This episode addresses a common misperception about the trustworthiness of the Bible based on successive generations of copying. If there are 15 generations of copies, and each generation through scribal error introduces some corruption into the text, then, the argument goes, the last generation of copies will express the ACCUMULATED errors of all previous copies. This reasoning is the "telephone game" applied to copying. Such reasoning is invalid because, in the case of the New Testament, the second and third generation of copies can always be consulted. The John Rylands fragment, c.a. 125, is probably a copy of a copy of the original autograph penned by the apostle John. Since we now have a trove of early manuscripts to consult in translation, we're not dependent on successive generations of copies that may have allowed errors to creep into the text. Additionally, if doubt persists over the reliability of early manuscripts, then we simply need to compare them. The huge number of New Testament manuscripts (5,800) enables comparative analysis in which we can, in most cases, be very sure of the original autograph.
