(October 3, 2019 at 11:49 am)Gae Bolga Wrote: The earliest new testament fragment we possess is no older than the first half of the second century. The pauline liturgical apparatus was already in business by that time.
Many ancient non-Biblical texts (e.g., Homer) come to us via the oldest surviving manuscript copies being hundreds of years after authorship, and no one suggests they are substantial forgeries.
I'm not saying there's zero corruption or fiddling of the NT, just that the consensus of scholars is that it's unlikely, and even if you don't buy that, the CONTENT is so ridiculous that it scarcely matters. I'm simply advocating for not wasting intellectual capital discrediting the provenance of the manuscripts; it's not the slam dunk most seem to think it is and it's not necessary.
