Here is a chart I created for my New Testament class when discussing the reliability of the New Testament documents:
Comparisons with Other Ancient Literature[1]
|
Author
|
When Written
|
Earliest Copy
|
Time Span
|
Number of Copies
|
|
Caesar (Gallic Wars)
|
100-44 B.C.
|
900 A.D.
|
1,000 years
|
10
|
|
Livy
|
59 B.C. – A.D. 17
|
4th cent. Partial
mostly 10 cent.
|
400 years
1,000 years
|
1 partial copy
19
|
|
Plato (Tetralogies)
|
427-347 B.C.
|
900 A.D.
|
1,200 years
|
7
|
|
Tacitus (Annals)
|
100 A.D.
|
1100 A.D.
|
1,000 years
|
20
|
|
Pliny the Younger (History)
|
61-113 A.D.
|
850 A.D.
|
750 years
|
7
|
|
Thucydides (History)
|
460-400 B.C.
|
900 A.D.
|
1,300 years
|
8
|
|
Suetonius (De vita
Caesarum)
|
75-160 A.D.
|
950 A.D.
|
800 years
|
8
|
|
Herodotus (History)
|
480-425 B.C.
|
900 A.D.
|
1,300 years
|
8
|
|
Sophocles
|
496-406 B.C.
|
1000 A.D.
|
1,400 years
|
100
|
|
Catullus
|
54 B.C.
|
1550 A.D.
|
1,600 years
|
3
|
|
Euripedes
|
480-406 B.C.
|
1100 A.D.
|
1,500 years
|
9
|
|
Demosthenes
|
383-322 B.C.
|
1100 A.D.
|
1,300 years
|
200 (all from one copy)
|
|
Aristotle
|
384-322 B.C.
|
1100 A.D.
|
1,400 years
|
5 (of any one work)
|
|
Aristophanes
|
450-485 B.C.
|
900 A.D.
|
1,200 years
|
10
|
|
Homer (Illiad)
|
800 B.C.
|
|
|
643
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
New Testament
|
50-100 A.D.
|
100-150 (P52)
200 (book)
250 (most NT)
325 (full NT)
|
+/- 50 years
100 years
150 years
225 years
|
5,745
|
[1] Information
in chart compiled from Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix A General Introduction to the Bible rev.
and expanded (Moody Press, 1986), p. 408; J. P. Moreland Scaling the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity (Baker, 1987),
p. 135.
