Our lack of the original autographs in no way impacts the Christian faith. If anything, it is the amazing unity and agreement between the ancient copies and manuscripts that we possess today that affirm God’s divine and sovereign hand over the transmission of His Word throughout the ages. It would be impossible for the multitude of handwritten manuscript copies, from the hands of a plethora of scribes across the centuries, to agree with such an incredibly small margin of error if it were not for the providential and sovereign hand of God leading the transmission of these documents.

Article X: “WE AFFIRM that inspiration, strictly speaking, applies only to the autographic text of Scripture, which in the providence of God can be ascertained from available manuscripts with great accuracy. We further affirm that copies and translations of Scripture are the Word of God to the extent that they faithfully represent the original. WE DENY that any essential element of the Christian faith is affected by the absence of the autographs. We further deny that this absence renders the assertion of Biblical inerrancy invalid or irrelevant.”

We do not possess the original manuscripts of Scripture. We do not have an autographed copy of Isaiah or Jeremiah from the prophets themselves, the original Gospel according to Matthew is gone, and none of Paul’s original epistles remain. What we have are copies, translations, and more copies. Does this mean that we can’t trust the copies and translations that we do possess? According to The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, not only can we trust that the ancient copies are trustworthy, but so too are our modern copies and translations.

Affirming the Inspiration of the Original Autographs and the Accuracy of the Copies

William Shakespeare lived from 1562-1616. During his lifetime as a writer, he wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and at least two narrative poems. He is, without a doubt, the most famous playwright of the English-speaking language, even to this very day. And absolutely none of his original manuscripts survive.

It is not at all unusual for original manuscripts of published works to be lost. The older the work, the more likely it is that the original manuscript (the autograph copy) has been lost or has perished with age. Most of the time, however, no one calls into question the validity of various copies. For example, if one were to go into a bookstore and purchase a copy of Shakespeare’s Plays, even though the original manuscripts no longer exist, hardly anyone is going to dispute the authorship of the plays, the validity of their wording, or their genuineness. There are, however, some that will do all three of those things—some argue Shakespeare didn’t even exist, that significant discrepancies must exist between the autographs and the republications, and that the plays may not even be rightly attributed to the phantom known as Shakespeare.

What does this have to do with the inspiration of Scripture and the original autographic texts? Everything.

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