Claim 5 of 12 · Case 10 · Islam
The New Testament text is early, widespread, and stable, with copies that predate Islam by centuries, which undercuts the claim that the Bible was corrupted.
One claim from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
This answers the common objection that Christians changed their scriptures. The manuscript evidence is large and old, the Old Testament is confirmed by the Dead Sea Scrolls, and there is no record of a coordinated rewrite across many languages. The honest limit to state is that variants among manuscripts do exist and are studied openly, but they do not erase the core teachings.
The full case is made in Reliability of Scripture, claim 1 (we can recover what the New Testament originally said); this claim keeps only what is specific to this audience.
Backed by 2 pieces of evidence
The Gregory-Aland Liste, maintained by the INTF
This supports the claim with a current, accurate count. Because the copies predate Islam and agree on the disputed doctrines, the idea that Christians corrupted the text after the fact has no manuscript trail to stand on.
The Dead Sea Scrolls
This extends the point to the Old Testament. Together with the New Testament manuscripts, it shows the Bible was transmitted reliably, which is exactly what the corruption objection denies. See the Reliability of Scripture case for the fuller argument.