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Question 7

He argues early Christian writers show “nearly all of the major variances…were around before the year 200,” and concludes the early Christians never claimed inspired copyists—how should that early Christian silence challenge modern claims of perfect preservation (whether tied to the KJV, the Byzantine text, or a “pure” manuscript line)?

Another way to ask: If early Christians didn’t claim that copyists were inspired and errors couldn’t happen, how should that affect modern claims of perfect Bible preservation (KJV-only, Byzantine, or a “pure” manuscript line)?

Direct Answer Bercot argues that early evidence forces modern Christians to loosen dogmatic “perfect preservation” claims, because variations were present very early and the Christians closest to the apostles never taught that copyists were inspired. Their silence means modern certainty may be claiming knowledge the earliest believers did not claim.

Support from Transcript:

He says “nearly all of the major variances…were around before the year 200,” then gives early witnesses for each (Tertullian, Tatian’s Diatessaron, Irenaeus, Papias via Eusebius, and the Didache).
From that, he concludes: God did not inspire every copyist—“the answer is obviously no.”
He says, “the early Christians never claimed that he had” inspired copyists.
He presses the logic: if some copyists were inspired and others weren’t, the early Christians had “no way of knowing which was the inspired.”
He challenges modern arrogance: is it reasonable we “1800 or nineteen hundred years later” know what those “right after the apostles didn’t know”?

Discussion Follow-ups If God didn’t preserve perfect uniformity from the beginning, what kind of “preservation” is Scripture promising when it says God’s word endures?

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