discovery of the empty tomb by women.

            Perhaps the greatest testament to the veracity and integrity of the authors of the New Testament is the fact that all of them suffered and were martyred because of their unrelenting confession of the things that they claimed to have witnessed and recorded, with the possible exception of John. Though men may die for something they believe to be true, it is simply unreasonable to suggest that these men died for something they knew was false; men will die clinging to what they know to be true, but never to what they know to be fantasy.

            Third, there is general support from archeology for the trustworthiness of the New Testament. Today, after years of digging within the former boundaries of the Roman Empire, we can have more confidence in the historicity of the New Testament than at any previous time. This is because many discoveries unearthed have confirmed in varying degrees of detail many events and incidental details provided in the New Testament writings. Luke's gospel, for example, contains many official titles that were unique to specific regions, cities, or provinces in the Roman Empire, many of which have been confirmed through archeological finds. Archeology supports John as the author of the gospel that bears his name for we now know that whoever wrote this gospel had intimate knowledge of the geography of Palestine at the time of Christ, and the gospel of John could not, therefore, be a later writing composed by someone who lived in a time far separated than that in which the events occurred.

Many more such confirmations could be given but it should suffice to say that there has never been an archeological find which has brought into question the historicity of the New Testament. All the evidence that we have today indicates that the authors were careful recorders of what they had witnessed and gathered from primary sources. Of course, if the writers of the New Testament can be trusted in their accuracy when reporting minor details, then there is no reason they should not be trusted when they report matters of greater import.

Finally, it is important to note that much of the information provided in the New Testament is confirmed by secular historians living within a generation or two of the events recorded therein. For instance, the historicity of Jesus and even some aspects of his ministry recorded for us in the gospels have been verified by secular figures such as Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny, and Suetonius. Just from the information provided by these men we can learn that Jesus did miracles, taught the people, was executed by crucifixion, was proclaimed to be alive later, and was worshipped as God among other facts. From secular sources of the time we can also learn much about the early church and spread of Christianity that corresponds to the information found in the New Testament.

Clearly, there can be no reasonable doubt regarding the New Testament writings themselves or the events recorded in them. In light of the above considerations, one can deny the historicity and trustworthiness of these writings, but only on presupposed philosophical or ideological grounds, but certainly not because of a lack of historical evidence.

Written by Anthony Alberino