The documentary evidence for the reliability of the New Testament is greater than that for any other book from the ancient world. Therefore, when we employing the same criteria used on other ancient documents, the New Testament is an accurate representation of the first century original. Three lines of evidence combine to demonstrate this conclusion. First, the New Testament has more manuscripts.

It is not uncommon for great classics to survive on only a handful of manuscripts. According to the noted Manchester scholar, F.F. Bruce, we have about nine or ten good copies of Caesar's Gallic Wars, twenty copies of Livy's Roman History, two copies of Tacitus' Annals, eight copies of Thucydides' History. The most documented secular work from the ancient world is Homer's Illiad -- surviving on 643 manuscript copies. By contrast, there are over 5,366 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, most of which include the Gospels. The New Testament is the most highly documented book from the ancient world.