Preserved by Meticulous Copyists

Soon after the originals were written, handwritten copies began to be produced. Copying the Scriptures actually became a profession in ancient Israel. (Ezra 7:6; Psalm 45:1) The copies, though, were also recorded on perishable materials. Eventually these had to be replaced by other handwritten copies. When the originals passed off the scene, these copies became the basis for future manuscripts. Copying the copies was a process that went on for many centuries. Did copyists’ mistakes over the centuries drastically change the text of the Bible? The evidence says no.

The professional copyists were very devoted. They had a profound reverence for the words they copied. They were also meticulous. The Hebrew word rendered “copyist” is so·pherʹ, which has reference to counting and recording. To illustrate the accuracy of the copyists, consider the Masoretes.a Regarding them, scholar Thomas Hartwell Horne explains: “They . . . reckoned which is the middle letter of the Pentateuch [the first five books of the Bible], which is the middle clause of each book, and how many times each letter of the [Hebrew] alphabet occurs in all the Hebrew Scriptures.”³

Thus, skilled copyists utilized a number of cross-checking tools. To avoid omitting even a single letter from the Bible text, they went so far as to count not just the words copied but the letters as well. Consider the painstaking care this involved: They reportedly kept track of 815,140 individual letters in the Hebrew Scriptures!⁴ Such diligent effort ensured a high degree of accuracy.

Nevertheless, the copyists were not infallible. Is there any evidence that, despite centuries of recopying, the Bible text has survived in reliable form?