Evidence · Case 10 · Islam
The Gregory-Aland Liste, maintained by the INTF
One exhibit from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Scholars have catalogued about 5,800 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, alongside early translations into Latin, Syriac, and Coptic, and some fragments date to the second century, well before Islam arose in the seventh. The often quoted round number of five thousand understates the total, so about 5,800 is closer to the current figure. These copies consistently carry the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the divinity of Christ.
Sources
Objections & responses
- The New Testament has hundreds of thousands of variants, whole passages were added, and the earliest manuscripts show the text was fluid in the second century. Isn’t that textual corruption by any ordinary meaning?
The variants are real, the known additions (the long ending of Mark, the adultery story, the Johannine comma) are identified and footnoted in every modern Bible, and none of the doctrines Islam disputes (crucifixion, resurrection, divinity of Christ) rests on a disputed passage. The corruption Islam needs is not the presence of variants but the removal of an original text that agreed with the Qur’an, and no manuscript, version, or quotation preserves any such text. Ehrman’s data support the point here: the changes are visible, which is exactly why they can be catalogued.
- Saying these copies consistently carry the crucifixion, resurrection, and divinity of Christ hides that individual second-century fragments cover only small portions.
Fair. The full text is attested in the fourth-century codices, and the second- and third-century papyri, though fragmentary, contain the crucifixion and resurrection narratives (P52 and P66 for John, P46 for Paul’s resurrection chapter) and show no trace of a version lacking them. Consistently describes the tradition as a whole, not any single scrap, and it should be read that way. What matters is that no early witness, fragmentary or full, points to a different story.