Did William Shakespeare exist?

[GUBU]

b) it has been altered so often and so thoroughly over the intervening 1700 years that we cannot even be sure what is hearsay and what is outright fabrication.

But we have copies of various NT books dating back to at least the fourth century (if not earlier).

The oldest we have is the codex Vaticanus, dated to sometime between 301 and 350 CE, and is significantly different from modern catholic bibles (it is lacking 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and Revelation en toto not to mention significant alterations to parts of each of the four gospels e.g. it ends at Mark 16:8 so no resurrection), never mind the protestant ones. So my point stands, the bible has been altered massively over the years.