Scholars studying ancient literature have devised the science of textual criticism to examine documents such as The Odyssey, comparing them with other ancient documents to determine their accuracy. More recently, military historian Charles Sanders augmented textual criticism by devising a three-part test that looks at not only the faithfulness of the copy but also the credibility of the authors. His tests are these:

The bibliographical test

The internal evidence test

The external evidence test¹

Let’s see what happens when we apply the internal evidence test to the early New Testament manuscripts. [Read more…]