Gospels Part 036
Course Content
In our last lesson we discussed the logical reasons that several decades passed before Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote their Gospels. You can review that here.
When these men finished writing their Gospels, what happened? As soon as they finished and handed the scroll to another person, no doubt that document began to be copied multiple times. But there were no printing presses back then; they wouldn’t be invented until Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press ca. 1450—approximately the time that Columbus sailed to America!
Nor were there photocopy machines, and no computers with spelling and grammar checkers. Even dictionaries—with their standardization of spelling—wouldn’t be invented for many centuries!
There were two methods commonly used to make new copies of the writings that eventually became the Bible. The first was for a person to simply sit down with a scroll of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John and some blank papyrus or parchment and to begin copying it word for word with a jar of ink and a stylus of some kind. Another method was for a person to take the scroll into a room where there were numerous scribes, and he would read it aloud while the scribes furiously made copies.
All the copies were made by hand, and because the Gospels weren’t considered to be Scripture yet, the exacting process for making copies of the Bible (with its meticulous checking for errors) was not in place this early on. These scribes were making copies for themselves or for other church congregations in Egypt, Syria or Asia Minor. Their purpose was to make as many copies as quickly as possible and to spread them widely. It wasn’t in their thinking to make sure that every copy was exactly the same. The process of copying Scripture was much more rigorous and included meticulous checks for errors, but this process wasn’t used on Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
You’ve probably heard that there are variations in different manuscripts of the Gospels, or maybe even that there are mistakes in the Gospels. But it doesn’t take a scholar to realize that when copies of the Gospels were made this way, there are naturally going to be some differences introduced through the copying process. Again, they didn’t have photocopiers or computers to make perfect copies. It was all done by hand. If you’ve ever tried to hand copy or to even type something while copying out of a book, you know how easy it is to make mistakes while doing so.
This is how some differences and mistakes were introduced. For instance, if you were copying a document by hand, you might skip a word or sometimes even a line. If you were listening to someone reading, and you were copying from that, you could easily misspell something. You might misspell the name of a person or a place or write down a number wrong. Your stylus or quill could run out of ink, and you might miss a word or two while you dipped it in the ink and were trying to catch up. You might accidentally leave out a letter or two.
These are the kinds of differences and mistakes that scholars find in the early copies of the books of the Bible. And every copy that’s made from those copies with minor mistakes in them will also have those mistakes copied into them. This is why we have variations in some of the early documents of the books of the Bible.
Some critics have made their careers and sold hundreds of thousands of books by claiming that the manuscripts of the Bible have thousands of errors and contradictions and implying that there’s no way we can trust the Scriptures. These statements are deceptive and highly misleading! The fact is that the huge majority of such “errors” are differences in spelling (at a time when spelling was not very standardized), letters or words that were inadvertently omitted, letters or words that were transposed, lines that were skipped, and other such things that would typically be expected in manual copying processes such as these.
Reputable scholars agree that the number of significant differences is very small and they affect virtually no significant biblical teaching.
When you hear or read statements such as, “the Bible is full or errors and contradictions!” realize that those making such statements are seldom being honest or objective with the facts. The reality is that we have thousands of early manuscripts of the Bible, and it’s relatively easy to identify such inadvertent errors and even how they occurred. Rest assured, we do indeed have an accurate historical record in our Bibles today!
© Scott Ashley, 2025. All rights reserved.
Scott Ashley was managing editor of Beyond Today magazine, United Church of God booklets and its printed Bible Study Course until his retirement in 2023. He also pastored three congregations in Colorado for 10 years from 2011-2021. He and his wife, Connie, live near Denver, Colorado.
Mr. Ashley attended Ambassador College in Big Sandy, Texas, graduating in 1976 with a theology major and minors in journalism and speech. It was there that he first became interested in publishing, an industry in which he worked for 50 years.
During his career, he has worked for several publishing companies in various capacities. He was employed by the United Church of God from 1995-2023, overseeing the planning, writing, editing, reviewing and production of Beyond Today magazine, several dozen booklets/study guides and a Bible study course covering major biblical teachings. His special interests are the Bible, archaeology, biblical culture, history and the Middle East.
