Let's put you in the hot seat one more time and talk about some questions that you've

received.

This question comes from the United States.

Dr. Craig, I've seen you quoted on many apologetic sites referencing the accuracy of the

New Testament of the approximately 138,000 words in the New Testament only about 1,400

remain in doubt.

The text of the New Testament is thus about 99 percent established.

That means that when you pick up a Greek New Testament today, you can be confident that

you are reading the text as it was originally written.

In quoting you there, Bill, and then he continues, I've searched but cannot find the bridge

between the oldest manuscripts and the original written.

I might be missing something, but doesn't the lack of error to what we have today tracing

back to the earliest manuscripts only verify the earliest manuscripts?

Why does this provide confidence to the original?

Seems that there is a 20 to 150 year gap better than anything else out there.

But to the skeptic, still a gap where even well-meaning Christians could edit liberally and

pervert the original David from the US.

David hasn't, unfortunately, correctly understood how textual criticism works.

The goal of the textual critic is not to discover the reading of the earliest manuscripts.

Rather, the goal of the textual critic is to compare all of the manuscripts we have

in different families and traditions with a view toward reconstructing what the original

text read.

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