ReasonableFaithSA's video: New Testament textual criticism - by Kevin Rogers

In the public domain, views on the reliability of the NT text vary wildly from extremely reliable to accumulated lies told through Chinese whispers. Much of this is uniformed prejudice driven by wishful thinking. It is unhelpful to exaggerate either way. The purpose of New Testament textual criticism is to obtain a Greek text of the NT that is as close as possible to the originals that were composed by the New Testament authors. We do not have the originals of any of the books of the New Testament, but there are currently over 5,600 Greek New Testament manuscripts and over 14,000 manuscripts in other languages that are copies of copies. The earliest are less than 50 years after the original authorship. There are numerous scholars who dedicate their careers to studying these manuscripts. They are called textual critics and they are very clever people. This talk will provide an overview of the manuscripts and some of the techniques employed by the textual critics, and hopefully provide a realistic assessment of the accuracy of our current Greek editions.